One year ago today we set out on an adventure of a lifetime. We quit our jobs and said goodbye to friends and family to circle the globe. We have seen so many amazing things and meet tons interesting people in our first 365 days. We have touched down in 28 countries on 6 continents, here is a quick highlight reel of the first year of our RTW trip.
For the past 12 months we have been featuring a monthly recap of our RTW trip. The recap features months travel statistics in distance traveled, number of beds slept in, items lost/mia, money spent, beers Adam has consumed, and ice cream cones Hannah has ate. On top of the stats we feature a “best” beach, ice cream, beer, bar, sunset, food dish, and the cutest cat of the month.
We just celebrated our 1 year travel anniversary, crazy to say we have been traveling for over a year already but it’s true! We have made our way through 28 countries and many more to come. We thought we should recap this past year as a whole.
Picking our best’s was no easy task, but some things still stick out in our head as THE BEST.Adam and I didn’t always agree on what was “the best” so in some categories we each have our personal “best” listed below. So here we go!
- Flown: 47,956.14 MILES/76,729.82 KM
- Bus/Drove: 12,949,17 MILES/20,718.62 KM
- Train: 491.75 MILES/786.80 KM
- Ferry: 1,263.05 MILES/ 2,020.88KM
- Walked: 1,795.99 MILES/2,873.58 KM
Total Miles: 64,456.10 MILES /103,129.76 KM
Number of Beds slept in
- 107 Actual beds (3 were outdoor in permanent tents on our African Safari)
- 3 over-night flights on airplanes
- 1 night on airport floor in Auckland, New Zealand
- 1 night spent 10 hours in a Starbucks chair in Lima airport
- 1 night on concrete floor of a community center while on our 3-day Guatemala Trek
- 1 night on the floor in a rural Guatemalan families house on day 2 of our Guatemala trek
- 1 campervan for 14 nights as we drove all across the South Island in New Zealand
- 26 different campsites where we pitched our tents on our African Safari
Beers Adam drank: 973
Ice cream treats Hannah ate: 253
Money Spent: $55,044.74 This includes all ATM withdrawals, and credit card charges over the past year. We did spend close to $2,500 in camera equipment since we left home, Adam has purchased additional lenses required for different shots (wide angle, and of course the super zoom for Africa). Purchased a GoPro after our Nikon underwater camera died while in the Galapagos Islands. Also, our travel insurance with World Nomads was around $1,900 for the year. Our insurance was great as it paid us out when we were robbed in Malaysia and the sandstorm that ruined camera gear in Namibia.
Best Of Year 1
Best Beach
Hannah: Koh Lipe, Thailand we rented a beach hut for 5 nights and feel asleep every night to the waves crazy just steps from our hut. The water was some of the best to date, and the beach just look at it! And Koh Lipe didn’t break our budget, Koh Lipe on a budget is possible.
Best Ice Cream:
Hannah: I have eaten my fair share of ice cream over this past year, so picking my favorite was difficult. But the chocolate chip ice cream I had in Hoi An, Vietnam was something special. Chocolate chip isn’t even one of my top 3 flavors, but the chocolate chips were amazing and the creamy vanilla ice cream. As pictured, I went for a double scoop…
Adam: I usually save my ice cream money for beer, but if I had to pick one it would be Tutti Frutti in Placencia, Belize with their awesome Peanut Butter Gelato.
Best Beer:
Hannah: There are 2 beers that stick out automatically to me Tona from Nicaragua and Savannah from Africa. Tona goes down really easy, nice and refreshing and you can drink several of them. Now Savannah is a cider, so some would say it’s not really a beer, but yes it is…I don’t even want to know how may Savannah’s I consumed while on our African Safari. But if I had to pick one, Tona win’s as it was a beer I could drink several of, as Savannah you can only have a few due to it being a cider!
Adam: You expect me to pick a favorite beer of the whole first year? Do you know how many beers I have tried? Well, neither do I, but it was a lot. The only fair way to do it is by region.
- Central America: La Rana Dorada Brewing Co. Porter – Panama City, Panama
- South America: Champiner’s Porter – Bogota Brewing – Colombia
- Oceania: Black Mac’s – Mac’s Brewing – New Zealand
- Asia: Beer Lao Dark – Laos
- Africa: Castle Milk Stout – South Africa
Best Bar:
Hannah: Red Sky in Bangkok, Thailand! High up in the sky this rooftop bar had amazing views, free bar snacks, and happy hour 2 for 1 drink specials on beers & mixed drinks! Adam and I sipped on some mixed drinks while watching the sunset over Bangkok.
Adam: Los Amigos Salento, Colombia. Drinking beer with people from around the world all while playing Tejo, Colombia’s take on corn hole (or bags as some call it) that involves explosives, you just can’t beat it.
Best Dish:
Hannah: Hands down the Penang Chicken Curry at Sunrise Beach Koh Lipe, Thailand. No joke we would go there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They even let us order curry for breakfast, curry is good eaten any time of the day. Also, you can’t beat that view while eating the tastiest curry ever.
Adam: Green Curry, same place. Ridiculously good.
Best Sunset:
Hannah: A sunset booze cruise on a catamaran has my name written all over it, and top it off with an amazing sunset and I am sold. We had such the trip in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
Cutest Cat:
The afternoon that we spent playing with the Cheetah’s in Namibia was something I will never forget. They were just like house cats just a little bigger!
