PLANNING

YOUR GAP

YEAR …

The easy part is deciding that you

want to go travelling, the hard part

is getting the plan into action.

The biggest problem is information

overload; there's just too many

different voices out there. But fear

not.

We’ve ejected the non-essentials to

give you the simplest first steps to

get you from dreaming, to planning

your trip of a lifetime.

???

“5 SIMPLE STEPS”

1. Budget

“I Haven’t even decided where to go!”

We hear you cry. Keep your little

traveling boots on the ground, you

wont be going anywhere if you don’t

have any cash stashed.

Now is the time to smash open that

piggy-bank, time to ask your parents,

your grandparents, even your fairy

godparents for some monies.

Before you even start

Googleing :FULL mOON PaRTY:

draw up a realistic plan of

how long you want to be

away, how much your going to

need and how long its going

to take to save up for it.

Questions?

1. When do you want to go?

2. How much money do you

have?

3. How much money can you

realistically acquire

by fair means before

departure?

Once you’ve figured out how much money

you have to spend, you will know what

options are open to you or not.

WARNING! A year traveling around

Australia could easily cost £12,000,

and remember immigration might not even

let you in if they don’t think you have

enough money to complete your trip!

2. Duration

Gap Year is some what of a misnomer,

not that many people head out on the

road for a whole year. We’d

recommend 6 months of working and

saving money, followed by 6 months

on the road, but it is totally up to

you.

FACTOID: John Waite is perhaps the

oldest backpacker in the world at 89.

He started traveling in 1982, that’s

30 years on the road!

Are you a fly be the seat

of your pants traveller or

do you need it all planned

out?

Where? .3

TOP 5

1. Backpacking South East Asia

2. Fruit picking in Australia

3. Round the World Ticket

4. Trekking in the Andes

5. Working with an NGO

There really are limitless

opportunities when it comes to your

gap year. It does depend to some

degree on what you want to get out of

your gap year. If you are just

looking for new experiences and fun

then it doesn’t really matter where

you go, but if you are looking for

experiences that will look good on a

CV, you should put a great deal of

thought into this, NGO’s like VSO

offer many opportunities to help

communities around the world.

4. Papers?

Resources.5

PASSPORT:

It is vital that you have a valid

passport for the entire length of your

trip. It can be expensive, stressful

and hard work trying to get a new

passport in a foreign country. It is

also a legal requirement in many

countries that you have a valid

passport with you at all times as a

form if ID.

Where are your papers?!

VISA:

You will almost certainly need a visa

if you plan to travel outwith the EU.

For some countries it’s a simple form

like on flights to Dubai, but for

others you may have to have this

organised long before you get on the

plane to go. Check the UK FCO website

for more info.

1. Foreign & Commonwealth Office

2. gapyear.com

3. Voluntary Services Overseas

4. Bunac

5. STA Travel

6. OZintro

INSURACE:

Insurance may be the last thing you

want to think about when planning your

gap year travel, who wants to think

about things going wrong! But without

it things can go from bad to horrific!