BASECAMP 10.15.16 ... Itinerary for " Five New Countries & Two New Continents "

After much discussion, we've settled on a General Itinerary for the next adventure.

Unfortunately, we'll be short a team member this time. LOAF won't be joining us, but we will be travelling with Van Kiwi, a close cousin of his, when we're in New Zealand. We'll still be LOAFin Around though. I've created a new acronym to suit the title for our next travel map ...  

Life On A Fixed income " Around The World Part 1 "

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Helen wore her Travel Agent hat and spent many hours 'getting us the best deals in the best places ' ... she investigated countless international flight combinations and permutations, poured over maps in search of the best long and short term locations for all the activities we enjoy, scanned Google maps to verify the suitability of accommodation bookings, researched car and camper van rentals and in the end ... made all the final arrangements for us. 


Tip: ensure stressless travel arrangements ... there's that stemless wine glass again, photo lower left.

So, our primary air and land travel is now decided ... Eight flight segments before returning home by early Spring. Direct flights from Toronto, Canada to Auckland, New Zealand last about 20 hours. Neither of us was willing to spend that much continuous time in any aircraft, even if we were able to afford first class fares. So, we've planned an itinerary that includes multi-week stays in a couple of Mediterranean countries that have been on our bucket list for awhile and along the way, interim layover stops at two Asian cities that should be culturally interesting for just a few days each. We'll drive the eastern coastline of Spain and the south and a portion of the south-western coastline of Portugal by rental car. Our intended road trip route in New Zealand will expose us to a number of National Parks and consequently, numerous opportunities for camping, hiking and the possibility of some paddling. We don't really have a fixed itinerary once we arrive in any country. This will allow us to make last-minute decisions for excursions to other parts of the Mediterranean or to some of the smaller islands near New Zealand, if we wish.

 

Some detail ... We fly mid-December, from Kingston to Toronto and then overnight to Barcelona, Spain. We'll rent a car in Spain, drive to Portugal and have the car for exploring both Mediterranean countries. We'll spend several days in Barcelona and a couple of weeks along Spains' eastern coast. After leaving Spain, our driving focus will be along the southernmost coast of Portugal, the Algarve region, an area with some of that countrys' best hiking opportunities, about 4.5 weeks there. From Portugal, we fly to Dubai, United Arab Emerits for a few days layover and then to Singapore for another few days. Next, we're off to Auckland, New Zealand. We'll spend the remainder of our time there, about 6 or 7 weeks total. A couple of weeks on the North Island with a rental car and our remaining time on the South Island. Our intention is to design a multi-week overland driving trip with a rented camper van (Van Kiwi); the South Islands' rugged wilderness landscape appeals to us. We'll return to Auckland around the end of March and fly to Los Angeles USA, then to Toronto, to Kingston and home by early April, at the latest.

We expect this adventure will last 15 - 16 weeks. We'll visit 5 new countries and add 2 new continents to our travels ... follow along if you like. 

Our published posts will be collected under the label, Trip141.

Wry ... planning 
Crusty ... anticipating