Whenever I tell people about our plan to travel for a year, the first question they ask is “so where are you going to go?” We have been asking ourselves the same question for the last couple of years. There is some criteria we are aligned on:

• New-to-us places we’ve always wanted to see
• Places where we can visit friends or family
• Relatively safe, navigable, not risky to bring a young kid

The world is big and this doesn’t narrow it down much. With our very long list of dream destinations, Nick created an itinerary that organizes everywhere into a linear journey, optimizing for weather, events, and holidays along the way. As you can imagine, it’s a very ambitious itinerary. But how do we know if it’s too ambitious?

Other than some backpacking we did right out of college, I don’t think we’ve ever taken a trip longer than 3 weeks. On these trips, we are not slow travelers. We like to see as much as possible in the short amount of vacation time our jobs have afforded us. Despite the manic pace, we love this style of travel. The idea of spending more than a day or two lounging on a beach makes me antsy. On the few summer trips we’ve done with Millie we’ve been impressed by her ability to keep up with us.

That said, it’s hard to know if this is due to the circumstances or if this is truly our preferred traveling style. Can we keep up a fast pace for months? Will it be way too much for a 4/5 year old to handle? Will we start craving slowness? Will we want to “live” in a place for a while? Will we burn through money faster than time?

My philosophy is that it will be easier to cut the agenda as we go than add on to it last minute. Likely, we’ll start cutting it before we even leave. But until then, here’s the first draft of our very rough, very packed itinerary:

• Europe
  • England
  • France
  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Baltics
  • Turkey
• Africa
  • Ethiopia
  • Kenya
  • Uganda
  • Burundi
  • Tanzania
  • Mozambique
  • Zambia / Malawi
  • Madagascar
  • Comoros / Seychelles / Mauritius / Reunion
• Middle East
  • UAE
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Oman
• Central Asia
  • Turkmenistan / Uzbekistan
  • Kazakhstan
• East Asia
  • China
  • South Korea
  • Japan
• South Asia
  • Philippines / Laos
  • Vietnam
  • Cambodia
  • Thailand
  • Indonesia
• Oceania
  • Australia
  • Tasmania
  • New Zealand
  • Tonga / Fiji / Samoa
• South America
  • Chile
  • Argentina
  • Bolivia
  • Peru
  • Brazil
  • Ecuador
  • Colombia