[Fineus]

Hey all, in the later half of my gap year between college and university I want to travel a bit... but money is an issue, I'd rather catch a cheap plane ticket there - stay in a bed and breakfast type place - nothing fancy. The trouble is I have no idea how much forward planning is needed for this kind of thing, I've only ever been on "planned" holidays before, as opposed to picking a country and just going there without prior booking of a place to stay etc.. it all seems rather daunting.

My point? Does anyone have any advice.. personal experience.. websites or whatever that might help me?

Thanks!

[kode]

If you come to sweden, you can crash at my place...

[Setekh]

How is the pound comparing with the Australian dollar?

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
Hey all, in the later half of my gap year between college and university I want to travel a bit... but money is an issue, I'd rather catch a cheap plane ticket there -

Why plane ?

[Nico]

take the eurostar, come to France

[beatspete]

Solve your hotel related issues by taking a tent - it'll be cheaper, and camp site should be easier to book.

[Styxx]

Go to Haiti. I hear stuff is dead cheap around there these days.

[kasperl]

a tent might not be such a bad idea, really. if nothing else works, you at least have something against the rain when you have to sleep in a field of grass next to a highway.

hitchiking is an option, off course.

not that i speak from any form of experience, i'm 16.

[Stunaep]

The best way would be to go somewhere where you have friends, so you can stay at their place, I'm sure some of HLPers would be happy to oblige. Tenting is also an option, but this a) limits your traveling options, for instance you won't want to tent in Poland, anywhere, and finding tenting places in other countries is tiresome and hard, plus a lot of planning is necessary. Of course, if you rent a car, that'll ease up things a lot, but means an extra £30 per day.

If you're traveling beyond may 1st to somewhere in Eastern Europe, forget about visas, won't need 'em, since we're in the EU by then. Also, if you need recommendations about possible destinations, then Hungary and Chezchoslovakia are both cheap and horribly beautiful (Budapest and Prague + the wonderful nature in Chezchoslovakia). They are the first places I think of that give a wonderful cultural and fun experience, yet are on the cheap side, and slightly further away from the usual Englishman destinations. The living costs in Chechoslovakia are lower than a funnny comparison that escapes me at the moment. Plus they sell software for £2.

Aside from making sure you have health insurance n' ****, and adding 30% to everything you expect to spend, I have nothing more to add.

Ask me, if you want to know.

[Fineus]

Hey guys, thanks very much for the advice thus far - all of it is useful although I am limited by a few things...

1 - Although I'm old enough, I've been lazy with learning to drive. Therefore I have no lisence (even if I got one before the summer - I believe you have to have a lisence for two years befoer you can rent a car abroad anyway).

2 - I want to get as far away from England as possible - my objectives for travelling are to "see the world". Granted this is a mammoth task and one I don't realistically intend to complete in the next few months - I do want to see as much variation as possible... basically to broaden my horizons and experience as much as I can.

3 - The problems this throws up are that I've been seriously thinking about the Eastern world, maybe even as far as New Zealand, Australia, Russia or America (in the other direction, obviously). Planes are an essential mode of transport to get out there quickly - although I'd contemplate getting a train of some kind if I was heading to central Europe (I've been to France several times... it's a beautiful place but as I said I want to experience the new).

4 - While some of my friends have money, they aren't exactly the type to travel as I'm thinking of doing... there's one other guy who's interested in touring Europe. The rest are content to sit in pubs which - while fun - I'm frankly bored with

5 - I'd therefore most likely be going on my own, to a country I've never been to before with no prior knowlege of whats there and nobody to meet me when I arrive. Diving off the deep end so to speak. I've also had no experience with travelling alone abroad... so even something as apparently simple as finding somewhere to sleep and some food for the morning is going to be a problem I face when I get out to wherever I go.

All in all, you can see I'm just asking for trouble But I fail to believe that people don't travel the world to see its sights - hence this topic!

[kasperl]

brush up on your spanish, and another couple of major langauges.

learn basic words as "food" "money" "piss off" "sleep" (both meanings) and off course "help".

[Nico]

I'll suggest Kenya to you then

[an0n]

Yeah. Africa's the place of choice for student scum.

