Unreal, right? If I were to pay for this adventure with cash and book individual flights, it would cost almost $6,000 (using the cheapest option for each leg on Expedia.com). The best part is, the dates of this adventure aren’t set in stone – as long as I don’t change WHERE I’m going, I can change the date and time of each stop without penalty.

How did he do it? Well, frequent flyer miles, of course. But Steve is not a globe-trotting businessman who racks up miles by the thousands. Instead, he took advantage of various special offers to build up his frequent flyer accounts, using some of travel hacking tips popularized by Chris Guillebeau and others.

As far as affording the rest of the journey, Steve has a bit of passive income from an Internet business, but once the transportation is paid for travel can be done quite inexpensively, as most long-distance travelers know.

Once I’m not paying rent, car insurance, car payments, or fuel…my financial ties will be minimal (just some student loans and health insurance). When I don’t have my money promised elsewhere, I can use the rest of my money to live VERY CHEAPLY overseas (hostels, couch surfing, etc.).

Just another example of how travel is more accessible than many people realize. It just takes desire, willpower and perhaps a bit of creativity. Check out Steve’s entire article for the blow-by-blow details of how he racked up the miles and planned his journey.

Photo credit: JaGa via Wikimedia Commons.

Where does your road lead?

It’s a great question, and it was posed by Nico Crisafulli in a piece he wrote for AirTreks. As he phrases the query:

How can we travel like we want and still maintain the nested, domestic life we spent most of our early days expecting, preparing for and nurturing.

The author suggests there are at least six means to this end. “At least to an extent.” Here are two of his suggestions:

Get a job in another country – This may be your best bet. International jobs place you where you’d otherwise be traveling, allowing full-immersion cultural experiences to happen every day and to feel as though you’re on the road without actually going anywhere. Weekend trips can be exotic excursions and a night dining out can be Cahill-worthy. Perhaps don’t even leave your company but work remotely. Many companies are now allowing this to save money. Find out if your employer allows for this and if so, jump on it.

Career break – I talked about this before but a career break may be just thing you needed, a sort of transitional awakening to show you what’s important in your life. You may discover that it wasn’t actually the crock pot you wanted all along. Plus, as we’ve been told, a career break doesn’t have to equal career suicide.

Or, as he notes, you could also:

Just. Let. Go. – Then there’s the other route – to open your mind and accept alternatives to the traditional. Of course this would be the more difficult option since it challenges long-standing belief systems forged over decades. Fortunately, the white-picket-fence lifestyle is getting pretty tired in the new age. The general attitude of the 2010s is choose for yourself what to do with your life not what tradition tells you.

It’s an interesting topic, and one that many of us have grappled with. Check out the entire article for more of his thoughts and suggestions.

Photo credit: Bob Riel

At the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina.

We recently heard Lillie Marshall discuss her experiences from the one-year leave of absence she took from teaching in order to travel, and about the Meet, Plan, Go! event that is being held Tuesday evening in 13 cities across North America. So now is a good time to check out a recent story that was published by the U.K. Independent about why an extended career break can be a good career move.

Career breaks are no longer the sole preserve of university graduates looking to broaden their horizons on gap years before plunging themselves into the world of work. In fact, about 90,000 people every year – 60 per cent of them women – take some sort of career break. Typically, these individuals are in their late twenties or early thirties, although an increasing number are in their forties and fifties.

A career break is a period of unpaid leave from work which is agreed with your employer, who will allow you to return to a similar role on your return…The most common length of break is four to six months, although a year is not unusual and some take up to two years.

Yes, the title of the article does mention that this can also be a good career move. And the story points out one example of a woman who reaffirmed her commitment to her job and career while she was away and turned that enthusiasm into a promotion soon after she returned. There are others, of course, who decide to change careers entirely:

Ms Morgan-Trimmer speaks from experience. She embarked on a four-month world trip that took in South-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand while she was working for a gap-year company. “My inspiration was that I was jealous of all the youngsters I was advising,” she recalls. “One of my main aims was to be brave and try new things. It’s easier when you’re away from home because you’re forced to face challenges.”

She also uncovered a hidden talent for scuba-diving. “I was the typical chubby girl who was always last to be picked for the teams at school, so to be told I was good at a sport was a pleasant surprise,” she jokes.

Her return to Britain saw her set up a business advising other would-be career breakers. “I had found it hard to organise everything before I left, particularly boring stuff such as council tax, so used my experiences to help make it easier for others.”

There is more information in the full article. But don’t just read that one story. You can check out my book and my overview of career breaks, for one, but if you’re in or near one of the 13 Meet, Plan, Go! cities then make plans to attend that event and meet other people who have had this experience. I’ll be a panelist at the Boston event, so if you’re in the audience stop by and say hello!

