With all the talk of plane tickets on here, I couldn’t resist booking a ticket today. I studied spanish for 90 minutes tonight, and then started hunting around for ticket deals. This morning when I looked they were all around $1,400 or so, but I eventually stumbled onto a cheap Continental leg and it became the basis for my trip.
I actually had it down to about $1,000 at one point, but the cheap leg sold out before I got a chance to book it. Anyways, I did manage to get a pretty cheap leg, so we’re go for launch.
My official plan is to leave on January 4th from Vancouver and end up in Buenos Aires. That should give me enough time to recover from my New Year’s eve hangover and do my final bit of visiting and packing. I’ll be staying in Buenos Aires for roughly three months, and then bouncing back through New York City at the beginning of April. I was there a few years ago, and absolutely loved it. It was crazy hot and humid when I went, so I’m looking forward to visiting when it’s not a sauna. Plus, last time I hung out mostly around Times Square, which in restrospect was dumb, so this time I’m going to explore some of the cooler areas like Chelsea and Greenich Village.
I purposefully dumped myself on the east coast after Buenos Aires so I could skip across the Atlantic after New York City. It seems like the cheapest way to get to Europe right now is via Aer Lingus, the airline of Ireland. A one way ticket to Ireland is about $600 right now from New York. Since my friend Andy is currently living in Ireland right now, I think I’ll probably head there for a visit and to check out the sites for a week or so. Afterwards, I’m not really sure. I’ve been told you can usually get a cheap charter flight back to Vancouver from Europe, most likely on Air Transat. So I’ll probably wait until I get to Europe before thinking about when I’ll finally head back to Canada.
As I’ve pointed out before, I’ll be working on this trip. I’m going to be renting a furnished apartment with WiFi in Buenos Aires while I’m down there, and probably doing some combination of hostels, hotels, coffee shops, and temporary accommodation in Europe. I have a lot of friends in Europe I’ve been promising to see for 10 years now, so I’m hoping I can see them all on this trip. That would involve a trip to France at some point, and also Serbia. Hopefully I can make it all happen.
Anyways, tonight is really the first night I’ve started to get excited about all of this. In my head this has always been a great adventure, but it wasn’t until today that I actually got a few butterflies booking the first flight and finally committing to it.
I’ll be giving notice at the end of this month, and then spending the next two selling off furniture and packing stuff out to go into storage.
Seems like an exciting plan! I really like the idea of being able to just hop across to Europe if you feel like it – I wish I could do just that. I mean where I live is thousands of miles from either North America or Europe and you wouldn’t make that trip lightly.
It’s not as easy to get to Europe from Vancouver, although lots of people still go. But from the east coast it’s really only a five hour flight to Ireland, so it’s way more accessible.
Hi Duane,
Sounds like a very interesting trip, what’s the purpose of the trip….the why?
Adventure!
I work from home, so really I can work from anywhere with an internet connection, which is pretty much every country in the world now. So instead of spending my days in BC, I thought I’d spend six months or so seeing some new sites instead. I haven’t really done a lot of traveling outside of the typical vacation resort places, so I’m looking forward to seeing something new.
Having not met you (yet), and I live in Abbotsford just down the road from you : ) what is it that you do that allows you the financial freedom to make a trip such as this?
Wait! Did I meet you at one of the Ruby on Rails gatherings at Gourmet Gallery with Curtis?
Nope, but I know Curtis!
I have a company with a friend called BraveNewCode – we make websites and plugins for WordPress.
I think it’s less about financial freedom and more about personal freedom, in my case being able to work from a coffee shop. Traveling isn’t as much money as most people think it is (which is ironic, since most people spend their whole lives saving to travel). In fact, other than the plane tickets, I expect to save money at most destinations compared to home. For example, $1 CAD is approximately $3 in Argentina pesos. Other than rent, pretty much everything there is 30% – 50% of the prices here ($5 for a steak dinner, $1 for one litre of beer, $4 for a nice bottle of wine).
I used to build websites but grew out of it : )
What WordPress plugins have you built, very curios : )
I have yet to go to Europe or South America, I have only been around North America, including Hawaii but NA is very expensive in my humble opinion.
You also sound like your still single, without kids and the like, if so, that makes trips like yours alittle easier.
Thanks for sharing and be safe.
Quite a few! WordTwit, WPtouch, Earth Hour, Crossroads, BuddyPress Geo.
Hey Duane,
I’m sitting on the side of the road in my van in a rest area outside of Broome Australia. We’re about 7 months into our RTW trip and we’re having a blast. We’re you able to find a solution for your snail mail?