An Idiot's Guide to Pre-Travel/ Gap Years

Hey Peeps, so basically I decided to write this post in order to help out other idiots like myself who are considering taking their first gap year or just want to travel for long periods of time. I’ve already made some mistakes that I wish I had been aware of before booking my 7 month mishap adventure (and I haven’t even started it yet :S). Here are a few things I wish I had noted in my mind pre-booking:

Deciding where you want to go is the fairly easy bit but working out the total costs of the trip isn’t always as simple. Ok so maybe you’re thinking how hard can it be to look up flights, hostels/ hotels, insurance and add a bit of spending money on top of that but have you considered VISA costs - my BUNAC working VISA has cost me £339? Vaccination costs - my rabies vaccinations are costing me over a £100? Travel equipment - a decent backpack can cost you over £100 (it will need to be decent as you don’t want it to fall apart spilling your stuff everywhere or being so heavy/ uncomfortable that you end up in agony - most people recommend a backpack between 50-70 litres because of this), clothing designed for travel is pretty expensive but may be something you’d want to have as walking around in soggy jeans for weeks on end where they take too long to dry isn’t much fun, travel appliances and equipment can add up too i.e. if you want to take a pc tablet or netbook like I do for blogging and keeping in touch with people etc)? Gap Year Travel Store gives you a breakdown of items you may
want to take with you for different destinations around the world, some of which you probably don’t need to take but may be of use to you. In terms of the travel clothing Rohan is an award winning travel clothing specialist with most items being quick drying and hand washable etc, unfortunately as previously mentioned this shows in the prices. Please note there are many alternative travel gear websites, the above are just examples of what you can look for. Once you have taken your equipment and clothing costs out of the equation you’ll also need to do a bit of research into which vaccinations you may need and speak to your doctor/ nurse about them. Myself being an uber plum decided it would be uber cool to book my travel start date six weeks from the booking date. This however means I’m an uber idiot as my final vaccination due to delays in their arrival will be two days before I leave... that is if they turn up, otherwise one bite could mean I’m an uber dead weird guy. Having sorted out your travel gear and vaccinations you would then have a figure in mind you’re willing to spend on your gap year including your accommodation, flights, insurance, visas and spending money. I booked my flights, insurance, VISA’s and some of my accommodation through an international travel company called STA Travel who get discounts for students and people under the age of 26. I would recommend booking the holiday if possible at one of their stores as the staff were incredibly helpful and found me cheaper flight options by just going on different flight routes (allowing myself the chance to see Reykjavik along the way which is somewhere I wouldn’t have normally thought of going to but looks amazing). Note that before you actually book the trip you should check out this great site called Budget Your Trip which gives you rough ideas of the daily budgets you may want for certain countries/ cities around the world with three budget options available (budget, mid-range and luxury). Some of the costs may not apply to what you’re doing but you can use it to work out your rough daily budget and then see how many days your whole budget can cover you for after deducting the flight, insurance and VISA costs.  As always it’s best to get reviews of the accommodation you’re interested in before booking it as after reading that one hostel had been highly rated by Lonely Planet I booked it for 9 days.  I later looked up the hostel’s reviews on Trip Advisor only to find the majority of the latest reviews to be negative with one traveller stating it was like living in a jail. A potentially safer option when booking hostels maybe be to book through Hostelling International as they have a set of standards that the hostels should abide by however this obviously limits you to where you can stay. You will also be required to get the HI membership in order to stay at some of the hostelling international hostels and get discounts for them.

 

I hope this blog post may be of use to some of you even though it's by no means a complete guide. I shall be continuing with travel blog posts including reviews of the places I visit and any tips I come up with along the way so if you found any of this useful please feel free to follow me either via the Google friend connect option on the right, on my Facebook page or Twitter profile

 

Much Love

 

The Weird Guy 

 

Part 2