Retirement Doesn’t Always Reward You with the Time or Ability to Travel – Have you ever really thought about the person you will be when you are 65? What will your health be like, what will your sense of adventure be like, and most importantly, will your health be able to support your sense of adventure?

What activities are you saving for your retirement – bungy jumping in New Zealand, climbing mountains in Nepal, hiking the Great Wall of China, or horseback riding in Mongolia? Will these things really be possible at retirement age? We spend all of our life waiting, waiting, waiting…until we are free from the shackles of work. However what if when we are unshackled, we can’t do it? Consider taking a mini-retirement now, while you know you can trek the Inca Trail.  If people can have a mid-life crisis, then why can’t you have a mid-life retirement?

Cure your Hurry Sickness and Return to Simplicity – Many Americans are plagued by ‘Hurry Sickness’.  The more we speed up, the less we can slow down. Not only do we multi-task at work but we multi-task our leisure time as well – watching TV and surfing the web, or working out on the elliptical and reading a magazine. We are no longer capable of simply doing one thing and being happy about it.

This has also made us a very impatient society – some may even say rude. How many times have you pressed the “door close” on the elevator, even though someone else is trying to get on? And how often do you catch yourself tapping your foot and huffing away while standing in line for something? We always seem to be in a rush to get nowhere fast.

A traveling career break will force you to slow down and learn to be patient again. As you immerse yourself into other cultures you will observe simplicity and patience that Americans have somehow lost. Sure it can be a frustrating experience letting go of how you expect things to get done, but it will open up your eyes to how the rest of the world operates. In the process you will actually have time to take it all in and appreciate a new, simpler way of doing things.

See the entire article for eight more reasons to consider a sabbatical.

You started your world-wide travels with (and I quote) “deciding to take a chance in life”. Could you give us a little background into that decision-making process?

Well, my wife and I were both over 30-years-old and entrenched in our work lives when we decided to take our first round-the-world trip. Frankly, we weren’t sure we were ready to stop everything in order to do this and then re-start our lives when the trip was over. We also had to get over the normal doubts over how others would perceive our decision. In the end, though, we also didn’t want to go through life knowing we had passed up an opportunity to have an adventure together and to do some long-term travel.

The way we dealt with it was for my wife to ask for a leave of absence from work. Her employer was gracious in granting her the leave and keeping her job open. Since I was already making a transition to being self-employed, it was easier for me to manage the time off. Of course, by not stopping work completely we didn’t have as much time available to travel as we could have had by simply quitting altogether. Our trips were measured in months, rather than years. I have to say, if Twitter had been around a few years earlier and I’d been introduced to all of these other amazing people who were managing long-term travel between jobs, then our outlook might have been different.

Still, it was a good compromise given where we were in our lives. And it did have an unseen benefit, in that we began looking at our travels in a particular way – not as an open-ended adventure, but rather as a sabbatical that would be limited in time but that would have a lasting influence on our lives.

You also refer to the term “life sabbatical.” What does that phrase mean to you?

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that our trips were not open-ended encouraged us to view the experience as a sabbatical. Academic sabbaticals stem from the notion that there is value in taking time away from the everyday rigors of a job in order to rest, reflect or conduct research. The goal is to return to work with renewed energy and ideas. And the word sabbatical derives from the word Sabbath, with every seventh day meant to be devoted to family time and contemplation.

So I took to calling our trip a “life sabbatical” because it seemed to imbue it with more meaning than if I simply looked at it as a travel adventure. It helped us to view our journey as a way to learn about ourselves and the world, while also recharging our energies for the next phase of our lives. I actually think it would be a great thing if more people were able to schedule these “mini-retirements” periodically through life. Not only can we not bank on being able to fulfill all of our travel dreams during the traditional retirement years, but this time away from work really does give us an opportunity to recharge and even re-evaluate where we are in our lives and careers.

See the entire interview for my answers to a number of other questions. While you’re there you should also browse through his collection of interviews with other travelers and writers.

Michael Bontempi just wrote about his own career break and travel experiences for the Briefcase to Backpack site. Like pretty much everyone I know who has ever attempted this, he had an incredible experience, time to reflect on his life, and no problem finding a new job and resuming a career when he was back home. Here is an excerpt of what he had to say:

My career break gave me the opportunity to reflect on my previous 14 years of experience and helped me to reevaluate my career path and evaluate if I was on the right track. Ironically, putting our 9-month plan together started me on the decision path for my next role. It came very natural to me to orchestrate all the moving parts that would be required to enable me to enjoy my career break and ensure that our life back home was in order at the same time.

