Setting off on a world tour or a long trip without ever having really traveled is a mistake. In this article, I will give you several reasons that will help you travel better and be better prepared for your journey.
Preparing for a long trip
Many people who have never really traveled for a long time plan directly to do a world tour. It’s like if I told you, come on, let’s run a marathon when you can barely finish a 10 km race. Traveling is a bit the same thing, the more experience you have, the better. The accumulation of these experiences has allowed me to know how to spend money and to consider a low-cost world tour without depriving myself of anything.
Why you need to prepare at least:
- To avoid making beginner mistakes or getting scammed as soon as the first opportunity arises.
- To be able to have perspective and maturity if you have to make a choice during your trip.
- To adapt to different situations and make decisions quickly. Sometimes impulsive choices are not the best when you have little travel experience.
- To find information faster and waste less time.
- To know what you want to do and not do.
- To see if a long-term trip is right for you.
I give you some other reasons in this article about preparing before the trip
A concrete example: I met a couple who had just arrived in Mexico. They came empty-handed and had not informed themselves enough before arriving in Mexico because they wanted to find work there.
They had been traveling for 6 months, I think that if they had asked beforehand about the best country to work in Central or Latin America, they would not be in Mexico today. Nothing serious in this example because Mexico is a wonderful country but they find themselves at a dead end. They can find work in Mexico but with a “local” salary. Going to Panama where you are paid in dollars would have been better!
@Bacalar at the Lagoon of 7 colors in Mexico
Although I do my “last-minute world tour” without a return ticket, my itinerary is studied at least a little according to my objectives and the season. For example:
- I often arrive at the beginning or end of high season to avoid paying too much for plane tickets or accommodations (I remember arriving at the Canadian Rockies in Banff at the end of May and at the beginning of June, hostel prices had increased by 10 dollars per night, I easily saved 100 dollars on my stay).
- I arrived in September in Guatemala and it was the rainy season. It was not the best time to be there, so I took a month of Spanish classes in Antigua so as not to be too disturbed by the rain during my trip and later enjoy better weather, and then I went to Cuba where Spanish is necessary, so in the end, I came out ahead.
Although I have a lot of experience, I still make mistakes so I can’t imagine beginners.
@Antigua in Guatemala
How to gain experience before leaving?
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Go to London for a summer,
London is a destination very close to France, it is indeed only two and a half hours from Paris or less if you take the plane. Looking for a small summer job in London will allow you to live in a foreign country, have a difficult international experience (you won’t have a good pay unless you manage well), you will have to speak English. It is a very interesting and very formative experience. It will teach you to be autonomous, manage your budget, do manual work and understand that life is harder than it seems abroad outside the family cocoon.
Find the interview of Alex who lived in London.
If you want to find accommodations in London, you can use classified ad sites such as Gumtree or rent from individuals on Housetrip
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Go on a language trip,
The easiest solution is to go on a language stay for a week or more to familiarize yourself with the language you want to learn. It can allow you to make your first foreign friends, make you realize that you need to practice the language to learn it well, give you unforgettable memories with new friends. I personally did several language stays in Berlin to learn German or started learning Spanish with a stay in Barcelona. It is the most expensive solution but I highly recommend it. It is through this kind of experience that everything begins.
@The port of Barcelona by bike
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Do a year in Erasmus,
Doing an Erasmus experience is an unforgettable experience that will allow you to make foreign friends for life. The advantages of Erasmus are that you have a mobility grant that helps you finance your expenses abroad and you can combine it with the social criteria grant. This experience will teach you communal living abroad, it will open your mind to many things you do not suspect and you will have time to adapt! Your Erasmus experience will go by so fast you won’t even realize it, I guarantee you.
Discover the experience of Alex in Erasmus in Greece.
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Meet foreigners,
Personally, in my studies, I never had the chance to go on Erasmus and I had never thought of doing a language stay or going to London to work for the summer. I just stayed in Paris and went to “polyglot” meetings. It is at these kinds of meetings that French and foreigners exchange in the languages of their choice.
The advantage of this solution is that you stay in your city and you can go there whenever you want.
I talk about it in this article, where I explain how I learned English and other languages.
@The three sisters at Blue Mountain near Sydney
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Do volunteering abroad,
You can do several types of volunteering, for example working in a youth hostel for room and board. I met many young people in Europe who do this to be able to live abroad at low cost. Sometimes you can have many other advantages such as discounts in bars, free entry to nightclubs. You can work on a farm through Woofing, work as a volunteer in a school abroad, programs offering this kind of arrangement are numerous on the Internet, however you will have to pay for accommodation and food in some cases, depending on your volunteering.
Follow Jean-Damien who worked for an NGO in Cambodia.
Interview of Anne on my other blog about her volunteering experience in Togo.
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Be financially independent,
You don’t need to speak a foreign language, you just need to move to another city in France. This enriching experience will allow you to manage your money, teach you the value of money and also to organize yourself. Personally, I had student housing for 2 years and it allowed me to manage several things at the same time (work, studies, preparing my food, etc). I think someone who has never been financially autonomous will have a hard time going on a world tour.
@Camps Bay, a beach in Cape Town, South Africa
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Go work in a region other than your home region,
Here is another parallel solution while staying in France, for example: go do the grape harvest, work a winter season in the mountains or a summer season in the south of France. Although this experience is not abroad, it will allow you to get into backpacker mode looking for work elsewhere. If you want to look for work abroad, this kind of experience can help you adapt more easily and help you find and search for work.
Final word: The more experiences you have, the better prepared you will be for your future world tour or Asia tour.
And you? How did you prepare for a world tour? What advice can you give for a better experience?
