A year ago I stumbled across one way tickets to Lisbon for $150. I bought them on the spot.
That was back in the Delta surge when everything was shut up. I had no idea if things would be open, if Portugal would let us in, but I figured it was worth a shot. We even went back and forth on whether we wanted to travel. We both have Stuff to do in the States, friends and family and projects and all manner of engaging activity. A long trip would delay all of that.
Ultimately we felt that there was unlikely to be a better time. We're so unencumbered it's a little shocking even to us. If we don't go now, when would we go?
We both get a sick feeling in our stomachs thinking about the carbon footprint of flying, and don't plan on doing any international air travel after this. It's a one and done kind of thing, so we plan to take our time.
We say we’ll travel for “a year”, but the real answer is “we’ll travel until we're done.” We have no idea if that's a year, or two, or six months. We've designed our lifestyles for maximum autonomy via frugality, and one of the perks of that deliberate choice is we can go wherever we want and do whatever we want and we don't have to have a plan in advance, even though we don't have a lot of money. So here we are.
We landed with accomodations booked for three nights. Then we found another spot for three more nights. We're keen to find a month-long next (cheaper rates) and then find volunteer work trade gigs at sustainability focused projects. Firstly because it seems like a great way to meet cool people and get engaged, and also because it's a way to spend almost nothing while having meaningful experiences.
It's not really a vacation. Vacations are exhausting and take a lot of money. This is just the next phase of our lives, which happens to take place on a long meander around the globe.
My intended maximum cost of living for this phase is $10k/yr per person. I think we'll be able to manage considerably less than that, but it's definitely going to be a learning curve.