Global Travel Planning
Embark on a journey with us around the world.
The global travel planning podcast is filled with travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, real life adventures, practical tips and insights to fuel your wanderlust and help you make your travel dreams a reality.
Global Travel Planning
Navigating Long-Term Travel: Insider Tips from Travel Content Creator Tess Moone
In Episode 5 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast Tracy chats with fellow travel writer Tess Moone who takes us on a whirlwind adventure through Japan and Europe.
Tess with husband Dane explores stunning destinations, navigates the challenges of planning, and discovers the importance of balance and flexibility on a long-term trip.
Join us as we dive into the highlights of Tess's four-month travel adventure plus learn her strategies for budgeting and itinerary planning.
From cherry blossoms in Tokyo to stunning Greek islands, we cover it all. So grab your travel planner and get ready to embark on an unforgettable journey with Tess on this episode of the Global Travel Planning podcast!
Guest - Tess Moone of Tessomewhere.com
Show Notes - Episode 5
🗺 Global Travel Planning
Website - globaltravelplanning.com
Instagram - Global Travel Planning
YouTube - Global Travel Planning
🇬🇧UK Travel Planning
Website - UKTravelPlanning.com
Instagram - UK Travel Planning
YouTube - UK Travel Planning
📍London Travel Planning
Website - LondonTravelPlanning.com
Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planner Podcast. I'm your host, trace Collins, who, with my expert guests, takes you on a journey to destinations around the globe, providing itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi and welcome to episode 5 of the Global Travel Planner Podcast. My guest this week is travel bugger and content creator Tess Moon, who has recently returned to Australia from a four month trip to Japan and Europe with husband Dean. Discover how Tess planned, packed and budgeted for a trip, plus her tips and advice for longer term travel. I began by asking Tess to introduce herself and tell us a little bit about background before going on to chat in more detail about her recent trip.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone. I'm Tess and you'll usually find me in Perth, Western Australia. Almost a year ago now, I actually left behind a decade career in corporate finance and became a full time travel blogger and content creator. So it's kind of crazy to me that we're always up to one year since I left behind my nine to five. So these days, my two main platforms are my blog, TessSomewherecom, where I share mostly Australian travel guides, and also on Instagram, where I'm sharing what I'm up to across the world.
Speaker 1:Oh, fantastic. And we met last year Tess in November at a T-Bex travel conference, didn't we in Phuket?
Speaker 2:We sure did. I had actually my last day of work was at the end of October, so I two weeks later found myself on a plane to Phuket, not knowing what I was getting myself into. It was really scary, but it was also one of the most rewarding things I've done, you know, only two weeks after leaving behind my corporate career, so so glad to have met you. When I did it felt like kind of like a sign almost.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was fantastic. We had a brilliant time at Phuket and it was. It was great meeting up with you then, and obviously we also met in Greece at another T-Bex conference in me, and I met you and your husband, dane, because at that point you were as part of a kind of big trip, shall we call it you? You were also at the T-Bex conference in in Greece. So let's talk a little bit about your epic trip. I'm really interested in it because I'm about to kind of bark on my own epic trip with with my husband. For part of the time, for about five months away, I have been tearing my hair out. I'm planning it, I have to tell you. So you are the perfect person to talk to about how you planned a trip and you know how you found it now that you're back, so I thought let's let's talk about the different places that you went for. So give us an overview, test of of of your trip.
Speaker 2:Alrighty. So we started off our four month bucket list adventure with a month in Japan, which was not my first trip to Japan. I'd actually been to Japan four times before, but always for the snow. So there was about a period of five years where almost every year my husband and I and a bunch of friends went to Japan for the snow. But it's always been on my bucket list to go to Japan back, go back to Japan for spring and see the cherry blossoms.
Speaker 2:So we decided, before heading to Europe, why don't we spend a month in Japan and time to our visit with the start of the cherry blossom season? So we had a month in Japan which was just incredible Like even now it's still one of the highlights of the trip the whole month, which is also not enough time for Japan, even if it's your fifth trip. And then we spent three months in Europe. So for those three months we spent majority of our time in Greece and Italy, with a month month each, but we also managed to fit in our short and visits to places like London, paris, we went to Malta, the Netherlands and Germany. So in my head I kind of thought three months in Europe, that's so much time, but it went really quickly when it came to it and you know, three months just isn't enough. We barely scratched the surface.
