
How to travel around the world for a year.   - maccman
http://alexmaccaw.com/posts/how_to_travel_around_the_world
======
whalesalad

        So the net cost for the tip was about $22k. I paid for the vast majority of
        this with one month's consultancy beforehand. That's crazy when you think 
        about it, one month's consultancy in return for a year traveling. 
        And I certainly didn't hold back with the budget, I met a lot of people 
        doing it for much cheaper. Where there's a will, there's a way.
    

One consulting gig, $22,000. I really need to get on this level! Was a
fantastic read, especially since I have a lot of respect for Alex due to some
of his great work.

That Mark Twain quote really hit home. I recently decided that I need to do
the same thing actually. I'm sick of the USA, of the people here, their
attitudes, etc.. (I am in LA). Ready to get out and experience the rest of the
world. I leave for Sweden on Feb 24th! My first time out of the country!

~~~
henrikschroder
> I leave for Sweden on Feb 24th!

You could have picked a good time to visit, but you just had to pick the
coldest month? Why? :-)

~~~
jarek
It's not exactly height of the tourist season which can help with prices. If
he's from LA, the fact that it's cold and there'll probably be snow might well
be a feature for him.

------
grecy
As a "me too" account...

I spent 2 years driving from Alaska to Argentina, working on freelance
websites and programming on the side.

Total trip cost (yes, including gas) was $27k.

Full story at <http://theroadchoseme.com>

Anyone interested in a similar experience should checkout
<http://wikioverland.org> , the encyclopedia of Overland Travel

~~~
nirvana
When I was in Deadhorse Alaska (near Prudhoe Bay) ran into a couple of
argentinians who had driven up. About as far north as one can drive... and
they went south to patagonia to start their trip, too.

Always wanted to do that.

Great thing about traveling in alaska-- you can just pull over to the side of
the road and sleep. Spent weeks doing that, and the only "incident" was when
an Alaskan Pipeline worker woke me up (it was noon! I my clock was thrown off
by the 24 hour sunlight) to make sure I was ok. (I was relatively near the
pipeline at that point, and they patrol it.)

Thanks for sharing your experience, I'm enjoying reading it!

~~~
masterj
I remember seeing a lot of Canadian plates while I was hitchhiking down to
Ushuaia on the other end. I think that route has a siren call to a certain
type of person. Some of them looked very relieved at that final border
crossing :)

------
stuff4ben
Sigh, I frequently regret my wasted youth. Now that I'm a husband and father
of two wonderful kids, I wonder if I can transpose and apply what this guy did
to my family situation? Maybe take a nice 3 month working vacation (work-
cation?) during the summer.

If any of you younger whippersnappers are reading this blog post, GO OUT AND
DO THIS!!! You'll most likely regret not doing it when you're older.

~~~
rubashov
I've traveled a fair amount and I don't get the degree of fascination. It's
essentially a form of entertainment.

I've learned more about almost any place from books and media than just
passing through, seeing the sites, and meeting some people. "Traveling" is
really not as enlightening as people try to pretend. Living somewhere a couple
years is another matter.

~~~
nirvana
>just passing through, seeing the sites, and meeting some people.

Is what most people do because they are very short of time, due to the fact
that the time they have is vacation time from their full time job. This forces
them into a particular mode. But for many people, this is still very
rewarding.

>"Traveling" is really not as enlightening as people try to pretend.

I think there's a big difference between spending 3 hours and 3 days
somewhere. There's also a big difference between spending 3 days and 3 months
somewhere. And then even further, you could spend 3 year somewhere.

I know in 3 months we don't get the same level of experience as spending 3
years, and we may well find a place where we want to spend 3 years at a time.

Everything in life involves tradeoffs, especially travel. I won't knock
someone who spends 3 hours in a place I spend 3 months, anymore than I would
want to be knocked by someone who spent 3 years there.

But I strongly disagree that you can books and media can replace travel. Sure
you can learn a lot, but the experience of living somewhere or even visiting
is a lot different than seeing it portrayed by others.

~~~
rubashov
I contend that mostly what you're getting out of your three days or three
months somewhere is a blast of novelty. It's not making you any smarter or
better, which is what a lot of people try to claim.

