Extended World Travel

Archive for the ‘How to travel’ Category

What are you afraid of could happen if you’d go on that dream trip of yours? Or what would happen when you get back? Or perhaps during the trip? Or maybe even before? Will you catch a disease? Go bankrupted? Loose your friends? Or maybe your kids will fall behind in school?

One fear that ruled my life for many years and which effectively stopped me, not only from doing that dream trip I had in mind, but from going to any place located further away than what was comfortable going to with a car, train or bus, was the fear of flying. I finally came to a point where I’d had enough though. I challenged my fear of flying and don’t have that excuse any more.

This is just one example of a (usually) perceived obstacle that pops up in your mind when you start thinking about doing, or making a decision to do something new with your life. Regarding traveling, and especially long term travel and being away for months or even years, there are lots of different fears that can challenge you.

We call it the But’s: “I’d love to travel but…”

• The most common but, is usually: “I’d love to travel but I don’t have any money”.

• It is closely followed by “I don’t have the time”.

• Other areas of concern can be your Job and Career, what could happen to them if you’d just leave everything for a long time, or how would you get a permission to go?

• The kids school and their friends, how to deal with that?

• Diseases out there ready to throw themselves upon you as you turn up.

• And all the crime around the world and terrorism.

• And last but not least, what would your Friends and your Family say if you’d just leave everything to go traveling?

This is not to say that there’s anything wrong with having these concerns, or that they are not real. The thing is how much you let them stop you from going for what you’re dreaming about.

There’s always a solution to everything. I like to see my obstacles as a test of how much I really want to do something. If I really want something, I always find a way to overcome that obstacle.

If you think back in your life, I’m sure it’s the same with you. What did you really want at some point? Wasn’t there some challenge you had to surpass to get that…..? Yes, now remember that you did it!

We do think it’s important to have these things in mind, in fact we’ve created several pages around many of the most common But’s. Just follow the different links above or click here.

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A couple of years ago, the Lord Of The Rings interest was huge in our family. So huge we even created part of our RTW trip around it. We went to New Zealand where the films were made, bought a LOTR guide book, rented a campervan and traveled around visiting places and meeting with people connected to the film.

We all had a great time and of course couldn’t avoid doing a lot more than “just” LOTR things. We took the opportunity to visit old relatives as well as many homeschooling families, we experienced the fantastic nature as well as the Maori culture and last but not least, learned about the most boring sport we’ve ever experienced – cricket (sorry cricket lovers). Especially the 3 day version!

What kind of person are you? What do you like to do? What are you interested in and passionate about? Where have you always wanted to go?

These are some of the questions you can ask yourself to get more clarity around which way to travel that would be the most suitable to you. We all have different interests, needs and desires and if you really want to do some travel but have no idea what it could look like, these are some of the questions you can start by asking yourself.

Some friends of ours, a German family, have another interest, photography. They just got back from a 6 month trip around Norway, England, Scotland and France where they have been spending time on all kinds of different beaches taking the most fantastic pictures. We did a post about them a while ago when they were passing here on their way up to northern Norway. You can read it here and go to www.5reicherts.com if you want to check out some of their amazing photos.

Another Swedish friend has a passion for motorcycling, Scottish Whisky and playing the bag pipe and you can probably easily guess where he and his wife spend lots of their time traveling around on motorbike.

Yet another close friend of ours went to Rumania to spend some time there helping street children to get a better life. She got so involved in the project, she and her family now lives there 6 months every year. If you think you’d be interested in doing some volunteering too, here’s a great site with lots of information www.oneworld365.org. You can also have a look here, where we write a bit more about this way to travel and give of your time and energy.

If you’re interested in using your trip to boosting your career (yes, as we like to point out, it doesn’t have to be travel OR career, it can be both!), you can have this as your main focus. You may want to do things to improve a special skill, meet with people who are connected to your field, visit exhibitions and museums or attend seminars around the world. Learn a new language is another possibility that often can be a bonus.

Maybe you’re the really adventurous type who don’t want to plan or pre book anything and just want to lock your door, give the key to your neighbor, set off and see where the roads will lead you.

We’re all different and finding out how you’d really like to spend your time away from home and which way to travel that suite you the best lays a good foundation for creating a fantastic time!

You can also check out our page “What to do while traveling” by clicking here.

And remember, whatever you want to do and don’t have the time to do on this trip, you can always do on the next!

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We mentioned in an earlier post a lady who walked around the world for 7 years. It was just something we bumped into when doing a search on the web. We thought it was an interesting example of how it’s possible to travel the world.