Speaker 1:It's amazing and I remember actually what was crazy, considering the size of Europe that I was in London, at the Tower of London, I think just after you or just before you, because you sent me a message and I think I just left yes, so crazily, we just missed each other.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm following you around the world.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know, because I'm going to Japan in October, so we're starting our epic trip with Japan as well. So you went with your husband.
Speaker 2:Yes, so my husband Dane and I. So Dane was just taking leave from his work and somehow built up enough leave for a four month trip.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's brilliant, that's absolutely brilliant. So obviously you had four months. So what were the highlights? Because I want to talk a little bit about in more detail about some of the places that you went to, but what were the absolute highlights? Obviously, you mentioned Japan, but what else were the places that really stuck out for you?
Speaker 2:So we did a little reflection on this when we started to think about coming home. It was our last week in Germany and Dane and I said to each other, gosh, everyone's going to ask us when we get home what are the highlights. And we really had to sit and reflect because four months of nonstop travel, you know that's a lot of experiences and memories. But we both reflected this kind of two key highlights. So one of them was in Japan for me personally, obviously, seeing the cherry blossoms. We managed to get into Tokyo just in time for picture blossoms season and it honestly felt like a dream come true, seeing that for my own eyes, and it was beyond beautiful, better than I could have imagined. And the other highlight for us in Japan was visiting the Fuji Five Lakes area.
Speaker 2:So you know, when you think about Japan, a lot of people think about Mount Fuji, and I had been to Japan before and done a trip to Hakone which I think you might be visiting on your trip, which is sort of near Mount Fuji, but the Fuji Five Lakes area is five lakes at the base of Mount Fuji and we stayed in the main town, kawaguchiko, and I'm not even exaggerating when I'd say we'd walk out of our like hotel and we turn a corner and they're just towering in the distance is Mount Fuji and it was just indescribably awe inspiring seeing it that close and it's yeah, it's such a beautiful, almost like presence being so close to Mount Fuji, so for me that was a really big highlight.
Speaker 1:Oh sounds fantastic. I can't wait to see it when I'm then October. Hopefully the cloud will part so I'll be able to actually see it, hopefully.
Speaker 2:I do think the best time is usually sort of like around winter to early spring, so I'm hoping you get to see it. It might be a bit hiding away though, it depends. But then the other highlight for us was a bit of a and I'm not going to use the phrase hidden gem because we know in this world of social media and the internet there's no hidden gems. But maybe an unsurprising gem was the island of Cafflonia off the Ionian coast in Greece. So we actually went from the Peloponnes main land where I just seen you, tracy. We caught a three hour ferry to Cafflonia, which people kind of describe as maybe like what mykonos was like 10, 15 years ago. It's really undeveloped. There's not really any big beach clubs or resorts and it's really just mostly the tourists are kind of Brits that go for the summer and you know when I have a beach holiday. But for me as an Australian, even meeting people in Cafflonia, like the locals working there, they were shocked when they heard we're from Australia because not many Australians get to Cafflonia. But what I loved about Cafflonia was number one. It wasn't that developed and so it's still retained a lot of its natural charm. I loved like.
Speaker 2:I come from Australia and I think I always say you know, we've got the best beaches in the world. I go to Thailand, I go to other places and I'm never really that impressed by the beaches, but the water in Cafflonia was out of this world. It was the most turquoise as your blues I've ever seen in my life. It was so crystal clear, it was just stunning. And so the day that really stands out to me was when fellow travel bloggers, bridget and Jake, from Nothing Familiar, happened to just be in Cafflonia at the same time, by a random coincidence, and so we hired a boat, a self drive boat, together, and we kind of just hopped around the island, all these little bays and cove that you can't get to on foot. So they were just, you know, pristine areas unfrequented by anyone else except those that had a boat, and it was just such an awesome day out. So that will stay with me for a very long time.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds absolutely amazing. I remember actually talking about getting a boat. I hired a boat a few years ago as a surprise for Doug, so I hired a guy and his boat to take us around from Dubrovnik, which was really cool. He didn't know because he doesn't particularly like boats, so it was a bit of a I didn't tell him beforehand, but it's just amazing because this guy could take us to all these places that we couldn't necessarily get to very easily, and it's lovely been able to do that, isn't it? Be able to get away, I guess, from the crowds, especially when you go to places that are particularly busy like Dubrovnik. So I'll put Kefalonia onto my to visit list, then, tess.
