[Closed] Your Dream Sabbatical

You have one year away from your job,

Good enough for me, where do I sign?

Ride ride round the world on my motorbike, interviewing people who contribute to open source projects as I go, and maybe making it into a TV programme.

(this might actually come true...)

Rachel

EDIT:  didnt read question properly, travel the world.

Race/Ride around the world following EWS/WCDH, racing where I could and discovering along the way

Rtw by bike.

Realistically Alaska to Argentina might be a better years goal .

For one year away- Spend the UK summer sailing around the Scottish West Coast on the boat, then automagically transport it to the otherside of the Panama canal to spend the next 6 months sailing the Pacific atols and archipelagos...

It wasn't a year, admittedly but my wife and I took one last year, and carted our (then) 3 year old son off to Austria for a ski season. Such an amazing time that'll live with me forever. And we have a little boy who's now very handy on skis!

That WAS my dream sabbatical. Now he's off to school. I doubt there will be another for some while!

I'm struggling here, kids are young and need schooling.

My dream adventure involves travelling from home to Australia by land (as much as is practical) but it involves moving through some shady places and I'd rather not put them in harms way like that.

My wife and I have a loose plan to spend a few weeks touring Europe in an MX-5 (or the like). That IS happening just as soon as the Kids are old enough to mind themselves for a few weeks.

Routes 12,7,11,10,9,4,11,8,3 and 1.

Possible 'holiday' through the trip via canoes (e.g. a potter around Sweden or Finland and a trip around the Auvergne white water, and a trip down the 'lost' river of Spain).

Nice one Rachel,hope it happens.

Mine would also involve a Motorcycle tour and volunteer work.

I do a bit just now ,but it would be nice to have time to do work abroad.

Basically I'd spend a year ticking off munros staying in nice Bed and Breakfasts with my wife and daughter, would probably take less than a year, so would include the lakeland feels too, seeing as their really part of Scotland anyway....

Saxonrider, thati s pretty difficult, you'd be better off trying to get to the arctic. It was attempted by Alexander Mackenzie. He hit mountains in the NWT and got pushed north. I did a section of his route back in 2001. 4 friends and I paddle the Mackenzie River from Hay river on Great Slave lake to Inuvik on the Delta. 5 weeks or so on the water and a few weeks logistics at either end (oh to be a student again with long summer holidays!).

Anyway. I'd like to do a long ride, fancied the silk route for a while. Train to Beijing, ride home. My wife has a similar ambition so it might end up on horses not bikes.

I did this!

Well sabbatical suggests going back afterwards, I just binned the job off as it was rubbish, the wife got a sabbatical though.

We spent the NH Winter in of our year in NZ (via Sydney, Singapore and HK), did tons of backcountry hiking, seakayaking, and general sightseeing.  We camped, stayed in backpackers, mountain huts, that sort of thing.

When it started to get a bit cold, we headed back to Europe and drove our camper round France (the Alps, Pyrenees, Provence, saw the TdF), Spain, Slovenia (Bovic and Bled, Belgium, Germany and Italy (Rome, Florence, Lake Garda), we did a metric shedload of riding and hiking.

It probably screwed us slightly financially but I would do the same again in a heartbeat.

Would have to be an MTB tour of the states, start in Colorado, then onto Utah, California, Oregon, Washington and end up in BC. Take in some of the big events on the way, either spectating or competing, would love to do the Downieville Classic and BC Bike Race, being in Whistler for Crankworx would be ace too. Then straight down to New Zealand and I really fancy checking out the riding and culture in Japan so why not head there on the way back home!

Yours are far more imaginative than mine. I would have settled for training for and completing the BGR. Probably a bit old now and too mired in work...

Yeah, I'd love to do something like this. It's the money bit that's the blocker.

Anyway,

I'd go back to Aus and NZ again. I'd like to spend a bit more time driving/cycling/whatever-ing around Aus, so many places I didn't get to visit. I'd dedicate a couple of weeks to just dicking around Melbourne. Maybe even a month - seriously great city.

NZ - I'd spent a big chunk of time here again. More time exploring the North Island as last time I spent the vast majority of time down South - excellent MTB there though. I'd have to go back to Queenstown and Wanaka for a few days at both either way.

Then the rest I'd just chill travelling Europe and whatever. Maybe go to Vegas at the end and stick it all on red. Loose it all, get drunk and aggressive, get thrown out of a casino, beaten up in an alley way, bundled into the back of a van and have my organs harvested and waking up surrounded by Vietnamese in some sketchy part of town. Sounds great.

Motorcycle, long way round style thing, on one of these or alike

Potter around Europe I think. Bits I would like to see again and lots I've never seen at all. Then follow mccraque's lead and spend the entire ski season out there and in Scandinavia.

Either...

Take a crack at the Tour Divide (would need to spend a year training for it!)

or

Circumnavigation on a big yacht (need to get some better sailing quals first)

or

Get my diving instructor certs somewhere warm

Before I met my wife and had sprogs I seriously considered doing the Tour A'Afrique which is an organised trip from Cairo to Cape Town

https://tdaglobalcycling.com/tour-dafrique

When I was considering it it was the first running of the event and it is now in it's seventeeth year. That makes it feel a bit too "established" to be a real adventure but I still quite fancy it and have thought about it over the years.

