2014 : 12 mois pour préparer notre tour du monde

Février

Nous avons fait quelques recherches à propos du visa de tourisme B2 d’une durée de 6 mois pour les USA pour Loïc.
Nous avons réalisé qu'il serait plus difficile qu'escompté de l'obtenir et nous avons donc choisi de ne pas tenter le coup (les conséquences d'un refus étant très graves) et de passer uniquement 3 mois aux USA. Loïc n'a dans ces conditions pas besoin de visa car le Visa Waiver Program (le programme d'exemption de visas) lui permet de passer 3 mois aux USA. A condition bien sûr de réussir à convaincre l'officier d'immigration à l’arrivée que vous n'allez pas rester au-delà de 3 mois et que vous n'allez pas travailler !
Nathalie a été très déçue de ce changement de programme car elle avait commencé à imaginer tout ce qu'elle aimerait faire pendant 6 mois de voyage : essayer d'acheter une voiture et de faire un grand road trip.
Nous avons donc décidé de visiter la Louisiane et la Floride et ensuite l'Oregon et la Californie pour visiter la famille et le les amis. Savannah, Charleston, le Tennessee, la route 66, les parcs de l’Ouest et Yellowstone devront attendre un autre voyage !

Suite à cette décision nous avons choisi de prolonger de 3 mois notre voyage en Nouvelle-Zélande et de bénéficier d'un Permis Vacances Travail qui permet, comme son nom l'indique de travailler et de faire du tourisme ! Avoir l'opportunité de recharger le compte en banque nous soulage un peu (surtout Loïc).
Obtenir ce permis n'a pas posé de difficultés, la Nouvelle-Zélande appliquant de très larges quotas pour les citoyens Français (5000).

Nous avons aussi commencé à planifier notre voyage de 3 mois en Asie de Janvier à Mars 2016. 1 mois en Indonésie (à la place de 15 jours en Indonésie et 15 jours au Cambodge), 1 mois en Birmanie et 1 mois en Thaïlande.

Egalement en Février, nous avons échangé nos premiers E-mail avec Zip World, une agence spécialisée en “Billets tour du monde”. Elle nous a conseillé de partir avant le 31 mars pour bénéficier de meilleurs tarifs. Nos dates de départ ont donc commencé à devenir plus précises. En prenant en compte la météo et les températures des différents pays et l'aspect financier nous avons provisoirement fixé notre départ pour la fin mars.

Mai

Pendant que nous faisions nos recherches sur ce que nous aimerions faire en Birmanie, nous avons réalisé que nous ne pourrions pas avoir de visa (il doit être pris depuis la France trois mois avant le départ).                  
Nous avons donc décidé d'aller visiter le Viêtnam à la place de la Birmanie. En février, le temps n'est pas toujours bon dans le nord du Vietnam (Hanoi, la baie d'Along). Nous avons donc prévu 1 mois dans le centre et le sud du Vietnam : Hué, Ho-Chi-Min ville, delta du Mékong.

Juillet

En juillet, Loïc a eu un rendez-vous avec la direction des ressources humaines de son entreprise. Il a expliqué notre projet et demandé 1 an de congé sans solde. 2 semaines plus tard il a reçu un e-mail indiquant que sa demande était rejetée au motif que l'activité ne permettait pas à son poste d'être vacant pendant 1 an. Celle nouvelle nous a un peu refroidis mais pas surpris. La conséquence directe a été pour nous l'abandon définitif de la perspective de pouvoir passer 6 mois aux USA (et oui il nous restait un secret espoir !). La répartition 3 mois USA + 6 mois Nouvelle-Zélande était actée !
Pour les 3 mois aux USA :
•    Louisiane : 1 mois (avril) : 2 semaines de Wwoofing + 2 semaines pour visiter le pays
•    Et la même chose pour la Floride
•    Ensuite Oregon + Californie (en juin)

En juillet nous nous sommes aussi inscrits sur le site “wwofusa.org” et nous avons sélectionné les fermes qui nous intéressaient le plus parmi les 13 que compte la Louisiane et les 43 que compte la Floride.

