The Plan: Almost Ready for Liftoff!

At its core, our plan is simple: travel the world, visit family and friends, play tour guide in places we’ve each called home, and explore new destinations together. However, when you put two type-A, organizational geeks behind the wheel with visions of the “trip of a lifetime,” simplicity goes out the window. Our trip is really broken into three main chapters – US, Europe and Asia

First stop… ‘Merica 💪

When planning for the US we had three critical missions:

Chapter 1 – A not so straightforward plan 😃

1. Forcing My Mom to Celebrate Her 7.0 Release: Be in Colorado for my mom’s birthday and mandate that she do something to recognise the launch of her 70’s

2. Sister Relief: Bryan will be channeling his deeply hidden (read: microscopic) domestic side by house-sitting for his sister and visiting his mom, ensuring his sister can visit her son in the UK worry-free.

3. Alaskan Adventure: We’re using Bryan’s high school reunion as a perfect excuse for me to see Alaska 😄.

Apart from that, we’re spending approximately 71 days traveling through 5 U.S. states – California, Colorado, Virginia, Texas and Alaska, with a ‘minor’ detour to Guatemala for volcano hiking—because once you’ve crossed the Pacific, everything else is practically next door, right? Anything under an 8-hour flight is “close by” by Australian standards. I’m especially excited to show Bryan the Colorado mountains and my old college campus, which will surely make him second-guess his choice of Stanford😝.

Europe? I rope, too.

Chapter 2 – Time to explore the land and seas

Post-U.S., our itinerary includes brief stops in Finland and London, followed by a rendezvous with Bryan’s Polish friends and ex-colleague for hiking in the Austrian Alps.

Next, we dive into the aquatic stages of our trip in Croatia and Greece. Swimming anyone? 🙋‍♀️ Neither of us has been to Croatia, and it’s been ages since my last Greek odyssey during high school, where I momentarily joined the local kids in Karpathos, language barrier notwithstanding. This time, I’m skipping the class and aiming straight for underwater island exploration.

Sushi, Siem Reap & Saigon… oh my!

Me as a Japanese Alien – Seems about right

Then on to Asia! For a brief pitstop in Hong Kong to acclimate before heading into the completely different world that is Japan. As an ex-resident alien, (yes, that’s actually what your resident card titles you) I look forward to seeing some of my old haunts, getting lost, playing arcade games, joining the salarymen for a beer, and diving into the unknowns of Tokyo’s culinary scene.

From Japan, we’ll head to Cambodia to see the impactful work of Room to Read, an organization Bryan has been involved with for about 10 years. And then… why not cycle from Cambodia to Vietnam? 😱

Vietnam has been a frequent business destination for me, and I’ve always wanted to return for holiday. Now seems as good a time as any. With one to two weeks in Asia still unplanned, if you have any recommendations for great outdoorsy spots near Vietnam in early October, I’m all ears! Or perhaps we’ll just extend our stay in Vietnam 😃.

The high-level route:

Beware: Extreme Org Nerd Territory

For “normal” non uber organizational planning nerds, feel free to stop reading here.

For those curious how we went about planning for the trip before the wheels are even up feel free to keep reading:

We kicked off with a new Trello board for mapping key dates, activities, and general tips.
We booked our round-the-world tickets with Travel Geeks after setting our non-negotiable dates. I highly recommended them for trips outside of Australia.
We’ve organized tour dates/locations and ensured they would fit in the schedule.
Next came the divide-and-conquer strategy for confirming couch surfing, booking hotels, and local flights—with Bryan taking on more of the logistical heavy lifting.
In addition to Trello, we’ve documented everything in Google Sheets and updated TripIt with all itineraries and confirmations.

Turn down the volume

Packing Light: We’re committed to traveling with only carry-on luggage. This required research, creating packing lists, and several trial packing runs. As a seasoned minimalist packer, squeezing a three-season wardrobe into a large shoebox-sized space has still been a monumental challenge. The game-changers have been finding the right backpack, using packing cubes, and investing in packable shoes.