Speaker 2:I think so. I think it's one of those places you've got to go before it starts getting too popular, because it is just incredible and we had such a fun time exploring this island and it's quite big as well, so there's lots of really different things to see and do there. So get onto it before it becomes too developed and popular.
Speaker 1:Okay, that sounds amazing. So let's ask a little bit about kind of your motivation for deciding to do these kind of four month extended travel. What was the kind of thinking when you decided to take the plunge, become a full time travel blogger and then kind of take a four month trip?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess my priorities have changed a lot in recent years and I guess a bit of context is both my husband and I, dean, we've worked really, really hard over the last you know decades since we left university. We went straight out of university into full-time jobs where you know, up until a year ago we both still were. So we'd both been with our companies that we started as graduates with for almost a decade and we'd worked really hard, really pursued the corporate careers and then it was really covered. When we had to stop and pause and reflect that I realized for me personally, like something was missing and I kept trying to, you know, do different roles at work or get that next promotion, thinking it was going to fulfill something in me and it really didn't. And when I started my blog, I never even imagined it would be something I could do full-time and leave my corporate job for. That seemed really surreal to me and it still kind of does sometimes, but you know that's life. So fast forward.
Speaker 2:I started my blog in 2019 and then 2022, I quit my job to do that full-time and when I had originally discussed leaving my corporate job with Dean, I really had said to him you know I think we should take this time in our lives now when you know we don't have children. You know we're really flexible in terms of you know we can pack up and leave and take this time to actually do a bigger trip. And he was on board with it, I think, for him. He was always not as excited for me about the prospect of traveling kind of full-time. When we started talking about timing, I said, you know, 12 months and he said three months. So obviously I'm not a very good negotiator because we ended up at four months somehow. But he still really loves his job and his workplace.
Speaker 2:So you know I had to respect for him. You know, even though I'm quitting my job and keen to pack up and go traveling, it's you know, you've got to think about the other half of the relationship as well. Yeah, absolutely. So we decided, you know now's the time and that's kind of what led to it all, I guess. But you know it didn't happen overnight. You know even what you were saying about planning a five-month trip is so stressful and I just want to preface with you know this whole conversation with, like full-time travel is so much more difficult than I had realised and it is a lot of work but you know it's worth it for those experiences that you get.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. And I was going to ask you actually because because I've just sat for the last few days for hours and hours planning the trip. So we're going, I'll give you a kind of brief we're going to Japan, south Korea, vietnam, cambodia in total, but just for a few days, and then flying back to the UK because I've got my UK travel planning website. So we try to go back and do kind of work around that. So we'll be spending time in London before Christmas, which is my favourite time to go, but I have to say. And then India. I think I'm going to India in February. That's also on the cards, but it's the, it's just the logistics of it. So how did you, how did you get your head around it and what resources did you use to help you plan tests?
Speaker 2:So the main resources I use when I'm planning trips, I guess when I'm in more of an inspiration phase, I do rely a lot on Instagram. You know I'm a travel content creator so I have a really big community of you know, other travelers that I follow, so I get a lot of sort of inspiration and ideas of places that you know kind of look like the place I'd like to explore from Instagram. But when it comes to actually more the planning and the logistics, you know I'm a blogger and so blogs are my, other people's blogs are my go to for those resources. I do really think that getting you know someone that's been on the ground has done those experiences. Particularly, you know, once you find sort of bloggers that you really you know, trust and have authority on the topic, I think they're one of the best resources for planning those trips.