Nous avons également obtenu notre premier devis pour nos billets d'avion. ZipWorld (la compagnie spécialisée dans les Tours du monde) nous a proposé un billet à 1600 euros par personne pour les vols suivant : Paris/Dallas, Los Angeles/Auckland, Auckland/Jakarta, Bangkok/Paris. Nous avons été surpris par le coût, nous nous attendions plus à un billet autour des 3000 euros.
Nous  avons prévu de les acheter fin octobre, une fois que Nathalie serait sûre de pouvoir obtenir sa mise en disponibilité.

 

Septembre

Mi-septembre Nathalie a commencé un job du soir : 3 heures par semaine d'aide aux devoirs avec 2 collégiens. Cette activité, en plus de son travail, est fatigante mais nécessaire pour réussir à économiser suffisamment d'argent pour notre voyage.

Le 13 septembre nous avons eu un rendez-vous avec la Société Générale. Ils nous ont présenté une offre internationale intéressante avec des moyens de paiement sans charge ni commission à l'international.

Nous avons aussi fait des recherches sur les assurances voyage. Nous avons décidé de prendre une assurance d'un an et de ne pas utiliser notre assurance de carte bleue qui n'est pas adaptée dans notre situation. Le billet d'avion doit être acheté avec la carte bleue, ce qui nous obligeait soit à acheter nos billets très tard, soit à assumer les frais bancaires de notre nouveau compte 6 mois plus tôt. De plus les remboursements sont beaucoup plus longs que pour une assurance voyage spécifique. Et l'avance des frais de santé aux USA peut très vite vous obliger à repartir chez vous précipitamment...

Octobre

Nathalie a passé 5 jours en Dordogne chez sa mère où elle a passé une bonne partie de son temps sur l'ordinateur à se prendre la tête avec des questions de passeport !
3 options étaient considérées:
•    Utiliser son passeport Américain ET Français
•    Utiliser uniquement son passeport Américain
•    Utiliser uniquement son passeport Français

Un Mail de l'American Immigration Department lui a fait comprendre qu'elle devait impérativement utiliser son passeport Américain aux USA... 
Mais utiliser uniquement son passeport Américain pouvait poser problème à l'arrivée en Nouvelle-Zélande où la demande de Permis-Vacances-Travail a été faite avec son passeport Français (on ne peut pas faire une demande de PVT pour la Nouvelle Zélande avec son passeport américain en étant en France).
Après plusieurs échanges de mails avec des ambassades et services d’immigration, elle a commencé à voir la lumière au bout du tunnel quand un fonctionnaire de l'immigration Néo-Zélandaise lui a dit au téléphone : « vous pouvez utiliser votre passeport Français si c'est plus facile pour vous. Il n'y a pas de problème à entrer en NZ avec un passeport différent de celui que vous avez utilisé pour quitter les USA ». Donc elle va utiliser son passeport Américain aux USA et son passeport Français pour le reste du voyage.

En octobre nous avons également acheté nos billets ! Nous quittons la France et nous envolons pour Dallas le 27 Mars. Le prix n'a pas beaucoup augmenté depuis juillet : 1638 euros par personne. Pour Loïc c'est une grosse étape : tout devient beaucoup plus réel !

Novembre

En novembre nous avons trouvé la ferme qui nous accueillera en Louisiane. Il s'agit de la Keachi Acres farm près de Shreveport dans le Nord de la Louisiane. Ça n'a pas l'air d'être le coin le plus intéressant de la Louisiane mais Mary la propriétaire a l'air super sympa et les commentaires des précédents wwoofers sont très bons. La maison a également l'air top, au milieu des bois avec un lac devant et un ponton.
Après avoir eu un refus pour cause de bébé et une absence de réponse sur 2 autres fermes c'est un vrai soulagement pour nous ! Mary nous indique tout de même qu'elle ne pourra nous donner sa réponse définitive qu'après Noël. Mais elle a l'air ok.

Décembre

Nous avons eu un rendez-vous à l'hôpital Saint-Antoine à Paris (2 fois moins cher que Pasteur) pour nos rappel de DTPolio, un vaccin pour l'hépatite A (qui fait mal) et celui pour la fièvre Typhoïde. Le médecin nous a aussi conseillé de réfléchir à faire le vaccin contre la Rage.

