2008 - Washington DC
2010 - Cuba
2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise
2012 - DR & Costa Rica
2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA
2014 - SE Asia
The Year Off 2015 - 2016
- Preamble
- Thailand & Malaysia
- Italy
- Germany, Belgium, & Lux
- Czech, Poland, & Germany
- Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary
- Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany
- England & Scotland
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Peru: Lima & Amazon
- Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail
- Peru: Cusco to Lima
- Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize
- New Zealand
- Australia & Thailand
2017 - The Balkans
2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland
2018 - New York
2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics
2019 - Costa Rica
2019 - France
2020 - Thailand
2023 - Mexico
2023 - Iceland & Cruise
2024 - Philippines
2025 - Japan
2025 - Iceland
Short Trips
Lists
Links
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Around early summer 2014 we decided to sell the company I worked for. We
found a buyer and around mid-September it was sold. This worked out great
for me. Once we decided to sell, I knew I was going to take a year off and
travel. I told my boss after the deal had been announced of my intentions
and that for his next company he would have to find a different accountant.
I felt slightly guilty about that since I had been working for him for about
six years at that point. But my desire to take a year was too strong. So come mid-September I got my bag of cash but I had a problem. The lease on my apartment wasn't up until April of 2015. I decided to work part time at the acquiring company to assist with the transition, which I did until the end of February 2015. This also allowed me time to plan for the year off. Planning In addition to the travel blogs and websites, I also watched all of the Rick Steve’s TV shows. He focuses only on travel in Europe and in my opinion is the best source for travel ideas and advice for that region. His books have really good walking tours of cities and sites (he also has audio guides for some of them available for free) and generally speaking I have found his suggestions on things to do extremely helpful. I also found TripAdvisor helpful, if you search the top things to do at various places there are usually a few good ideas to pick out. I read some books from the library on architecture and paintings to help me better appreciate some of the things I would see in Europe. Those also gave me a few ideas of things to do. So with all this information I knew there were several things I wanted to do: Hike Machu Picchu, tour Europe, and dive the Great Barrier Reef. I had to prebook the hike so I did that for early November. Europe would be from May to sometime before that. My first plan for Europe was to spend about five months on the mainland, starting in Spain and working my way east, but had to change that once I learned that I could only spend a maximum of 3 months at a time there. So I rejiggered my planning with the three months on the mainland, then to Great Britain for a few weeks, then to Turkey, and then back to Canada before heading off somewhere else. |