It's economy is piss-poor so you'll get a great exchange rate and you can see lions and ****.

Though personally, I'd just grab a plane straight to Angel Falls.

[phreak]

well if you come to the US or Canada, the places out west should be of interest, unless you want to experience in a more urban setting.  just don't go to NYC in august since the concrete/steel mix absorbes all the sun.  plus the US dollar has taken a hit so the exchange rate is decent.

[Kazan]

Just for Reference: Insbruck ****ing rocks

Salzburg is pretty decent too

München isn't that bad

Rottenburg ob der Tauber is pretty decent too

Koplenz, Köln and Hamburg are pretty decent

[Stunaep]

Originally posted by Kalfireth

1 - Although I'm old enough, I've been lazy with learning to drive. Therefore I have no lisence (even if I got one before the summer - I believe you have to have a lisence for two years befoer you can rent a car abroad anyway).

2 - I want to get as far away from England as possible - my objectives for travelling are to "see the world". Granted this is a mammoth task and one I don't realistically intend to complete in the next few months - I do want to see as much variation as possible... basically to broaden my horizons and experience as much as I can.

3 - The problems this throws up are that I've been seriously thinking about the Eastern world, maybe even as far as New Zealand, Australia, Russia or America (in the other direction, obviously). Planes are an essential mode of transport to get out there quickly - although I'd contemplate getting a train of some kind if I was heading to central Europe (I've been to France several times... it's a beautiful place but as I said I want to experience the new).

4 - While some of my friends have money, they aren't exactly the type to travel as I'm thinking of doing... there's one other guy who's interested in touring Europe. The rest are content to sit in pubs which - while fun - I'm frankly bored with

5 - I'd therefore most likely be going on my own, to a country I've never been to before with no prior knowlege of whats there and nobody to meet me when I arrive. Diving off the deep end so to speak. I've also had no experience with travelling alone abroad... so even something as apparently simple as finding somewhere to sleep and some food for the morning is going to be a problem I face when I get out to wherever I go.

All in all, you can see I'm just asking for trouble But I fail to believe that people don't travel the world to see its sights - hence this topic!

Not having a licence = Terribly limiting.

As far as eastern europe is concerned: Stay out of Russia. If you must go to Russia, go to St. Petersburg. If you go to Moscow, while ultimately being more fun, you'll end up spending your money on accomodation that is closer than three hours to the centre. While you londoners must be proud of you big city thing, Moscow is a place with 21 million inhabitants (with suburbs), no driving culture whatsoever, people who charge you 10 times as much for not speaking russian as they do with those who can, and chances are you'll be mugged at least once.

Should you choose to go to St. Petersburg though (the renovated most of the city panorama lately, so it's incredible there right now), do take a drop through Estonia. For no particular reason, aside from me wanting to see a Real Live HLP Admin. We have nice places too.

New Zealand will drain your wallet faster than a giant sewage drain in the middle of El Nino. With all the hype about it since the Lord of the Rings, they've upped the cost of going there.

If you want to see nature almost as beautiful as NZ, go to Romania. Do some research on it, it is known for its gorgeus nature.

And finally, I won't fail to state again: REMEMBER THE RULE OF THE THIRDS! If you think you'll spend x amounts of money, bring x+1/3 with ya. If you think you'll need x amounts of clothes, bring x+1/3 or more money. If a plane flight is cancelled, your car brakes down, you're mugged by a transsexual prostitute in the Hermitage, or drafted to the French Foreign Army, this will come of handy. And believe me, one of those will happen.

As for countries to visit with a limited budget, see my previous post. There are things in those places found nowhere else in the world

[aldo_14]

Go to Barcelona.

Bloody nice city, that.  The view from the steps outside MNAC on Montjuic, is one of the nicest things you'll ever see.  Camp nou ain't a bad place to visit, either.

Meaning to go back for a longer stay sometime, myself.

[Darkage]

I am going on vacation to belgium my self this summer it's not cheap but i got enough places were i can sleep. and to the ardenne is only 5 hours with the train.

[Stunaep]

Out of curiosity, how much dosh are we talking about? £1000? More?

[Darkage]

For me around 3000/3500 euro's.