Speaker 2:So for us, I guess, four months, three months in Europe, we kind of almost didn't know where to start but we kind of got stuck getting a few things locked in the schedule that we know we needed to do. So, for example, I knew I was going to go to Greece for the T-Bex conference in May and then we knew we needed to be in Puglia and the south of Italy at the end of June. So I guess from there I sort of to think about you know, how long might we spend in each of those countries? What are the key kind of places we'd like to see? Because I had sort of some non-negotiables, particularly around Italy, like I knew I really wanted to go to Chincaterre. I knew I really wanted to do you know kind of the big cities like Rome. So from there we really just kind of worked our way out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so you kind of filled in the gaps.
Speaker 2:Filled in the gaps.
Speaker 2:But I will also say when we left Perth in March with our one-way flight to Tokyo, at that point in time I only had the first month of Japan kind of booked in and the last month of our Europe trip in July booked in.
Speaker 2:We had not booked majority of our stuff for May and June and I was low-key freaking out because I'm usually a very big planner and I'm always organized and with this trip it just wasn't possible. It didn't help that we were also selling our house and packing our life into storage before we left, so that kind of meant I had less time to do those things. But it was towards the back end of our month in Japan when I was like Dane we've got to stop spending all day, every day, out exploring. We need to kind of lock in some travel plans, particularly because I knew it was looking like it was going to be a busy few months in Europe in terms of peak season seems to be extending into June and even May, whereas it used to just be July, august that we're really busy, so it's hard work.
Speaker 1:It was crazy busy Cause I went back in. I was back for three months going back. I went to, I think, the first week in April, second week at April, and I could not believe how busy London was in April. It was really exceptionally busy. And then I was over in Paris in June and Paris is always busy over the summer but it was far busy than I've ever ever seen it. So travel is back absolutely with abundance and it felt like at one point everybody was in London or everybody was in Paris. It just everywhere you went there was just so many people. So you did really well to actually manage to book things and get all of that, the kind of experiences that you wanted. But did that go okay? You managed to get hotels and accommodation fairly easily, or?
Speaker 2:So accommodation, I think in Italy we were sort of booking some places two or three weeks out, which, quite frankly, probably wasn't enough time for the price we were paying. We probably could have gotten better accommodation if we booked it three months out. So these things really add up, particularly accommodation in Italy. It was so expensive, like even traveling in June it's not truly peak season but it was very expensive. So even experiences, I remember there's a couple of things we couldn't do because we were only looking a week or two out instead of the four plus weeks you needed. So there was a couple of things we couldn't do. For example, we couldn't go into the Louvre. We couldn't get tickets in advance for Louvre and I was not waiting in that line on the day.
Speaker 2:So I decided you know what? It's just something which a lot of people say you have to go to the Louvre, right. But I just had to get comfortable with the fact. Well, it was either the Louvre or my sanity. You know, at the time when I was trying to plan all these things, even the Coliseum, my husband really loves Roman history and so we wanted to get kind of the dick, the package where you can go underground in the Coliseum and that was all sold out so we could only do this other tour. But you know it's all about compromise. So we chose a compromise sort of our sanity and being more in the moment on the holiday than focusing on, you know, booking things four weeks plus out for tours and the like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good point because actually sometimes you can get, you can actually miss the moment and miss where you are because you're thinking of the next thing that you're gonna do with the next thing. On the itinerary, I'm trying not to be too pedantic about our itinerary. I've kind of booked, I know where we're gonna be and I've got a general idea of the things that I'd like to do. But I'm not being overly prescriptive. I think with our itinerary, to put it this way, we're gonna arrive in the UK on the 11th of December and I've got an idea of what I wanna do before I leave at the end of January. But that's as far as it is at the moment. Probably a few things in London I will get booked that I wanna do, because I don't wanna miss out on specific things that I really want for the UK travel planning website.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, I think it's it's like you have to kind of think what are the things that you both wanna do as well, because it's expensive. That's the other bottom line, I think. When I've been sitting and adding it all up, but it's like you kind of I was estimating it and I've got a very good spreadsheet which I've got all the different amounts in which I kind of estimated, but now when I'm actually putting the costs of things in, it is more expensive than even I had kind of I'd actually anticipated. So how did you manage that when you were actually traveling around in terms of budget? So I've got a wise card, so I'll be using that and I know I'll need some cash in some places. But Europe's pretty easy these days because apart from that you can if you're other countries, it's the euro, so that makes things slightly, slightly easier for you. But obviously Australian dollars not particularly strong, so you also had that kind of not in your favor. So how did you kind of manage the budget?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's to answer you in summary. We had a budget number in mind, sort of more a target, not a strict budget, and when we were booking things, Japan were doing really well, Greece were doing really well, and then, when it got to Italy, about just blew out our budget, sort of our accommodation, as I mentioned, the accommodation was really expensive, and so we're paying almost double than what we were thinking we could get away with, and so you know it's changed a lot, because I remember our last big Europe trip in 2018, we spent six weeks in Spain, Portugal and Greece, and I think we're averaging like 100 euros, or maybe even 100 Aussie dollars around that, per night, which to me now seems unimaginable. So, quite frankly, I guess it was lucky that we were in the fortunate position where we went okay, what we thought we'd be able to book accommodation for in Italy. We're going to have to just blow that budget out. But it was another point where we had to make sacrifices and choose not to do certain things, because you know we're prioritising.
