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January 21, 2018

How To Plan The Perfect Gap Year

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There’s always going to be a range of reasons for why you travel in life. Not only is there vacations and trips to see family, but there’s also the possibility of business trips, weekends away, and travel just because. And when you’re someone that wants to see the world, it’s likely that you’re going to want to fill your time with as much travel as possible. However, when you’re taking the odd trip here and there, it’s sure going to take you a long time to get to all of the places you want to see. So, you may not want to wait and tick things off one at a time. Instead, you may want to do (and see) as much as you can at once.

When this is the case, you may be interested in taking a gap year. Whether you’re studying at the moment and you want to make some time for travel when you graduate, or you’re looking to take a sabbatical from work, a gap will can often work quite nicely. However, this isn’t going to be something that a lot of people will be able to do on a whim. Gap years can take a lot of planning – and money to go with it too. So if you’re thinking about taking a gap year, here’s how you can think about planning the perfect year of travel.

Consider Where To Go

First of all, you’re going to want to make sure that you start off with a blank slate. Because you need to make sure that you think about all of the different places that you’d like to go. Although you may not have time to squeeze them all in (but you’ll sure have fun trying), this is the best way to work out what countries or locations are most important to you. It’s also a great way to start feeling excited about the entire trip planning process. For some inspiration on gap year destinations check out this link

Work Out A Budget

With your mind racing with all of the different spots that you want to go to, you should definitely think about a budget. Sometimes, this is going to be based on what you have in savings, or can really afford right now. When this is the case, it will often dictate where you can go. However, you may also want to make sure that you do everything you can in the space of a year, and this means that you’re going to want to work out what your dream trip will cost, and go from there.

Start Saving

From here, if you are thinking about doing the latter listed above, then it’s time to start saving. And this could even take you a full year itself – sometimes more. These tips on saving money for travel should help you – https://www.gapyear.com/articles/121033/how-to-save-money-for-your-travels. It may feel hard at times, and even feel like its taking forever, but knowing that you can go on your dream trip should help you to stack that cash up.

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Plan Your Route

Now, you’re going to want to start firming up some plans. You know what budget you’ve got to work with and how long you have to travel in, so you need to figure out roughly what that year will look like. Although this doesn’t have to be set in stone, it’s useful to know how long you want to spend in each country or city, and how you’re going to fit everything in.

Book Your First Flight

Even if you don’t really know where you’re going to go, you should have a starting point. And this will mean that you can book your first flight. When you’ve done this, then you’ll know that you’re getting closer to living your dream. Sometimes, you may want to book a few flights or train journeys, just so you know how you’re starting out.

Find Suitable Accommodation

From here, it’s the time to look into your accommodation options. And you really need them to be suitable for the kind of trip that you’re going. Whether you need to book something longer term, such as https://rumahdijual.com/rumah-dijual, or a backpacking hostel, you need to consider this now. Your research will then allow you to book some, most, or all of your stops.

Consider Getting A Job

Not everyone will want to do this, but you may also want to think about working while you travel too. There are lots of jobs you can do while traveling. And the best part is that you can make some great friends as well as top up some cash for your travels too.

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Get Your Paperwork Together

Then, you should definitely think about getting your paperwork together too. Because that’s the thing about taking a gap year, it’s not all excitement and freedom. It actual requires paperwork. And it’s for this reason that you’re going to need a checklist such as https://www.gap360.com/check-list to work from. You don’t want to get anything wrong and find out that you can’t go on your trip after all.

Make Note Of Key Experiences

As everything is starting to come together, you should definitely be getting serious about what you want to take away from this trip. While it is okay to go with an open mind, and let your trip kind of lead the way, if there are certain things that you want to see or do, you have to make a note of them. Otherwise, you may find that you miss them out completely and don’t make the most of your stay at each stop.

Pack!

Finally, all that’s left to do now is to pack. And for this, you’re definitely going to want to read some what to pack tips and takeaway the ideas that are most suited to your trip. That way, you’ll definitely know that you’ve planned the most perfect gap year of all, and can finally head out and enjoy it.

For more on this topic I recommend you take a look at this ultimate long-term travel checklist!

*This post was brought to you from a collaborative partnership with Fat Jo.

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