Many people ask about where we are going on this epic tour around the world and there are usually two standard answers; the short answer and the long answer. The short answer is usually used in situations where time is short or when the long answer is so long that it induces the formerly-interested person into sleep. The short answer involves explaining the continents and a few key locations whereas the long answer could list all places! But the long answer is a rarity these days because it is so tiresome to go through. It’s just lucky we have a year break to get over it.

I hope to go through our route in this post about this year long trip. We do have a planner but its just lists the places we are going to with little explanation. So here is a long-ish answer for those interested! Our route isn’t set stone or follows a rigid structure so we can stay in a place for longer if we like, run away from places that just have no life or even add additional places that were not previously thought of.

So here goes…

• North America- The first place on our ticket is New York which seems a nice little place to start. We could have started in the East like in Japan or Thailand and then finish in New York but we decided to travel West and chase the sun. The plan is to travel up the East coast into the cities such as Boston and straight into Canada where we would hit Montreal. From there we would move on to Toronto where my uncle lives. We would then venture back to nearby Chicago to catch a flight to Las Vegas to boost our travelling funds. We hope to end the last part of USA with a 3 week mini road trip around the west, visiting various national parks. One of the highlights of the end of this part has to be driving down the south pacific highway from San Francisco to LA with a pimped up convertible for a true classic American drive.

• South America - This is the part where we get to test the Spanish we have been trying to learn in the past few weeks or in most of our cases… begin to learn. We begin our adventure in the city of Quito, Ecuador where we hope to take a trek up Cotopaxi which is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Lots to see and do there of which we plan to wing when we arrive there. Following from Ecuador, we move on to Peru where the main attraction is the Inca Trail. We will be roughing it in the Amazon Jungle over a four to five day trek to see the ancient ruins Machu Picchu. La Paz, Bolivia will be our next stop from Peru where we plan to bravely go mountain biking up the World’s Most Dangerous Road, aptly named after many deaths on and off it. If we are still in one piece, we hope to make it to southern Bolivia to see the Salt Plains. We leave Bolivia heading towards northern Chile to see and tackle some mammoth anacondas. We get to see a little of of northern Argentina, but we will try to get to Buenos Aires to sample some authentic Argentinian Steak. Finally, we head for Brazil via the Iguazu Falls. We get to spend some time in Rio De Janerio and change from survival mode to party mode!

• South Pacific/Australia - Before hitting mainland Oz, we will be spending a few days on Easter island and spend time with the famous Moai statues. We then get to relax and chill out on the remote island of Tahiti. With our mind and bodies reset after the adventure in South America, we head off to Sydney where we shall spend Christmas and the New Year. We leave Sydney, travelling north along the east coast through Brisbane up to Cairns. Along the way we plan to chill out in nice beaches such as Bryon Bay and the Whitsunday islands. Of course we can’t miss out a visit to the Great Barrier Reef. We then make our way down towards mid Australia towards Alice Springs. We keep moving south towards Melbourne and then finally back to Sydney to complete the loop. We will arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand for our next destination where will we move north towards Auckland in about a month feeding on adrenalin rush activities and to see some amazing local sites. We then catch a flight via Sydney to start the Asian leg of the trip.

• Asia - This part of the leg is not so clear (it is about year away!) so the rough direction of where we will be given is explained. The first destination shall be Jakarta, Indonesia where we well catch a flight or boat ride to Singapore. From here we should be able to head into Malaysia. We can leave Malaysia through the north which allows us to enter and explore southern Thailand, visiting places such as Phuket and Ko Samui. Bangkok is the next main destination and the start of a big loop around Asia. From Bangkok, we go to Chang Mai then head east through the north of Laos and north Vietnam. To continue the loop, we head south through Vietnam and then start heading west through Cambodia before re-entering Thailand and reaching Bangkok. We start to move away from South East Asia by catching a flight to Hong Kong. This is where we enter mainland China and work our way to Beijing in about 3 weeks. Then to top the leg up and to make sure we have no money left when we get home, a visit to Tokyo, Japan is on the cards. We spend about a week there to see sights and reminisce over the past year’s travel before finally heading home to London where the dream ends.

…phew that was loooong. After all that explaining, the whole route may change! However, it is a good guide of what we will be getting up to and where we are going.