I'm in the final planning stage of my trip. I leave in July but before I go I'm running a workshop at the UK HUBB meeting in June.

I went to the UK HUBB meeting last year and it was excellent. Lots and lots of good spaekers all with great tales of their travels. However, it was clear to me that there was something missing. For those of us who are planning a trip it would be great to hear more about the pitfalls and problems of this, the most crucial stage of the trip, the planning.

What to take? What to leave?
Paperwork
Insurance
Preparation of bike, body and mind.

All of this (and more) is crucial and scares the hell out of me as I go through it but I'm sure that once I'm on my trip I'll forget all about it. Next year I'll be able to give presentations of my "year off" travelling around the world but I will have forgotten what it was like BEFORE I set off and I'll have forgotten what advice to give people who are planning a trip. Seasoned travelers forget what it was like "before the first time" and can sometimes be a bit blase "Oh, I just bought a bike and a map and set" NO THEY DIDN'T!

So, if anyone out there has any advise they would like to pass on though my workshop please post it there. It could be advise you wish you had before you went, or you could be in the planning stage and have come up with a great idea that would make the process easier. Are you planning a trip and have anything you want to say to people?

I think the main thrust of my workshop will be to try to deal with the whole process and all the paperwork that is needed before you even set off. Hopefully, having just gone through the process I can save some people some time but explaining what I did and what they do/don't have to do.

If you are coming to the UK HUBB meeting and are planning any trip then please come along. I'm planning on it being more of a discussion rather than a lecture. We can all compare notes, share advise and hopefully benefit from it. Equally, if you've been on a trip then please come along and share your advise.

If you're in USA/Canada, then I'm also running this in Canada in August - three weeks into my RTW trip.

Cheers

Dom

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