The Itinerary – RTW Blews, Tour #1

As most of you know already, we’re beginning some open-ended, round-the-world travel starting the first week in July.  We’ve had many, many questions about the trip (including our personal favorite, “WTF?!?”) so we thought we would address one of the biggies here:

“Where the hell are you going?”

(1) On July 2nd we fly out of JFK and take a redeye to Paris, where we land on July 3rd.  We have an AirBnB booked for the month of July, and we’ll use our time in the City of Lights to decompress, explore the city, and drink much more French wine than is wise for a guy trying to count his macros.

If we like Paris we’ll arrange other accommodations and stay longer, otherwise we’ll move on to explore some other parts of France.  At the moment we’re planning on spending the first 2 weeks of August in Annecy, the last two weeks of August in Aix-en-Provence, and the first two weeks of September in Antibes.  In each one of these towns we’ll do some day-tripping, exploring, and relaxing.

(2) Sometime in mid-September it’s going to start to get cold, and at that point we’re going to look at each other and say “Yes, we’re hearty New Englanders, but f**k this, let’s go somewhere warm!”  Then we’ll cram our shivering asses onto a jetliner and fly to Mauritius.

“Where the hell is Mauritius?” you ask?  Good question.  If you look off the East coast of Africa you’ll see Madagascar, where all those daffy penguins live and every lion sounds just like Derek Zoolander.  See the tiny black spot east of Madagascar?  That’s Mauritius.  Yeah, we’re going there.

Juliann heard of it, she was intrigued, and now we’re going.  That’s that.

We’ll spend a month or two exploring the beaches of Mauritius and then (3) we’ll fly to Dubai for 5-7 days to check out what sounds like one of the craziest places on the planet.  That’s right, three New England natives are flying halfway around the world to pay exorbitant prices to snow tube in a freaky-looking hangar in the middle of the desert.

I’ll probably also let Juliann talk me into going up to the observation deck on the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, where she’ll scare the shit out of me by taking our son right up to one of the windows and peering out on the city below.

Yes, I know the windows are reinforced.  Yes, I know they’re safe.  But the view is just as good if you flatten yourself up against the opposite wall next to the elevator and hold your breath, like I do.

(4) Then we’ll flee Dubai and head to Southeast Asia, where we plan to spend 4-5 months in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.  Places we’re interested in checking out in SEA include Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hanoi, Na Trang, and Siem Reap.

Roughly in the Spring of 2017, when Europe starts to warm up (perhaps around April?) we’ll head to (5) Greece for 4-6 weeks.

[Side note:  we were really hoping to visit Turkey on this leg, but things have been a bit too violent there of late so we’re going to Greece instead.  We’re still holding out hope that the Turkish people will find peace and we’ll be able to visit.]

After Greece (6) we’re looking to spend another 4-6 weeks in Italy, and then we’ll finish up our 2nd pass through Europe (7) with a month or two in Ireland.

When Ireland gets too cold for us to hang around (hopefully September 2017, depending on how much Guinness we drink) we’ll fly to either Costa Rica or Honduras (8) to warm up for a month or two, and then (9) we’ll return to the East Coast of the U.S. to visit with family for the holidays for a couple of months.

Then we’ll figure out where we’re going for the next 12-18 month tour for the start of 2018.

The above is a loose outline.  We’re trying to keep things as open as possible so we can stay longer in those places we fall in love with, shorter in those places that turn out to have a Butterface, and add other destinations along the way that catch our fancy.

16 days to go.

I’m writing a book! To join the party and follow along as I write, swear, and sweat my way through the next several months, check out the Facebook group for the book!