~~~
georgieporgie
No way. I spent six months in Japan last year, on two three-month tourist
visas. Within the first three months, I had learned immense, _immense_ amounts
about Japan, myself, and the rest of the world (via housemates and
acquaintances). That trip taught me more than any other similar period in my
life.

 _It's not making you any smarter or better, which is what a lot of people try
to claim._

The best quote on travel I've read is, "travel doesn't make you interesting,
it makes you interested." The few people I've met who thought it made 'better'
were the same sorts of desperate saps that name-drop their college all the
time. But these schmucks say nothing about going to college, just as the other
schmucks say nothing about the validity of travel. You can't judge the world
on the basis insecure people.

~~~
rubashov
Well, yes, if you've never traveled at all, and especially never traveled
outside the west, I would guess that's rather eye-opening.

I'm addressing the people who endlessly hit up new places and try to pretend
it means something. It's just novelty seeking, as best I can tell, which is to
some extent a trait of immaturity.

~~~
georgieporgie
_It's just novelty seeking, as best I can tell_

I suspect that the problem here is simply that you are wrong.

I'm not sure why, but you're consistently trying to be condescending about
those who value travel. What do you gain by categorizing and marginalizing
others? Living somewhere is okay, but merely traveling through is just
"novelty seeking"? As if "novelty seeking" cannot itself be an activity that
leads to personal growth?

~~~
msellout
Hey now, though he's not saying it well, he's got a point. I've been on some
extensive travels and sometimes everything starts to blend together. I sit in
a cafe and can't remember which city I'm in. It's really the people you meet
that stand out, but the sample size per city is still quite small. It's easy
to claim that you get exposed to a different culture, but if you only get to
know a few dozen people then you might have found a similar culture back home
in a different neighborhood.

I think the key is the attitude change that is often stimulated by, but not
necessarily caused by travel. You could get the same thing by waking up one
morning and realizing you'd like to meet some folks from the other side of
town and learn what they think about life, work, love, etc.

Disclaimer: I travel for work. Meeting up with CouchSurfers keeps me sane.

------
mceachen
Very inspiring!

I was a bit off-put at first by the fact that the _gorgeous_ photos in this
post were not taken by Alex. I then realized that it was the photographer that
inspired Alex to take his trip in the first place.

There's also something to be said for staying "behind your eyes" instead of
"behind the glass." It's easier to be "in the moment" when you don't have to
worry about documenting everything for posterity.

------
cgh
The main thing to think about is this: do you want a one-time, round-the-world
experience, or do you want this as a lifestyle, say working 6-8 months a year
and traveling the rest?

If you are like me and want the latter, then become a contractor and
specialise in something that pays well (for me, J2EE - not a great technology,
but Big Corp Inc. pays well for these skills).

The OP seems to suggest a work/travel approach, but to be honest I found that
can be tough to sustain. To be maximally productive, it's really helpful to
have comfortable and familiar surroundings, very solid internet, etc. I tend
to do just-for-fun coding on trips instead, since I found trying to get setup
in new places to be stressful.

~~~
mbrock
Are there any books or something about how this contracting thing works? I'm
just about to start my career in programming, and I don't really have a hang
of the business side of things -- not hoping for a quick change to
contracting, but I'd like to start to understand how it works.

E.g., what kind/level of J2EE expertise do you need to become a solo
contractor for Big Corp Inc.?

As a contractor, do you work on a project in a company office for X months and
then leave? Or do you work from home? Etc.

