From mid May through the end of July, I traveled to over 25 cities across 15 countries. To me travel is more than just a getaway. It’s an opportunity to learn. Learn about the culture of other people and histories from a perspective other than my native country. It allows me to try and taste new foods and drinks. It provides the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful creations of nature and its humans. Traveling allows me to see varieties of plants and animals. Despite this, I used to be terrified of getting on a plane. Two of my earliest memories were a plane crash near my home state of California (I believe in 2000) and a year later… well most Americans are familiar with what happened in 2001. I did not get over this fear until 2012 where I essentially had to get on planes (I went to college thousands of miles away from my home town). I slowly got more comfortable getting on planes through flying domestically and got my first passport stamp in 2019. That one trip to Colombia changed my perspective on life and the world around me. 3 years later, it is 2022 and I have visited approximately 25 countries across four different continents. And yes I did have premonitions originally about leaving the country. “Is the liquor authentic in the Caribbean?” “Is Rio safe?” “How will I get around in Morocco without knowing Arabic or French?” Spoiler: I was fine in all of the countries I visited and do not regret any of them. It is this love for travel that I hope inspires others to seek their own peace through seeing the world.
Throughout this website I will share various tips, stories, and findings regarding travel and health, but this post specifically will address how I planned and traveled for 11 weeks. Some of the most common questions I have received are: How did you plan it, pack for it, what did you learn, what was your favorite place/foods, how did you afford this, haircare, etc… This section of the blog will address those questions and more. If you have additional questions feel free to reach out ton the contact section of the blog and I will get back to you as soon as possible!
1. Affordability
I did a month in Latin America and then a month in Europe. There were a variety of factors that made this trip more affordable (it was still hella expensive). The main factor was my lease ending and not having to pay rent anymore in the overly expensive U.S. So lets start with Latin America. Being familiar with Latin America, I knew that I would be able to pay roughly $60 a night for private rooms. Multiply that by $30 and that is $1,800 in rent for a month stay in Latin America. The first two weeks (Peru, Chile, Argentina) were completely solo, but as I did other countries (Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica), I was able to share some of these costs with close friends who joined me on my trip.
Latin America housing was affordable, but the excursions… not so much. I ended up paying significantly more than what I budgeted for but I regret none of it. With that being said because I knew there would be unexpected costs, having a grasp of credit cards was essential.
I have a blog post that discusses this furthermore, but what I made sure I had was at least two credit cards with: no foreign transaction fees, a 0% interest period that would allow me to pay the cards off, and at least one of them needed to be a Visa or MasterCard.
In terms of paying off the debt: This depends on the person and their situation. Some popular options to avoid paying high interest fees are utilizing that 12 month period of no interest to pay down your credit card, balance transfers (you transfer debt from one card to another where you have a new no interest period), or using graduate student loans to pay off the debt on the credit card(s) and then applying for a new no interest card that provides more time to pay the debt off, or selling investments. For me personally I budgeted my trip based on stock holdings that I could sell if need be and utilizing multiple credit cards with no interest fees with the expectation that I will make more money to be able to pay that off prior to paying interest. If for whatever reason I do not meet my savings and investing goals while in the states, I plan to utilize the balance transfer option.
2. Packing
Packing for what was essentially four seasons was not easy. Argentina, Peru, and Chile were in late fall/early winter and I also went to walk on a glacier so I needed my winter coat. I took three bags with me: a large backpack, a carry on duffel, and a large suitcase.
My large suitcase had the basic necessities packed into it: shirts, jeans, shoes that were relatively less expensive, toiletries for hair and face care, etc. This amounted to about 43-50 pounds throughout the length of my trip.
Because it isn’t uncommon for things to be stolen from checked bags or for checked bags to go missing, I made sure to have my more expensive items or irreplaceable objects in my carry on luggage. The Private Label shoe bag allowed me to put 4 pairs of shoes and my winter coat within it. My backpack had my laptop, barber equipment, books, souvenirs, and miscellaneous items that I needed to keep with me.
3. I will have a separate post on favorite places but in terms of top 5 (in no specific order), here are my favorite cities/regions:
Medellin, Patagonia, Stockholm, Venice, Barcelona.
4. Order of Countries to Visit
I love South America and wanted to spend a month minimum there. One place I always dreamed of going to was Argentina, but it is extremely expensive to get there from the states. I also knew time was not on my side as they are located below the equator and as it got hotter above the equator, it got colder there. One of my close friends lives in Miami and I have been meaning to visit him anyways. My plan was to stay with him for a few days then fly to Latin America. Flights to Latin America and the Caribbean are extremely cheap relatively to most international flights from the U.S. so this made my trip way more affordable while also being able to kick it with a close friend.
