Hello, can you post up any inspiring links/stories of people who just went for it and loved it, by bike or van/car.

cheers

Just do it, and do parts/much/all of it on a mountain bike adapted for touring which you can then unadapt for off-road fun in the mtb hot-spots. Single best experience of my life. So far.

the best advice i recieved from some old guy who'd been travelling for years was don't do what everyone else does. do your own thing.

what sort of inspiration are you looking for? the world is big. just go and get on with it. the chances are that you won't die.

My buddy did it a couple of years ago, RTW by bike

http://cyclingroundtheworld.co.uk/

Enjoy 🙂

Sydney to London on a Moped called Dot

Why don't you go somewhere else?

yeah dw i am jus gona do it and my own way, but its cool to get that buzz reading about other ppls adventures…cheers for the posts, more pls!

ahem

I have done a few bits and pieces over the years. Way back 10 months in Australia – hitch-hiking around and working on farms.

1990 I rode a vintage motorcycle round the baltic – 13 countries in 13 weeks including riding onto red square

A few months in South America. a bit of trekking in the Andes and stuff.

My advice would be do double the amount of money you think you need and half the luggage. don't take anything you are too attached to to throw away – bike car or possessions. Using local transport is harder at times but you meet more people. read the opening part of the lonely planet guide but not the specifics – so you have some idea about the country but you find your own places not merely following the crowd.

If I were heading off again and I might just do so then I would head to south america again different enough to feel like you are in foreign climes but easy enough to get you acclimatised to travelling. Either that or I would walk from here to Istanbul. Or maybe mountainbike to Mongolia.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

There are plenty of places to travel to; she's a big planet.
I've done quite a few trips, the longest being 19 months.
Please can you be more specific?
Likewise, there are dozens and dozens of good travel books on the subject, be it trekking in PNG, biking 'round Africa or driving down South America.
What are you looking to do or have you no ideas?

Well tbh i all i have done in the past is a few family holidays to france etc so dont really have a clue, went to Jordan for research last summer which was amazing and now i want more.
Its got to be different to the UK though, i mean like europe might be a bit 'samey' so id love to get just more east if that makes sense.
This i going to be my first real trip, and having not been anywhere before its hard to just choose the one area to go to, hence the round the world idea 🙂

I was thinking of doing it by van but i definatelky want to be meeting people and getting more of a flavour of the place so maybe hiking/public transport/bike but then again i do actually want to get a long way which im worried hiking/biking might not happen.

Also if i could pick up some work/volunteer work on the way that would be good, i dont mind just working for food.

Yup

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

some inspirational stories on there

TJ did you do all that on your own?

sounds like you like the idea of going, but not enough to do it? you could buy a guide, get a flight to Vietnam/Chile, read the guide on the flight and take it from there.

tibal- nope i am definately doing it, leaving spring 2011, after finishing uni and raising cash. Just want to get ideas as to how to do it, i dont want to end up coming home after a month and not getting anywhere!

I did a RTW trip with my gf in 1999. Started by using public transport but got bored of just hitting well-worn backpacker places or frustrated seeing cool looking places as we passed through. Bought mountain bikes in New Zealand and did NZ, a bit of Oz, Vietnam,Laos and orthern Thailand by bike. It was ace, and reasonably easy. We rode in the best places, then used public transport for dull bits or bits where biking would be grim. In areas where the off-road trails were good, we checked into hostels, stripped our panniers and hit the trails for day rides. Did some woofing in NZ too (working on organic farms – basically working half days for food and a roof). The system worked for us – we saw amazing places, got well under the skin of each country, did mint off-road and technical stuff, got well off the beaten track, felt surprisingly safe, got fit, saved dosh and had adventures we'd never have had if we hadn't been on bikes. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend this way of doing things, but it's not for everyone – it can be unpredictable, hard work and a bit of a hassle when it comes to haggling to get your bike strapped onto a speed boat/bus roof etc. Hope this helps.

Going to Aus was on my own – I was 17 ( 1978- gulp) I had a job organised to start with tho on a farm.

Round the baltic was done by myself as well – except at that time (1990) you could only enter the USSR on a motorcycle as part of an organised group so I joined up with one for the USSR leg.

South America I went to with operation Raleigh as a medic and carried on travelling for a couple of months afterwards.

I would start in somewhere not too unfamiliar such as the antipodes or south america. Its very dislocating and confusing going travelling so minimising culture shock early on can help. Then as you get used to things it becomes easier to go to places that are more different such as India or laos

I think if I did this again it would be cheap bikes – so that they could be discarded if they became a pain and public transport for longer distances.

Having your own vehicle increases cost hugely and also ties you down unless you can discard the vehicle if things go wrong.