Well the idea was simple enough but actually doing it was a bit harder. The lady in question, 51 year old Han Bi-ya from South Korea, left her job in 1993 to pursue her dream of traveling the world. The first itinerary she took covered Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

This journey later resulted in her first travelogue in 1996, which subsequently became an instant hit in Korea. It made her an overnight star. This first book has later been developed into a four-volume best seller called Daughter of the Wind: Three and a Half Time Around the Globe on Foot. It is an account of her seven-year (1993-1999) travels around the world.

Interestingly enough, we thought it would be easy to find lots of information and articles about a celebrity like this. And maybe it is, if Korean is one of your languages. As it is not one of ours it turned out to be a bit trickier. And a Video clip we found with her just didn’t make any sense at all to us. Maybe it does to you? You can check it out here www.dramastyle.com/view.php?seq=59614

Read the rest of this entry »

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When we’re talking about extended travel – of being away from home for a longer period of time – we all have different views on what that looks like.

For some people, traveling for 3 months, 6 months, a year or more, is all about visiting lots of different places around the world. For this group, long term travel is really about the “travel” part. You want to travel around and experience as many different areas and cultures as possible and expose yourself to new impressions all the time.

For others, it’s more about staying for a longer period in one or a few places somewhere away from home. People who are into this version of extended travel may be more interested in living an “everyday” life in a new surrounding different to your normal one and go deeper into that area and that culture.

If you’re interested in this alternative, traveling long term and staying in one or a few places, listen to this person who has some more ideas about this:

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When exploring the web the other day I was reminded of  foXnoMad and his 7 Reasons You Won’t Travel The World.  Anil Polat alias foXnoMad is a very experienced traveler who has been on the road for years.  He did a poll on his blog and discovered that  66% of all people wants to travel around the world. But he concludes that most of them won’t make it and the 7 reasons for that, according to him are:

1.    You are comfortable at your job.
2.    You think it’s expensive and don’t know how to pay for it.
3.    You don’t know where you’d go.
4.    You’ll miss your family and friends.
5.    You have kids or will soon have.
6.    You don’t know what your significant other will say.
7.    You will travel the world but maybe a few years from now.

Basically his conclusion are equivalent to what we call the BUT’S. Put into his order we would have:

1.    Job and Career
2.    No Money
3.    We don’t have that one on our list.
4.    Family and Friends
5.    Children and School
6.    Family and Friends – again
7.    No Time

Number 3 does surprise us. Most aspiring travelers that we’ve talked to, do have ideas of what they want to see or where they want to go.  But it is true, you have to make that desire strong enough to you pull yourself together and do something about that dream of yours. We cover a lot of that in Why Travel.

We agree that a lot of these reasons have the potential of stopping you from taking off on a round the world journey. But at the same time these obstacles are all possible to overcome. Our intention has been to show that with lots of examples.

FoXnoMad has done the same by writing his eBook Overcoming the 7 Majors Obstacles to Traveling the World.  Although some of the ideas in there are the same as ours, there are also a lot of ideas presented in a different way or even different ideas all together.

If you are serious about finding a way past your obstacles there is always a good idea to get different peoples view on things. So do check out his eBook here. Maybe his approach better corresponds with you than our does?

Whatever gets you to follow through on your dream doesn’t matter to us. We just want you to do it – For your own sake!

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As well as there is a way to travel, the actual “how to get there” part of a trip, that suites you the best, there’s probably a way of staying, the accommodation part, that fits your personality better than other. For some, this is just a minor, or even, totally unimportant, issue – “”whatever’s the easiest and cheapest”. To others, this is of major importance and something you are willing to plan your whole trip around.

The most well known way to travel is of course going somewhere and then staying in a hotel. It’s usually not the most common way to spend your nights when you’re away for an extended period though. Maybe you choose a hotel for the first nights after arriving at a destination, or check into a hotel now and then for different reasons, but most people who travel long term, have alternative ways for accommodation.

Hostels, is one example. Here you (usually) stay much cheaper than in a hotel and you also have cooking (and often washing) possibilities as well. Hostels are also a great way to meet with fellow travelers and exchange ideas and travel tips.

Homestays, is another way which is very common in many parts of the world. You rent a room in someone’s home and participate in their family life as much or as little as you wish, depending on yourself and the particular family.  A homestay is a great way to quickly get to know local people and their culture

You can of course always rent a house, an apartment, or a cottage if you want your own “home away from home”. We have rented places in different parts of the world and we do enjoy to live a “normal” family life in a totally different surrounding and culture. Very interesting!