Speaker 2:This trip is really that bucket list adventure where we're going to do these things that we've been wanting to do for a long time. I will say, though, when we travel, you know we don't spend a lot of money on shopping, you know in terms of, you know, buying goods, particularly because we were backpacking so we couldn't buy a lot of stuff to carry with us, and we also don't take a lot of organised tours. Sort of a priority for us is eating, so we love eating and drinking. So majority of our spend wasn't really on things like tours, organised tours it was more eating and drinking our way around Italy. Well, that sounds like fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say I have to ask you, did you put weight on either you when you were there or did you manage that pretty well? Because I know I'm still carrying a little bit of weight from my trip to the UK.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely. I was eating pasta at least once, if not twice, a day in Italy, and we did that for a month, so that's got to go somewhere.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think. The one thing that you do do when you travel on, though, is that you full time is. You tend to you walk in all the time, so I'm always kind of conscious of that. I'm already thinking in terms of building up my fitness a bit more before, before I go in in October, because I know I'm going to be doing probably 20,000, 25,000 steps a day, so, at the moment, I'm sat on my bottom recording podcasts and writing blog posts, so it's slightly less probably maybe 2,000 steps a day, so it's kind of conscious as well about making sure that you kind of fit enough to be able to handle it really.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. The last time we were in Europe in 2018, we were both under the age of 30. We're now 31 and 33 respectively and, quite frankly, what used to be a, you know, we'd leave the hotel at 8am and get back at 10 more or 11pm at night. We found for this trip that we couldn't do that and we'd walk 20,000 steps and it would be. You know, we're in Rome and it was 35 degrees and we'd done over 20,000 steps and I was, we're exhausted, physically, physically exhausted.
Speaker 2:So it takes a lot out of your body, particularly in, I think, summer. You know I was like, again confident. Oh, I'm from Australia, I'm used to the heat, but I feel like the heat in Europe really hits differently, particularly because there's a lot more humidity and even if it was 30 degrees, it felt so much warmer. So you really just have to kind of understand. You have limits and and you know, really think long term when you're traveling, you know, for a longer period of time about. Well, if I push myself really hard every day for a week, I might not be able to do something I want to do in two weeks time or, you know, whatever the case may be. So we really had to really learn, to, I guess, find some balance when traveling full time.
Speaker 1:I think that's a really good point as well. I'm going to ask you about your packing. So I am aiming this is my target to travel far lighter when I do this trip than I normally do, because I find I get very stressed when I have too many bags, a bag that's too heavy for me to carry. I'm slightly older than you are I'm 50, so I don't really want to be carrying a backpack too for a too extended period of time, so I'm definitely cutting down. I've found these compression bags the best thing since sliced bread.
Speaker 1:I'm in New Zealand for a month with a very small bag and I put lots of stuff in the compression bags. So how did you because I mean, we're going to be in our trip experience in different weather conditions, as in we're going to have kind of obviously it's going to be pretty cold in Japan and it's going to be very cold in the UK, probably in Scotland as well. It will be cold December, January, but we're going to be Vietnam, Cambodia, when it's going to be warm in November. So how did you kind of manage the packing? Did you have different seasons to consider as well, or how did you go and what did you take with you?
