World Travel

[Bela]

Recently I have been deeply considering traveling. I have always been an adventurous type but I have never been beyond the America's and not much of those. My pre-plan has brought a lot of questions to my attention and I figured that some of you may know the answers and save me some digging. Before I ask the questions I will list the countries I plan on going to.

 

Canada, British Columbia (start)

United States, Alaska

Canada, West to East

Greenland

Iceland

Norway*

Ireland*

United Kingdom*

Germany

Netherlands

Belgium

France*

Spain

Portugal

Italy

Switzerland

Greece

Ukraine

Russia

China

Mongolia

Japan

Thailand

Malaysia

Philippines*

Indonesia

South Africa

Madagascar

Papa New Guinea

Australia*

New Zealand*

United States, Hawaii8

Antarctica

Argentina

Chile

Peru

Dominican Republic

Jamaica

Mexico, Cancun

United States, Arizona to Washington*

 

* Places I would like to stay for a while, possibly rent an apartment/place for a few months and get a job.

 

The rest of the places are more of a slow passing-through.

 

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1992/maptrip.jpg

 

 

So my questions are:

 

1. For the * places, what are the requirements in order to rent a place. How much money am I looking at per month on average.

2. For the * places, what are the requirements in order to get a job.

3. What sort of immunizations should I look into getting?

4. The image shows the pre-plan path I currently plan on taking, the yellow indicates a road path, pink a flight. For the longer road routes and * places I will probably consider buying a car and selling it at the end, what are the age, license, citizenship? restrictions on renting/buying a car and average cost.

5. Travel insurance, I know it is necessary but I don't really know much about it.

6. Photography laws.

 

 

If you know any of these, or can provide any reference links that would help me learn the answers to these questions it would be much appreciated. I will be looking into all these questions myself, but as I mentioned above, there is no point in not asking, someone might know.

 

 

 

The reason I put this in General Discussion:

 

Aside from the above questions I wanted opinions on places and countries I should go to. I would like to stick fairly close to the shown path, but small detours are fine. I would also like to know what is a good Traveling guide publisher or author that covers a lot of these places. Any other tips, opinions or suggestions are always welcome.

 

This is my pre-plan and I won't be going for a few years, but I am thinking it would be unwise to start my research any time but now.

 

 

Thanks in advance to any that help me.

[CatinaSedai]

i stayed in italy for a while.  venice is very nice. 

[Ponder]

for the UK, depends where you want to stay. London is uber expensive but amazing, the rest of the country is also fantastic (come up north!!!) and will cost you a lot less. There are also youth hostels dotted about the country, which are worth a look at.

 

As for getting a job here atm...good luck ;-)

[CUBAREY]

You are going to have a terrible time trying to get work permits for most of the * countries. You better contact those countries American embassies or consulates well before you want to travel. There are restrictions on the amount of time you can stay in a country on a tourist visa (or entering the country as a tourist when no visa is required) but normally no restrictions on renting an apartment for a given time. You can get an international drivers license to use in most of Europe. car rentals rates are the same or slightly higher then those found in the US in most of Europe. Please be advised that you will need to get visas for any country you plan to stay in for a while and for Russia Ukraine, Mongolia, China and the Phillipines. Also you will probably not be allowed to roam through these countries on your own especially China and Russia. Best advise is to call or visit their consulates now to info on what you can and cann't do. and what type of visas will be required. Considering that you plan to stay several months in several of the countries the entire trip could take 2 years and cost US $100,000. If you got the time and money all you need is to plan well in advance so that you will not get any unpleasant surprises. Also on shots, make sure you ask the consulates for Mongolia the Phillipines, Chile and Peru what shots you have to take (you might also look at the U.S. state department internet cite for advise on shots and visas along with general information about the safety of traveling to particular countries or parts therein).

[Majsju]

For Europe, I would recommend looking at EUrail passes rather than a car.

[Krakalakachkn]

You're going to want to be careful with your plans for Russia.  I was in Moscow last April and I can tell you it is a ridiculous hassle trying to get visas and everything through on their end.  Moscow has the worlds second highest Standard of Living, meaning in order to rent a place you're going to have to dish out some serious dough, as in thousands a week for a hotel.  Also, they're very anti-american, so it might be hard to travel through Russia...they won't like that. Heads up as well, if you do travel to Russia and go on their metro system, absolutely do NOT take pictures or video of it.  You will get in serious trouble because they will think you're a terrorist trying to find places to plant bombs.  So if you want pics of the metro, be very careful.

 

 

Overall looking at where you want to go, definitely get your MMR, tetanus, smallpox, malaria.  Make sure to check the U.S. state department and other websites for other immunizations.  Most likely you will have to get a Hep A or B imm as well

 

If you're looking for sidetrips, I would suggest Prague, Czech Republic.  It's a beautiful city well worth spending a day in.  If you're looking for an even more side-sidetrip, I would suggest some of the countryside surrounding Prague, specifically around the Chotebor area.  It's quite beautiful country of green meadows.

 

As for places to stay, I suggest www.couchsurfing.com

[Krakalakachkn]

Also, I made it sound like Russia wouldn't be worth your while.  I wholly suggest you at least attempt to visit Russia.  Some places can actually be well worth visiting.  Moscow is a very ugly city, but Red Square is awesome with Lenin's tomb, St. Basil's, and Parliament.

[Dark Justice]

South America is cheap, and fairly easy toget work permits. (depends on what work you find, obviously... English Teachers gets permit without problems at least in Peru/Bolivia/Argentina. and you dont need to BE a teacher to get a job).

Appartments are cheap. I live in La Paz in Bolivia, and I have 2 bedroom appartment for 200$ a month. (thats a good apartment. you can get it as low as 100-120$)

peru is most likely a bit more expencive, at lest Lima in the good areas. (you dont want to live out of the "safe" areas in Lima. The police has no control at night...)

And Argentina a bit more expencive than Peru. I recomend cordoba as a fantastic place to spend a good amount of time...

 

Chech with your embassy which shots you sould get. But unless you are planning to spend time in the Brazilian part of Amazonas, dont bother with the malaria medications. There is hardly any elsewhere. And it is usually better to get malaria, than the medication. The medication kills your liver, and isnt really that effective...