Conclusion

Les pièces commencent à s'assembler, voici le premier jet de notre itinéraire aux USA:

•    27 mars: Atterrissage à Dallas à 16H, nuit à Dallas.
•    28 mars: Bus Greyhound de Dallas à Shreveport 
•    29 mars au 10 avril : Wwoofing à Keachi Acres près de Shreveport en Louisiane
•    11 avril au 14 avril : visite de la Nouvelle-Orléans. Nous allons pouvoir profiter du French Quarter Jazz Festival pendant 2 jours !
•    15 avril au 25 avril : Location d'une voiture pour visiter la Louisiane (Pays Cajun, plantations, Lafayette, Bâton Rouge…)
•    Autour du 25 avril : Greyhound bus de la Nouvelle-Orléans à la Floride
•    26 avril au 9 mai : Wwoofing à Caceres Organic Blueberry Farms près de Gainesville en Floride
•    10 mai au 24 mai: location d'une voiture et visite de la Floride (Parcs d'attraction à Orlando, Miami, les Everglades, les Keys, la côte ouest de la Floride…)
•    Autour du 26 mai: vol de la Floride à l'Oregon
•    Du 26 mai au 6 juin environ: visite de l'Oregon et des amis. Nous n'avons encore rien prévu et nous n'avons pas de guide touristique. Nous sommes sûrs que les gens qui nous accueilleront nous conseilleront sur les “incontournables”.
•    Du 5 au 23 juin environ : visite de la Californie, des amis et de la famille. San Francisco, Montery, Fresno, Yosemite National park...

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2014 : 12 months to prepare our world tour

February

We do some research about the 6 months tourist visa B2 for the USA for Loïc. It's very difficult to obtain that kind of visa. You have to prove to the consular officer that: you are not planning to immigrate to the USA and that you have the financial resources to spend 6 months in the USA without working illegally. To prove that you don’t intend to immigrate to the USA, you have to have strong links to France. Since we don’t own a house in France, having an employment contract waiting for Loïc when he comes back would be the only way to have a chance to obtain his visa B2.

At first we were thinking that Loïc could apply for the B2 visa rather early and if denied wait a few months and then apply for the Visa Waiver Program (the VWP is a program of the United States Government which allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the United States for tourism, business, or while in transit for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa).
But during our research, we discovered that if once in your life you are denied a visa for the USA, you are then forbidden for life the right of obtaining a VWP. We then started to realize that in those conditions it was very risky to ask for a B2 visa. Even for an airplane connection through the USA you have to ask for a VWP!
We understood that Loïc should not apply for the visa if he wasn’t sure that he could keep his job. That’s why he intended to wait July to ask his boss a one year leave and if accorded he would then try to ask for the visa.

After this research we started to realize that it would be more difficult that we first thought to have the B2 visa. That’s why we started considering spending only 3 months in the USA: Loïc wouldn’t need a visa because the VWP allows him to spend 3 months in the USA (IF you manage to convince the immigration officer that you are not going to stay illegally or work illegally and that you really need to spend three months in the USA!!!).
Nathalie was very disappointed about that because she had started to imagine all she would like to do during a six months trip: try to buy a car and do a big road trip.
Since Nathalie really wanted to visit Louisiana and Loïc Florida, we decided that if we could only spend three months in the USA we would go to Louisiana, Florida and then Oregon and California to visit family and friends. Savannah, Charleston, Tennessee, Route 66, the Western National Parks and Yellowstone would have to wait for another trip!

Anyhow, buying a car and selling it when leaving the USA might have been very difficult. Because buying a car when you don't have an american driving licence seems to be quite impossible. In fact, buying a car is easy but the problem is getting an insurance and a licence plate.
Now we are thinking of renting a car for 2 times 2 weeks to visit Louisiana and Florida. While wwoofing we will probably don't need a car too much.


Initially, we wanted to spend 6 months in the USA and then 3 months in New-Zealand. Since we might only be able to spend 3 months in the USA, we would then spend 6 months in New-Zealand with a Working Holiday Visa (WHV).
A working holiday visa is a residence permit which allows travelers to undertake employment (and sometimes study) in the country issuing the visa for the purpose of supplementing their travel funds.

