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A Little Advice…Travel Around the World Without Flying (Three)

1 February 2010 Comments

This week wraps up our three part series on how to travel around the world completely via land and sea travel. Michael is a full year into his RTW trip (he thinks it will last about 16 months total) and has shared valuable tips and information over the past three weeks about ways other travelers can plan a flightless trip around the world…from giving yourself a lot of time to travel overland (1), to coping with the extra cost of flightless travel (2).

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Reduce Your Carbon Footprint: Skip the Flights

Last week I talked about overland travel sometimes costing more, and that’s not to say that it is all negative – I’m unbelievably happy with my journey. For one thing, air travel is incredibly damaging to the environment. As a general rule, a plane emits about as much CO2 as would every passenger if they drove the same distance in their individual cars. Additionally, since the airplane is emitting it’s CO2 (and some other pollutants) into the upper atmosphere, there is an additional negative effect. There is a reward, at least in my eyes, for seeing this much of the world with such a relatively small carbon footprint. I’m not saving the world or anything of the like, but I get some satisfaction from not using the worst environmental mode of travel out there – the jet plane.

(Check out how to set off your travel footprint with carbon offsets).

Feel Each Footstep Round the World & Soak in the Unique Rewards

It’s incredibly rewarding. I’ve enjoyed talking with hundreds of travelers about how and where they are off to and can only try to explain why my particular route and method is satisfying to me. This is not to claim my trip is any ‘better’ than anyone else’s out there – everyone should do whatever trip they think is right for them (and there ought to be a lot less judgment on the various forums and blogs out there on others’ choices).

That being said, for me, the reward for me in my current ground level view is in getting a complete feel for the enormity of our planet. Traveler books from decades gone by amaze me – before ATMs, before the internet, before the hostel circuit, before guidebooks, before cell phones and so on and so forth. Reading books about what they experienced on the road has always fascinated me. Being the first westerner in some out of the way place in years. Getting from place to place when that meant much more than just braving the touts and hawkers at a bus station. The obstacles they had to overcome in most of their journeys are inspiring.

In comparison to those adventurers, my journey has been relatively easy. But at least part of the reward for me has been the challenge – I can’t go back in time to The Great Railway Bazaar or some of the other great journeys from years ago, but I experienced at least some of those challenges in my trip this time.

I’m sure there are many, many people who can say they experienced every mile around our great planet on the ground in recent times, but I’m simply happy to be a part of the club.

Thank you so much for putting this information out there Michael – slow travel is so much better for the environment and as you say – you’re feeling every single step of your journey! Cheers, and I look forward to following your travels :-) Check out his other tips for flightless travel from the past two weeks!

Travel the World Without Flying: 1
Travel the World Without Flying: 2

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Michael Hodson is, or was, a lawyer in Northwest Arkansas who decided to take a year off and travel around the world with two rules: no reservations and no airplanes. He’s kept up the 2nd half of the promise and only slightly fallen short on the 1st half. His blog is at www.mobilelawyer.blogspot.com

Previous Guest Post we love:
An Unexpected Stop in the Sudan with ThePlanetD

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Aly

We have a preference for travel by sea and sail! And I agree that taking the time to not fly would allow you to truly become a part of the environment and help you notice more of the small details about a new place that makes it that much more special.

Great post you two!

ShannonOD

Thanks for the kind words and support, I am really looking forward to taking
more of these slower and purposeful types of transportation on my future
travels! Cute site! I look forward to reading up on some of your travels
:-)

DavenDeb

Enjoy your round the world travel. We cycled through Africa and traveling overland definitely gives you a feel of how vast this planet is. You photo in Argentina, is beautiful.

mobilelawyer

many thanks for all the nice comments -- I'm trying to post more of my pictures up on my blog. www.mobilelawyer.blogspot.com -- and also trying to be better about writing more frequently ;) Thanks again, everyone.

Gourmantic

Michael, your series made me think about modern travel and the things we take for granted. At the same time, it evoked some nostalgia for travel and how it was in a different era.

Great series, Michael and Shannon :)

ShannonOD

I know exactly what you mean about the nostalgia - when I was in Cambodia I
met an older woman who backpacked through India, Asia, and other countries
in the early 70s and her experiences illuminated just how different travel
is now that we have all of these modern advances :-) Thanks for following
along, I'm hoping to integrate some of Micheal's tips into my upcoming trip!

Nomadic Chick

Michael and Shannon, lovely way to round up this series. Especially how Michael emphasizes that his method of travel is not superior of another, it's about his fascination with those explorers of old and what being green means to him. I personally love overland travel, every time I've done it, so many encounters and characters came out of the woodwork.

ShannonOD

Thanks Nomadic C - I completely loved Michael's end as well - it's all about
balance and I hate these huge travel debates that some travelers get into
over the "right" way to travel and backpack. After reading all of Micheal's
tips these past few weeks I'm encouraged just to try to integrate a few of
these options into my future travels :-)

Sofia

You've got some great points there Michael, and I believe more and more people are willing to travel by other transports than flying.
It's just that it seems like the train- and bus companies themselves haven't realized it. It's incredibly expensive to travel by train in Europe, and often very tricky. It's hard to be flexible, even with the eurorail pass, and is way too expensive for what you get out of it.

For us it turned out to be a huge difference in price between flying and taking other transports such as bus or train. With Ryan Air you can fly for less that 5 Euro, which would never be possible by bus or train for such far distances..

I think the bus and train companies need to rethink their strategies..

mobilelawyer

Believe me, I feel your pain. . . or my wallet does. Hard for me to guess what I've spent because of my committment on this trip to not flying verses what I could have done with planes. $20,000-$30,000 more, perhaps? I'll put pen to paper and fingers to the price searches when I'm finishing up the research for the book. Going ALL the way around with no flights might not be doable for people -- not sure I'll do it again. But what people can do is eliminate at least some of their flights. It annoys me when I hear someone in Bangkok say they are going to fly to Siem Reap. "It almost costs the same as the bus is is so much faster and easier." Well hell, the bus rides down let you see some of the interior you wouldn't see, let you meet some people you wouldn't meet, eat at some roadside stands you wouldn't get to, let's you cross at a really interesting border crossing (HUGE casino. . . at a border crossing??!!) -- and it is an easy one day trip down. And your carbon footprint is that much less. It is that sort of stuff that I hope changes a bit.