The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

by Rough Guides (Author) "I've just got three months..." (more)
Key Phrases: passport pouch, daily max, little extra research, New Zealand, South America, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
INTRODUCTION

The world is flat. Or so the thinking went, until someone actually went off to circumnavigate it. You may not make such a colossal discovery during your own global journey, but what awaits you "out there" is something only you can find: your very own adventure. Beyond your part of the planet lie mountain ranges with echo-bending canyons, tangled jungles, deserts that stretch into sanguine sunsets and yellow savannah veiling lions, wildebeest and springbok. There are retina-burning white beaches tapering off into vodka waters that serve as a playground for dolphins, turtles and manta rays. Not to mention over 6000 languages, countless botanical wonders, architectural masterpieces and geological anomalies. All that is already out there. The decision to find it is yours.

My own plan was to walk out the front door, head to Florida and try to hitchhike on yachts to South America – all on a budget stretched tighter than Liz Taylor’s forehead. Without getting into details, my yacht-hitching scheme only got me as far as the Virgin Islands. And the only reason I made it that far was because I flew there. (Turned out I was trying to hitch south during hurricane season, when all the boats were headed north or into safe harbours.) This start, however rocky, did launch me on a two-and-a-half-year trip that forever changed my life. And not just because it ended with a car accident in Bangkok, which left me in the unfortunate position of having a broken ankle and amoebic dysentery – a tragic combination of constantly having to go to the loo, and never being able to get there quickly enough.

Before I get ahead of myself, though, I just want to assure you this book is not going to try to persuade you to travel, nor make grandiose assertions that stomping around the planet with a coated-nylon pack will somehow fulfil whatever may be missing from your life. Travel is an urge best cultivated from within. In fact, one of the biggest favours you can do for yourself is to travel if and when you’re ready, not when someone else thinks you should. The more eager you are to open yourself up to life on the road, the more willing you are to embrace the unknown rather than sign up for a pre-packaged air-conditioned experience, the more likely you are to reap real rewards.

Believe it or not, nearly anyone can get around the world in one piece (or in my case, two), and I’d be lying if I told you that you needed this book to come back alive. However, the down side to blindly winging it is that you’ll make mistakes, some potentially dangerous, many costly and some just plain embarrassing. By the time you get through the first section of this book, you should be savvy enough to chart an itinerary for your trip and avoid nearly all the snares that await you. With a glimpse of life on the road, a feel for the essentials, and by addressing a number of travel’s most testing issues ahead of time, you’ll be well on your way.

The regional profiles in the second part of the book tell you what it costs to get around, how long it’ll take to cross the various landmasses and if there are any rail, bus or air passes you may wish to buy ahead of time to make things cheaper and more convenient. You’ll notice we took some liberties in dividing up the world into eight regions: North America, for instance, normally includes Mexico, but because of popular overland routes, a shared language and its latitude, it has been placed in the Central America and the Caribbean section. The regional maps are meant to provide ballpark estimates of the times and costs of overland travel on common routes. They are by no means instructing you to take such routes (it’s always better to find your own way), nor are they completely accurate, since prices change, exchange rates fluctuate and delays do occur, particularly in less-developed regions.

Of course, you’ll want more specific information eventually, either from websites or publications listed in the Basics section at the end of this book or from your guidebook once you arrive. But at this point, much more information than what you’ll find provided here will bog down your planning process instead of helping it along. And remember that there’s such a thing as too much planning. One of the greatest thrills of travel is trying to make your way between two points by the least travelled, most arduous route, chancing rides and roads and climates as you go.

About the Author
After nine years on the road Doug Lansky has all the qualifications necessary to inform first-time travellers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides (April 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843530570
• ISBN-13: 978-1843530572
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #291,441 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Need For Planning A Global Journey, September 15, 2005

By	Chris Luallen (Nashville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

From visas to packing, from travel costs to the best places to visit, this book does an outstanding job in preparing a potential traveller for a long term international trip. I especially appreciated the "Basics" section which contained a wealth of internet resources.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that this book is primarily geared toward young backpackers who want to travel the world on a super tight budget. Also the writer is British and his primary reading audience is European youth, among whom the 1 year RTW (Round the World) trip is almost a rite of passage. But there is also a much smaller but equally adventurous set of young American backpackers for whom the book would be just as useful. Personally, I began travelling on the cheap at age 18. But at the ripe old age of 37 I'm more inclined towards mid-range international travel. So sometimes I felt the writer's numerous suggestions on how to scrape by on pennies weren't 100% relevant. But at age 21 I would have loved his advice. Plus I'm so frugal by nature that I still kinda like it.

Overall it's hard to imagine a better book for the young backpacker or really anyway wanting to make a RTW trip.Highly recommended!

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Know-how for roads more and less traveled, May 8, 2003

By A Customer

Everythign in here is stuff you could figure out after a hundred hours on the internet, networking in a few dozen traveler ghettos and spending a few years lugging way too much, uh, luggage, but chances are your globetrotting will go farther, cheaper and (if you're smart about it) slower than if you had to figure it all out from scratch. Lots of emphasis on getting off the tourist trail and out interacting with local culture, written by a guy who's been doing just that for nearly a decade...

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is the BEST book!, August 18, 2003

By A Customer

My husband and I are planning an extensive around-the-world trip for next year. While we are travel-savvy, we have never done this type of trip. Also, we are in our 30s, so we aren't doing a true "backpacker" trip, nor will it be luxury travel, it will be somewhere in the middle. This book is a MUST for anyone planning an extensive trip. It gives you the lowdown on a hundred topics, from medical/health, insurance, etc to basic overviews of the different regions and countries. It gave us a LOT to think about, and has me doing further research on issues that I had never even thought about. A MUST READ!!