And dreaming is more or less the key feature of our planning. Well, planning is anyway a word that can mean so much.. or so little. In our case planning was normally just to search a cheap flight and booking it. It’s one of many approaches for getting things done for the next trip. Others love to plan every step of journey ahead to get the (in their opinion) maximum out of the time they got. It definitely is an interesting topic to talk about. What’s necessary to plan, what’s too much and were do you draw your line…
Anyway.. what’s next was what I was going to write about… We once started a list of countries (and regions) we could imagine to visit next. Unfortunately the list got long and didn’t help at all with our try to decide rationally. That’s already a short version of our original list:
- India
- Sri Lanka
- Indonesia (Lombok or Java)
- South Africa
- Utah (Winter)
- Canada
- Back to San Juan del Sur
- Balkan
- European surftrip
- Western Australia
- Southern Australia
- New Zealand
- Peru/Bolivia/Chile/Argentinia
- Japan
- …
Well.. as already mentioned there was even more on the list, but even those 14 options were too much to decide where to go next instantly. Sure, some of the ideas could be connected others are rather short than long trips. So we had to find some key features the country must fulfill.
The list missed its original task, but it started us thinking and talking and dreaming and ..
After some longer conversations we came up with an idea that helped crossing out quite a lot of destinations. Our goal is to get on a trip together. Together means the two of us and the dog. Nica has to join us (if possible) for several reasons but mainly because its unfair for the dog. It can not be that the has to stay always in switzerland when we are travelling, she needs some new travel experience, too. So why not travel with her on another continent. Well we asked her and she was happy to join us. As long as she gets the food right on time (and of course.. enough of it).
So selection got easy. All travels that included many border crossings were out (since bordercrossings are a hazzle without a dog anyway and the dog is for sure not going to make it easier).
Finally we decided, that it has to be either a road trip with our own car or a “stationary” trip where we will get flat or at least a room for a longer period of time in order to make things easy with Nica.
Since we doesn’t have too much money aside, the next trip has to include quite a lot of ways to get money during traveling. Which means I have to talk with my boss and Bea will have to find some work wherever we are. And I need to get my german passport, it makes things just easier in a couple of countries that do have some agreements with Germany but not with Switzerland (Australia or New Zealand for example).
Another optional requirement would be the know already someone in the region who might help getting things done (buying a car, getting a flat). It’s always good to get backup from a local.
Here the list after reviewing it with the mentioned criterias (we did get rid of the short trip ideas and focussed on longer travel ideas, too):
- Southafrica roundtrip
- Utah winter season
- Canada
- Oceania (Australia and New Zealand)
Finally the list got shorter. Our next step now is to find out how it is working with the dog. In which of the remaining countries is it even possible to get the dog with us? How difficult is it? How much money do we have to put aside just for getting the dog into the country?
Besides of that we have to find out how much the different visas cost.. For how long we can get a tourist (or even a working) visa, what are the requirements for the different visas and how much do we have to save for the flight.
The final decision might be quite rational (but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a emotional decision anyway).
We will keep you updated. I have to talk with my boss now 
(or if he reads that he might even approach me first.. lets see)
P.S. wow.. when starting this blog post I didn’t intend on getting further with deciding. But somehow we managed to cross out most. This is most likely the most planning we did – EVER.
