The idea for our trip came about almost by accident. We were in our mid-20s and living in Denver while I was attending grad school. We were talking about places we wanted to go in the coming years. After talking a bit about dream places, we used scrap paper I had in my purse to each write a list of countries to visit. When we compared the lists, we realized we had 15+ countries in almost every geographic area of the world listed. We played around a bit with how long we’d want to visit each place and quickly realized we’d need years of built up PTO to see even this relatively short list. At that time, we used a lot of our PTO each year to visit family back in Wisconsin. If we assumed we could take one, two-week trip per year, we’d be well into our 30s before we made a substantial dent in our initial list. 

We then played with the idea of taking a longer trip to hit a few destinations at once but that got a bit trickier when we thought about our careers. If we were going to try to take even a month-long trip, most companies wouldn’t be able to support that time off. That’s when things got interesting. We started talking about how long a trip would have to be to make it worth it to pause our careers and leave our current jobs. We landed on taking a one year trip.

Dreaming Up the Trip

Dream List

Once we settled on the idea that we’d need to have a trip long enough to quit our jobs, we dreamt a bit bigger. We created a huge list of countries and then whittled it down to just over 50 countries that we could tackle in about 14 months. We had both traveled internationally before and knew we wanted to only take a backpack each. To plan for 50+ countries out of one backpack, we decided to plan to follow the sun. One of our favorite songs is Follow the Sun by Xavier Rudd, and while it doesn’t directly relate to travel, the song itself is very grounding and about leaning into the present moment.

Our version of following the sun is to travel around the world within shoulder seasons where we can use the same items in most places. For example, since we plan to visit Norway in June versus December, we won’t need snow boots and all our winter gear. We should (fingers-crossed) be able to get by with layers and an outer jacket for cold days. We know this won’t be completely foolproof and we may need to purchase some items as we go but we’ve budgeted for that :).

Length Per Location

When we looked at our list, one way we prioritized was by looking at how much time we’d want in each place to get a sample of the country, city, culture, etc. While we could spend one day in a city or country and technically count it, that wasn’t the goal of our trip. We didn’t want to focus on a checklist of places to see or things to do but we were more motivated to explore each area and get a good feel for daily life. This exercise led us to cut some destinations because they’d need a lot of time on their own, we put a few on a “maybe” list, and this exercise pushed others to the top of our list because we realized how much we both wanted to fully explore them.

Length Overall

When we realized we wanted to take a longer trip to make it worth the decision to leave our jobs, the ideal length for us was about a year. Yet, in talking to others about their time abroad, the length can vary greatly depending on what people are comfortable with and, of course, budget. 

We know some folks who took smaller breaks between career milestones and some people who wanted to return home after just a few weeks away. 

If you are thinking of traveling with a partner, be sure to discuss this thoroughly and consider all the areas of your life that might be impacted by the length of your trip (housing, car, job, pets, plants, etc).

Things To Take Care of Before Leaving

Living Situation

While it’s easy to focus on the trip and all the prep that goes into it, there are a lot of things to take care of before leaving. For us, that meant selling our house, downsizing our belongings and moving some of them into storage, and selling our car. At the time, we didn’t want to get into finding a renter for our house or have the liability of a mortgage during our trip or when we returned. It would have put more pressure than we wanted on our budget and our timeline. We slimmed down the amount of items we owned and rented a small storage unit so we don’t have to start completely over in the future. And, our car was in great shape but finding a place to store it for a year plus in Midwest weather wasn’t appealing. So, we sold it and we’ll save those dollars for our next car when the time is right.

Career

Although taking a pause on our careers was the right thing for us, there are a lot of ways to approach time off for traveling. More and more companies are offering paid sabbaticals after a number of years of service and depending on your PTO program, you may be able to fit in 2 trips per year. Some employers will allow you to take unpaid time off or move to a remote role where you can travel while you work. Look through all your options and take a chance on what seems like a good fit!

What About the Dollars?

Style of Travel

With the list of countries, length per country, and overall  length of trip in mind, it was easier to estimate how much we’d need to go. We used a few sites like savvybackpacker to get a general sense of the cost per country. We also googled average costs and found a number that worked for us. I truly believe you can travel on any budget. But, it’s a really good idea to discuss with your partner what style you have in mind before you really get into planning. For more budget friendly travel, using hostels and staying further from city centers can be a great way to save dollars. We are going more mid-range as we will use a mix of hotels, airbnbs, and hostels in generally central neighborhoods so we can make the most of walking and public transport. 

Staying in one place for at least a week can also offer discounts. In 2020 and early 2021, we spent several months renting homes on AirBnB for a month at a time and we often received discounts of 20%+ in our stay. 

We also like using Hotels.com because you can find places with small kitchenettes or condo style places to stay and for every 10 nights you stay, you get a credit for a free night stay that is the average of the cost of those 10 nights.

Once we starting working towards this dream, we made a plan to find a credit card with great travel benefits and to use it as a way to build up airline points. We use the Capital One Venture for travel points and we gather Delta Skymiles points with the Delta Skymiles Platinum Amex Card.

Cushion To Come Back To

In addition to the budget needed to take the actual trip, we talked through how much cushion we’d need to come back to after the trip so we can take our time to find jobs, a new place to live, etc. The cushion we needed depended a lot on the fact that we sold our house and car and downsized what we owned. While getting rid of more up front is easier to manage while we are traveling, it’ll take more effort and cash to build it back once we return.

Income

Once we had a handle on our overall amount needed, we checked in on our budget and goals about once per month. We used Mint frequently and it’s been a really helpful tool to manage our finances. In the time we were working towards the trip, we were paying down grad school loans, saving up for the trip, and focusing on sticking to a healthy month to month budget. We liked the practice of forecasting our income and comparing it to current debts and savings to see where we’d land if we stayed on track. That was a really helpful way to see our dream inching closer and closer over 8+ years.

---