Are you looking for the perfect around the world trip? Do you know where you want to go? What you need? It can be a daunting thought, travelling. No matter what age, there is so much to see, so much to do, and you can get lost in all the information available. Here are the tips and tricks I learnt along the way.
Think Realistically!
What you first should do when deciding to go travelling is to think about the amount of time you realistically have. One month, one year, or just a few weeks, it’s best to know exactly how long you have got. Once you know how long, you can then think about where to. The best thing to do is to write a list. I am a lover of lists and have them everywhere and for everything. When I decided I wanted to go travelling, I got my pen and paper out once again and wrote a list. Not one list but many lists.
Make a List!
I started by writing all the dream locations I wanted to go to. A Safari in South Africa to see the elephants, the lions and the tigers, a trip to china to see the Great Wall and experience the culture, a trip to Australia to see the Sydney Opera house, my family and my long lost friends. And so on and so on. The list was endless and unfortunately unrealistic in both time and money. Once I had eventually realised this, which took a while, the list did become shorter and the research begun.
I was lucky however, although time and money where a factor I did have a full year and all my savings plus a generous amount from my parents. I was one very lucky girl. I decided that as well as the Safari in South Africa, I wanted to volunteer for a bit. So I found a place where I could go and help with some teaching in a pre-school and primary school near Cape Town. It was amazing. I helped with refurbishing one of the classrooms, which was made from an old shipping container, into a beautiful and brightly coloured room ready to learn in. The smile on the children’s faces was incredible and it gave me the chance to get messy, have fun and feel like I had made a difference. It is definitely something I highly recommend anyone to do when they go travelling.
When writing my list I knew I also wanted to visit America. I had been before, to Florida, but I wanted to see the ‘real’ thing, the home grown, exciting adventure of America. With that, I booked to do it the old school way. I got a campervan or a motorhome as they call it, and drove the American free way all the way back to the airport ready for my flight home. It was unbelievable and very different from my usual airport transfer to and from Cambridge. I saw so much more than I would have if I had flown from one airport to the other and yes, it took me forever, but with the comfort of my bed in the back, the company for my friend and the open road, I didn’t care how long it would take me.
Variety is Key!
By the end of my trip I wasn’t ready to come home, but I can definitely say that I gained the best travelling experience ever, mainly due to its mixture of different things. After all, I didn’t want to feel like I had done anything like it before. Now I can say that I have walked along the Great Wall of China, I have seen the elephants, the lions and the tigers, and I have seen the Sydney Opera House, my family and my long lost friends. But not only that, I have done a lot more; I have gained an experience, an experience I will never forget. Without all of the trips, the adventures and the different cultures and places, I would not have gained that. Variety is absolutely the key!