Thanks.

~~~
cgh
Here's the path I took:

1\. Worked for around eight years as an employee at a few places, including a
couple of startups. Ended up with a lot of Java experience.

2\. Realised I wanted to restructure my life to work less (but still make good
money) and travel/have fun.

3\. Spoke to various people and found that contracting through a consulting
company (not recruiters, but a team of like-minded programmers) was the way to
go, rather than pounding the pavement to look for contracts. The company takes
its cut, but I still end up with $80-$95/hr, and they find the work for me.

As for experience: Big Corp Inc. wants contractors who can get up to speed
very quickly. You tend to get pigeonholed based on technology, so if you get
the assignment as a "J2EE guy" and you don't have a lot of experience, then
you look pretty dumb. Spend time working as a normal employee first and really
become a good programmer.

As for work duration: generally, the contracts are open-ended and I am
terminated when a project gets cancelled or whatever.

I specify up front that I will spend the bulk of my time working from home and
that I am taking holidays from time x to time y. The company that subcontracts
me out is based in Silicon Valley, as is Big Corp and friends, and I live in
western Canada, so this isn't usually an issue. I fly down once in while to
hang out.

So to sum up: get experience - learn to be a good programmer who has a
reputation for getting things done; learn what big companies want in terms of
technology; find a company with good connections who will contract you out,
possibly as a team with other people; be up front about your lifestyle but
work hard to integrate with their project schedules.

It also helps to not have kids.

~~~
robyates
cgh, are there many software consulting companies around? I've been thinking
of going that route myself, so I'm curious how you find them.

~~~
cgh
I think there are plenty of software consulting groups around, particularly in
the Valley. Google is your friend on this one, or if you're a local, just ask
around.

I was referred to the company I now work with most, but I found the last bunch
of guys I was with via Craigslist.

------
gexla
I disagree with the age comment. If you don't want the baggage of life, then
don't let the baggage build up. You can do this at any age.

I made this comment in another post also, but I will repeat it here. If you
need to continue working, it's difficult to do contract work while on the
move. I suggest setting up a home base in a region that you can concentrate
on. For example, setup a home base in SE Asia, knock out some projects and
then travel to the nearby areas while between projects. When you are happy
that you have seen everything that you want to see in that region, then setup
a home base in another region and repeat. With this strategy you could extend
your "around the world trip" to as long as you like.

------
rflrob
I think it's also worthwhile pointing out that a lot of the cost of these
kinds of long trips don't grow a whole lot in comparison to relatively shorter
trips. Flights are, in my experience, the largest single expense, and so will
cost the same whether you stay for a few weeks at each stop or a few months.

~~~
izak30
It also depends on how much you pay for two residences. if you keep your
rent/mortgage @ home that's another major monthly expense. If you find a
sublet/AirBnB or something this still applies.

One of the best times to travel is between leases, if you can stand to 'move'
twice. Once to storage, go travel, once from storage to a new place.

------
jamesgpearce
Enjoyed. Though I disagree with 'time is running out'.

Doing these kinds of trips and long-term sabbaticals with kids is the best
education you can give them.

(Stay wired a little, and apparently they barely dent career prospects too.)

~~~
arjunnarayan
Costs twice as much, and they tire much faster. Some of the seedier risks I've
taken when traveling alone I wouldn't take when traveling with a girlfriend,
let alone kids. The risk-free premium is quite high, and jacks up the prices
quite a bit.

I'd say traveling with family doesn't have to be boring or as expensive as
people presume. But it is qualitatively different from traveling in your
twenties.

------
Tsagadai
If you _really_ want to stay travelling for a long time and you want to stay
for extended periods in places which don't have amazing internet you should
consider getting some other skills. Going from national capital to major
population centre is all well and good but you will only see amount of the
planet that way. Consider welding, electrical or diesel engine repair as
skills you can get employed with pretty much anywhere. Sure, you may not make
a consultants salary but those sorts of skills generally pay more than enough
to live on comfortably practically everywhere in the world.

Food for thought if you want to spend a lifetime on the road instead of just a
year.

~~~
kayoone
Or you could just try to work on gigs that pay well for 3-4 month a year in a
place that has awesome internets and dont work while being in places that dont
have decent connections. Better than getting into real employment situations
anyway.

------
kyt
Most interesting part of the article: "So the net cost for the tip was about
$22k. I paid for the vast majority of this with one month's consultancy
beforehand."

~~~
kpennell
Wow, I did not know a young consultant could make that much in a month...jaw
dropped when I saw that.

Anyone care to explain how that is possible?

