In the first part of our preparations, we talked about how we built our itinerary from New Zealand to France.

Once that itinerary was established, how did we prepare for our trip before the big day? 

We'll take you behind the scenes!

‍

Insurance

‍

Putting peace of mind first, we carefully compared all travel insurances. For us, good medical cover, repatriation assistance and a good price were essential criteria. A scooter accident or a medical check-up can happen very quickly, and medical expenses abroad can be very expensive! 

 We chose GObyAVA's AVAnture package for the following reasons:

‍

-Solid cover for repatriation, medical expenses, civil liability and personal accident.

-Low rates, especially for young people under thirty-five and duos.

-Responsive and efficient customer service.

-A clear insurance certificate, essential for obtaining Russian and Chinese visas.

-The possibility of subscribing from abroad, which enabled us to finalise our arrangements after our internship in New Zealand, according to our departure date.

‍

‍

Bank

‍

We had a number of very specific criteria for choosing a bank that could accompany us during our internship and our trip:

‍

- Unlimited payments abroad by bank card, free of charge.

- Withdrawals unlimited in number and amount, free of charge.

- Low charges for transfers to foreign accounts to pay our rent in New Zealand. This was clearly the criteria that most limited the number of banks we could choose.

- The possibility of having a joint account: it sounds very serious all of a sudden, but to be honest, it was the best choice we ever made!

- An attractive rate.

‍

We opted for BoursoBank, with a Metal account for each of us and a joint Ultim account. 

The Metal card offers benefits such as free international transfers and extensive insurance, particularly against theft, and its monthly cost of €10 was offset by a promotional offer of six months free.

Since then, the Ultim card has also offered free international transfers. So we think it's the best choice! It's free and offers almost all the advantages of the Metal card. The only drawbacks are the 3 free withdrawals per month and the poorer insurance.

To have a joint account, both owners must have an account with BoursoBank.

‍

If you want to compare banking offers, we highly recommend the excellent article on the Tourdumondiste website (and all their articles too): 

‍

https://www.tourdumondiste.com/argent-carte-visa-master-card-tour-du-monde

‍

Financing

‍

How can two students finance a year of travel?

‍

During our internship, we received International Mobility Grant and student scholarships. I'm going to give you the details of our income for our ten-month trip.

‍

- We had planned to have around 2,500 euros each in personal savings, mainly from our previous summer and student jobs, but also from birthdays.

- We had planned to work in Australia for one or two months. In the end, we went back on our decision and chose to work in New Zealand, despite the lower salary, because we'd already taken all the formalities like finding a van, opening an account, etc. So we both worked for the women's football world cup, and luckily FIFA treats its employees very well. The two of us earned 2570 euros for around twenty working days.... We then tried to work for a month in Dunedin, where we had found a house sitting, but with no success.

- Buying and selling our van. We arrived in NZ at the beginning of May, just before winter. We improved the van by rebuilding the kitchen and installing electricity, which increased its value. We sold it in October, just before summer, when all the tourists arrive in NZ. We therefore doubled the resale price, which still enabled us to make 3,000 euros!

‍

‍

Total: 10,570 euros for two people for ten months. That's 18 euros per person per day. That's our budget target!

‍

(I'm writing this newsletter as we enter our 8th country. We've only kept to this budget three times. This budget suited us for the countries of South East Asia, but we were far from it for countries like China and Australia. In reality, we spent an average of €19.5 per person per day (not including credit card and insurance costs). We never deprive ourselves if we want to do something (but we avoid many activities that we consider unethical), we sleep in hostels/hotels when we're not couchsurfing and we always eat out. On the other hand, we always look for the cheapest places to eat and stay. The biggest chunk of our budget goes on transport. We could save more by hitchhiking. It's also important to remember that the longer you travel, the lower your total budget, as visa and transport costs are more spread out.

‍

‍

Communication 

‍

‍

‍

If you're planning to communicate about your project, we advise you to establish a precise strategy.