Obtaining a WHV should not be difficult because New-Zealand doesn’t apply quota concerning French citizens.
We are planning to do more wwoofing in NZ and maybe work if we need to financialy. Lots of people with a WHV work in fruit picking where it's quite easy to find a job and travel every 2 or 3 weeks.



We also started to plan our 3 months in Asia (January to March 2016). We decided to spend 1 month in Indonesia (rather than 15 days in Indonesia and 15 days in Cambodia), 1 month in Burma and 1 month in Thailand.

Also in February, we exchanged our first e-mails with Zip World, an agency specialized in World tour airplanes tickets. They told us that the 4 following flights: France/USA + USA/New-Zealand + New-Zealand/Indonesia + Thailand/France should cost us, in total, 1800-1900 euros per person. The flights Indonesia/Burma and Burma/Thailand would have to be taken separately, with Air Asia for example.
To obtain cheaper/est tickets, we have to arrive/leave from big airports. That meant for the USA: New-York, Dallas, San Francisco or Los Angeles, for New-Zealand: Auckland, for Indonesia: Jakarta and for Thailand: Bangkok. It was important for us to learn that because it has an influence on our itinerary. Therefore we would have to visit Burma before Thailand because our flight back to France would be from Bangkok, Rangoon not being possible.
They also told us that we should leave France between March 1st and 31st to get the cheapest tickets. Our dates were becoming more precise! Including weather and temperatures in the different countries and the financial aspect (one more month to save money) we started planning leaving France at the end of March.

May

We started thinking about what we would like to do during our three months in Asia.
In January 2016 we should be in Indonesia, probably Java and Bali islands.

While doing research about what we would like to do in Burma, we realized that we would again be facing issues with the visa. Burma being still quite closed to foreigners, you have to get a 30 days visa to travel to Burma. You can only arrive in international airports, and foreigners cannot cross the border between Thailand and Burma by car.
Also you must do your visa application only 3 months before traveling from your country of residence. Since in December we would be in New-Zealand it would be impossible for us. We could have tried to get a visa for Burma while we were in Indonesia but it seemed a bit complicated. Also since Burma is the new “country to visit”, prices are increasing very fast and we were afraid it would be a bit expensive for us.

So we decided not to go to Burma but to Vietnam instead. In February, the weather is not very good in North Vietnam (Hanoï, Halong Bay): it can be cloudy and rainy. So we planned to spend one month in Center and South Vietnam: Hué, Ho-Chi-Min City, Mekong delta.

In march, our last country will be Thailand. We don't know yet where we'll be going after visiting Bangkok and it's area. Maybe in the north-west or north-east mountains or maybe in the southern islands. We are thinking of deciding our itinerary at the last minute depending on what we have done in Indonesia and Vietnam.

July

In July, Loïc had an appointment with the Human Resources Director of his enterprise. He explained our project and asked for a one year unpaid leave. Two weeks later he received an e-mail saying his application was denied because his job couldn't stay vacant for a whole year.
The consequence of not having a one year unpaid leave is that he won't be able to ask for a visa B2 and therefore we won't be able to spend six months but only three in the USA.
We were disappointed to learn that, but since February we mostly had dropped the idea of spending six months in the USA.
So here's how we will be spending our three months in the USA :
-    Louisiana : 1 month (April) : two weeks Wwoofing + two weeks visiting the state
-    Florida : 1 month (May) : two weeks Wwoofing + two weeks visiting the state
-    Oregon + California (June)

In July, we also registered on wwofusa.org and were then able to read about all 13 farms in Louisiana and 43 farms in Florida. We selected the farms we were most interested in for both states.

Then, we asked Zip world for a first cost estimate. They offered a 1600 euros airplane ticket for the following flights: Paris/Dallas, Los Angeles/Auckland, Auckland/Jakarta, Bangkok/Paris.
We were pleasantly surprised about the cost, we were thinking of something around 2500 euros.
We planned to buy the tickets at the end of October, once Nathalie was sure that the hospital where she works would give her a one year leave. Of course we knew that the more we wait, the more prices would increase but it was a bit scary to finalize things very early.