~~~
jamii
I'm currently working 6 8-hour days per week at $100 per hour. That's $20k per
month. That's about the going rate for a competent back-end developer. It
doesn't require any unusual skills or knowledge, just self-discipline and a
professional attitude.

~~~
jacalata
That also doesn't give you a cash pile of $20k at the end of it, after you pay
your current rent, pay taxes (higher as a contractor), buy food, etc. I'd
estimate the cash pile to be maybe $10k? So his income from that one month was
probably more like $30-$40k.

~~~
hyperbovine
If you are outside of the US for more than 330 days in a 12 month period then
you qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion:
[http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,...](http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97130,00.html).
It does not matter if you are earning money from a US company during that
time. I actually did this one year by performing remote work for a US company
while traveling around South America.

So, with a little planning, you can dodge at least the income tax portion.

------
jcampbell1
> Start in Beijing. Take the train to Tibet.

If this is your first backpacking adventure, I highly recommend _not_ starting
in mainland China. It is an order of magnitude more difficult a place to
travel than other places.

~~~
crdoconnor
I found it very easy and I speak zero Chinese. Plus, it's very cheap, which
makes a lot of things (e.g. finding a reasonable hotel for the night) pretty
easy. Also safe.

~~~
jcampbell1
This is frankly impossible. Either you were only in foreign tourist areas, or
are a really experienced traveller. I speak a decent amount of Chinese, have
lived and travelled extensively in China, and I still find China way more
taxing than a country like Cambodia. I don't speak a lick of Khmer, but it is
still a traveller's paradise compared to China.

~~~
silverlake
I was in China recently. Met 2 girls who were traveling for the first time.
They were planning to spend 6 months in Asia. They made some newbie mistakes
in China, but otherwise had no serious problems. China was harder when I went
15 years ago.

~~~
notintokyo
What were the newbie mistakes?

~~~
silverlake
They wanted to hop on trains at the last minute, but tickets sell out quickly.
They ended up spending a lot more for air travel. They didn't get a guide
book; therefore, they wasted a lot of time on logistics and wandering
aimlessly around a city. They tried to get into hostels but these are
sometimes booked up. They had no backup plan and went looking for a cheap
motel. They are vegetarians and didn't know how to ask for "no meat". They
ended up eating whatever they could scrounge from grocery stores. I'm a
vegetarian and had some terrific meals. They will survive though.

------
jenius
I'm absolutely doing this. After reading your first article, I got super
excited about the idea and started planning for it right away. I just
graduated college and started working (design & ruby dev), so I don't have
enough yet, but I'm putting money into a savings account every month so that I
can have enough by the time I'm ready.

Anything you write about this is really fantastic and helpful, so thank you :
) I'll certainly let you know how it's going once I get out there. You have
inspired at least one young programmer, so thanks for that!

------
kellysutton
I'm leaving for Berlin on Feb. 11 to start doing exactly this. This is great.

~~~
brynjar
I'm also leaving (the UK) for Berlin to start doings this come April.. Can't
wait.

------
nikhilalmeida
Great post. Anything to get programmers traveling a lot more. We need to get
out there and see the real world, a world other than silicon valley,
understand problems and spot potential opportunities. Only by making peoples
lives easier by solving problems can we build more meaningful businesses else
we will keep getting more of "me too" features built to share what you are
thinking while on the pot.

~~~
cgag
It always amazes me that there are people who make their money freelancing or
working remotely who don't travel regularly. I'm currently working at a big
corporation, but I'm currently spending my free time working on learning web
related stuff so I can hopefully pick up freelance work to try to support
myself while traveling in the future.

------
paraschopra
Visas are a big issue for many people in the world. I'm an Indian and frankly
my biggest headache about traveling internationally is getting a visa. I can't
imagine how big a hassle would it be to arrange 20+ visas (for a decent round
the world trip). Each application would require financial proofs, ticket
proofs, hotel proofs and what not.

Wish there were a simpler way!

------
CeiII
I'd also suggest a book to read on the plane:
<http://www.alaindebotton.com/the_art_of_travel.asp>. A good read to explore
some of the common, but not often openly discussed, feelings and responses
people have to travelling.

------
moped
Also, CouchSurfing is a great way to find free places to stay and meet
intersting folks. I've been on the site ~5 years, and the experiences have
been nothing short of amazing..dare I say, a lifechanger

www.couchsurfing.org

------
AlexCP
It's possible to travel for a lot less. If you are on a tight budget. I
traveled for 6 month in India, Nepal and Thailand 2 years ago for less than
6k.

I think the real cost of travel is time.

------
drpancake
Does anyone have any thoughts on the ergonomics of travelling and programming?
I've come to rely on a very specific setup to avoid the symptoms of RSI. I
find that coffee shops and the like tend to encourage the worst kind of
posture for this.

I suppose one compromise could be to deck out your own vehicle with an ideal
setup and travel in that; but then you're more limited in where you can go.

