CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

I started writing this two days before I was due to leave on my trip, while I was still coherent, and I’m finishing it sleep-deprived from the airport lounge. What follows is some very condensed information about how I’ve planned for and prepared for this trip in the months, weeks, and days leading up to departure.

Where to go and when

One of my best friends and I spent our university years saying, “Let’s drop out and go travel to…” The destination wasn’t important. Some days it was Iceland, others it was Italy. But it symbolized that insatiable wanderlust in our hearts. I’m embarking on this trip alone, but that desire for adventure around the world is a big driver of my plans on this trip, and seriously influenced how they have grown and evolved.

My original plan was to go away for three months, with two months spent in Australia and a month spent travelling through Europe. The more I researched and wrote out my bucket list, though, the more I realized that three months simply wasn’t enough time. My plans grew in length to six months, with a three-month split between each area, and then to the full 11-month journey that I’m now about to embark on.

Australia has been on my bucket list since high school and since Canada’s winter is Australia’s summer, it made sense to start my journey in January and head to Australia first. From there, I planned to summer in Europe and be home in the fall. (Although I now plan on heading to Morocco or Jordan come the end of October and into November.)

Then, I got hooked on the idea of stopovers, which essentially refers to spending a few days (give or take) in a country that gives you an easy connection to your final destination. I’m doing a stopover in the usual sense in Hawaii before I head to Melbourne. Three days soaking up the sun on a beach. Paradise! After Australia, I’ll be spending several weeks on the islands of Indonesia, followed by a day in Singapore before flying to Athens and beginning the European leg of my trip.

My biggest concern throughout my trip is that every place I’m going has decent weather. I’m a summer baby and I can’t wait to escape winter for the next year! If you can head somewhere during their warmer months, I highly recommend it, but don’t forget that shoulder seasons are often gorgeous and much less busy. They can also be less expensive depending on the country.

Booking…everything

I booked my initial flights in July, travelling from Toronto Pearson International to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu (with a layover in San Francisco), then, following a stopover in Hawaii, from Honolulu to Melbourne Tullamarine International Airport. I managed to find this on Skyscanner, inputting travel from Toronto to Hawaii and then Hawaii to Melbourne as separate searches. It worked like a charm! I got my flights for under $900.

Since Australia is in their summer season for most of my trip, combined with the resurgence in travel, I decided to book all my hostels ahead of time. So, I have my full three months of stays booked in Australia. I searched HostelWorld, Booking.com, and Googled sites directly out of Lonely Planet’s Australia guidebook. I went largely by gut feeling, and didn’t book any hostels with a rating of less than 8 out of 10. We’ll see how that all worked out as we go along.

As I’m preparing to leave, I’ve booked a few of my onward flights once I finish in Australia. My flight from Australia to Indonesia, landing in Bali, is booked, as is my flight from Indonesia to Singapore (which will be a day-long stopover), and my flight from Singapore to Athens, Greece. I’m still working on getting to Dublin for my birthday, but I’ll get there.

All the stuff to buy beforehand

Warm up your credit cards, everyone. I purchased a number of items months in advance of leaving and within days of departure.

The number-one most important item was my backpack. I bought an Osprey Fairview 40L (in the S/M size). I wanted to go full carry-on for this trip and not have to deal with the intricacies of checked and carry-on baggage. So far, I’m so happy with my choice. I’ve taken my backpack on a couple weekend visits, on a trip to New York City, and on a trip to Ocean City since I bought it. Check out my full post on picking my backpack here.

I also bought packing cubes, which I absolutely love. They’re a total game changer, no matter how good of a packer you already are. They can always add organization and help you find more pockets of space than you knew existed. Check out my post on them here.

A few other things I chose to buy…

• A laptop case for my iPad. This allows me to work with my iPad on my lap and makes it a lot easier for me to blog like this (always a plus!)
• A sleeve case for my iPad and its laptop case. This is to add protection while it’s sitting in either of my bags, plus the case is water resistant. Huge bonus.
• A packable day pack. I bought mine from Mountain Warehouse and it literally stuffs into a little pillow-like square so that I can pack it away when I don’t need it and I can have it out when I do. It has been great so far.
• A universal travel adapter.
• Loop Quiet ear plugs, recommended by Nomadic Matt. I’m staying in dorms and taking a couple overnight buses, so I’m hoping these will be super helpful.
• A power pack. This kept coming up on recommendations lists for travelling and I decided to bite the bullet and get one. Mine adds significant weight to my bag, but it does work great and I have the peace of mind that my phone won’t die on long travel days (of which I have a few).

I’ve purchased other things that I haven’t included here, but the most important thing to consider in what you purchase is their use. If something is only likely to be useful in one certain situation, then you probably don’t need it. If you can think of multiple uses and situations where something would be useful, however, then those are the things you should look to purchase.

Practicalities

Also known as those things you tend to forget about because you take them for granted at home. Some of these things might need to be purchased; you might have some already.

Money was a big one for me under this category. With such a long trip spanning so many different countries – and therefore several different currencies – I obviously planned on bringing my credit cards, debit card as backup and for taking out extra cash if I needed, and some foreign currency for each area. Figuring out the exact amounts is dependent on who you are and what you’re planning, but it is also dependent on what the cash situation is in the country you’re going to. I have about $100 Australian, but I have about $150 (Canadian) in Indonesian rupees because I’ve read that Indonesia deals less in cards and more in cash.

Mindset

Moving away from the organization and physical aspects of travelling, let’s discuss mindset.

A 9- to 11-month trip is a huge undertaking. I’m going to be separated from my family for five months to start, and then for another five or more before I come home. (Or at least that’s the plan.)

One of the things I’ve been telling myself, which actually comes from @veganhollyg on Instagram, Holly Gabrielle on YouTube, is that home will always be there for you when you come back. You’re going to miss things, yes, but home will be waiting for you to come back. This has been a huge comfort to me because I don’t like missing things but unfortunately, it’s just something that happens when you do things outside of your family and away from home.

The other thing that has been really helpful is a) knowing that I’ll see my family again in Ireland, about halfway through my trip, and b) that I can go home at any time. I’m buying one-way tickets my whole way through my trip so I’ll be able to buy a one-way ticket home anytime I want, too.

Conclusions

This trip has come to fruition with a lot of planning, care, and time. I’m so excited to embark on this journey, even though I know that some things will happen that I didn’t anticipate. I will get homesick from time to time. And life will go on. Follow along for more in-depth information about how I’ve planned for this trip and how all that planning goes (shot to hell or well-laid, who knows?) as I work my way from country to country. Here we go!