Why should we go on a Round the World trip?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Our passion for traveling and our desire to explore new places and cultures was always growing since we started traveling together. At the end of every trip we were always planning the next one and if no trip was on the horizon we would start to feel uneasy.

When we started traveling we mostly stayed around Europe, doing short trips mixed with some bigger ones (we did 4 interrails together). We were studying and starting our working lives so we tried to fit traveling during big weekends and holidays.

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We began craving for a cultural shock on our travels which led to planning a trip to Japan in 2015. That trip marked 2 important milestones: the fulfillment of a dream and the confirmation that travel completes us in every level.

So we continued planning trips and exploring the world and we had this crazy idea: How about we go on a Round the World trip for six months? At the time we laugh at it because it seemed impossible and so difficult to achieve. However, the seed was planted and we continued to talk about it. What if we took a leave of absence from work? Is it viable? Do we have to resign? How much money would we need to go on a round the world trip for 6 months? What would we do after the trip? Would we still have jobs or would we have to start from scratch?

We started looking for answers to these questions. We went online, read blogs about round the world trips (Alma de Viajante e Nomadic Matt) and we brought books on the subject (How to travel the world on $50 a day and The rough guide to first-time around the world). As we did our research, the impossible started to seem achievable and the urge to make this dream come true grew stronger. We realized that we could do it and neither of us wanted to look back and regret not taking this step when we could. We decided there were no more excuses or delays and we started planning.

Fast forward to July 2018, getting the approval from the company to take a leave of absence marked the beginning of this adventure.

When deciding to take a big trip like this it is important to know your reasons and your goals, which are personal and unique to each one of us. BootsnAll has a very nice article about this. After establishing your reasons you have taken the first real step in planning your RTW and you are ready to start taking action to accomplish your goal.

This is the second post of our planning an RTW trip series. If you want to read more about planning a round the world trip check the rest of the series.