The Ves ATW Rough Travel Plan

About February 2018 I got a 3'x4' world map and slapped it on my wall to contemplate the route. I ended up with this:



So, the general route... Head for the Mexico border, via New Mexico now that I'm in Colorado, Central America, boat from Panama to Colombia, tip of South America, up the East coast, from Brazil or Argentina fly it to the West Coast of Africa, head down the West Coast, up the East Coast into Egypt, Israel, Greece or Turkey into Europe, circle around Europe and into Asia. Not sure I'm going to do the middle Eastern countries before Europe... At this point things get fuzzy and I need to do some more research. I hear no one goes to Tibet unless you have family there or 24 hour escort?.. something like that... China in general also requires escorts and letters and haven't figured that out yet either. If I can't get into China or I need to pay for an escort then India down toward Indonesia, but there's a couple countries in there that aren't conducive to free travel either. The other option is to go back up through Mongolia/Russia, out Vladevostok, fly it to Australia, boat or fly it to New Zealand, and from there back to the US.
Figure a year to get to Brazil, another year through Africa, a year through Europe and parts of Asia, and a year for the rest of Asia and Oceania.

Once I had the general route I started looking at the countries and their Visa requirements to get a feel for what I'd be up against. The America's aren't bad... but some of those African countries, kind of a pain... I put together a spreadsheet with all the countries, their visa costs, duration, and necessary documentation. Then I was trying to figure out when I would request various visa's to have them in time for the countries and realized it's impossible to do in advance. Some expire within relatively short periods and I can't guarantee my timing, especially the further into the trip I go, so basically have to do it as I go. The fact that I'm Croatian makes the travel and visa's way easier, so I got that going for me.

I already started with Mexico, but will need to do it for the other countries, basically pick some points I may want to see, not that I'm going to be stuck to them, but at least have some possible destinations picked out in each country. Non tourist destinations, i.e. stay away from the resorts and the tourist traps as much as possible.

Written on 11/15/2018
Revised 5/1/2019