I have had many people, both at home in Australia and on the road, who when I tell them that I am traveling alone around the world, ask me how I left my life to travel the world. How did I get started? How do you even plan something like this? What made me decide to go?

So I thought that I would do both a video and a written version of how and why I am traveling the world 🙂

How I got started….

I used to sit at work getting a bit bored as I had been there for 3 1/2 years and at lunch would read those ‘How I left my job and traveled the world stories’ thinking Pfft! That’s crazy, I couldn’t actually ever do that.

But the more I thought about it, the more it became, “Well hypothetically IF I was to do it, how would I go about it?”

That was in about October last year (2013). I had just bought my first house in May and thought buying the house would kill the travel bug for a while (crazy I know, but that’s what I thought). However it got to a point where I was thinking about it everyday and it couldn’t get rid of the idea, so I needed a sign. I asked for a sign and needed a sign because this was a massively crazy thing to be thinking, I now had a mortgage, my job was good, even though I was no longer loving it…I needed to know which way I should go – stay or leave. Then in mid November I was made redundant from my job. BIG SIGN!!!

So the day I was made redundant I messaged my travel agent (who I had floated the idea of traveling around the world with a few weeks prior) and told her we needed to move it forward to the start of this year.

So that’s the first thing you should really have – an amazing travel agent. I have worked with my agent Chevonne from Cruise About, Mitcham in Adelaide since meeting her about 5 years ago when planning a trip to America and have since planned other trips and become good friends. I couldn’t have planned this without her.

I had no idea where and how to start, where to go, how to get around etc. so Chevonne said to me to look at a map of the world, think as big as I could and come back to her with the countries I would like to visit. From there she worked with me to work out which areas of each country I would like to visit, we looked at tour books that covered the different areas and decided if it was better for me to do an organised tour through some places (like I did with SE Asia and will do with some of Canada) or if I could do some part myself (like HK and USA) and for Europe she suggested BusAbout.

BusAbout, which I am on at the moment, is a fantastic, cheap, easy way to work through Europe. You literally book a seat on the bus and move to the next city or country. You can chose where you want to stay, how long you stay in each location, and are on the bus with mostly Aussies who are exactly the same, many of whom are traveling solo. Sometimes I have met great people on the bus that I will explore a city or have dinner with, and sometimes I just explore a city myself, or meet people in my hostel.

That’s the other thing – I am backpacking. This is not a glamorous hotel style trip that I am doing, it’s hostels all the way. BUT having said that, I wouldn’t want to stay in hotels because then you are just in a hotel room by yourself. With hostels I am in a 4, 6 or 8 person room where you can meet soooo many people. All hostels have some kind of common area where everyone sits, and many have event type nights – the one I was just in in Nice had 3 euro spaghetti night and everyone in the hostel came down and ate dinner together – about 60 people! They are really great. Yes sometimes there are definitely really shit hostels, but most of them fit, I think, into the average category and I wouldn’t travel another way.

My budget is tight. I am a saver and never feel comfortable if I don’t have some savings, so I had about half the amount already in savings and the other half was the payout I received when I was made redundant. The budget for the entire trip of almost 9 months is $25,000 AUD. That includes everything. I am not working for any of this time. As I am a web designer, it would be great if I can pick up a little bit of work as I travel, however at the moment money is only outgoing – so budget really is tight. By working with my travel agent Chevonne and booking a round the world air ticket, booking tours as early as possible, grouping them together (I am doing 3 BusAbout trips through Greek Islands, Europe and Ireland) you get a discount, by booking at a travel expo I was able to get discounts on things like travel insurance and some of the tours.  At the moment I have $50AUD per day to spend including accommodation – that is really tight. So at the moment in Europe it equals 35 euro per day, and most of the Europe hostels are somewhere between 15 – 30 euro per night. So some days I am over, but sometimes I can pull that back when I am under and have a cheap day.

The other thing is I am not really drinking that much whilst I’m traveling. I can’t really afford it as the drinks are usually 6 – 8 euro each and are not overly strong, however pre-drinking is definitely the way to go in many countries as you can get a cheap bottle form the supermarket. Plus I am traveling by myself and at the end of the day if I go out with some people, I have only just met them and if I get separated from them or something goes wrong, I need to rely on just myself. And I can’t do that if I am completely drunk.

What else would you like to know? I am very happy to answer any questions and usually do when arriving in a new hostel, on a bus or train! I talk to everyone, and usually people are incredibly interested in how they might be able to do some traveling themselves – so please ask away!

I was nervous before I left about leaving everyone and doing this by myself, however this is 100% where I am supposed to be and I am loving every second of it 🙂