Speaker 2:All right. So, as I mentioned before, we took backpacks which we weren't backpacking. Like you know, we're not staying in hostels, we weren't doing carry on only with checking out backpacks for the plane, but we did have everything on our backs, which definitely has its pros and cons. You know, I'm still mixed emotions whether I would do it again for such a long trip, because you know it does get quite exhausting after a while. But I guess, to go back to kind of your original question, yeah, we did definitely have to deal with changing seasons. So, going to Japan, we kind of got there the end of March, start of April, so even though it was spring, it was still quite cool. And then from there we were going to London at the end of April, which was still cool as well. So in May and even in June in Italy there were still periods of rain. So we really had to deal with, you know, mixed weather and so what my kind of philosophy was, particularly because we were backpacking and had to carry all with us, was buy a few choice items such as, for example, a rain jacket. I bought one from Kmart which is, for those that might not be aware, you know, sort of a discount, like, I guess, retailer, yeah, that you know, like Target, kmart, big W, kind of that level of quality, but you know it's good products, just cheaper and you know they get the job done. Yeah, so I bought a rain jacket from Kmart which I think cost me $25, was quite stylish and I bought that with the no emotion attached to it. If I needed to leave it behind somewhere, which I did I finally ditched that rain jacket in June in Italy and I think the next day it rained. So there you go. That's timing for you. But I also bought, you know, some sweaters and jumpers. That again, I think, we're from Target or Kmart, so they didn't cost a lot, and I left a lot of those behind in Japan because I thought, three months of Europe, I'm ready for my summer, and so I left all my warm clothes behind. So going, you know, not taking clothes I had a lot of emotional attachment to, so I'd be prepared to leave them behind.
Speaker 2:We also sent a package home from London back to Perth and that was three or four kilos worth of stuff that we'd bought in Japan, because we'd bought like a arcade set and a few like books and other souvenirs, and we shipped that home, but that cost us a hundred pounds, so almost $200. So it was. It was worth it because that was three or four kilos we didn't have to carry on our backs, but it was expensive exercise to do. So, quite frankly, we had to prioritize and make sacrifices, but you know, it was worth it. We met some Aussie girls in Chinatari and one of the girls was saying how she's packed a 30 kilo suitcase and she can't even lift it down, you know, up or down the stairs. And they had another six weeks ahead of them in Europe and I just they were going to the Amalfi Coast and I just thought, oh girls, you guys are in trouble.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what she'll have wanted to ditch. That I can guarantee that. Because that's that's just. That's a lot to be carrying around.
Speaker 1:And we in my late 30s we backpacked around Europe a couple of times by train, took to God or to I think she was about 10 or 11 at the time and we did the backpacks. And I remember the second year that I did it, I think Doug ended up carrying it for most of the trip and he was like you're not doing a backpack again, but it just, I think as well, when you've got you've got a heavy bag like that, that you've got to kind of struggle to get into destinations, whether that's in the middle of London and getting onto the tube with a suitcase like that, whether that's going somewhere, you know, like the Malfi Coast, it's just, it's going to be a pain, You're going to find a pain and also you're going to have that and you're probably going to have a backpack or a bag with you. So the more things that you have to carry I find, the more stressed I get. It's because I'm like, oh, how many bags is it I've got and you've got your jacket. So I think just having the backpack is the best way forward.
Speaker 1:I'm probably going to go for a small wheelie bag and I've got a small pack safe bag and that will probably be it, and I think it also kind of just makes you strict that you just have to be strict. You can't go out and buy a huge amount of stuff. But I really love that tip, Tess, about taking clothes that you're not attached to. That's really clever. That's a really good idea. I'm definitely going to be taking a lot of leggings because you know I'm not particularly attached to them, but they're so comfortable traveling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And I think, just, you know, go in with a mindset that sometimes you're going to be like, oh, I wish I had, you know, nicer clothes, like for me, particularly because I'm in a lot of my photos that I share on Instagram, and I went, oh my goodness, I'm wearing the same old thing and I got so sick of it. But you know what was the flip side? The flexibility of when we could just go up the train station stairs or there's this huge queue of people waiting to use the one lift because I got these bulky suitcases you know seeing people that couldn't even lift up their own suitcases like it's just, you know, for us it was worth it.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, in the future I would be more interested in looking at kind of one of those hybrid options which is, you know, a backpack which you can also wheel. I have one of those. Oh good, we met some. We met some people that some of these that were using those and they really liked it. So for me, I think that might be a better kind of hybrid choice in the future.
