PLANNING YOUR GAP YEAR …
The easy part is deciding that you want to go travelling, the hard part is getting the plan into action. The biggest problem is information overload; there's just too many different voices out there. But fear not. We’ve ejected the non-essentials to give you the simplest first steps to get you from dreaming, to planning your trip of a lifetime.
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“5 SIMPLE STEPS”
1. Budget
“I Haven’t even decided where to go!” We hear you cry. Keep your little traveling boots on the ground, you wont be going anywhere if you don’t have any cash stashed. Now is the time to smash open that piggy-bank, time to ask your parents, your grandparents, even your fairy godparents for some monies.
Questions? 1. When do you want to go? 2. How much money do you have? 3. How much money can you realistically acquire by fair means before departure?
Once you’ve figured out how much money you have to spend, you will know what options are open to you or not. Before you even start Googleing :FULL mOON PaRTY: draw up a realistic plan of how long you want to be away, how much your going to need and how long its going to take to save up for it.
WARNING! A year traveling around Australia could easily cost £12,000, and remember immigration might not even let you in if they don’t think you have enough money to complete your trip!
2. Duration
Gap Year is some what of a misnomer, not that many people head out on the road for a whole year. We’d recommend 6 months of working and saving money, followed by 6 months on the road, but it is totally up to you.
Are you a fly be the seat of your pants traveller or do you need it all planned out? FACTOID: John Waite is perhaps the oldest backpacker in the world at 89. He started traveling in 1982, that’s 30 years on the road!
Where?
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TOP 5 1. Backpacking South East Asia 2. Fruit picking in Australia 3. Round the World Ticket 4. Trekking in the Andes 5. Working with an NGO
There really are limitless opportunities when it comes to your gap year. It does depend to some degree on what you want to get out of your gap year. If you are just looking for new experiences and fun then it doesn’t really matter where you go, but if you are looking for experiences that will look good on a CV, you should put a great deal of thought into this, NGO’s like VSO offer many opportunities to help communities around the world.
4. Papers?
INSURACE: Insurance may be the last thing you want to think about when planning your gap year travel, who wants to think about things going wrong! But without it things can go from bad to horrific!
Where are your papers?!
Resources.5 PASSPORT: It is vital that you have a valid passport for the entire length of your trip. It can be expensive, stressful and hard work trying to get a new passport in a foreign country. It is also a legal requirement in many countries that you have a valid passport with you at all times as a form if ID. VISA: You will almost certainly need a visa if you plan to travel outwith the EU. For some countries it’s a simple form like on flights to Dubai, but for others you may have to have this organised long before you get on the plane to go. Check the UK FCO website for more info.
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Foreign & Commonwealth Office gapyear.com Voluntary Services Overseas Bunac STA Travel OZintro