How We Planned Our Route

Trip planning over breakfast

The first thing we did for planning this trip was to list our must-see’s (in order):

Machu Picchu (Peru)
Trans Siberian Railway (Russia)
Easter Island (Chile)
Great Wall (China)
Terracotta Warriors (China)
Himalayas (Nepal)

From this list, we started thinking about the route in general. Two of our must-see’s are in South America, three are in Asia, and one from Asia to Europe. It turns out that Machu Picchu is best seen June – August and since it is our first pillar, we decided we should start our trip in South America in June. From there, we entertained two directions:

West to Asia then Europe
East to Europe then Asia

We chose to go West for several reasons. First, the seasons lined up with our destinations more easily. We will be in locations during good weather but not peak tourist season. Second, since Asia is cheaper than Europe, going there first might be better for long term travel. And third, Horace Greeley said, “Go West, young man.” And by “young man” I’m sure he meant “married couple in their thirties embarking on world adventure.” Obviously. So the order of our destinations began to take shape:

South America (June 2015 – ?)
- Peru
- Chile
Asia
- Nepal
- China
Europe
- Russia (We know Russia is actually in both Asia and Europe, but since it will be our gateway to Europe, we thought we would categorize it under Europe)

We could probably spend the entire year just exploring this five countries, but we want to see a little more than that. We started to research neighboring countries and countries along the way that we might want to visit. This is where our number of destinations quickly ballooned. The list below is unquestionably unreasonable for a year, but these are the countries we are interested in visiting and actively researching. Our guess is that we will average about a country a month, but you never know. Maybe we will love traveling fast and cruise through 20 countries. Or maybe we will want to stay in every location for longer and only visit 6 countries. Time will tell.

South America (June 2015 – September 2015)
- Peru
- Bolivia
- Paraguay
- Uruguay
- Argentina
- Chile
Pacific (October 2015)
- Tahiti
- New Zealand
Asia (November 2015 – March 2016)
- Nepal
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Laos
- Cambodia
- China
- Mongolia
Europe (April 2016 – May 2016)
- Russia
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania

Our motto is “over plan, then go with the flow.” This way, we know our options, but we aren’t locked into anything. As long as we have food to eat and places to sleep, everything will be fine… probably. Let the adventure begin!