Advice on travelling the world

Hi all, I know there are alot of people in this community who have been away, or are currently away travelling the world. I was hoping that people could maybe give me some advice, where to go, what to see etc.

I'm leaving in august for six months, returning to England in January so i can start work again in February. My very simple itinerary so far is;
England-California (maybe spend a month here)
-the far east(I'm open to suggestions of whereabouts to go, although I definitely want to experience a full moon party in Thailand)
-New Zealand (I'll be spending the bulk of my time here, around 3 months I reckon, probably spending Christmas here too)
-Australia (I may fly here for new year to experience the party at Sydney harbour)
-home to England.

I will add that I'm not the adventure type, I don't want to bungee jump or skydive, I don't want to scuba dive the great barrier reef (mainly as I cant do the whole breathing underwater thing!!) and I don't want to climb a mountain. I just want six months of relaxing, sightseeing, cultural fun!

Thanks in advance for any advice folks!

well Im certainly not going to be any help, those things are really all ive done in those places.

In NZ the lord of the rings tour is really pretty; though highly cliched.(pretend there is a squiggle above the e)

In Thailand, it depends on what your after - the south end is touristy and beachy, the north is more cultural and mountainy. I found I got to spend more time just being in thailand up north in Shangmai, while in the south I was inundated with tourist crap. But that might be what your after.

Australia is a very big place so if your flying into Sydney and only staying for a small amount of time then dont make too many plans outside of the coastal region. North of Sydney people tend to do Byron Bay-Brisbane-townsville.

Hiya Mods

I'm currently in Thailand and i have to agree with WoodlandApple about the touristy thing. I'm in the south and and the beaches are one endless parade of internet shops, travel agencies, schlocky shops and tourist oriented restaurants. It's all money money money, gimme gimme gimme.

Maybe that is what your interested in if so the full moon party might be something you want to attend. But seriously, it's nothing more than 10 000 tourists drunk on the beach, there's nothing cultural about. It's one big cash grab, nothing n\more. You'll find more than enough beach bar action on a regular night on that beach without committing to outrageous bungalow prices ( most places have a five day minimum stay ) and taxi fares when you want to go back "home"

I came here for scuba diving, but I got attacked by a dog three nights ago, so now I'm a medical tourist. I can still spin poi on the beach as long as I take enough painkillers but other than that, the southern scene is pretty boring. It's lay on the beach all day, get hammered at night. Nothing 'cultural" about it. They don't even play Thai music in the bars, last night i was spinning to ACDC.

There's tours worth doing, like the karst formations in the Andaman sea ( James Bond island ) check out Thorntree for recommendations.



Go to Angkor Wat, you'll be seeing that on Discovery channel for the rest of your life and you'll be able to say "I've been there..." Do the trekking thing in northern Thailand. It's not streneous

that sucks dude I hope you bit it back

I suggest not to do the touristy things. I've been to Germany and all the tourist stuff is boring and really expensive and they make it look like fun, but it's not.

If you can get any connections where you're going, stay with them if you can, at least for a while. Living with another family can be fun in its own.

Also, the locals know what the actual fun things are and also know what you would actually want to see. Being a part of their culture is amazing and eye opening and I'd suggest to do that as I've never had more fun, or more a more life changing time in my entire life than actually living with the Germans.

I'm not sure about those places, but in the Alps, of course this was the Germans' idea and not our teacher's, but we went hiking up to a hostel in the mountains. We stayed there a day and if you're with a group (always try to be, it makes it much more fun) just see what they do for fun and you'll probably love it.

I overall would suggest to try getting as much connections as possible in those places, so not only do you not always have to stay in a hotel, but you always have what becomes your family if you stay with them. Also, when you get away from the touristy places, things become much much much less expensive.

If you do make connections, I think the best thing to do would be to ask them what to do when you're their, because I'm just basing it off my experiences, and that's only in Germany and a little into Austria.

I think it depends on whether you want the contiki experience, or the living experience or the backpackers drunk experience.

Hummm, Mods hasn't returnd to thread.Oh well, Knowing the budget always helps in these types of threads, for all I know Mods could be planning a string of five star resorts.



No, i was tempted to..

It's long and complicated but yesterday I gave the dog a stay of execution as it's become widely known I've been looking for him and wanting to take him for a walk in the jungle. Luckily I'm in perfect tropical beach paradise and the only time I run into the touristy schlockfest is when I go into town for a rabies shot.

I can spin though, and I even pulled off a five beat weave last night, something I didn't think possible when I was practicing yesterday. Maybe it's the painkillers

Thailand is OK if you want somewhere 'done' to death already. Try Indonesia. It's large, fascinating and in many places very untouristed. I live in Bali which is small, fascinating and in some places very touristed... but even there, in many places still not.

Can you buy T-Shirts that say:

"My <insert family relative here> went to <insert place here> and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt"?



I like those.

I'm here! I've been lurking! I'm not planning to stay in big luxury places, possibly a motel or two whilst on the road in california, but it's hostels from there on!

I do have a pretty good sum of money saved up (it'll be about £16,000 by the time I leave), but I do not intend to just blow it all, I want to leave most of it so that I have money to put towards a house when I return back to Blighty. I was thinking of working whilst I travel, but I don't think I'll be in one place long enough to make it worth my while getting work. I may get a working holiday visa for New Zealand though, just in case I do find the odd day's work.

What would be even more amusing would be a shirt exactly like that.

16 000 pounds should be more than adequate and that kind of cash won't leave you hamstrung if something happens, like accident or illness. It allows you the ability to choose to be cheap and revel in it rather than having to look for the cheapest digs, the cheapest food.

I second newgabe on Bali. I've never been there, but I've never met anyone whose been disappointed with it. True Thailand is done to death ( especially by Australians and Europeans ) and is in the process of getting more done to death every year.

Curiously enough, I'm meeting lots of English people who are on their way to work in either Australia or new Zealand. Nobody appears to be under any "promised land" illusions and there's degreed people heading over there, willing to take any job they can get. At lest you won't have to count on working, if you find something. great, it'll be a time killer as well as a money earner.

Side note: "I went to Australia and got this T-shirt for my wife. Good swap eh?"

Like I said, I really dont intend to spend a large amount of that £16,000. I'd like to come back and still have around £10,000, although i'm not sure if that'll happen!

Bali sounds interesting though, is there alot to do there? or is it more a relaxed, chilled out place?

Yeah, that is quite good!

I enjoyed Thailand more than Bali, But in Thailand I was up north the majority working. I really liked hanging out at the triangle and doing trips into Laos and Burma. I hired a moped and braved the street. It was cool.

If you do hire a moped or anything DO NOT USE YOUR PASSPORT AS GARANTEE, you will get screwed.

Ja..I have an expired passport with me just for renting motorbikes. There sure are a lot of people wandering around here on crutches though...Hail fellow medical tourists.

So the Haiti thread..black bagged huh ? Damn, looks like SD is doomed to music threads.

Hey yall, i was just wondering if anybody has found a good way to clean the white pvc LED poi balls without messing them up. Cuz, anybody that has these, knows that they end up gettin a lil dirty and faded....my balls r filthy lol. -Beefcake (the girl)

I have same problem, but wrong thread my lady

*UPDATE*

I have pretty much decided to cut out the far east from my travels as six months is really not a long enough time to enjoy as much as I want to. This means I will be spending more time in Australia and New Zealand. Approximately 2 months and 2.5 months respectively.

I'm not too sure if I'll be in one place long enough to do any work, but I'm still thinking of getting working holiday visas for both, just in case I do find short term work.

So, suggestions of places to go see in Australia and New Zealand would be awesome please folks!

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!