I knew I wanted to see Machu Picchu (MP) . Colombia is my favorite country so i had to include that in the itinerary. I have also longed to go to Costa Rica (CR) and Panama. Because of the geographical location of these countries relative to the equator, it made sense for me to fly from Miami to Lima where flights were relatively inexpensive. From there I would head to Cusco so I could check that city out then travel to Machu Picchu. When planning, I saw that flights from Lima to Santiago, Chile were way less expensive than Lima to Buenos Aires (BA) or El Calafate (Patagonia). Flights to El Calafate from Santiago were comparable to flights there from BA. I figured I add a new country to the list and essentially spent a day and a half in Santiago, had a layover in BA, then flew to El Calafate, spent a few days there and then about 5 days in BA.
From BA, essentially nothing was cheap to get back up past the equator line. But in terms of next steps, a neutral location to meet my friends was Panama City. From PC, I planned to hit Colombia and later Costa Rica. Costa Rica was last for two reasons: My friend was going back to the west coast and this was the most north of our destinations. It is also a popular UK/US destination, making it easier for me to fly to Europe for a trip with my mom and one of my brothers.
The trip with these family members was Italy and Spain, but it was significantly cheaper for us to fly to the UK first. We were coming from California, CR, and D.C. My path to Europe was CR to a layover in Newark and then arrival in the U.K. It amounted to about 20 hours and it was hell, but worth it once I saw my family.
We then flew from the U.K. to Italy on Ryan Air which is worse than Spirit but it was cheap as AF. We were located in central Italy which made it easier to get to Venice, Rome, Florence. From there, I wanted my mom to see Barcelona and I have a close friend who lives in Madrid. So we flew to Barcelona and then trained to Madrid. Sadly my mom and brother left after that, but I met with some more friends in Barcelona/Madrid. We drove to Lisbon from Madrid and Porto from Lisbon.
I wanted to see France and there were cheap flights from Porto to Paris. I spent time there with some more close friends as well as solo and then took a train to Amsterdam for a solo trip. The next stop was Berlin as I had a desire to learn more about Germany from their country’s perspective and took a 7-8 hour train from Amsterdam to Berlin where I split the hotel costs with another friend who plans on going to law school.
My final stop was Stockholm, Sweden. I did not confirm my final stop until my last day in Panama. Many of my friends told me to travel to Denmark as I wanted to check out Scandinavia, but something was telling me Stockholm was the place for me. It was a toss up and the flights were cheaper back to my destination in the states from Stockholm versus Denmark so it was settled. I ended up very happy with this decision as Stockholm was by far the most beautiful city throughout these travels.
5. Planning
Once you know where you want to go, planning is easier than expected IMO. I knew the main attractions of these places through research and talking to people and when planning itineraries I would simply do a mix of the following: searching top things to do in xyz city/country, top places to eat in xyz country, and conversing with locals and asking their takes on where to go and things to do. In most of the countries I visited, this was pretty easy (I could not know exactly what I want to do until I arrived or was on the plane). But for specific sights and places that were not in the main cities, this was not as straightforward and I made sure to plan ahead of time. For example, I made sure I had MP and Perito Moreno Glacier itineraries well in advance. Additionally, major attractions such as the Louvre, it is vital to book those tours at least a few days in advance during peak seasons.
6. Haircare
There were two aspects to this: I have long hair, so getting it done (twists, braids, etc… and actual haircuts (my sides are faded). I cut my own hair, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) my clippers broke on my first stop in Lima. I am glad that instead of buying new ones, I just went to the barbershops out there. A lot of people thought I was crazy to go to random barbers, but one thing cutting my hair has taught me is that I can tell quickly whether a barber is or isn’t going to do a good job. Additionally, being able to speak decent Español and reading reviews of barbers fared well for me. What was cool was that in Latin America, the haircuts were way cheaper than the States and they’d offer you an inclusive drink with your haircut. I ended up getting haircuts in Lima, Panama City, Medellin, Madrid, and Amsterdam.
In terms of getting my hair done, I knew that most of the countries I was hitting would have a strong African influence. This made me confident in getting my hair done overseas. I did not need my hair re-twisted or braided for the first couple weeks of my trip. I had twists from Mid May through the beginning of Panama. I took my twists out in Panama knowing I LOVE open water and we were going to the sea. I untwisted it, utilized my natural hair products in my checked bag, and got it twisted in Medellin. Unfortunately, the Costa Rican waters decided to untwist my hair early and I was left to go natural to start my Eurotrip. In Italy, I twisted it myself and left that in until Barcelona where I rocked it natural. I found a braider in Madrid where I got cornrows and left those in until Berlin where I got it re-twisted. My stylist in Berlin was a refugee and I plan to share her story with you all. Of course getting hair done in these countries was significantly less expensive and they would even wash and condition for just $5 extra (at some of them).
Note: I will edit this post as more questions arise. Thank you for tuning in!