This post is dedicated to all the things that we did in preparation for our one year of travel. It’s important to know that we didn’t just decide a few days before leaving that we were going to quit our jobs and travel. We spent a significant amount of time planning and executing so we could make our dream into a reality. The purpose of this post is to show that it takes planning and preparation for a long term trip like this. There are so many things that you can and have to do for this type of decision. Here we break down when we did things while preparing for a year of travel and then a little bit more into what it was like.
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7-10 Months Out From Leaving (Sept – Dec)
1. Gave Ourselves a Budget & Kept Track of our Spending
Read our full post How Can you Afford to Travel for a Year where we go through our complete list of everything we did to afford this trip as well as things we plan to do to cut costs while we’re traveling. This includes:
- No longer spending extra money on food, drinks, clothes or anything not completely necessary
- Keeping track of all of our weekly spending
- Selling all our furniture and items from our apartment to buy things we need for the trip
2. Started Planning Trip Itinerary
We printed black and white maps of the world, taped them together and mapped out where we wanted to go. We literally sat on the floor of our apartment one day and using colored pencils we drew lines from each country to the next of where we thought we wanted to go. This was our rough idea of how this could actually work while taking into account all the variables such as weather, distance, activities, cost, etc. that would shape our plan.
Read More: How We Planned a Year of Travel
3. Applied for Travel Credit Cards
We applied for two different credit cards in order to get some travel perks and hopefully be able to redeem points from both for airfare and accommodations.
- American Airlines Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select Card – We signed up for this card in order to start earning points tied to an airline and large airline alliance. This way we hope at some point to have enough points to pay for an expensive flight.
- Dave’s old job used to require him to travel and therefore book regular travel on his credit card. From those points we were able to both fly from Philadelphia to San Francisco, CA round-trip for free!
- Chase Sapphire Reserve Card– We signed up for this card because one of the perks is getting the Priority Pass. Priority Pass gives you access to over 1,000 airport lounges at airports worldwide including free food and drinks, free wifi and other amenities while you’re there.
4. Told our Families We Were Going to Travel for a Year
At this point we told our families that we were planning to travel for a year. This was a significant step actually telling someone what we had been talking about and wanted to pursue. Having people who knew meant we couldn’t relent ourselves to it not being the right time.
4-6 Months Out (Jan – Mar)
1. Booked our Inca Trail Trek to Machu Picchu
In January we booked our 4-day trek to Machu Picchu. Peru is the first destination of our trip mainly because we want to be there in the dry season in order to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This has been something that we’ve wanted to do for awhile and because of the timing (and the training required beforehand) it worked best to do it first.
- The reason we booked this so early is because there are only a certain number of permits given each day so we knew it was something that needed to be done well ahead of time. Keep an eye out in December/January because the permits usually open up around that time!
2. Renewed our Passports
In March (4 months out) we renewed our passports. We both still had valid passports with empty pages but many countries have certain passport requirements. By the end of our year of travel it will be about July 2020 and my passport was due to expire in January 2021. So while it probably would have been fine it felt a little too close in case we extend the trip or a place wants to see it valid for longer.
- Because we were already renewing them we opted to get a 52-page passport instead of the standard smaller passport. While it’s probably not necessary we wanted to have plenty of blank pages so that never becomes an issue!
- Make sure to check the visa and passport requirements for wherever you are going ahead of time. Things like length of validity required on your passport as well as blank pages required in your passport are common prerequisites in some countries in order to enter.
- We got our new passports back in about 4 weeks.
3. Started Buying Gear for the Trip
Also in March we started buying some of the gear we knew we were going to need for the trip. This included:
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- Hiking boots and hiking socks (for both of us)
- We got the Womens Merrell Moab WP 2 low top boots and the Mens Merrell Moab WP 2 Low top boots – you can find them on Amazon here!
- Living in the northeast US March was the first month where it was warm enough to start hiking outside. We both got new hiking boots and did three big hikes that month in order to start training for Machu Picchu.
- Outdoor Research Gloves for cold nights in South America, specifically Patagonia
- Steripen – Our plan instead of buying plastic water bottles is to use the Steripen to purify water in our reusable Nalgeen bottles. It will also be helpful in situations like when we’re hiking in Peru.
- Sony A7III Camera – This was by far the biggest purchase we made. We knew we needed a high quality camera and Dave spent a long time researching which one to get. So far we love it but stay tuned we’ll be doing a more comprehensive review once we use it while traveling!
3. Signed Up for a Debit Card that has no ATM fees
The Charles Schwab Visa Platinum Debit Card is a debit card that allows you to take out money worldwide with no ATM fees. If the ATM or bank has a fee they will refund you the fee amount. We signed up for this card in March also in order to have plenty of time to process the application and get the cards in the mail. Don’t underestimate how long those kinds of things can take sometimes!
