Advice on travelling the world

I'd recommend that if you want culture, find some locals (hello HoP!) and go do culture.

In Melbourne (for example) check out the live music scene (before the government keeps killing it off!) or the alleyways filled with cafes.

Go and find out what the locals do and do that too. It's a lot cheaper than touristy stuff and personally I think that it's more rewarding.

You do realise you can only get one working holiday visa, right? So if you go, think, 'Wow, this is awesome, I want to come back here for a whole year or two' you can't, or at least not working. If you're definitely not going to be able to go back on one, this might not be much of an issue but personally, I'd skip the work visas- they do cost quite a bit, and in only 2 to 2 1/2 months, you're unlikely to get much back for it. (Aus working holiday visa is currently £128, NZ looks like £50..)

You can generally do work for accommodation at hostels and suchlike without a visa (arguably not legal, but no-one's ever got into trouble for it)- or consider joining Wwoofing if you like the idea of working somewhere interesting, it's not just farms anymore.

Apart from that- yeah, find the local HoPPers! And Couchsurf! If you're not registered on www.couchsurfing.org, become so.
You'll probably meet some total nutters through it, but also some really brilliant people, and great places.

I've registered on couchsurfing, but I've not set up my profile properly yet. It's always been my intention to meet as many HoPers along the way as possible, so if any of you are involved in regular meets, or fancy coming to meet a strange english fellow, then let me know!

great advice for traveling the world... Haiti might be looking for volunteers...

when renting motorbikes it might be a good idea to carry a xerox (color) copy of your passport (if you're short of expired ones), make sure to include a copy of the current visa.

Australia is packed with places worth spending time in. If you're
smart then make this a round the world trip, which lasts for 2 years. Doing a short trip now will only give you short glimpses of each country and not a full(er) picture... in a few years you will be older, less flexible, less adventurous and more comfortable...

Great places to visit are Thailand (mountains or islands), Cambodia (coast and Angkor), Australia (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Perth, the national parks and - sorry - the Reef), Indonesia (Bali), India (all over)... this by far is not "the world", so I'd advise some more of the US and definitely Brazil... the best advice I can give you now is to pack half the stuff and take double the cash... bear in mind that good travelers never arrive and take your time.

Howdy Mods,

Sorry to hear you're no longer SE Asia-ing it - how come you dropped SE Asia isntead of Oz and NZ? Much more expensive and not as "culturally interesting" either There, I said it

Australian Culture? I thought that was an oxymoron

Here's my advice on Oz and NZ travel.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE make sure you go to West Australia.
It's absolutely beautiful, the full length of it. Not that the rest of Oz isn't also stunning, but we were blown away by WA. West is Best!

Having said that, it depends what you want to do.

If you're into (or would like to get into) walking - there are some jaw-droppingly beautiful places to go see, with walks ranging from 20 minutes to full days (and more).

The East Coast probably has the "best" beaches in terms of fun atmosphere, but again WA had the prettiest ones and often utterly deserted (There's probably a deadly reason for this, but they look nice).
Aside from the people, the Gold Coast was a little dissapointing. But the people were awesome so this didn't matter.

City-wise
Melbourne (and St Kilda's) are defintiely worth a visit. Interesting city, lots of museums, lovely people.
Brisbane is a definite city, which may or may not appeal to you. Lovely people.
Adelaide is very simialar to Kingston-Upon-Thames only hotter - lovely parks, lovely people, Bluetongue beer
Sydney you can't avoid doing the touristy things, but they're really good (especially the aquarium)
Canberra - Take the Aussies advice and don't go there. Really. It's terrible.

My "must do" stuff would be (in no order):
Adelaide -> Melbourne (or vice versa) via the Great Ocean Road.
Cape Leeuwin Naturaliste area of WA
Karra Valley in WA
Hug a wombat
Wilpena Pound "near" Adelaide
Cape Range NP (Near Exmouth)
Sydney Aquarium
Waterfall Way
Go to as many National Parks as possible
Meet as many HoPers as possible


NZ we found it harder to get off the tourist trail, but was equally awesome. We were there in winter which closed off a few options for us - the Tongariro Crossing for example - and made the South Island harder to get around as roads kept being closed. But on the plus side, there weren't any sandflies.