Speaker 1:So that's what I've got one of those and I use that. I use that actually when I was flew out to Greece and I use that in Greece and found that really really good as well, and because it can, the wheels, because I used to have one years ago which wasn't particularly comfortable the wheels used to dig in on your back, but now they're so good so the wheels kind of fit round so they're really comfortable to carry. I think probably you have. The same issue that I have is because of being content creators is that we have our laptops with us, we have iPad, we have I have, you know, you have your GoPro or your, you know Insta360, you've got your camera, you've got all those extra little bits which all add up weight wise, because people was, you know also, oh, can you not do carry on only? I'm like in my dreams, could I ever do carry on only? Not a chance, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So just for context, I think when we went to Japan our bags were a bit heavier, but in Japan my main checked bag was 13 kilos. By the time we were down to Europe it was 11 kilos. So that was my main bag. And then I also had my camera bag as my carry on and that was probably around seven or eight kilos. So you know, it was still fairly light in the schema thing.
Speaker 1:That's really good. Yeah, that's really good. Well, I'll be aiming to do that. I'll be sharing some pictures when I go off on my trip and let's see if I can keep that kind of seven KGs as my aim for to take carry on and then probably about 12, 13 again to put in the hold. That's my aim, so I'll let you know how I get on. You can do it.
Speaker 2:I believe in you. Okay great Thanks, tessa. So I just add I've got them. I've actually got a. I did a reel on Instagram, so an Instagram video that shows actually everything that was in my backpack and how I packed it with packing cubes. So if you're interested, you can see that on Instagram as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect. Actually, Tess, you can give me a link to that and to all your social media, your website as well, because I put those into the show notes and also some photos are really good of your trip, so it can include those in the show notes. But obviously, the main thing is to pop over to your Instagram and give you a follow on there, because you'll be able to see everything, and I actually have seen that reel as well. It's excellent. It's really really good. Thank you, I've shown what you packed, yeah, so that's good. So I have to ask you now what are your plans going forward?
Speaker 2:So, as I mentioned, we sold our house in Perth and that wasn't just because we're like, oh, we're going away for four months, pack up our whole lives and sell it.
Speaker 2:It was more because we knew when we came back from this big trip we were wanting to create a bit of a different lifestyle. So at the moment, as I talk to you, I'm currently living with my parents-in-law at the, my husband's kind of family home where he grew up. But that's just short term because we're currently looking for a rental in the Margaret River region. We're going to be living in the city for three hours south of Perth, which is really exciting because the kind of vision or plan now is to have a bit of a sea change or tree change and kind of live a bit more of a rural lifestyle, a bit more immersed in nature, away from the big city.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I think finding a rental is a bit trickier than we thought it was going to be. The market's really not great in Australia in general, I think, at the moment, and I've had a couple of health issues since getting home, unfortunately, so that's kind of delayed our plans, but things are looking back on track. So we're actually going down this weekend to go look at a few properties, so really excited for that.
Speaker 1:Oh, good luck with that and I'll be over to visit. I've never been over to Western Australia yet. It's definitely high on my list of places to visit and, as I say, when I get back from this trip overseas, maybe I'll head over to Western Australia and we can catch up Absolutely and my blog is unintentionally.
Speaker 2:It's become a Western Australia travel blog. I will be writing a lot about our overseas adventures, but if you have any questions on Western Australia, always ask me, or I've got a lot of travel guides on Western Australia as well. That will help.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect, that sounds fantastic. So I'm going to ask you one last thing, tess, before we wrap up this podcast episode. What would be the one tip that you would give to somebody who's planning a long term trip, whether it's to Europe or anywhere in the world?
