Under/Over planning

[PatOnTrip]

Hi,

I'm currently planning my trip to Central and South America and I don't know and much in detail I should plan.

What do you consider under or over planning for such a trip?

I started to read Lonely Planet/Footprint books and noted camp site, cheap hotels, place to visit.

Do most people take time to select place to stay or only select the place they want to see?

Rigth now, I feel like I don't know which road I will take once I'll be there. So why loosing time trying to select place to sleep.

What should be the planning for such a trip?


Thanks,

Patrick

[RichLees]

for me, planning means chosing and prepping a bike based on how long I'll be away and roughly where I'm going. even chosing who to ride with is a lottery that I'll avoid another time cos it just throws the rest of the plan to the four winds.
- bike
- duration and finances
- rough direction
go for it!

[beddhist]

The guide books are geared towards backpackers, so a lot of the accomm may not be suitable to us bikers, if there is nowhere to park your bike in a big city. I'd certainly note the recommended accoms near the places I want to visit. En route you are on your own anyway, unless you pick up a recommendation or two here or from other travellers.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

[Grant Johnson]

I know people who planned everything down to the time of day they would see attractions, and had the photo albums pre-labelled before they left.

Otoh, we decided to go to Europe and had no idea from there.

Someone said something about the midnight sun June 21 - hmmm sounds good, ok, where - Norway? Sounds good. Get there and decide Norway is great, we could just keep going to Nordkapp. Get there, and find there's nowhere to go but south.

Headed south, ended up in Namibia a year and something later, running low on funds, and debating about how to ship the bike home - realised "South America's on the way!" (to Canada)

Shipped to Argentina, decided we might as well go all the way to the bottom at Ushuaia while we're in the neighbourhood, and then we've done top and bottom of Europe/Africa, and now bottom of South America. Got to Ushuaia, discovered we could get to Antarctica for cheap, so we did that. Of course from Antarctica there's only one direction - north. Ended up in Prudhoe Bay Alaska 8 months or so later.

We paid little attention to Lonely Planet, just picked upo tidbits of info on the way.

No schedule, no specific destination - leaves room for serendipity.

Wouldn't do it any other way...

ymmv...

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

[PatOnTrip]

Ok, I'll stop right now to take notes of places to stay. Maybe it's just that I see this trip so big and knowing some places where to sleep gives me some sens of security.

From my past trip around US and Canada, a few things I really liked was: Waking in the morning and asking myself what do I want to do today: Should I stay or leave? I had no schedule at all. And then I was taking my map, closing my eyes and pointing where I would go today. That was great...

So I guess I'll be in that mood again after a few days down there.


Thanks,

Patrick

[greenhorn]

Pat, I find traveling by myself (I don't know if you do or not) tends to make things seem maybe a little more "intimidating" than they are when I have someone to travel with. Not knowing the language, you don't have anyone to turn to and say, "what'd he say?", and you don't have anyone to turn to and ask, "ya 'reckon this is ok to eat?". There's also never a division of labor solo, everything is encumbant upon you, and that makes things different (harder).

Having said that, once I'm on the road, alot of the axiety of being alone tends to take care of itself and tends to abate.

I also am in the middle of planning a trip to "the end of the world" (solo). This trip, for me anyway, is just to large a trip to plan a "time and place" itinerary for. My planning has consisted mainly of health issues (immunizations, water, etc), and reading up on others' experiences about border crossings, shipping my bike, learning a few key phrases of spanish, etc. A little reading up on these kinds of things brings more piece of mind to me as a solo rider than where I'll be and when will I be there. That's the adventure part!!!

Have a great trip and I hope to meet up with you on Ruta 40!!

Adios,
David Cate

[pietro.spera]

I think the matter is: how much time you have to travel.

If you have many months or even years, in that case you don't need to plan a lot. You can improvise day by day, and face the problems (visa, shipping, documents, etc.) when - and if - you have them.

But if you have few weeks or months and you plan a long and challenging trip, you can not avoid to have a tight schedule and to try to solve in advance as much problems as you can. It's simply a must, not a choice.

I know it's much less romantic, but for many of us, with a busy career and a family, it's the only option, a compromise between dreams and reality.

On the other hand to plan a trip is already great. As somebody said, the trip start when you begin to think about it.

[fireboomer]

There are indeed different 'voyages' to make.

