The Clark Family's Amazing Adventures

Our Itinerary – first draft!

At the beginning of 2012 we decided to start planning a family gap year in earnest. We started to tell people about it and we put a huge map up at home where we spent a few pleasant hours mulling over our goals and where we thought we wanted to go….

That was quite easy, and we quickly realised that our main decision was whether to head east or west first!  We looked at months and climates and wondered if heading east or west would make for the best follow-the sun itinerary – avoiding hottest, wettest etc…. this was tricky!    Then we looked at flights and round the world ticket options and read some blogs and guides and got thoroughly confused.  But in the end we found we could get to Rio on air miles – the climate would be about right and we could immerse ourselves in the north of the South American continent during their ‘winter months’ before heading towards the South Pacific.  We decided to ditch the idea and the restrictions that come with a round the world ticket and tell you where to go and when to come back, in favour of buy-as-you go approach, where you simply stay a couple of stops ahead of yourself buying tickets, just enough to keep the immigration folk happy that you do plan to leave their country or continent!

So with an approximate route in mind, Mo put the first draft together whilst researching vaccination needs and malaria risks.  It was also good to see if our plans would even fit in the time available – it’s rather tight, we’ll admit and certainly bound to change as we go!    And it excludes India, Nepal and a few other places of interest that may be substituted or added, depending on how everything goes!   As of mid May, we have confirmed a volunteer project in the Galápagos, which will be at least a month – so I already expect these first dates to adjust.  We’ll post a second draft soon!

1. Brazil 11-Jul-2012
2. Ecuador 1-Sep-2012
3. Peru. 7-Oct-2012
4. Chile. 15-Nov-2012
5. Bolivia. 20-Nov-2012
6. Paraguay. 25-Nov-2012
7. Argentina. 1-Dec-2012
8. Falkland Is 20-Dec-2012
9. Easter Island. 28-Dec-2012
10. French Polynesia (Tahiti). 31-Dec-2012
11. Cook Island. 10-Jan-2013
12. New Zealand. 25-Jan-2013
13.Australia. 26-Feb-2013
14. Solomon Islands. 5-Apr-2013
15. Bali. 15-Apr-2013
16. Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) 3-May-2013
17. Thailand. 18-May-2013
18. Cambodia. 3-Jun-2013
19. Vietnam. 13-Jun-2013
20. China 8-Jul-2013
21. Mongolia 8-August -2013
22. Russia 20-August-2013
23. Europe 28-August-2013
24. Home 1-September-2013