Travel Resources

Recently, we've been so happy to get emails from several friends saying, "I'm toying with the idea of a long trip like this, but I just don't know where to start!" and this page is our effort to help! We're working on a post to more specifically address how we saved the money, made the plan, and happily executed it, but in the meantime, hopefully these will be useful resources:

Other Travel Blogs we Love:

Take to the Sea: Harmony and Jeff live on a sailboat in the Pacific with their cat, Tack, sharing adventures of life on a sailboat.

Across the Deep Blue: Matt and Zosha leave their cushy San Diego life for a year in New Zealand, including living in their van, Poppy, and working in a kiwi packing plant to make some more money.

Gap Year at 41: Michelle and Martin (whom we met on the back of a taxi pickup truck in Thailand) travel the world, including India and much of southeast Asia. She's a travel agent in her "real" life, so her blog entries are helpfully specific!

Life Re-Boot: Danielle and Alan leave their cushy engineering jobs in San Francisco for a life reboot, including swimming with sharks in South Africa and running a marathon at Marathon.

Plan B Tour: Megan and Jim leave their settled life in Oregon for a traveling sabbatical to see the world!


Transit Resources:

Seat 61: timetables and prices for train travel in Europe and SE Asia mainly

Rome2Rio: comparison website to tell you the cheapest way to get from point A to point B

Skyscanner: flight fare comparison website. Our favorite feature is that you can choose where you are and choose "Anywhere in the world" as your destination to see what's cheapest.

Google Flights: flight fare website that searches lots of websites. Lately, I've had more luck here than Skyscanner. Great feature for searching specific flights on flexible dates.


Places to Sleep:

AirBnB: Not as useful in Asia, as apartments or home rentals were as expensive as hotels, but in Europe, this site was a great money saver, and good way to see how to live more locally.

Vacation Rental By Owner: Another website that lists apartments and rooms for rent, often with lower fees than AirBnB.


Other Helpers:

US Department of State: great website to tell you country-by-country the entry requirements (for US citizens), safety issues, immunization requirements, etc.


Books and Learning Resources:

- Rick Steve's Travel Guides (Europe Through the Back Door) and podcasts

- Pauline Frommer's "See More Spend Less" series

- Wikitravel: websites for almost every travel destination in the world with great tips. Just google your place name and "wikitravel"

Packing List:

We listed our top 10 most useful items in this post