Logistics

A lot of folks have asked about logistics - how, on a nuts and bolts level, does a family unplug and opt out for a year?  We got great advice on the logistical issues from other friends who've done this, and I want to share a few key items.

Plane tickets:  The biggest debate here seems to be whether to buy a Round the World Ticket or to buy individual flights.  For a family of four, cost is obviously a huge issue when planning something like this, and the airline companies have invested a lot of time and energy into preventing people from finding those cheap international flights.  If you are the type of person that wants to spend hours combing the interwebs looking for flights, have at it!  We tried doing that on our own, but finally opted to use a fantastic service out of San Francisco called Air Treks.  They are a RTW flight consolidator that we found very affordable.  You spend an hour discussing your itinerary with an agent, and they help you think about not only price, but also layovers (for example, we are spending 24 hours in Dubai!), upgrades, and routes.  We ended up getting a RTW tickets for our flights from Seattle to Rome, Prague to Bali, Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore, and Singapore to Auckland.  And we ended up racking up credit card miles for our flights from New Zealand to Japan to Kauai and home.  That brings me to the next issue.

Credit card miles:  The best deals tend to change pretty often.  We ended up each going with the Chase Sapphire card, which at the time offered 50K miles to sign up, and 2x points on meal purchases.  We charged everything from groceries to gas to rack up miles for about 6 months, and I would highly suggest that if you’re thinking about doing this, start racking up those miles early.  I’ve also heard good things about the various American Express cards.  I found Chris Guillebeau’s travel hacking blog really valuable on this and other issues, see:  https://chrisguillebeau.com/travel-hacking-resources.  We also have the Alaska Airline credit card which provides annual companion fares, but be warned, in order to use them, you have to either depart from or fly into a US city, so you can’t use them to fly between international destinations.

Mail forwarding:  We are using Traveling Mailbox.  You basically change your address with the post office and for $15/month, your mail gets forwarded to this service, which will open, scan, forward, and / or delete your mail.  Don’t forget to sign up on the Do Not Mail list to get off the junk mail circuit.  

House rental:  At least in Seattle right now, renting your house is easy as housing inventory is incredibly tight.  We listed our home on Zillow for free and had a ton of applicants.

Cell Phones:  T-Mobile provides great international rates - we are paying $40 per line for unlimited data, and are able to use this in every country we plan to visit except Vietnam. 

Insurance:  Navigating the US heath insurance system was honestly one of our biggest challenges, and I am sad to say further disillusioned us with our health care system, what a mess!  If you’re used to getting your insurance through your employer, as we were, it is a pretty big eye opener to navigate the insurance exchanges and try to wade through the various insurance plans.  COBRA was cost-prohibitive at $1700 / month.  Washington’s insurance exchanges are actually pretty great, and our kids are both on the Apple Health plan (i.e. Medicaid - because we’re not working).  Greg & I ended up really getting cheap catastrophic coverage, in addition to airlift / traveler’s insurance, but we had to ensure that what we got constituted “qualified coverage” under the ACA in order to prevent a $2000+ penalty when we get back and in case the Republican pass their plan on preexisting conditions.  Also, no matter what happens with the Republicans’ plan, we’ll have to reenroll for something more expensive in January because we’ll need real health care when we get back to the States in June, but you can only change plans in January (open enrollment) unless you’ve quit work, etc.  

Where to Stay:  I LOVE AIR B&B!  So much less expensive than hotels, you can cook at least some of your meals every day, and many of them have laundry machines so you don't have to waste time at the laundromat.  The hosts that we’ve encountered have been so incredibly helpful in term of giving us the scoop on the best local restaurants and markets, off the beaten path things to do, and transportation options.  We were fastidious about doing research on neighborhoods before booking in various cities, as choosing locations can be overwhelming.  We tend to stay out of the higher priced city centers, and look for neighborhoods with good transportation options, have a reputation for being safe and family friendly, and that are walkable to good food options.  

For example, in Rome we are staying in Trastevere, in a gorgeous and quiet (air-conditioned!) apartment across the street from the local farmers market and a 2 minute walk to a fantastic trendy square with tons of bars and restaurants that are reasonably priced, where we had dinner at 10pm amidst throngs of Italians out for the evening stroll.  It took us about 35 minutes to walk to the Forum and Colosseum, and we are a 5 minute walk from the tram that can take us all over the city.  

OK, that’s it for now, I hope this is helpful if you're considering a year of adventure!