If we go mountaineering most things are planned quite well ahead. Main route, places to camp, food and water supllies, climbing gear needed, alternative routes end even evacutation routes if appropiate.
It basicly means you study the maps very well and do resaerch on local infrastructure.

BUT if I go on a trip with my motorbike I prepare in a different way. There is one major simularity and that is study the map.
We buy a Lonely Planet and other books (for ex. this time: rock climbing guides of spain and guide on enviromental friendly hosting / campings). Then we also buy the Michelin regional maps of the regions we wonna go to.
This time basicly all from Pyrenees to Picos d' Europa.
Anything we read and like is indicated on the map. So we only take the book and open it on the page it says on the map.

That way you get to know the area you wonna go to and once on the road you can plan from day to day. Were am I and what is around me on the map? So what will I do tomorrow?
I usually do this during the evenings and then go to bed dreaming about the comming day.
Since the routes inbetween and the timetable is not fixed it leaves plenty of room for discovery's and suprises.

Ok, it will cost you a bit of money on maps and guides, but it raises the quality of your trip, if you are limited in time.

The only exeption to me is when you have the luxuary to travel for months in an area that you can easely cover in that time. (for ex 2 or 3 months in Spain) Or if you are one of the lucky ones that is on the road for years.

[pantrybear]

Obviously, everyone does things differently and there are different purposes for travelling. All my travels up until now hav e been backpacking trips of a month or two at a time. Now, I'm preparing to start travelling on my bike but my main goal will still be to experience the cultures of other countries and visit historical sites.

That said, personally, I love planning trips. I read as much as I can, both history and guide books. I make a list of the things I want to see in a given country or area and then I try to prioritize them. From that I come up with a basic route and a rough timeline to guide me. Once on the road, everything is flexible but I at least can look at my notes and say "I just heard about this great place off of my planned route, if I go there, I may miss this or that" etc.

I don't think you can plan too much especially if you're travelling by yourself (like I do) because it will give a feeling of security. On the other hand, don't get locked in to your plans, be flexible.

As for hotels, I generally read the guidebooks and note where the hotels tend to be clustered and then wander through and pick a hotel by eye. For restaurants, I don't use the guidebooks, there are usually so many restaurants I just pick one that looks and smells good (and clean) and that I see the locals eating at.

[McGowan]

I am going to set myself places I definatly want to see.

For example, I HAVE to see Moscow, most of Japan, Australia, NZ, SA etc etc etc. I am likely to work it this way. If I say I want to go to these places but don't set a time I will probably miss something along the way. Instead I am going to say to myself "Well Look, I can get to Moscow from here in 3 days travelling flat out so I'll give myself 30 days to really see the stuff on the road as I go, on the 27th day I will probably be a good solid days ride from Moscow but I know I'll be able to get there. So my route will look something like this.

Day 1: Leave UK
Day 20: Scandinavia
Day 40: Moscow
Day 80: Japan
Day 100: Aus/NZ
Day 120: India
day 140: Middle east
Day 200: SA
Day 220: Italy
Day 240: Spain
Day 280: Paris
Day 300: Cardiff...

Now if I stick to that schedule I know I'll see most of what I want to see. But it wont be on paper either, it'll be in my head, I'll keep a diary probably web blog for family so I know what day I am at. May even make scratches on the suspension of my bike

In my book the problem with overplanning is stress and the problem with underplanning is not seeing everything.

Don't plan where you want to stay, it is too easy for things to go wrong. You could book your hostel in moscow and then be caught on the Russian borders and lose your hostel fee and in turn miss the next 4 hostels you have booked. On the other hand as you are getting close to Moscow book before you arrive as the good&cheap hostels go quick.

[llanelli]

20 days to do Australia and NZ. We just spent 6mths doing OZ and still missed lots of WA and didn't do QLD at all!!

Good luck
Andrew and Wendy

[McGowan]

It was an example. All I know is I can probably only afford a year and I want to see the whole world. Seen a largish chunk of the US already so wont be shipping over to there.

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Life has no meaning, quit searching for it and start riding!

[beddhist]

Relax! You can't SEE the whole world in one year, you can only ride THROUGH it.

My suggestion: pick any place you are really keen to visit. Get your bike, papers, money etc. in order for that one and go. Immerse yourself. When you feel you have had enough of the place, move to the next one. When time or money have run out go home.

You have a whole lifetime. There's no rush.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.