Kids only seem to get more expensive as the get older though so not much prospect of me doing this for at least a decade with a big windfall.

I want to see things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I'll watch C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like… gears in rain. Time to skive.

I'd leave the UK, do some mountain bike guiding in Whistler, do some road tripping, avoid real work by getting a job as a bike mechanic, end up getting married (and divorced), move to Squamish and still avoid real work but be able to ride some of the best trails around straight from where I live. Oh hang on......

Van, bike, go sightseeing and find cool places to ride. Would probably stay in hotels if I could but occasional nights out in the wilderness would be nice.

I’d follow the snow, our winter would be a season on Red mountain in BC, with a trip to Japan for three-four weeks.

Our summer would be split between NZ & South American resorts.

The off season I’d fit in a bit of sun, sea and some biking where I could.

I'd probably train super-hard for an ultra-endurance event. Some kind of transcontinental ride.

Work for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory team.  Especially at the moment.

Probably New Zealand. Just go explore, ride, watch live rugby... stuff like that.

Almost had the chance when I got made redundant a few years back, but had just bought a house, had a growing son, and was scared I wouldn’t be able to find a job... still did some working on a farm, rode nearly every day, spent a few weeks in Canada with the lad, so didn’t completely waste it. (thats what i tell myself anyway!)

America and EU trip. I would do it in a Campervan and probably spend a lot of time being outdoors and wearing an unwashed shirt, cooking, drinking beer, reading. Getting fat and good at riding.

Modern life - meh.

3 years I will be on it - once I retire

First leg is to climb a 20 000 ft mountain - ( unguided)  I have my eye on a few candiadtes in Bolivia.  Also do some long trekking in the altiplano and in Patagonia.  The warm up will be to walk from Edinburgh to cape wrath and return

2nd leg will be a roadtrip in the antipodes

3rd leg will be to cycle from the north sea to the black sea following the Rhine and the Danube with excursions to Transylvania and Bohemia

4th will be an india subcontinent trip including going to a big cricket match

After that we have a few options.

I would complete my unfinished travels around Greece, ride my bike a lot, and spend some time working on an alpaca farm.

I took a sabatical 16 years ago, and I'm still on it. At the end of the year we were no worse off financially and the routine worked.

Travelling can be amusing (and sometimes a right royal pain in the arse) but the best part is having time to do things that whilst not even slightly exotic bring a smile to our faces or a sense of satisfaction. That can be a simple as a walk along the river on a nice day, a swim, fixing things around the home, watching a German soap in the afternoon, reading... and not having to worry about what time it is or how long before you need to be doing something or be somewhere.

I would like to spend a year north of the arctic circle

A woman at my work decided to jack it in and cycle from Norway to Mongolia... when she left she said ‘I’ll maybe see you in a year... I haven’t decided...’ last I heard she had got to the Urals (there was a postcard from St Petersburg arrived this week, sounds likes she’s enjoying herself).

ive had a hankering for the last couple years to go ride the tour divide (not race it though). Realistically it’s more likely to be the Colorado Trail.... even ‘just’ that would entail some serious preparation!

When things were getting bad at home and work was rough, I had a plan to sell up and head over to the US to do a full length drive from Alaska to the tip of South America. I had the route planned out and was really ready to go, but you can't take dogs with you on a trip like that, so I stayed. The same thing happened for my plan to drive to see a mate in Sydney.

Now though, I'd probably choose a year off to just cruise the world skydiving as much as I could in as many interesting places as I could. I reckon I could get a 1000 jumps in with enough decent weather.

If I got bored/pissed off with work I'd probably look for a chance to go somewhere like Japan, live there for a while, spend time walking in the mountains and getting to know the place. Then when I'd had enough I would come back and retire to somewhere like the Dales.

Oh, I did  🙂

Thinly veiled humble brag there.

9 years ago, my wife and I both asked for a 6 month sabbatical, and managed to get it:

SE Asia

Uk - Bangkok, travelled overland north, crossing into Laod and taking the slow boat down the Meekong. Overland to Cambodia for new year in Phnom Penh, then Angkor wat, back to Bangkok, train down to the Islands. Learnt to dive. Speedboat to Langkawi (Malaysia) and meandered down to Singapore by train, flying out to Sydney.

Australia & New Zealand

City break in Sydney, catching Australia Day. Onto Christchurch, where we picked up a 1966 VW Camper, original split window type. Three weeks in the Southern Island, diving, hiking, sky diving, wine tasting, before taking the ferry to the north. Rotarua, Tongariro, Bay of Islands, before finishing in Auckland. Flew to Santiago, Chile.

S. America

Santiago to Mendoza, then down to Patagonia: Torres del Paine (W trek), estancias, Perito Moreno. Up to Bolivia - world's most dangerous road, mines in Potosi, salt flats at Uyuni, Titicaca, jungle at Rurrenebaque, then over to Peru. Cusco, Salkantay trek to Macchu Pichu, Lima, Huaraz then trekking in the cordillera blanca. Down to Buenos Aires, then Iguacu falls, Rio, and home.

Looking back, I can't quite believe we did it, but am so glad we did. If any of you ever get the opportunity, you'll not regret it.