Where to go?

For travel lovers, the greatest challenge in trip planning often ends up not being where to go, but where to not to go. Even with a generous five months, time quickly became short as soon as we started listing all the countries and sites of interest.

As of now, we are planning to visit six countries, including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia. The map to the right shows our current planned route. I hope to keep updating the interactive version on regular basis. You'll notice some country destinations are more filled out than others so far, and we'd love your suggestions about more places to go (or not go)!

While we both tend toward extensive planning, we are trying not to book things (except where absolutely unavoidable for access or cost) more than 2-3 weeks in advance. This keeps our options open. Shadie has started jokingly telling people we'll decide the next country by checking the 10-day forecast. And actually, weather played a big part in deciding where to go and in what order, along with several other variables, including:

1. Interest. When Shadie and I began dreaming up this trip, we decided to start by each listing our top 10 countries we wanted to visit and then comparing overlap. East Asia and the South Pacific came up a lot on both our lists. Plus, as this part of the world is literally furthest away from home, it made sense to go now rather than attempt to go in future 2-week vacation chunks.

2. Season. Areas much north of the equator got nixed pretty quick once we decided our departure date. Most people who know me for more than a conversation or two, quickly learn I'm a summer baby and don't like cold weather much. The idea of skipping out of much of winter and escaping to the southern hemisphere was really appealing. Plus, traveling with big coats and layers takes up way more valuable space in packs. Seasons and weather also played into our route. We wanted to be in the northern part of Korea in October, since we've heard that's when there's absolutely amazing leaf-peeping in Seoroksan National Park. Similarly, we're heading to Borneo straight after to avoid the worst of the monsoon which peaks between November and January. And the best hiking/canoeing time in New Zealand is high summer (which is December and January). We want to be in Sydney for New Year's Eve, as they supposedly boast the best fireworks in the world.

3. Speed of Travel. The idea of traveling more slowly and spending more time in each destination appealed to us. We want to get know each place better and what life is like there, in addition to seeing the top tourist sites. Not to mention that transportation is likely going to be the single biggest expense in our trip and traveling slow therefore won't hurt the budget. We are spending almost a month in each of these places, which we hope gives us more of that experience we look for. Still, the temptation to try and see every cool place around is very real! We'll let you know how successful we are at traveling slow in the end.

4. Mode of Transport. Related to the point above, I also wanted to minimize the number of flights we need to take. Flights are terrible for the environment.1 Not only that, traveling overland often gives you a much better window (literally) into the countries you visit. And I'm super excited to try out lots of different modes of transport and how they work in other places. I am, after all, a sustainable transportation planner! This has so far turned out to be more challenging than expected because the part of the world we are visiting is so full of islands. Also, while in the past local transport (buses, trains, etc.) would have hands been cheaper than booking a plane flight, that hasn't appeared to be true far. I think this has to do partly with how much cheaper flying has gotten in recent decades, as well as perhaps the increasing costs of labor and the geography of some of these places.

5. COVID-19. While the U.S. and most of the world have put pandemic-inspired travel lockdowns in the rearview mirror, there are several notable exceptions. Among them, sadly, were several places we really wanted to go. Japan, a prime example, was at the top of both our lists. Japan officially opened to tourism just this June, but to go you have travel with a highly regimented, expensive, and competitive qualified tour guide package. We also wanted to go to Taiwan, which, as this writing, still requires 7 days of quarantine regardless of test status, and Hong Kong, which is part of China's uber-intense total lockdown policy.

How would you decide where to go on extended travel? Have any travel suggestions for us? We would love feedback or advice for where to go in these countries or other we have left our list so far. Leave a message below!

Footnote:

1) The aviation industry is estimated to contribute 5% of climate change. We're well aware our little journey is not the most responsible along this score, but are dedicated to minimizing impacts while still making the journey. This article has a good summary of the impacts of flying: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200218-climate-change-how-to-cut-your-carbon-emissions-when-flying