For our part, we've decided to create a website to present our project and share our reports, as well as newsletters giving an overview of the countries we've crossed.

To create our site, we went through our friends' company, Ilun. We recommend their talent, efficiency and attentiveness to our needs in creating a site that suits us. What's more, they have very competitive rates! You can see their work and contact them here: https://ilun.fr/index.html

‍

‍

At the same time, our Instagram account aims to showcase our reports and our global journey. We think there's enough content about tourism and everyday life on trip, so we preferred to promote the initiatives we met. The drawback? The Instagram algorithm tends to favour active accounts that create short, frequent posts.

‍

Looking back, juggling discovery during the trip, planning the next stops and journeys, writing newsletters, creating Instagram content and editing our interviews is proving to be a big challenge. To keep up, we need to travel more slowly and set aside regular days for work.

‍

‍

‍

‍

Other

‍

- As we are in a gap year, we had to have our project validated by our university. To submit our gap year application, we had to draw up an itinerary that did not include any areas not recommended by France Diplomatie, explain and prove the educational interest of our project (normally, you have to do an internship or voluntary work to validate a gap year) and have several meetings with the International Relations Department and our study director. 

‍

- We applied for a power of attorney at the consulate in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We recommend that you do this in France before you leave.

‍

- By registering with Ariane, you can notify the French authorities of your presence abroad, for crisis communication or safety recommendations.

‍

- Make sure that your passport remains valid for at least six months after your planned return date.

‍

- We regretted not applying for an international driving licence, which would have been useful in New Zealand and Australia (fortunately, a translation by an official translator can be enough). This request should be made in advance, as it takes a very, very long time to receive the licence...

‍

- As for visas, we only had the one for NZ before we left. On our route, only China, Russia and Australia require a visa (thanks to the French passport), and we did them in the previous country each time.

‍

Our Ressourcerie 

‍

Finally, for additional resources, here are the sites, applications and blogs that were very useful to us and that we recommend:

‍

Our favourite blogs for ethical travel :)

‍

www.mifuguemiraison.com: our favourite! beautiful photos, amusing drawings, and above all great stories and advice for each destination

www.tourdumondiste.com THE reference for a long trip! Their articles on preparing for the trip and on the destinations were indispensable to us.

lesacados.com for its comprehensive travel advice on South-East Asia

voyagersavie.com/ for the quality of its posts by destination

www.serialhikers.com/ a very comprehensive blog on alternative travel with articles by destination and advice

www.histoiresdetongs.com/ is also a very comprehensive blog on hitchhiking, women's travel and alternative travel in general 

noscoeursvoyageurs.fr/ for its high-quality country guides 

www.les1001vies.com for their advice on vegetarianism 

‍

Our favourite Instagram accounts

‍

laroutedusoja: we really like their account, which brings together pretty photos and vegan recipes from their trip, which also involved not taking a plane.

labretonneenstop: a real reference for slow travel, she shares her thoughts on travel and it's very interesting

lilicrazyjourney: she hitchhiked and travelled by train from France to Cambodia in just a few months, and her route and stages were a big inspiration for our trip.

poucepourun: he is doing France - NZ in fifteen months, so we're following his progress very closely

‍

For our daily lives:

‍

bookdifferent.com: eco-friendly accommodation, but unfortunately not always cheap ...

12GoAsia: a platform for booking bus and train journeys in Asia. Very practical, but not always the best value. Compare it with the routes offered by your hotel/agency. 

Rome2rio: An essential tool for checking travel options from A to B. Up to date 95% of the time. 

Couchsurfing: for a cultural exchange and an unforgettable homestay experience.

Travelspend: to record expenses, classify them by category and get an overall budget overview. 

AllTrails: to find out about all the walks in the area 

HappyCow: to find out about vegetarian and vegan restaurants in your area

Refillmybottle: to find out where to fill your water bottle with drinking water.

‍

‍