If you want to go walking in NZ, don't go to the Abel Tasman- go to the Kahurangi- the guide books never mention it, but it's just as nice and has only a fifth of the visitors, despite being ten times the size..

Cutting out the far east...excuse me, but are you insane?

You've got 4-6 months and a swack of cash, so why on earth would you want to waste your time working some crappy job in Aus or NZ ? Those two countries are the places you're going to spend all your cash.

SE asia...50 Puunds a day and you're living like royalty.

How about doing something actually interesting like flying into Perth, buying a motorcycle and riding it up the coast until the road ends? Flog it off somewhere, jump a plane to Bali, work your way through Indonesia, through Malaysia, up through Thailand, over to Cambodia, then over to Vietnam.


Soon..your trip will be over and you'll be back in Jolly Old. You want memories, you want war stories to tell around the water cooler, you want scars. Don't play it safe by going to places where there's no language barrier and no general weirdness like this internse CAFE that I'm in that doesn't have any coffee ( hey cafe people...there's a 7/11 five doors down ).

What would you rather remember and relate ? Actually seeing a third world country which would greatly shape your views on things like the Haiti thread, seeing a family of four crammed onto a 125cc scooter, with a puppy in the front basket....or your month spent selling mobile phones in some mall in Melbourne?

Really, you're flying half way around the world..make the MOST of it.

Maybe..kind of a crappy way to spend a vacation though. Anyway I don't have rabies and the punctures are making healing motions so I'm down Here in Koh Lanta diving.

The fire spinning scene down here sucks. I saw a show last night where they cranked on this agressive meral mushc , spun really fast and.....lost half their audience half way through the show. I may take a run up to KPG after the FMP to see what's happening up there if I have a few days after the Similians trip.

As much as it means not coming to Australia, I do agree with Stout - travelling to a country where they speak the same native language as you is just cheating

New Zealand has always been somewhere I've dreamed of going to, so that cannot be taken off the list. I want to see as much of it as possible, so that's why I've given it 2-3 months of my time.
The other three months are what I have to decide on. I'd like to see california, but I suppose I could always holiday there in the future. The thing about the far east is that I want to see too many places, so it's a nightmare deciding where. I need to do some serious research!

Laos = Awesome.

If you do go to Mayaysia, don't stay in the Pudu Hostel in Kuala Lumpur- it's run by evil people who intentionally messed up my booking (so I arrived there late at night from the airport and had to pay for the most expensive room in the place because he'd only told me via email that I *could* reserve a cheaper room, not that he'd actually reserved me one..) and nick stuff from the 'secure storage' (got about £100 from me, and I've heard exactly the same from several other people too)..

Let it go? After several years? Naaah...

Here's an idea if you want to really see the world do what i did on my last trip.
Don't bother with planes and go overland. I got from the UK to Bali this way. It gives you a real sense of how big the world is when you spend an entire week on a train crossing Russia.
Also as Hamamelis said don't wast your oppotunaty for NZ/OZ working holiday visas on a six month trip when you could stay there for three years.
Either way Enjoy.

now now thats a bit cheap, I have a right mind to report you to your self.

dont stress out about the places to see; you cant possibly see everything so dont try to. if you change your mind on E asia I agree with Durbs, Laos is amazing. I dont remember many a night due to sculling snake whiskey.good times, good times.

If you do spend time in Aus, particulaly over summer then be prepared to do a lot of travelling in poorly air conditioned hire vans in 40+ degree heat. Western Aus is great, but will be very hot.

I do a lot of adventure stuff on my trips but I also tend to hang with locals (esp HoPpers in NZ and Aus) because they know the local shiznit.

Seriously, skip California. It'll be there and it's kinda meh anyway, other than the north. Everyone is very happy to take your money.

New Zealand- hit the mountains, go to the small towns outside of the big cities, meet up with the HoPpers there because they are full of awesome and fantastic ideas.

Australia-

I agree with whomever it was that said in Sydney hit the tourist things because they are obvious and worth it. My first day in Sydney we took the Ferry to Darling Harbour, which is a major tourist spot, BUT we hung out on the balcony of a bar, had some drinks and watched/laughed at the tourists being squirted by the sidewalk fountains.
There is also a place called Koala Park where you can pet a koala and hand feed kangaroos but it's not overwhelmingly busy.
It's like a mini-zoo/petting zoo but only for indigenous animals.
I actually enjoyed the subdued nature of it.

