Hi everyone, I'm really sorry if this has been discussed before but there's SOOO much info in some sections, it gets hard to trawl through plus it gets out of date, I needed to ask! If there is a relevant thread to look at, please point me in the right direction..

Anyway, my query relates to long-term travel and organising visas as you go. We've backpack-travelled before for 5 months with all visas arranged up-front. This time we're going for about 18 months and with our own vehicle (motorbike). Due to the vagaries of travelling long-term, I accept that I can't have all the visas arranged up-front as things go wrong, timings for starting visas can be missed, etc etc. I've been trying to find out how others have managed getting their visas on-the-road, but am finding it difficult to get a handle on the whole process and how people have decided to do what they have done.

So can anyone post some details about how they have gone about it? Do you try to get several visas while in one particular country? Do you find you have to spend days waiting to get them? Do you run from one embassy to another constantly over those days? How do you deal with arriving late for the start of a visa you got 3 countries ago? Does it matter?? How do you decide which country to get your visas in and in which city?

Any specific advice anyone can provide for Central & South America and Africa, particularly West & Central Africa (we're don't have an exact route yet but know we're heading in that direction!!) would be much appreciated.

Thaks, Tam