Travel Truth: We signed up for the account together so we both have the ability to transfer money in. Then we got two debit cards, one in each of our names, so that if something happens to one of them (man I hope not!) then we have another to still be able to take out money and access the account.
1-3 Months Out (Apr – Jun)
1. Nicki Gave Notice at Work
At the beginning of April I gave notice at work that I would not be coming back the next year. As a teacher our schedule for leaving is a bit different than a typical year-round job. To start to tell people, especially at work, felt like SUCH a milestone. It really started to set in that we were actually doing this once I told everyone at work.
- Logistically it’s also really hard to be like “wait just kidding guys we’re not traveling anymore” after giving in my formal resignation. So while a bit scary it also felt like the push we needed to keep moving forward with everything.
2. Terminated our Apartment Lease
In April we gave notice to our apartment building that we would not be renewing our lease. That meant that we officially would be moving out on the last day of our lease in June. We had to give 60 days notice that we would not be returning but we got really lucky that our lease end date worked perfectly with our time frame. If we had to break our lease early we know it would have been much harder!
3. Started Selling our Furniture
We sold our bedroom TV in January (because we literally never used it) but we didn’t really start to sell big furniture items until April. Within one week of posting them, both our kitchen table and night stands sold. We also sold our end tables, TV stand, dressers, bookshelf and our couch by the end of May. We sold our bed frame, the last item we were looking to sell, about a week and a half before moving. Honestly we got so, so lucky with being able to actually sell everything! We had really good luck with LetGo if you’re looking to sell furniture items nearby.
- Our apartment quickly became a nightmare because as we sold more and more furniture we found ourselves with piles everywhere. Eventually our mattress was on the floor and we were using our air mattress as a couch.
4. Dealt with Visas & Vaccines
In May we went to a travel doctor to discuss all the vaccines and medications we might need for our year of travel. This was not either of our primary doctors but a specific travel medicine clinic that specializes in appropriate vaccines and medications for people traveling to various places.
- If you’re in the Philadelphia area we went to Penn International Travel Medicine and Immunization Clinic and got everything we needed.
In order to go to Bolivia, which is our second destination, as US citizens we need a Bolivian visa. So we submitted our visa application online at the end of May. This was a bit stressful and unclear so we’re planning on writing a full blog post on how to get a Bolivian visa as a US Citizen!
5. Sold Stuff at 3 Yard Sales
After selling stuff for almost a year on Ebay and also selling furniture items on LetGo, we still had some items that didn’t quite have a spot on either of those. So we brought items to sell, things from clothing to kitchen utensils to decor, to three different yard sales.
- This definitely required a lot of effort. We had to find nearby community yard sales, sign up to attend, and then spend about 5 or 6 hours there selling stuff.
- While we didn’t get rich from selling stuff at yard sales, we were able to pass along things that we were ready to part with while also bringing in some money. So to us it seemed like a win win!
6. Dave Gave Notice at Work
Dave gave notice at his job in June. At that point we had barely any furniture in our apartment, we were close to moving out and it felt like the last big thing to happen before we would be leaving the city. It also meant that we both were no longer employed so more of the risk of this big adventure started to set in.
7. Said Goodbye to Philadelphia (and our apartment)
In June we spent a lot of time with our friends in the city, going to places we’ve loved over the four years we lived there and started saying goodbye to people we won’t see again for a while. It definitely felt weird to say goodbye to people we’ve known and been close to!
While we had significantly less to move out than when we moved in two years ago, after the whirlwind of moving was over it was definitely sad to leave our apartment. It felt not only like we were leaving an apartment that we both really loved but also sad that we were moving on from the city of Philadelphia! But it also means that we have no apartment or house as of now. It’s a big deal to be giving up our own home in pursuit of this idea of traveling long term. We know it will be so worth it but it was a very bittersweet feeling.
Looking Back at the Past Year
We’ve spent the past year doing things in preparation for this whole adventure. Most of the things that we go through above fall into one of three categories: saving money, travel preparation and trip planning.
As we get closer and closer to leaving it feels more and more real while also a little hard to grasp. As I write this we’ve now been moved out of our apartment for a week and a half and we’ve both been done with work for almost three weeks. But it also feels like we’ve been talking about this trip for months and months and it’s still not quite time yet.
My biggest piece of advice for anyone preparing for long term travel is to be diligent about ALL the things you have to do before leaving. No matter how boring or unnecessary they seem give yourself plenty of time to do everything that needs to be done. After that make sure you spend time relaxing and enjoying yourself before you leave!
If you’ve prepared for long term travel we would love to hear your experience!