~~~
gexla
Rather than doing one around the world trip, setup one "home base" and focus
on seeing that region. For example, I live in the Philippines and I can get
tickets to anywhere in SE Asia are very cheap. I can work hard for a period to
bust out some projects and then take time off to travel to another area in the
region for a week or longer. Then go back to "home base" and repeat the
process.

The author seemed to be working on his own projects during his trip. Doing
contract work on the road is far more difficult, so the "home base" strategy
also works better if you have to continue contract work while abroad.

------
lobster45
Traveling around the world is my dream. Unfortunately in the corporate world
the most I am able to take off at a time is a three week vacation per year. My
wife and I have taken three week trips to South Korea, Greece, Italy and
several shorter trips. If I did not work for the man and was able to get work
as a contractor, I would jump on the next plane out of here.

~~~
mmorey
My wife and I do a similar thing. Take a large 3 week trip a year. Although I
like the idea of traveling for a year or longer, I do believe I would miss
several things, my bed is at the top of that list.

------
rprime
I've been very inspired by Alex's first post and although I've been planing to
do something like this in the feature I was a bit scared about it, well, who
wouldn't? :) But now that's gone and I am already "drawing" a plan.

Thanks Alex!

------
kpennell
Thanks for posting this Alex. Anything to get more people traveling.

------
kayhi
A bit off topic, is there a website that lists places to stay around the world
with great Internet connections?

~~~
notintokyo
My favorite was staying in a $10 / night hut in Thailand, next to a resort
that probably cost $100 / night. It was near enough that I could use their
wifi.

------
metra
I'd like to know how you made $22k, after taxes, in one month. Can you
elaborate on your consulting?

~~~
frasertimo
He said 'the bulk'. Sigh.

------
zobzu
i'd like to do 22K in a month. If I did that much, I think i'd travel a year
off more often. :-)

------
adnan_wahab
wow, i am going to save up some cash and do this right away.

------
netmau5
This is a great marketing page for Nikon.

------
nirvana
We've been full-time nomads for 4 years, and are in the middle of our second
year of travel outside the USA. This article is a good overview for a
particular type of travel, which I tend to perceive as vacation travel.

Its great to take a year off, and see all those countries on $22k, and if
you're considering doing that, I highly recommend doing something like what
he's doing!

For us, we chose to make international living more of a lifestyle. We are
running our startup this way. When we added our third co-founder, it became
three of us traveling this way. It is working out pretty well. We use AirBnB
or local real estate agents to book accommodations. We stay in a country for
3-6 months depending on their visa length.

We work a sort of regular schedule, so we're not out seeing tourist sites
every day. But that's what we do on the weekends.

At the end of the day, living like this, all over the world, is cheaper than
it would have been if we'd just stayed on the West Coast of the USA. Well,
cheaper financially.

One way we keep things cheap is by trying to focus on inexpensive countries.
Our time in europe was great, but even there we stayed in berlin (which since
the wall came down still has reasonably priced rents), and a small UK town.
Mostly we're focusing on less developed / expensive countries which is also
the more interesting ones.

We book maybe 1-2 flights a year. We are careful about this. We got a nice 7
day "vacation" in Venice when we were able to save $300 by booking a layover
thru that part of Italy on our repositioning trip. Taking your time on your
flights lets you maximize flexibility and gives you great opportunities like
Venice. Keeping major international flights to a minimum keeps our expenses
low.

All three of us live out of big suitcases. We were trying the "one bag one
world" thing and living out of a 55 Liter backpack. This was ok in terms of
size, but airlines have decided that refusing to take bags, even if they're
carryon size, is a revenue opportunity, so rather than fight them, or deal
with the hassle, we've switched to a 2 bag solution- one carry on for the
expensive electronics and one checked bag for the clothes etc. (so 2 bags
each, though the carry ons tend to be rather small.)

I really need to do a blog post about this. Actually, I have a dozen blog
posts, but I need the blog first. And the blog is not coming until the MVP is
done.

Anyway, traveling around the world for a year-- totally good idea, not that
unreasonably expensive, and if you want to make a lifestyle out of it, you can
do it, by increasing the amount of time you spend in each country to bring the
costs down.

Only downside of living this way: there's some impact on productivity due to
the travel. So, we lose probably 4-6 weeks a year of productive time because
of it. For instance, we didn't get a damn thing done in Venice. Some of those
"lost" weeks are the most fun too.

