Today's post is the second article published by our staff writers, Morgans Go Travelling. When planning for our trip to decide where we would visit we had to first determine how long we would be traveling for and what kind of budget we would need. We had a rough idea of where we wanted to go, and used our overall budget to determine how long we could visit each destination for.
We decided on traveling for 13 months that way we could be home in time for the start of the school year 2016. With 13 months in mind, and a budget of around $80,000 AUD, we came up with our itinerary for the year.
Southeast Asia
Our first continent is Southeast Asia with a visit to Bali, Indonesia. Bali is only a 3 1/2 hour flight from Perth and has been our second home for years, so it made sense to stop here first. We will be celebrating Christmas and New Years in Bali and spending 3 weeks there in total.
After Bali we head to Singapore. My hubby and I have visited Singapore before and loved it, so we are excited about taking the kids there. The kids are very excited to be visiting Universal Studios and we can’t wait to show them why we love Singapore and think its an amazing destination for families. It is an expensive place though so we will only be here 5 days.
The boys are dying to go to Legoland so we will catch the train up to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, to visit the park for a couple of days. From there we head to Kuala Lumpur by bus for a week-long stay.
Laos is our next destination and we will be in the country for 3 weeks. We are going to visit Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang.
We have never been to Thailand before so we are super excited to visit. We are doing a kickboxing camp on Koh Samui and look forward to training as a family. We will spend around 1 month in Thailand also visiting Bangkok.
After Thailand we go overland to Cambodia and Vietnam. We have heard great things about both countries and we are looking forward to exploring the Angkor Wat, and Halong Bay. (Around 7 weeks for both countries.) After Southeast Asia we head to Europe.
Europe
It will be the end of April or beginning of May when we head to Europe. We have not booked any flights yet and are hoping to secure some sale flights so we are keeping flexible to cash in. We hope to hire a Campervan for a couple of months.
On our must see list in Europe are Paris, Rome and Greece. We are very interested in the culture and rich history that Europe has to offer. The girls are excited to visit The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam so we will have to make a special trip there too.
USA and Canada
After Europe we will head to the USA. While in the USA the kids have told us New York is a must visit, and we are hoping to reach this destination via a transatlantic cruise. I know another traveling family who did a transatlantic crossing on a cruise ship from England to New York so this is an option if we can fit it into our budget if the dates sync up.
We also have family who live in Chicago so we will head there at some point. We would love to cross the border and visit Canada while we are in the area. My husband has a sister that lives in Toronto, and we would love to visit the cousins and spend some time with them.
Also on our list for the USA is Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Utah.
Hawaii
We plan to head to Honolulu, Hawaii, around mid-November for a few weeks of relaxing and surfing if the wave conditions work out during our visit.
New Zealand
We plan to spend Christmas 2015 in New Zealand with family and travel around the South Island. We are originally from New Zealand so we have done the North Island to death but only briefly visited the South Island. I am excited to explore new parts of our home country and it will be a special way to finish off a year of traveling before heading back to Perth.
Although this is our proposed itinerary we are open to changes that may occur. We are now at the beginning of our 13-month adventure and feeling very humbled at the opportunity we have to explore the world with our family.
