Travel Planning

Planning a Travel Itinerary

Travel bloggers often warn not to plan a trip too far in advance, pointing out that your route will probably change once you’re on the road and that anything can happen when you’re backpacking round the world. Unfortunately, I happen to be a bit of an Obsessive Compulsive Travel Planner, so ‘going with the flow’ is going to be a bit of a challenge for me.  It would be silly not to do any travel planning though, right? So, here’s what our itinerary looks like so far:
Travel Planning

March 2013 – New Zealand

Since we’re kicking off our trip in March we decided to hit New Zealand first to get some nice weather. This means that we’ve also had to plan our travel itinerary for March in detail to make sure we get some cheap accommodation – check out our plans for travelling around New Zealand.  To get around we’ve decided to rent a car, which we’ve just found out we’ll need a credit card for, (find out how we chose our travel credit card) and do a loop of the north and south islands. We’ve scheduled in lots of exciting activities; boat trips, glacier hikes and the obligatory skydive – assuming I can work up the courage for that last one. All that means New Zealand is the most expensive country currently in our travel itinerary, which is why we’re only staying a month.

April 2013 – Australia

We’ve had many different plans for Australia over the years, at one point we even debated getting a working visa or travelling extensively for six months.  In the end, because it’s another expensive country and one that we’re very likely to go back to in the future, we’ve decided to spend just five weeks there. We’re aware of how big Australia is so we’re narrowing down our route to Melbourne, where, (I’m sorry to say), we are ridiculously excited about taking the Neighbours tour! Then on to Sydney to stay with Andrew’s relatives, before heading up the gold coast stopping in Brisbane, the Whitsunday Islands and Port Douglas. We’re still not entirely sure how we’re going to get around; domestic flights, buses and car rentals are all still possibilities.

May & June 2013 – Indonesia

A staple of many backpacking routes, we’ll spend the next two months here, which is how long our Indonesian visas will last. For me, it feels almost like this is where the real travelling will begin – we have a rough list of things we want to see in Indonesia but we’re going to try not to extensively plan our trip from that point onwards, which will be hard for me to stick to.

July 2013 – Philippines

We’ve both read so many great things about the Philippines so this simply had to go on the list. From our research so far it looks like we’ll be able to get a one month initial visa, which will hopefully be enough time to see some of this amazing place.

August 2013 – Thailand

We had wanted to fly from the Philippines to Malaysia and then travel overland from there, however, it’s likely that we’ll have family and friends coming out to visit during August/September and it seems like everyone wants to go to Thailand – well, we’re not complaining! We absolutely loved Thailand on our last trip and can’t wait to see more of it.

After that we definitely want to travel round the rest of Asia and do some voluntary placements and hopefully some paid work; Andrew in particular is keen to use his teaching skills in Thailand. For now though, that’s all we know – which sounds both scary and exciting at the same time…

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14 Comments
  • Amber
    Posted at 07:21h, 21 September Reply

    We rented a small camper van in NZ and loved it even though we are not outdoorsy people. It kept us out of cities and staying in camper parks on or near the water. Also, allot more time on the south island. It is just gorgeous.

    For Aus, we did combo of rental cars and discount airlines like tiger, virgin blue, and jet star.

    Safe travels! Good luck.

    • Amy
      Posted at 08:37h, 21 September Reply

      Thanks for the tips Amber – we’re definitely considering domestic flights in Australia, probably between Sydney and Melbourne at least since we’ll only be there a month. I can’t believe how close all this is getting now!

  • DebbZ
    Posted at 11:23h, 21 September Reply

    YAY, you’re planning to visit Indonesia ! Please feel free to email me if you need some info about Bali (where I live now) or east Java (my hometown) 🙂

    • Amy
      Posted at 11:38h, 21 September Reply

      Thanks Debbz, – we are really looking forward to going to Indonesia; Bali is definitely on our list and maybe now we’ll add East Java too! Thanks for the offer of advice too; we’ll definitely be taking you up on that nearer the time!

  • shahida
    Posted at 00:24h, 07 August Reply

    Hi , I was wonder how much you charge for rabies vaccination and where abouts are you based.

    • Amy
      Posted at 11:09h, 07 August Reply

      Hi, we got our Rabies vaccines from First Contact travel clinic when we lived in London; they were £10 per shot.

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