A Long-Term Travel Guide

Installment One // Yes, You Can

It is still a wonder to me that we can board a metal tube, hurtle across the ocean blue, and arrive on the other side of the world within two days.

Sitting on a plane for that long does make the modern traveler stir-crazy, but crossings like these used to take belabored, sea-tossed months. Really, the barrier to physically getting there is not so high. But there are plenty of other challenges, other barriers.

Traveling for more than a vacation, but instead for a way of life — over months, or even years — is clearly not an easy undertaking.

But in the name of all that is good for you in this world, it is worth it.

What if this is the year you take off to travel?

If this question made your heart pound a hopeful double-beat, you are my audience. If your afterthought was one of impossibility, you are definitely my audience.

This is the first of a series of posts I’m writing intended to inspire and equip readers to answer an inner yearning to travel long-term. Many people dream of these trips without making them a reality, intimidated by the scale of preparation or the idea of so long a departure.

Or, plenty of people are interested but need answers, a starting place, a friendly push over the edge. Now that I've done a trip like this, I get these questions all the time. I want to go…any advice on prep, planning, itinerary, packing, etc.? Consider this my answers, my push.

I’ll be writing from my still-fresh experience of leaving life as I knew it (including my job, permanently, and my boyfriend, temporarily and in good graces) for three months to travel through Southeast Asia, the first half of it all by my lonesome.

The content is not meant to be continent-specific; guidebooks are good for that. You could be considering a few months in Europe or Central or South America, the advice here will still apply there. Before this trip, I had only ever done a few weeks in any of those parts of the world.

I will approach how to come to the decision, how to quit your job, how to break it to your partner and parents and friends, and how to prepare your itinerary, your backpack, and your self. And also, how to come back.

Yes, you can. If not this year, then another.

Start to finish, it took me from considering the trip to takeoff, six months.

I started mentally preparing in January, bought my flight in April, had my last day of work May 14, and boarded a plane May 17. While those six months were harrowing at times, this is a realistic pace at which a currently employed person can thoughtfully prepare to exit their day-to-day life for an extended period of time. Shorter lead time is possible, but I assure you that what I outlined is already a lift on top of your existing life’s schedule.

I will release the posts at a pace at which someone contemplating travel can mentally process, once a week, every Friday.

In the meantime, if you want to see more of my trip on Instagram, check out #imanigoesfareast.

Next week’s post will focus on how to switch your internal dialogue from daydreaming to serious consideration: research.

Immense credit is due to the friends, forum posters, bloggers, and guidebook writers who went before me for their invaluable tips, as well as my fellow travelers, and my people who rock and my rocks at home.

-@imani.ani