Anyone Been Backpack Or Traveling?

[inflames]

Hi everyone.

I was just wondering if anyone on here has been back packing or travelling before? As iam looking at doing some once iv finished my HND next summer, so iam planing on going early 2011 so gives me a year and half to save and plan. I would love to go for about 6 months to a year but i doubt the over half would agree to that so just going to go for a 1-2 months. Just need to decided where, iam looking at going to new zealand or south east asia, has anyone been to eirther and what did they think.

Any kind of feedback on this would great, cheers.

[Ellz]

Hi everyone.

I was just wondering if anyone on here has been back packing or travelling before? As iam looking at doing some once iv finished my HND next summer, so iam planing on going early 2011 so gives me a year and half to save and plan. I would love to go for about 6 months to a year but i doubt the over half would agree to that so just going to go for a 1-2 months. Just need to decided where, iam looking at going to new zealand or south east asia, has anyone been to eirther and what did they think.

Any kind of feedback on this would great, cheers.

I know a stack of people who have been travelling, My missus is currently in South America. There are plenty of good websites etc to find out where and what you want to do, when my sister wakes up i'll find out some for you.

I've had lots of friends that have started travelling and never come back, these places are so beautiful and refreshing from the UK people just want to stay and many of my friends have, one of my mates who did motorsport filming over here went travelling and now is in his second year over in I believe now Japan (he moves around lots, he started in Malaysia) doing motorsport and advert filming/editing, got another couple of buddies in Australia 1 now married, its blooming crazy. Its one of those things that I think if I went away I wouldnt come back, as we all know the UK is a pretty dire place to live right now.

I think what im trying to say is, be careful what your going away to do just travel or maybe in the back of your head looking for a future else where.

[Ellz]

www.lonelyplanet.com

Thats meant to be a gooden

O yeah and just to point out met some people in Croatia last week travelling around Europe using the rough guide book and they said most of it was a load of crap so dont just use 1 research source.

Where ever you go im sure you'll have a wicked time

Good one for hostels

http://www.hostelworld.com/

[inflames]

Thanks mate iv been using the lonely planet for some reseach already one of my friends told me about it.

Iv got plenty of saving and planing to do now anyway.

Thanks.

[Chris Skelton]

Watch out! A friend's son went to Canada/Australia/New Zealand on a year off. While in N-Z, got a call from the one night stand in Aus to say....you're going to be a Dad! So now he's off to N-Z every year (the kid's now 5!)

He even tried living there to be closer but didn't like it. Too parochial!

[inflames]

Yeah that can happen!!!!

But iam getting married when i get back. My misses said i could go as she knows its one of the things that iv always wanted to do. if i was to tie the knot now with the kids what she already has planed etc i would never be able to do it. So she letting me go before we get married, what has she done!!!!!!!!?????????

[ManicMark]

Yeah that can happen!!!!

But iam getting married when i get back. My misses said i could go as she knows its one of the things that iv always wanted to do. if i was to tie the knot now with the kids what she already has planed etc i would never be able to do it. So she letting me go before we get married, what has she done!!!!!!!!?????????

Opened a can of worms, I went away for a little while took me 20 years to come back, ( can't settle now, no pension anyway) You are takeing a chance that it might change you forever & so is She, Have a ball.

[Rudster]

Hi everyone.

I was just wondering if anyone on here has been back packing or travelling before? As iam looking at doing some once iv finished my HND next summer, so iam planing on going early 2011 so gives me a year and half to save and plan. I would love to go for about 6 months to a year but i doubt the over half would agree to that so just going to go for a 1-2 months. Just need to decided where, iam looking at going to new zealand or south east asia, has anyone been to eirther and what did they think.

Any kind of feedback on this would great, cheers.

Hi Inflames,

One thing you might want to consider when deciding between NZ and SEA is cost, it's going to be more expensive both to get out to NZ and live / travel around whilst there whereas SEA is likely to be cheaper (depending on where you go, i.e. Singapore and Hong Kong are a lot more expensive in general than say Vietnam, although they are both good flight hubs to get cheaper flights into and travel on from)

I went travelling in 2004 for a couple of years and as part of that trip I spent 3 months travelling around NZ in a hire car (which are dead cheap compared to the UK) spending time on both the North and South islands, my personal preference was for the South, less populated and a lot more dramatic scenery, plus it's got the adrenaline junkie capital in Queenstown where you can do the bungey jumping, jet boating etc type stuff. It's a really easy country to travel around and if your coming from the UK has a familiar feel to it.

I also spent some time in SEA travelling through a variety of countries, if you've only got 1 - 2 months I'd try to pick a couple of countries that really interest you rather than trying to see a load of them and not really getting to see them at all. My personal favourites were Cambodia (especially for the temples of Angkor Wat) Laos for the people and laid back vibe of practically the whole country, Vietnam for the history and Malaysia / Borneo for the scuba diving.

As someone mentioned earlier Lonely Planet is a good resource, especially the travellers forum (called the Thorn Tree) other tips, don't bother taking a load of clothes as you'll be able to buy them out there a lot cheaper and it'll save you lugging a load of stuff around, get decent travel insurance, take some $20 / $50 bills with you as an emergency fund in case you can't access atm's

Happy travels,

Rudster