Travel Itinerary

The tickets have been purchased. It feels great to know that the plan of traveling the world, which I have wanted to do for over 2 years now, and had dreamed of doing it for much longer, is finally coming to fruition. There is still a ton more planning to do, but we've finally made some serious decisions and put the (big) initial step in place. As far as I'm concerned, its all downhill from here.

Anyways, here's the itinerary.

Sept 1st New York City to Buenos Aires

I'll be here alone from Early Sept- Mid October. I plan on taking Spanish lessons daily, exploring the city, hopefully meeting an ex-pat crowd and potentially taking jujitsu. I'm currently looking for apartments in Recoleta, which is the nicest part of BsAs, and prices are pretty reasonable, so I'm pretty sure I'll book that up in the next few weeks.

In Mid October Leon and Noah will be joining me in BsAs.

We'll move into a new apartment and probably stay there for 1 month. I'll probably keep doing whatever I do for the first 6 weeks. Trips I'm interested in- Patagonia and Iguazu falls. I might do one of these alone before they come down, but we'll see.

Mid November BsAs to Lima, Peru

Gonna go to Cuzco, Peru, possibly hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and there are a few other hot spots in Peru that Leon knows a bunch about and we'll definitely hit up.

Early December back to BsAs for a connection to Sydney, Australia

Due to some scheduling with our round the world ticket, this was our 'best' option. Ideally we wanted another 2 weeks in S. America, but this ensures we'll be in Australia/ New Zealand for Christmas and New Years. I expect we'll spend around a week to 10 days in Sydney, and then

Mid December Sydney, Australia to Queenstown, New Zealand
-and-
Queenstown, New Zealand to Auckland, New Zealand

New Zealand is supposed to be amazing, so I hope to spend around a month. The southern Island is more well known for its hiking, outdoorsy stuff, and I hope we can find some great hikes, to enjoy the great views etc.

Mid January Auckland, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia

You may be wondering why we're going BsAs - Sydney - Queenstown - Melbourne, but the fact of the matter is, planning those round the world tickets is not easy, or always logical. And we wanted to go to all of these cities. I've heard a ton of great things about Melbourne, so it was on my list of places that I'd like to spend > 1 month, to live there, get to know the area really well and hopefully get a surfing lesson in.

Mid - Late February Melbourne to Hong Kong

According to most people I've asked, Hong Kong is a good place to visit for a short period of time. But its also a major hub for Cathay Pacific, one of the member airlines, so we had to include this on our list.

Late February Hong Kong to Beijing

I hope to spend around 2 weeks (maybe a bit more) in Beijing, Shanghai and Harbin. I had never heard of Harbin before, but a friend (Weijia) whose originally from there told me a bunch about its Russian influences (at one point it was under Russian rule) and it sounded like there was a lot to see in the city.

Mid March Beijing to Tokyo

Japan!!! I'm excited. I'm split between wanting to spend not so much time there, and hopefully go back when Kenta is there, or just going for a significant amount of time. So I could either be here for a week or like 4, we'll see I guess. (For purposes of this itinerary we'll say I went there for 1 week)

Late March Tokyo to Bangkok

South East Asia sounds really cool, but I'm split on if I want to make it the place where I live for a month, or if I'd rather just do a tour of the area. I'm leaning towards "blitzing" around Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and then spending a week or 2 on some beautitful beach to relax. I think my two travel buddies are leaning towards spending around 5 weeks in total. Seeing Singapore would be pretty cool, as long as I stay away from vandalising anything...

Early May Bangkok to Mumbai (Bombay), India

I know very little about India. But, I'd really like to 1) See the Taj Mahal and 2) See some of those insane Temples and 3) Possible find a place on the beach that doesn't have too many tourists, and just hang out. I think on the grand list of places tourists (from N. America) go, India isn't very high up the list (those of Indian descent notwithstanding) so maybe this would be a good opportunity to get off the beaten trail. I'm going to assume 2-3 weeks here

Late May (Early June) Mumbai (Bombay), India - Helsinki Finland

We also have a flight from Helsinki to Budapest, Budapest to Zurich and Zurich to home. I'm not sure what the exact plans are in Europe, but I really wanted to see Oslo, Norway Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland. I also have heard that St. Petersburg is beautiful in the summer (all these locations are supposedly great as there is sunlight like 20 hrs/ day). There will also be the opportunity to go to Budapest, and see some of Eastern Europe (Prague, Vienna). I'd like to pick one spot and spend a decent amount of time, instead of doing a tour type of thing. And I also look forward to seeing all my family in Switzerland, and possibly spending some time there in the mountains to relax before heading back home for whatever I plan on doing next.

There's a ton of stuff I'm hopefully gonna wrap up in the near future (What laptop to buy, travel insurance, credit cards, apartment in BsAs, immunization shots) and I'll post when I find out more.

If you have any advice on any of these places, or know of a great place nearby that I'm missing out on, please hit me up with either a comment, facebook message, or email. Also, if you're gonna be somewhere that looks remotely close (in time frame) to where I am going to be, let me know and I'll do whatever I can to meet up.

Ian