Three months off work - inspiration please!

[Swiftier]

We are at very early stages of planning a break from work, poss for March, April and May next year. Just looking for some ideas - have you spent three months travelling, where did you go? Or where would you choose?

We are keen to make the most of the time off and explore somewhere that would be difficult to visit in a shorter trip, and budget isn’t strict.

Thank you 😊

Around the world ticket

@stucknoue where would you go though, three months I was thinking 3-5 countries! If I had longer a RTW trip would be amazing.

I'd go more in our winter if you have flexibility and head for South East Asia or South America.

I did 3 months around the USA and planning another 3 months next year.

Last time we visited
Las Vegas
LA
San Francisco
Honolulu
Dallas
Memphis
Miami
Disney
Chicago
Philadelphia
DC
Boston
New York

had an amazing time! do you have any must see places?

Thanks for the ideas!

Months are fairly set as I can use holiday leave from this year (for March) and from next year (for April/May) meaning I don’t have to take too much unpaid leave.

South America would be a good option, have to look into it. We have travelled around Peru for a few weeks and loved it so keen to explore more of the continent. Vaguely looked at Central America too but it looks like rainy season then?

@ilikeanimalsmorethanpeople, that sounds like an epic road trip! USA probably isn’t top of my list as although we like it, we have already been to NYC, Miami and the Keys, San Fran, LA, LV, San Diego, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Death Valley... and although there are more places we would like to go they are fairly accessible for shorter trips, although Hawaii would be amazing! Where are you going on your next trip?

South East Asia is a good option, we have been to Thailand but not anywhere else in the region.

I am thinking of maybe a month in China and then on to somewhere else - maybe SE Asia. What countries does everyone recommend?

We have also been to Japan and would love to go back so maybe China for a month, spend a few weeks elsewhere and then on to Japan. Keen to go to S Korea too so that would fit in.

Anywhere in S.E.Asia.
Been to Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia both peninsula and Borneo. Loved all. Also India.
My to-do list: Sri Lanka depending in fco advice, Cambodia (vv hot then?), Indonesia.

Thanks @HappyHolidays75. Malaysia and Indonesia is a good shout, and Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos. Will investigate weather 😊 We are both divers so island hopping and diving would be good for some of the trip!

We’ve been to India and would like to visit Sri Lanka at some point.

We've just come back from a holiday in Vietnam. It is an amazing country but very hot in April.

We’d either drive around Australia & visit a couple of Pacific Islands.

Or do Southern Africa - cover off Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia & South Africa.

China - recommend the usual top picks of Beijing, wall, Shanghai, Xi'an - and would add Guilin, Chengdu, Nanjing, Lijiang, Jiuzhaigou and then on to Hong Kong for easy connections to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Cambodia will be getting pretty hot in March and April. Vietnam - suggest - Hoi An and Hue - as well as Hanoi and HCMC. Halong Bay is easy to combine with Hanoi, but have heard it's very touristy and you will have similar scenery (albeit on land) in Guilin in China.

Nairobi to Cape Town, via Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia

Took me just over 4 months though

How exciting!

I'd do South America

I'd do Asia - Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

@EmmaGrundy thanks! Hope you had an amazing time. I don’t mind hot but DH might object if it’s too hot 😬

@YahBasic - Southern Africa sounds amazing. Wonder how easy it is to travel independently/how safe it is travelling independently?

@ShanghaiDiva thanks for the recommendations! I’m leaning towards China at the moment as wanted to go for ages and can combine it with elsewhere in Asia. I’m guessing springtime might be a good time of year to go?

@Ted27 that sounds like an amazing trip. How did you do it, did you go through a company or organise yourself?

@managedmis and @BritInUS1 - thank you S America and SE Asia are looking like great options!

