Lonely Planet The Big Trip 4

This book is designed to provide information you need to plan a trip of a lifetime, whether a gap year after finishing school or a lengthy (and well earned!) sabbatical from the rat race. The first part, Travel Smarts, looks at everything you need to know to get started, including what to expect when you arrive in your destination and all the paperwork youll need to organise beforehand. The Tailoring Your Trip section is about organising your trip in a way that works for you and suits your interests do you want to work to make some extra money or gain a new skill, volunteer in a community or take on the festival circuit? Its worth reading to see whats out there.

For more specific planning there are the destination chapters in the books third part. These chapters look at the regions of the world and are a good place to start if you cant make up your mind where to go. Finally, theres the Directories section, a list of contact information for useful organisations that you can use as further resources while planning your trip, whether departing from Britain and Ireland, North America, Australia or New Zealand.

Weve made this book as up-to-date as we can, but remember that prices do go up, currencies fall and a million other things can happen before this book even hits a bookshelf. But the secret to good travelling is to stay flexible and stay up-to-date.

Gap years and extended overseas adventures used to be the sole domain of recent school graduates. The history of such forays dates back to the 17th century, when upper-class British kids would complete their education by taking the Grand Tour in Europe. The goal was a simple one: to experience the museums, paintings, culture and, more importantly, wines that theyd studied or read about in school. For a few months theyd tour the continent, though most only went as far as Italy (probably something to do with the wine). All of them returned with enough stories, souvenirs and memories to last a lifetime.

Fast-forward a couple of hundred years. Cheap flights and open minds have meant that even more people are taking a year off to embrace a world outside of their own. Of course, graduates still take the chance to celebrate the escape from school books and dull history lessons, but now everyone from couples with young kids to those in middle-age and even retirement are also making the exciting leap into the unfamiliar. No matter what demographic you may be part of, there are more options than ever to fill your time with rewarding experiences, whether backpacking or taking part in exchange programmes, working holidays or volunteering placements.

This seemingly endless list of options from around the globe can be as daunting as it is exciting, but making sense of it all is what this book is for The Big Trip is designed to help you unite your dreams with distinct destinations and inspirational experiences, and to provide you with all the expert advice needed to get you on the road and back again. After that, all thats left to be done is to let the life-changing trip begin.

Its important to take time to see the world in a different light; a morning boat trip on the Ganges

Matt Munro / Lonely Planet

There is only so much you can understand about the world from school, documentaries, the news and your circle of friends on social media. Theres no substitute for getting out there to see, hear, taste, touch and smell the realities of what the world is. And, most importantly, there is nowhere better to learn about yourself than from outside your comfort zone.

Travel in foreign lands, away from the securities of home, friends and family, certainly has the power to take you there. Along the way youll open yourself up to be enthralled, inspired, amused, amazed, bemused, enriched, empowered and yes even scared. Its a heady mix of emotions, but one that few people ever get tired of. When was the last time you heard of someone looking back at their life and wishing theyd travelled less?

The reason for this is that travel has the power to change your life for the better, often in ways youd never imagined. For some travellers, such as Matt Phillips, it was coming to the stark realisation that fear was playing too large a role in his life. His lesson: dying wouldnt be his lifes greatest tragedy, not truly living it would be. He has happily never looked back, and now travels the globe for a living while working for Lonely Planet. For others, it may be something as profoundly simple as finally grasping that wealth has nothing to do with a bank balance.

For many travellers it may be more practical, perhaps provoking an unexpected change of career: what starts out as a vacation ends up a vocation, a passion becomes a profession. Take the economics graduate who thought he was bound to work in an accounting firm but did a stint with a music distribution company during his gap year. He was so inspired hes been in the music business ever since. Similarly, Amanda Allen-Toland, who volunteered to work as a youth ambassador in Bangkok on an international development programme on AIDS, could not have predicted the positive impact her volunteering experience would have on her career. Upon returning home she moved on to work as a programme manager for the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS in Melbourne, Australia.

Its paid dividends for me. It led me into an area I wanted to be in with a higher level of responsibility, excellent pay and job satisfaction. Its the icing on the cake. My experience working and living in Thailand was so fantastic that even if my next role had been making fruit shakes, Id do it all over again.

But its not all about life-changing realisations or your career. Just like those Grand Tourists of hundreds of years ago, youll also gather friends and experiences that will be valuable for the rest of your life. Whenever someone mentions Kenya youll remember marvelling at the great wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara, or if you meet a New Zealander, Canadian or Scot youll be able to regale them with stories of exploring their beloved mountains and meeting their fellow citizens. These intangibles will stay with you your whole life.

Make your trip more comfortable and do the research to figure out exactly what youll want to get out of it

Lonely Planet

ESCAPING THE PARENT TRAP

So maybe your parents arent so keen on you going away for months on end. Theyre probably making noises about going to university, settling down or getting a good job in a bank. They really need to move on. Here are our best arguments to stop them fretting and get them shelling out for airline tickets:

Protective research If you can tell them about the place youre visiting, it can be reassuring. Everyones going to freak out when they dont know where someones going, but if you can explain your itinerary it will seem more real. Helpful facts (They all speak English, Theres more than 30,000 tourists every year and they all seem okay or Its one of the safest cities in Central America) can also be useful. You can even get them to read a few chapters of this book so they can see youre taking this trip seriously.