Camping is also something we have practiced a lot. We have traveled with campervans, car and trailer (and on some occasions also with a tent). This is another way to always have a “home away from home”. You have all your well known stuff and your own bed wherever you are.

House swapping, is another alternative if you want to travel and stay mostly in one place. You swap homes with another family who goes and stays and takes care of your home while you’re away. This way, you don’t have to spend any money on your accommodation and you have all the facilities you might want.

House sitting is also great if you want to stay for free and spend a lot of time in one place. You stay in somebody’s house and look after it and perhaps also some pets while the house/pets owners are away. This also works the other way around of course. If you want to go traveling and don’t know what to do with your pets or don’t want to leave your home unattended for a longer period, you can find a house sitter to come and stay.

Finally, we want to mention a way of travel that we call Network Traveling. This is a way we have used many times to take us around the world. You use a personal or an organized network to get in touch with people and either you stay with them or they help you to find someplace.

At one occasion we traveled, the whole family, around in the USA for 3 months, and stayed, with the help of our personal contacts and their contacts, totally for free in peoples homes. At other occasions, we have traveled and used an organized network.  We have then been staying at peoples places for free in exchange for some of our time and energy by helping out with things like garden work and similar things.

So, there are many different alternatives for how to be staying during your long term trip. To read some more about the alternatives we have mentioned above, please check out How to travel – Travel and accommodation.

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When you’re planning for some extended travel, for taking time off and going out into the world, one of the things you’ll want to look into is the way to travel – the actual “how to transport yourself”.

How would you really like your traveling to be? Which way to travel would suite you and your situation?

It’s easy just to suppose that when you go away for an extended time, you travel somewhere far away and you go by plane. It’s convenient and it’s the most common way.

As for us, we have made a lot of traveling by car and by campervan. The first years when we traveled as a family, we did most of our trips in Europe, or rather; we went from Sweden to Southern Spain for the winter. This trip could take everything from a week up to over two months, depending on how many friends we visited along the way and how many interesting things there were to do.

Traveling by campervan or a car with a trailer suited us very well at that time. It’s very convenient with small kids. You can stop whenever you want to take a break and you always have your own food and stuff. Besides, I refused to fly for many years because I thought it was the most frightening thing I could do.

When we decided to do longer trips (and I had handled my fear of flying, read more about that hear), to places like the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and India for example, we chose to fly. Flying is the natural option for most people, especially when the destination is the goal.

We’ve also traveled quite a lot by train which we love. You just sit there and relax, read, talk to people, Aeat, sleep and watch the landscape passing by.

These are the most common ways to take yourself from one point to another. There are lots of other possibilities of course. We have friends who have cycled around Europe. They’re from Vancouver Island, BC Canada, a family of six, and they chose to take their bikes for this six month European tour.

Some of our other friends, a Swedish family with five kids, chose another option. They put everything they needed (included the two youngest children) into a couple of bike trailers and then walked from Sweden to England and back. We assume that the journey really was their goal and we’re certain they never suffered from jet lag.

We have some other friends who are planning to travel around Europe by horse and carriage. They will then solve many problems in one go; what to do with their horses while away, where to sleep, how to make as little imprint on the environment as possible, to name some of them.

We also know of many people who have sailed around the world and we have fantasized about this ourselves many times. We haven’t traveled a lot by boat though (except ferries) – YET!

Focusing on how to travel, on how to transport yourself, can be one way to start reflecting on what you’ll want your dream trip to be like.

• So, what kind of person are you? Does putting on a backpack and just walk away sound like the most horrid nightmare you can imagine, or does it awaken a feeling of freedom and excitement within you?
• Could taking your bike be the perfect way for you to get in shape at the same time as you practice living your life at a slower pace?
• Does putting your family into a campervan and just start driving sound like a dream come true, or would this be one of the worst scenarios you could imagine?

Thinking and fantasizing about these things can help you get a clearer picture of what kind of person you are and what would be the perfect way for you to travel. For some more input, take a look at our How to travel pages

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Lasts year when we were going away for 7 months, we needed someone to stay in our house and take care of it. Or rather, we needed someone to take care of our three cats. We’d only had one cat for a long time and it usually wasn’t too difficult to find a place for him when we were away. But three….

So, just a few weeks before we left, we found the solution: a house sitter! A house sitter is a person (or a couple/family) who come and live in your home and look after it, and your pets if you have any, while you are away.