@Swiftier - yes spring is a great time to go to China. Weather has been mixed this year where I live - 30 degrees one day then down to 16 the next, but definitely much better than the 40 degree heat and humidity we see in the summer.
The tourist visa is quite expensive -about GBP 170 and you need to go to the visa centre to be fingerprinted as part of the application process. You also need to have your hotels booked for the trip - but these can easily be booked on booking.com and cancelled/amended later. The visa is then valid for 2 years and is multi entry which means you can exit to go to Hong Kong or Macau and then come back into China which can make your trip more flexible. If you plan to visit some of the more sensitive areas in China - Tibet or Xinjinag province, I would not include the details on the visa application, but it is possible to arrange a trip when you are here.
Am assuming with the above advice that you are a British citizen. Am also assuming you are arranging the trip yourself, not going on a tour. It's straightforward to make your own arrangements - train travel and domestic flights are easy to book and the high speed trains are brilliant and much cheaper than the UK. Second class is perfectly fine - just less space - especially for a journey of a couple of hours.

@Swiftier we did two sections of that route in separate trips, and spent time driving around SA, Botswana & Zimbabwe - we lived there for a couple of years and had family dotted all over.

We never felt unsafe & just used common sense. For Zimbabwe, we borrowed cars (you could hire) to make sure we had a Zim licence plate and had a “spare” driving licence (from when we lived elsewhere) that we didn’t mind if it got taken etc at roadblocks.

My BIL & SIL did a partial route above for their honeymoon, but flew between countries and then hired cars in SA and Namibia only.

I went with an overland company, Dragoman, putting together three tours.
It was a bit like a school trip at times, but as a solo traveller it was the safest way, and there was no way I could have covered the distance on my own in that timeframe.
The advantage is that you get most of the organisation done for you. If you are linking tours together there is usually some time in between to do some things independently. Some people on these trips are a bit like sheep and don't stray off the intinerary. However, if we were staying for a few days in one place I always found opportunities to do my own thing - even if the rest of the group glared at me for being a party pooper !

I would fly to Singapore then spend some time in Malaysia and Thailand. Bangkok to Sydney (3-4 days in Sydney) then head North for warmer weather as it will be Autumn here in Aus. We're going to Darwin in a few weeks and have been doing some research, there are lots of fab things to do in the Northern Territory. I would then fly Darwin to Bali, spend some time there then home again via Singapore. The cheapest way to do that would probably be a return flight UK to Singapore then internal flights. Jetstar around Aus then to Bali, if you had a Singapore Airlines flight from the UK you may be able to tag on the Bali-Sing leg to that.

Thank you @ShanghaiDiva @YahBasic and @Ted27, for all that info! And @SnowsInWater that’s a great suggestion and not one I had thought of - definitely worth thinking about Aus as with the longer period of time off its a good opportunity to go all that way! Lots to go away and research 😊

South America. Argentina is fab that time of year and such an awesome country

I'd probably take the opportunity to do a RTW ticket (as you can sometimes get good deals on these - talk to Trailfinders or similar). That way you could visit a number of disparate countries/cities in one go. For instance: Cape Town, Mauritius, Vietnam, Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, New York, home.

New Zealand!

We did the following three month trip,

RTW ticket with Global Alliance

Uk to Singapore - 3 day Singapore Stopover
Singapore to Brisbane - Hire Car drive to Whitsundays for a week (Hideaway Bay - £20 p.n. B&B with its own private beach)
Drive down the Gold Coast to Sydney
Sydney to Blue Mountains for several days
Sydney to Uluru for several days
Sydney to Pacific Coast Road
Sydney to Christchurch NZ
Christchurch drive around South Island, Wanaka, kayaking Doubtful Sound, Whale watching Kaikoura, Abel Tasmen, Nelson,
Ferry to NZ North Island
Drive around North Island, Wellington, Bay of Islands, Ninety Mile Beach.
Aukland Flight to Raratonga
Raratonga to Atutaki and back
Rarotonga to Tahiti
Tahiti to Bora Bora and back
Tahiti to Los Angeles
Drive through Death Valley to Vegas
Flight home.

The trip was amazing. We organised all of it using the Rough Guide and a B&B guide for Australia and another for NZ.

The most memorable destinations were Hideaway Bay in the Whitsundays, Doubtful Sound in NZ, Raratonga and Atutaki.

Have fun !!

Argentina and Chile, and if budget allows and it's not too late in the season a trip to the Antarctic.

Thank you all! Some awesome ideas here. Maybe I need to ask for three months off every year?! 😂