Speaker 2:really, I try to make this concise, but it's kind of a bit more of a longer answer. In summary, I would say allow yourself downtime when you're traveling for a period longer than a month or six weeks which for me, six weeks had previously been my longest trip. It's, quite frankly really exhausting, and it's not just a physical aspect, it's actually like the mental, cognitive load on you because there's so many things that you do on a daily basis when you're traveling overseas. That just really takes a lot out of you. Having to decide where you're going to eat, where you're going to sleep, and having to do that day after day after day, particularly on longer trips where you might not have everything planned For me, I really underestimated how much of a drain that would be, because when you're kind of on a shorter trip you kind of just give it your all and then you know when you're going to go home and recover from your holiday after, but you don't really have that opportunity when you're traveling long term.
Speaker 2:That really took it out of me quite quickly. After a month in Japan I was just absolutely drained. I knew we couldn't kind of continue at this pace. I guess my kind of key tip would be for someone to know upfront that that's going to happen, because I didn't really expect it as much as I did and I hadn't really built any flexibility in our schedule. For example, it wasn't until we had a rainy day in Florence, probably more than three months into our trip, that we actually had a day where we didn't leave the house until 2pm. We slept in, we read our books, we had a coffee and at 2pm, when it stopped raining, we finally went sightseeing. We literally had not had any long periods of downtime until that point.
Speaker 2:My kind of tip would be to if you know you need three days in a city to kind of see all the main sights and attractions, if you can give yourself half a day or even a full day of almost nothing, a nothing day, to really just recharge, rest, maybe do some spontaneous activities Even.
Speaker 2:There was a point when we got to Italy when we had a few more like Airbnb's booked and I went Dane, I can't go out for dinner. Let's have a night where we cook a simple meal with beautiful Italian produce and, just like we would at home, we eat our food on the couch, veg out, watching Netflix, because going out every night is actually exhausting when you've done it for three months. I got to that point where I was really needing a bit more downtime, a bit more of that kind of normal stuff you do at home, that you don't normally do on holidays, to really make sure we had the energy to do this for four months. Hopefully, when you're traveling for five months, tracey, you allow yourself that bit of downtime, because it makes a very big difference just to your overall physical and mental well-being.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That's a really good tip I know in this last trip over to the UK, because I was in the UK for a month and then I was in Greece for a few weeks and then went back to the UK. Actually, it was the Greece part of it that really took it out of me, because that was really full on and really busy. Then, luckily, I was actually going to go to Egypt but cancelled that and actually flew back to the UK. It was my mom's 80th birthday, so she was really happy to come back.
Speaker 1:I went back and, to be honest, I think I had about three days where I just literally just did nothing, just stayed at my mom's house, drank lots of tea, just sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and tried to keep off the laptop as well, because we're always working. That's something that other people don't realise when it comes to content creators is that, yes, it looks like we have a very glamorous lifestyle where we're travelling all the time, but you're always constantly thinking about work. It actually changes your relationship with travel Absolutely. Yes, I've already looked at Anna. We've got some time in Vietnam and Huy An. We've given ourselves extra time there just so we can have a day where we just maybe just go and just have a short stroll around or just, as you say, just lie in the morning and not think we've got to go and do this, this and this.
Speaker 2:Yes, I shall report back during this trip. It's all about mindset, right? Because for me, when I'm like, oh, I'm overseas, I'm only here for a short amount of time, I really just want to go out and make the most of the day. I don't always feel guilty staying in your hotel or your Airbnb having a chill day, but, trust me, in the long run, when you're doing longer term travel, it will pay dividends. No, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I totally agree with you on that. Well, thanks very much, tess, for joining me on this episode of the podcast. It's really great to be able to talk to you. I haven't seen you for a few months. As I said, we'll be linking to all your Instagram and your website on the. Are you on TikTok as well? I'm interested. Reluctantly.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am on TikTok, we'll also link to your TikTok as well.
Speaker 1:But thanks so much, Tess, for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, Tracey, and I look forward to bumping into you somewhere else in the world soon.
Speaker 1:I know it's like we never quite know where it's going to be, do we? I like it? Bit of a surprise, Absolutely. Thanks again to Tess for coming onto the podcast and sharing her experiences and knowledge. You can find links to Tess's website and social media accounts in this week's show notes at TracesTravelsInTimecom. Forward slash episode five. In next episode we travel to Switzerland with Carolyn Schoenigfinger. From holidays to switzerlandcom. Until then, happy global travel planning.