~~~
s1rech
What are you waiting for to write those posts? I'd love to read how you manage
to change your country of residence, and about all the small things that you
have to consider.

~~~
jodrellblank
_And the blog is not coming until the MVP is done_ \- I'm guessing they're not
waiting but prioritising effort on their startup and the Minimum Viable
Product.

------
georgieporgie
Regarding security, my advice is to always have two bags. The main bag has all
your clothes, toiletries, etc. All the stuff you would be sad but not
devastated to lose. In the other, smaller bag goes the Macbook, camera, and
everything else that would be terrible to lose. Also, consider thin dry bags
(I think mine are Sea to Summit) to keep out moisture and sand, two things
which are inevitable on any adventure. :-)

Having toted an SLR everywhere, I'll admit that unless you're an avid
photographer, you will _probably_ be happier and less anxious with a quality
point-and-shoot. I gave an awful lot of impromptu classes on photography to
people with SLRs that had kit lenses (not much better than a good P&S) and
wildly inappropriate settings (much worse than a P&S).

------
jodrellblank
Travel posts are suspiciously full of wide-ranging and untestable claims about
the benefits of travel that I should really be asking for evidence.

~~~
phil
Happily, the only reliable way to get that evidence is to go collect it
yourself...

~~~
jodrellblank
Dan Gilbert's TED talk covers people having miserable experiences and
synthesising happiness to make them feel good. That makes it not reliable,
travel could be an instance of that.

It should be possible through behavioural studies and observation to prove
whether there is any substance to "Travel is fatal to bigotry" or "You can't
fail to come away from traveling inspired with a fresh perspective", and
whether that makes any difference to anything.

"Traveling opens your eyes to some of the real problems people face", does it?
"gives you the opportunity to come up with solutions to tackle those" and do
people use that opportunity?

$22k and 1 year is a lot of opportunity cost. This is argued by someone who
travelled easily from a powerful country, with an iPod and laptop, to surf,
party and program while meeting Ruby programmers, and claiming travel is a way
to _"get out of the echo chamber"_ (!) From someone who talks about how
possible it would be to turn it into a fulltime lifestyle doing the same
consulting he did to pay for it in the first place, and after all that singing
the praises, _doesn't do so_.

Is it really so downvotable to question how much is hype, and how much
substance?

~~~
mixmastamyk
There might be an opportunity cost but life is short. On your death bed you're
more likely to fondly remember the time you had that delicious cheese in
Paris, or lived with that little family in the Himalayas. Certainly more
fondly than the nine months toiling away in a cubicle.

In short give it try and find out. But don't bother if you can't summon a
positive attitude, you'll just waste your time.

~~~
jodrellblank
Erm, did you just say it only works if I believe in it?

!

~~~
msellout
Like most things in life. Love for example.

------
Samuel_Michon
So here's a guy who lives in California, which used to be part of the Wild
West. He wants to broaden his horizon by visiting some other countries. Then
he comes back from his trip and writes:

 _"the world isn't the wild west that some people seem to think it is"_

Precious.

