HOW TO FIND THE OPTIMAL TRAVEL REGION (4 STEPS)
Lets say you want to travel, but you don’t know where to go, how to start planning and how to start anything at all. I’ve been exactly at this point and in this post I will give you the ultimate guide to answer all these questions, tailored for you! And to make it even more comprehensive, I’ll give you examples that plot my personal thought process that led me to travel South America for 3 months.
I’m a big fan of rational and logical thinking and this is what 80 % of your planning will consist of. Of course, eventually your heart needs to decide, where it wants to go, but a lot of places can be eliminated beforehand, so your heart can make a proper choice! So lets find out where you will go next, let me know in the comments 😊
Step 1: Identify your Boundary Counditions
Your boundary conditions are the foundation of any plan. These are the pillars your plan will stand on. Take a sheet of paper and answer the following questions:
- At which time of the year can I travel? (Season)
- Which climate is desirable for me? (Weather)
- How much money can I spend? (Budget)
- How much time do I have available? (Duration)
You might be able to answer all these questions, only some of them or, if you are the lucky one with literally no constraints, you might not answer any of these. But I assume most of you will have constraints and expectations on their trip and thus will have answers to these questions.
Example:
- Season: I can travel between July and October
- Weather: I want to avoid rain and cold
- Budget: I can spend about 6000 €
- Duration: I want to travel about 3 months
Step 2: Identify your Region
Having done this, we need to identify the region. To identify it, we need your answers for Season and Weather. And now we’ll get into a small meteorology class:
The earth has a constant axial tilt of 23.5°, which is the reason why we have seasons and why seasons are opposite on the northern and southern hemisphere at all times. Meaning that northern hemispheres summer is southern hemispheres winter and vice versa. Now you might think, “oh that’s easy I want to go and travel in the local summer!” Yes, but no 😅 Because in the tropics, meaning everything between the latitudes of 23.5° N (Northern Tropic) and 23.5° S (Southern Tropic) local summer is a bad thing. Local summer in the tropics means wet season. Loads of rain and storms and highly constrained set of possible activities. Desirable for some, but definitely not for most! All this is summarized in the following map. For the sake of simplicity only divided into two seasons of the year. Remember that in the temperate latitudes there is still spring and autumn, while the tropics quite literally only have two seasons (wet and dry), while the temperatures are quite constant over the year.
With these maps you can estimate the climate in all regions of the world. Keep in mind the example: It want to avoid rain or cold and I can only travel between July and October, meaning that the May – October map is relevant to me and thus I want to travel in the dry season in the tropics or in the summer of the temperate latitudes. That includes the following regions:
- North America
- Europe
- Northern Africa
- Middle East
- Central Asia
- Russia
- Far East Asia
- Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia & Northern Brazil
- The “Safari Region” (Angola, Sambia, Tanzania, etc.)
- Indonesia & Northern Australia
Now consider that in some places in can get very very hot. The unpleasant kind of hot. There are countries in the “Summer” Area that are only doable in winter, due to extreme temperatures. However, you must consider that many factors play a crucial role in a regions weather and you cannot determine your travel destination solely by latitude. However, for the period July – October I can categorically kick out the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Step 3: Consider your Budget
Now the budget question is the important part! Estimate which countries are doable with your budget. In my case, I want to travel for 3 months on a budget of 6000 €, which is not doable in western countries if you are not travelling in a van and cook every meal yourself. That means that many countries in the list above are out of the equation:
If you are travelling on a short budget, you should avoid these countries. That means that the following regions are left on my list:
- Central Asia
- Russia
- Far East Asia
- Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia & Northern Brazil
- The “Safari Region” (Angola, Sambia, Tanzania, etc.)
- Indonesia
Step 4: Final filtering and Heart Decision
For me personally, I was able to sort out further: The “Safari Region” has low living cost, but touristic infrastructure is little and the activities I would want to engage in are too expensive for my budget. I’ve already been to Russia and South Korea and Japan is too expensive. That leaves me with the following:
- Central Asia
- China
- Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia & Northern Brazil
- Indonesia
As I mentioned in Step 2, the climate of a region is highly individual and to be sure, you should check out climate diagrams that give you a deeper insight into what the weather will actually look like during the time you’re there. Just type in Google “Climate diagram xyz (your location)” and you will find plenty diagrams right away. They look something like this:
Where you can see that Quito in Ecuador has no seasonality in temperatures, but indeed for rain, even though Quito is precisely on the equator. The best months to be there is July & August because you are likely to encounter the least rainy time of the year.
Now you can check visa requirements, security advisory and finally let your heart decide where you want to go. As for me, I wanted something new and ideally learn a new language that is useful for future me. I dodged Indonesia due to Covid-19 restrictions, dodged China due to their difficult visa process and with South America and Central Asia left, I decided to go for South America. I’ve always wanted to learn proper Spanish and a route through these countries is a 2-in-1 opportunity. Summarized, it is cheap, dry, warm and I can learn a new language that I can use in multiple countries of the world and will be an asset in my skills. The decision is made, I’m going to South America!
The next step is to create a route (see this post) and do proper budgeting (see this post)!
Sources:
[1] https://www.iten-online.ch/klima/amerika/ecuador/images/quito.gif
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