So as I started my career search at the beginning of 2008, the one frequent question that was on everyone’s mind was “how I would be able to explain my career break to a new employer?” To be honest, this was not something I was overly concerned about. I had decided that when asked, I would tell my story as it happened. To hide the truth or try to spin this time into something it wasn’t would be foolish. Surprisingly, most of the negative reaction to my career break decision came from the recruiters I worked with, and very little concern from the potential new employer. In today’s competitive market, some could view a career break as a handicap, while most see it as a differentiator…

For anyone that is considering a career break with hopes of returning to a career, you will inevitably have many doubts, concerns and questions. But at the end of the day, the choice to take a career break is not just about the travel – it’s about you. It’s about trying to reflect on all that you have accomplished and what you haven’t and determining if the current path you’re on will eventually put more in that “accomplished” category.

Check out his entire story, and the rest of the Briefcase to Backpack site.

People tend to think that we live our lives with no vision of the future and no equity what-so-ever just spending our money until it runs out. Others tend to think that we are independently wealthy, spoiled in the fact that we just have a lot of money. As a matter a fact neither is true.

Here is an overview as to how we live our lives and still manage to take extended trips around the world as part of the middle class demographic.  In the past 10 years, we have traveled to 37 countries. Not on short week long vacations at an all inclusive resorts, but on trips that last for months at a time, where we delve into the culture and live with the people.

Dave and Deb report that they never travel on borrowed money and continue to invest for retirement even while they’re on an extended trip. At home, they keep their expenses to a minimum so they’re able to save for their next journey, and they lodge in inexpensive local guesthouses or even campsites while on the road. If you want some good tips for living the traveling life, please read their entire piece. They’re great advocates for the reality that anyone can do extensive travel if you plan ahead and keep travel costs low.

I “retired” from the rat race at the tender age of 30 to embrace my life-long dream of traveling the world, before life had a chance to get in the way.

So far, I have frolicked in the Rocky Mountains, fallen off the grid in Hawaii, managed tropical hostels, survived Australia’s worst-ever natural disaster, led eco-treks on Llamas, and nearly froze to death in a camper van. (The traveling life is rarely a dull one.)

I am not rich. I am not a trust child, nor do I have rich parents, a sugar daddy, or a stream of income that allows me to live the high life on the road. Full time travel doesn’t have to be expensive, and after two years on the road, I’ve learned plenty of tricks to travel the world without breaking the bank, and without an end in sight.

In the article, she provides tips on cheap airfare, free accommodations, working while traveling, rethinking travel expenses, and more. It’s chock full of good information. If you have any desire at all to engage in long-term travel, you need to read her story and take notes.

If the thought of living on the road seems appealing, you’ve got company. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few weeks in an exotic place, discovering a new culture, seeing the sights, living like a native, and then moving on to the next destination? …

So what’s the secret to becoming a modern-day nomad? I asked people who were already doing it, and here’s what they said:

1.  Find a reason. Most transients have a portable career that allows them to travel freely. They’re consultants, freelancers or teachers, for example. But there are other ways to make money when you’re nomadic. In 2006, Tiffany Owens and her husband became full-time property caretakers. Both had been frustrated with their former careers — she was a magazine editor and he was a cable installer — and needed a break. “Now, I garden instead of sitting in boardroom meetings,” she says. “I couldn’t be happier.” Check out the newsletter Caretaker Gazettefor caretaking opportunities.

2. Travel extra light.That’s the advice of Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.org. He became what he calls “unstuck” about two years ago, spending a month in Tokyo, San Francisco, New York, and Buenos Aires. “Pack less, and become unattached to possessions,” he says. “And then … pack less.” You’ll be living out of a suitcase for months — literally.

There are a total of nine tips in Elliott’s article. Read the whole thing for the full scoop on being a world nomad.

This year may be a disastrous one for the global economy, but it’s shaping up to be one of the best that Heather Eisenlord has enjoyed in a good long while. Granted, that might not be saying much: For the past five years, Ms. Eisenlord has been an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, a notably grueling place for a lawyer to work.

But even by more stringent standards of fun, the coming year looks pretty good. Ms. Eisenlord, 36, who works in Skadden’s banking group, will be buying a plane ticket that will take her around the world for a year, and she’s been stocking her apartment in Brooklyn with Lonely Planet travel guides.

Although she’s not yet sure exactly what she’ll be doing on her trip, she has some ideas. She would like to teach English to monks in Sri Lanka and possibly help bring solar power to remote parts of the Himalayas. She’ll probably hit 10 to 15 destinations around the world, most likely practicing not-for-profit law wherever she can be helpful.

The best part of all: Skadden is paying her about $80,000 to do it. For a sixth-year associate at a New York law firm, $80,000 isn’t exactly competitive pay. But for someone cruising around the world, doing good wherever she sees fit and, let’s face it, probably hitting a beach or two, the pay is excellent.