All around the world...

Stay in hostels. It is fun and you will meet lots of people to go out on the lash with. Though you might want to budget for a hotel stay every now and then for recovery purposes.

In NYC a cool hostel/hotel is the Gershwin, right in midtown a stone’s throw from the Empire State. It is painfully cool as well as cheap if you stay in a dorm (they are small dorms luckily). But book as far in advance as you can, it is very popular.

http://www.gershwinhostel.com/

If you’ve got any spare time in Auckland you HAVE to go to the Bay of Islands. Few hours north of Auckland, and so beautiful it will ruin you for all other bays, islands and combinations thereof.

Hmmm mid-year is the worst time to visit NZ and Aus, weather-wise, but Sydney is quite nice year round anyway. Auckland is not though. Auckland will be pants. Still, at least you’re already used to day after day of torrential rain.

looks out window sulks

Posted about 1 year ago by agox

Go to Central and South America. Go to the Launch of the Mongol Rally tomorrow and go to Ulaanbaatar in a shit car. Advice: Don’t make any plans. Go to a continent and see what happens.

Posted about 1 year ago by Gulliver

I agree with agox. Staying in hotels is BORING. You will never meet anyone apart from expensive hookers and even more boring cashed up backpackers.

Posted about 1 year ago by Gulliver

Yes, stay in hostels. If you get a bit fed up of sharing a dorm most places do private rooms as well (obviously a bit more expensive but cheaper than a hotel), so you can escape dorm hell for a few nights should you wish.

Posted about 1 year ago by AssumingVakant

@agox – Thanks – know the Gershwin but couldn’t get in last time I was in NYC – tip for anyone reading this, the Americana inn on 38th is a marvellous and cheap hotel.

Auckland probably would be pants if it wasn’t for the girl I’m going to visit there. She wil make it far more enjoyable.

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

Why not try that sofa surfing site, save some dosh and get a local guide in every town? Better a local than fellow backpackers, congregating at the same spots and making their whole gap year feel like a student uni roadshow.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

Well Auckland is actually quite cool, but the WEATHER will be pants – sorry, was a bit unclear there.

Not that it sounds like you will be too worried about the weather!

Edit: ooh yes you should totally go to Latin America. Have lots of tips on Ecuador if yo do. I reckon the best accomm option there is homestays with local families… great way to learn the language a bit and absorb the culture…

wish i was in ecuador right now

Posted about 1 year ago by agox

Auckland’s at least got some life in it, though I preferred Wellington as it’s far more compact to walk around. But avoid staying long in Christchurch, I break out in tweed and woollens just thinking about it.

Well worth taking a cheap flight down to the South Island though, not just Queenstown for the extreme sports but the flight itself over Mount Cook is stunning, the fjords and sounds are worth a boat trip, the Franz Josef glacier’s a good day’s hiking and I took an alpine train through Arthur’s Pass from west to east (Greymouth to Christchurch) that’s also going to live long in the memory. Further up the coast from Christchurch is the best area for whale watching, if that’s your thing.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

Yes – Christchurch mings.

Kaikoura is the whale watching place you are thinking of – it also has great fish and chips.

Wow, you did loads of good stuff Mocks – did you go to Arrowtown or Wanaka? far nicer than Q’town which is of course a total tourist trap. Best airport view in the world, though.

Most of rural Canterbury and Otago is recognisable from the Lord of the Rings… heh

Posted about 1 year ago by agox

Memory’s a bit hazy for names, is Wanaka the big lake to the north of Queenstown? (Checks multimap). Yeah, stayed there a couple of nights, lovely little spot isn’t it? Seem to recall you could get a bloody lovely pizza there as well, which is obviously the making of anywhere.

I went in March which meant I’d missed the greatest excesses of Q’town’s tourists, it was a lot quieter. But preferred Wanaka like you say, and Franz Josef was as friendly a place as anywhere I’ve been. I liked Greymouth too, though I seem to be in a minority of one.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

hehe! Greymouth is full of salt-of-the-earth types, tough ex-miners and the like. Great place – was a real frontier town in my youth.

sorry will stop now seem to have hijacked this thread with kiwi nostalgia

Posted about 1 year ago by agox

I second the Mongol Rally suggestion. It was ace last year, but the next one won’t be until July 2008, so in the meantime, sign up for the Rickshaw Run which is organised by the same lovely people.

You could always go along to the party tonight to quiz them up. See Willster’s thread about this.

Posted about 1 year ago by purpaboo

Right, I think that’s New Zealand covered…. :o)

Unfortunately I’m already busy tongiht. I know the following about Mongolia already though:

There are only around 80km of tarmac in the whole of Mongolia
Mongolians eat freshly harvested animal testicles
Kids live in the sewers where the heating pipes are

Basically I learnt everything I know about Mongolia watching ‘Long way round’

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

Is that the one with Tom Cruise in?

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

Try Romania, it is a beautiful country. It is quite cheap. Villages and small towns more welcoming than big industrial cities where they will steal the shirt off your back and then abandon you in a lorry park full of lonely turkish lorry drivers. Also, in global terms, it is only a hop and a skip to Mongolia!

Posted about 1 year ago by spanky

I did something akin to this, when my then job decided that they no longer wanted my services, I was given a nice bonus and shown the door – so being single at the time, I took myself off for a nice long break – the money helped a lot.

My route – Cape Town, Jo’Burg, Kuala Lumper, Beijing, Honk Hong, LA, New York. Spent about 7 to 14 days in each place, except Beijing where I spent almost a month travelling China.

I stayed in a mixture of Hotels and ‘other forms of accommodation’. Got on really well with all I met.

The accommodation was basic but good enough just to sleep in, which was all I did in the hotels anyway, it was cheaper and more adventurous to eat out, nothing like a plate of grilled Lion stake is there, although fresh Monkey brains was on the menu !!

So go for it, more so it you’ve not done anything like this before, I am really glad I did.

I came back refreshed, knackered but refreshed and ready for a new job.

Good luck Morals, whatever/wherever you decide to go you’ll enjoy it.

Posted about 1 year ago by cobo04

Thanks for all the suggestions so far people! Keep ‘em coming.

places without mosquitoes or killer wasps

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

My advice is;

- Make as few fixed plans as possible – no itineries - Don’t go to too many places - Pack as light as possible - Don’t invite family or friends to see you whilst you’re away – they’ll be in a totally different head-space and they’ll annoy you - Always have $100 stashed away to get you out a scrape - Write a diary, it’s amazing how much you forget within a couple of years. - Go to Ladakh, Nepal and Sikkhim

You lucky bugger – going travelling I mean, not getting made redundant

Posted about 1 year ago by logomomo

I’m chuffed at being made redundant to be honest – if they hadn’t done it I’d have left anyway….

wouldnt have had my redundancy money though

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

Well that was a stroke of luck.

I was watching Michael Palins’ trip through the Himalayas yesterday whilst sporting a terrible hangover and realised that I have to experience that freedom again – once i’ve finished paying off the debts i ran up last time!

Posted about 1 year ago by logomomo