Melbs-
St. Kilda is fun. You can check out the Espy, where they film a rock and roll quiz tv show, have an awesome breakfast and then hit the beach or the sea baths across the street. Lots to do.

The Arcades. Behind the posh shopping districts in the city heart are the dark alleys. This is where you will find some incredible graffiti, school girls smoking and changing into punk wear from their uniforms, tonnes of fun shops, cafes and awesome restaurants. Then it opens into poshness before dissolving back into the dark alleys. If you are into people watching and nifty hidden places, this is perfect.

Take a stroll along the river in Melbs. You can watch rowers and maybe even see our own lovely Rouge ;), there are tonnes of art pieces (like the upside down bells that go off), you can see some cool architecture, stop in a pub/cafe. It's quite chill and laid back.

Victoria Market. Monselvat Art Colony. There a few Botanical Gardens/Manors that were lovely.

But as much as I'm into adventure, I also love art, gardens and architecture so...that's how I balanced it. It's really dependent on what you like.

No matter where I was, I enjoyed sitting on a beach and watching surfers or visiting the smaller towns and just breathing that in.

I'm going back to Oz and am planning on road tripping from Melbs along the coastline to Cairns, as well as a drive down the Great Ocean Road.

I'll not comment on Asia since it's been covered.

Did I just get listed as a tourist attraction? Sweeeeeeet.

Visit Asia! You won't regret it! If there's too many places there you want to visit to decide then pick a starting point and go!

One trip I did NYC, Texas, California, NZ, OZ east coast, Bali, Thailand in 6 months. Here's a few tips:

1) If I'd had £16,000 I'd have come home with over £10,000 and I didn't travel badly!
2) California is a nice place to visit, but fairly pricey.
3) NZ is beautiful and few places are as nice in as condensed a format. South America is more stunning, but a lot larger to drive around!
Pack worn-in walking shoes and take up long distance walks.
Hire a car long term and you'll be able to find a good price, especially if you return to the same the city or do Christchurch to Auckland, which is opposite to the route people usually take. This'll mean really easy travel, freedom to go down random roads and the chance to pick up hitch-hikers, a source of randomness to be mined!
Stay in highly rated backpackers in amazing locations, but take ear-plugs!
2 months is a good length of time to explore, 3 gives plenty of time for chilling out & walking.
4) Australia was great, but I enjoyed visiting amazing people more than the country-side as I really loved NZ's more. Other people say the opposite, but they usually travelled to Oz before NZ
5) Visit Asia!!!
Thailand is ok, but there's so much more. Indonesia is great once you bust out of the tourist traps in Bali.
Laos is truly amazing! Lovely people and incredibly beautiful.
Visit Burma if you can do so without paying money to government tourist agencies and hotels (it's possible, but tricky).
There's also Cambodia and Vietnam to sample.
If you want to do Malaysia avoid the peninsula and go to Borneo.
6) Don't bother with a working visa. If you fall in love with NZ or OZ you'll want to go back, and that's your ticket.
7) Go with the flow. A lot of my good times were when I went wherever I was pointed, either by a random article; a post on Thorntree; fellow traveller's advice; a suggestion from somebody in a cool shop. I often had to read up on places as I was heading there or after I'd arrived. I know people who hate that idea, but I relished it, even if occasionally I arrived somewhere and there was nowhere to stay as I hadn't thought to book anywhere!

It'll be great fun!

Right.....I've got some serious planning to do. As much as I'd like to see the Aussie HoPers, I think Aus is going to be cut from the list instead of Asia. At the moment I'm thinking of going to NZ first, just to get used to the whole travelling experience and to see some friends and HoPers. After two months there, the next three and a half-four months I can use to explore as much of Asia as possible.

When hiring a car in NZ, do you need a permanent place of residence to put down on forms? How does insurance work there, is it an extra on top of the hire? What kind of price should I be looking to pay for 2 months worth of hire?

Don't cut Aus.

There's too many HOPpers to meet, and Australia is a fantastic country.

Seriously, go to Australia, you'll regret it if you don't.

That's the ticket!! Good on ya! You won't regret it. One thing to keep in mind, barring Thorntree, the internet makes travel seem much more expensive than it really is. All this pre booking and such comes at a price.