I Am Leaving In A Year. Now What? Planning For Solo Travel.

My Solo Trip Travel Planning

Big Sur, California

When you are planning on selling everything you own and heading out for a solo travel trip for the rest of your life it is easy to get a bit overwhelmed.

Being overwhelmed can lead to....doing nothing! In other words you don't know where to start.


In my case I have about a year until I plan to head out for my solo travel trip. a year sounds like a long time to plan and get organized.

It isn't.

So I had better get my act together in a number of different areas to get ready to travel the world.

How To Travel The World - Pre-Planning

Okay so here is what I need to do to get reading to travel the world.

Declutter

Even though I live a minimalist lifestyle, I still have a lot of stuff. I need to purge and declutter. Pretty much all of my stuff has to go. Maybe there is some stuff I can sell. The rest will be donated or given away. Hell, I will put it by the roadside with a "FREE" sign on it if need be.

Deciding what to take

Actually this will be easy enough. I did a solo backpacking trip through Europe for a summer with one tiny backpack. It was the best way to travel as I could use RyanAir for ridiculously cheap flights between countries and all I had to worry about was my one piece of carry on luggage. So I KNOW that I can travel with minimal items.

This backpack had all kinds of pockets and zippered compartments to easily keep track of smaller items. The best feature: it zippered open ALL THE WAY for easy access to anything you were looking for. This made repacking super easy as well. Don't spend hundreds on some big backpack. Get a cheap small pack.

 

Get a small cheap backpack

Packing Tip: Whatever you initially pack for a trip, cut it in half. And then cut it in half again. Trust me on this. It is the best thing you will do. I saw people in Europe trying to travel with two HUGE packs stuffed with gear. It would drive me nuts trying to both carry all of that and trying to keep track of it all.

Saving Money For Travel

The biggest reason(excuse) people use for not traveling is money. As in they feel that they cannot afford to travel. What they are probably meaning is that they cannot afford a luxury vacation.


There is a big difference between a luxury vacation at a 5 star resort and meaningful travel where you go off the beaten path. I choose the second of these options. This means that I will be traveling the world on a budget. I have signed up on Couchsurfing. I am also planning on working wherever I am in the world. That said, I will still be needing to save some serious money to make this trip happen. I want to save a minimum of 10000 dollars(Canadian) before I leave. I know that I can do this as I am a saver and I live very frugally. However, there are still ways I can make improvements in how I both spend and save my money.




So these are the areas that I am thinking about and concentrating on as I plan my solo travel trip around the world.


Do you have any suggestions about what else I should be doing at this point before leaving? Can you offer any advice about anything else in the post?

Leave a comment and let me know! :)

"Quit your job. Travel. Die happy"