House sitting is a way to travel and stay for free by helping people out when they are traveling too. This is a system you can use both ways. You can travel and stay for free by taking care of somebody’s home. House sitting can also be a way of making your trip possible by having someone staying in your home and taking care of whatever needs to be looked after.

There are some different house sitting organizations out there and the one we used to find our wonderful house sitters was www.HouseCarers.com. So we put up an add there, saying where we lived, what we wanted someone to look after especially (our precious cats) and how long we were going to be away for.

I must admit, we didn’t have much hope of finding someone willing to spend a whole winter in Sweden. To our big surprised though, the answers came pouring in! It looked like people from all over the world were interested in experiencing some ice and snow. We were particularly surprised to find so many Australians willing to exchange their summer for the Swedish winter!

Anyway, we finally decided to invite a Canadian/American couple with a baby to come and stay here. The mother had actually been a house sitter for seven years (!), taking care of people’s houses in different parts of the world and worked as a writer at the same time! A perfect combination!

So they came and we left. We both got what we were looking for, and everything worked out perfectly. So, if you’re looking for a way to travel the world and stay in one place for a period of time (it doesn’t have to be for months, you can house sit for shorter periods too) or if you want somebody to take care of your home when you are traveling yourself, we really think you should check this out.

The organization we used and were very pleased with is www.housecarers.com Also, keep your eyes open for a post here by our Canadian house sitter about how house sitting has made it possible for her to travel the world for years!

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A little while ago we wrote about Matt who danced around the world. Paul Smith used another solution, Twitter, for his journey to the other side of the world. The possibilities are really endless to travel around the world if you use your imagination and don’t let yourself be stopped by your “But’s”.

How is that for a solution to the money issue? It only didn’t cost him anything but he even raised money for charity! Find out more about his adventure and the rules he set form himself on his blog: www.twitchhiker.wordpress.com

Paul’s basic idea was to use a network for this journey. In a way the same idea that we write about on our Network Travel page. We all belong to many different networks and several of them can be used for traveling. Take the time to think about which networks you belong to and if they can be used for your own journey.

Or for anyone who is up to it, let’s create our own travel network. For a start just join the Extended World Travel Facebook Group that we have set up so we can start connecting. See you there…

We have also joined twitter. Who knows, maybe we want to Tweet ourselves around the world in the future and then it is good to be prepared. You can find us on:

http://twitter.com/ExtendedTravel
http://twitter.com/mariaberke

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Traveling is and has been a very big part of our family’s life. As a result of that, we have also always been interested to look for different ways to create money in more “unconventional” ways.

The thought of going somewhere, somewhere new, is almost always present in all of us. Well, actually, today we don’t think about traveling as something “exotic” or as some “once in a lifetime” event. Nowadays it’s just a natural part of our life.

We have become very much world citizens. We have our home base in Sweden, but we feel very much like the world is our home.

Through the years, our lifestyle has become more and more “independent” (in the meaning of not having to be in one special place to work, to go to school, to follow the main stream or do what everybody else does). Our lifestyle has evolved over the years thanks to many things.

One challenge we (too) have faced is the financial one. We’ve had our ups and downs and we’ve had, and still have, much focus on creating a “stable” relationship with money.

One of our big breakthroughs in this area came when we participated in a seminar in Seattle some years ago (the whole family, of course) – The Millionaire Mind Intensive. 3 days of working with the mental issues of money and transforming the blueprints we all have around it.

We realized that this is actually the most important thing to get in place for us to be really confident and successful in this area. During these days we learned a lot. We got a whole new view on the subject of money and our own (and other people’s) relationship to it. It totally changed how we look upon ourselves and how we look at money.

After the Millionaire Mind, we have learnt more about money and finances in other, different ways. Especially about creating and investing money. Having learnt the basics though, the psychology behind it have really helped us to understand and to take in all these other parts so much better.

To reinforce all that we got from this seminar, we all volunteered to crew a couple of months ago when the MMI for the first time was launched in Europe, in London.

It really gives everything a new dimension when you can be part of supporting other peoples learning.

Anyway, since it was extremely successful, they are now running the MMI a second time in Europe. It’s in London this time as well, on the 29-31 August 2009.

If you want to create a healthy platform for your financial future we really encourage you to take this opportunity to participate in these days. It doesn’t even have to cost you anything. To support people to raise their financial awareness they even give out a number of tickets for free! Check this out at www.millionaireminduk.com

It could (will) change your life, it sure changed our!

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