Heidi & Gilles in a Tuk Tuk in Maputo, Mozambique
Once you have found the answer to what kind of photos do I want to bring back from such a trip, choosing the right cameras might become a rather long and painful process… We spent hours and hours looking for the right camera, and more often than not got completely contradictory information from various sources… Not to mention that qualified advice and counsel are the exception rather than the norm, even in specialized shops. Continue Reading →
Heidi in a Warao Village, Orinoco Delta, Venezuela
Back in 2007, during our Trip Around The World Trip, we belonged to the very small group of people traveling with a computer (at that time a Sony Vaio 13’’). Now it seems that this exception has turned into the rule… Continue Reading →
Gilles in Semliki National Park, West Uganda, Africa
We have heard this question many times, and listened to endless discussions on this subject. The answer is quite straightforward though. If you plan to enhance your pictures, you should always take them in RAW. Continue Reading →
Gilles in the Bazaar of Shiraz, Iran
To answer this question, you should consider your actual needs. A good tripod can be rather heavy and they are not cheap either. To be honest, until about a year ago we used each others shoulder, a bolder or whatever came in handy to keep the camera from shacking during longer exposures. Now things are different and we almost always have one with us while traveling. Continue Reading →
Heidi & Gilles – Pure wilderness, Chilojo Cliffs Campsite 1, Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe, Africa
Naturally, on a Long Term Trip, you will not only visit more places, but also completely different ones than on a two to three week vacation. You will also enjoy a higher flexibility and hence will have the opportunity to stay longer in each place. Consequently your travel experiences will be utterly different.
From our experience, on a short trip, we usually focused on the “highlights” and quickly move from one attraction to the other. With much more time at hand, we were able to truly discover the countries we were visiting, and travel Off The Beaten Track. Not very surprising, though… Continue Reading →
Dance of the Masks, Dogon Country, Mali, Africa
The usual mistake most travelers make when planning a Round The World Trip (and believe us, we did the same!) is trying to pack too much into their itinerary. You will never see it all, even if you travel for 10 years. There is simply too much to see out there.
Most people see a Long Term Trip as a unique experience, the first and probably only such trip, and worry that they will miss places that they might never be able to visit again. For us it was the Easter Island and the “South Seas” in the Pacific, or South Patagonia in South America. And we are glad we went there, actually. Continue Reading →
Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
In our opinion, mainly two aspects are important when planning Long Term Travel:
Ugandan Shillings (approx. 700 Euros)
The most frequently asked question when we traveled for a year in 2007 – 2008 was “How much does / did it cost?”
Here is the answer: in total we spent 20.700 Euros per person for an entire year. That’s a lot more than most people spend. People we met usually had a budget between 12.000 to 15.000 Euros per person. Once we talked to a couple that lived on 10.000 Euros for 2 years, between the two of them! On the other hand we met people who burned 45.000 Euros per person in 15 months. Obviously the sky is the limit… Continue Reading →
Fees to access local currencies can turn into an expensive affair. These costs can be as low as 3% to 5% of your total expenditures, but also reach a mind-blowing 10 to 12% if you are not well prepared, like us in Malawi in 2014! We did not bring enough cash and we had all kinds of cards but not a VISA.
So have a very close look at this aspect, as we are talking about serious money there. For example, take a budget of 15.000 €: it can mean as little as 450 to 750 € in total or as much as… 1.800 €! Continue Reading →
Basically, the less you take the better you will feel while traveling. Do not forget that you will have to carry all that stuff, sometimes for quite a while. Besides, you will have to pack and unpack your backpack many, many times! So each piece of “stuff” that you take – no matter if it is clothes, shoes, medicine, electronics, books or whatever…will cost you time, energy and nerves! Continue Reading →
