Our Route

We are still formulating our itinerary, but there are several factors that will influence where we go.

• Timing - we want to avoid the high /tourist season to avoid the crowds and higher prices.  We also want to avoid the low season which often brings with it rains, monsoons, etc.  We'll be chasing the shoulder seasons.

• Geographic Arbitrage - we are targeting places with a lower cost of living thank California so we can stretch our dollars further.

• No backtracking - we prefer to not revisit a place we've already been before (which means Argentina would be out), although we may not stick to that.

• No Fly List - obviously we don't want to travel to any place that is on the US travel advisory list - at least not any place that is a category 3 or 4. 

That said, we do have a couple of leading candidates for our first few stops.  We are leaning towards Crete as our first stop followed by Mostar, Bosnia.  Then we plan to be in Chang Mai in November for the Lantern Festival followed by the Philippines for Christmas with Francesca's family.  Then likely to Latin America - possibly Peru.  After that...who knows?  There is something kind of exciting about not having it all planned out.  The freedom to stay longer in a place that we are really enjoying or move on if we're not.