In this recipe, we’ll make a spicy trip from South Korea to Europe, with several stages in South Asia. Disclaimer: We don’t advocate flying unnecessary miles. Fly only if you have to, and go the extra mile by exploring your destinations on an overland journey. The author flies parts of the way because he is relocating with his family from South Korea to Europe.
Preparation time: 1 day
Ingredients
- Four weeks time
- A very modest budget
- Skyscanner.net
- Couchsurfing.org
- Wikipedia for visa requirements
- Seat61.com
Take your time and set it apart. You’ll need it later. Warm up your budget and open skyscanner.net. The best flight search engine around, especially for flexible travelers. Not only does it allow you to look for flights during a whole month, it also shows you the option “Everywhere” in the field destinations. Apart from a temptation to dream away, this enables travelers to mix and match their itinerary. And this makes a lot of sense, because the intrepid traveler seldom just wants to go from A to B – she wants to go from A to Z.
Select your departure country and select “Everywhere” as a destination and “Whole month” or “Whole year” for your travel date. Click “Search” and gently froth the results. Pick the destinations you’re interested in and set them apart. Repeat the process for these destinations by using them as departure countries and see where you can get from there. Mix in a few spoons of overland travel and a pinch of sea travel.
If you are not sure if you need a visa to enter a country, open a new tab in your browser and look it up at Wikipedia. Here’s the wiki for Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Austrian, Belgian, Portuguese, Irish, UK, Canadian and US citizens)
Mix all the destination countries together, stir well, and open couchsurfing.org. In every place of your itinerary, find the right seasoning by doing a “couch search” or have a look at the group discussions and couch offers. If you can’t find a couch, add a dash of hosteling, for example from hostelbookers.com.
In countries where train travel is a viable option (Europe, Russia, India,…) lace your dish with stripes of rail by visiting seat61.com.
Serve hot with a fresh stalk of wanderlust.