September

Mid-September Nathalie started doing extra work: three hours a week of homework assistance with a 6th grade young boy as well as continuing with a 7th grade boy she was already helping last year. The lessons are in the evening once she finishes work. It’s sometimes tiring, but really necessary to help her saving enough money for the world tour!

On September 13th, we had an appointment with the Société Générale bank. They have an interesting international package with no charges on all payments and cash withdrawals all over the world.

We also made researches about travel insurances. We decided to take a 12 months travel insurance rather than using our debit card insurance for the first 3 months and then a travel insurance for the following 9 months. If ever something happens to us while in the USA the care could not be adequate with the debit card insurance and we would have to pay for medical and then hope to be reimbursed.

October

Nathalie had an appointment with the care director of her hospital to explain our project and ask for a one year given extended leave. The care director told her that as a hospital civil servant she had the wright to ask for it and it should be granted without difficulties.

Nathalie spent 5 days in Dordogne. She spent a lot of time on the computer and got a bit crazy about passport issues!!!
These were the 3 options she was considering :
-    Using both her American and French passport. She would use her American passport to enter and leave the USA and then her French passport for the other countries. But could she be in trouble if she arrive in New-Zealand presenting her French passport with no signs of her stay in the USA ?
-    Using only her American passport. She didn’t feel very comfortable about that, feeling “more French than American”.
-    Using only her French passport. Then she would need to ask for a VWP to spend three months in the USA and she would have to justify the length of her stay.
So after e-mailing the American Embassy in Paris and the American Immigration Department she understood that she should really use her American passport in the USA because “U.S. citizens who are also citizens of another nation are reminded that U.S. law requires they enter and depart the United States carrying a valid U.S. passport. U.S. citizens who attempt to travel to the U.S. from a foreign country on foreign passports risk being denied boarding or re-entering pending acquisition of a valid U.S. passport.”
But using only her American passport would meant asking for her WHV for New-Zealand as an American. It could have been an issue because one of the condition was to live in the USA!
So she e-mailed the French embassy in New-Zealand, the New-Zealand embassy in Paris, and New Zealand Immigration​ Services in London to know if she could use her French passport to enter NZ even if not using it in the USA. She started to “see the light at the end of the tunnel” when someone from the New Zealand Immigration​ Services told her “You can use your French passport if this is easier for you. There will be no problem if you will enter New Zealand with a different passport from the one you have used to leave the USA.”. She could barely believed it and to be really sure she called the 24/7 Immigration call center in New-Zealand who confirmed that she could use her French passport to enter NZ!!!
So she will be able to use her American passport in the USA and her French passport for the rest of the trip.

In October, we bought our plane tickets: Yeahhhh! We’ll be leaving France and flying from Paris to Dallas on March 27th.The cost hadn’t gone up too much since July: 1638 euros per person. For Loïc this was a big thing : it made the whole thing much more real.

November

At the beginning of November, we asked for our Working Holiday Visa for New-Zealand. Less than a week later we both received a positive answer! We'll be able to spend 6 months in New-Zealand traveling, wwoofing and working.

In November, we wrote to a farm near New-Orleans, Louisiana, but unfortunately they could not host us because they were going to have a baby in March.
At the end of the month, we wrote to Mary from Keachi Acres farm near Shreveport in North Louisiana. This didn’t seem the most interesting area of Louisiana, but Mary seemed very nice and interesting and comments from other wwoofers were very good. Three days later she answered us saying she would like to host us in April but that she would only be sure after Christmas. The work on her farm would be about 5 hours per day, less on weekends. We were happy about that and just had to wait a little to know for sure.

December

On December 17th, we had an appointment at Saint-Antoine Hospital with a doctor in tropical medicine. We did our DTP (Diphteria-Tetanus-Poliomyelitis) booster, a Hepatitis A and a Typhoid fever vaccinations.
He told us to think about doing vaccinations against rabies and Japanese encephalitis.

Conclusion

So the pieces are starting to come together, this is a first idea of our stay in the USA :

-    March 27th: landing in Dallas 4:00pm, night in Dallas
-    March 28th: Greyhound bus from Dallas to Shreveport, Mary picks us and we go to her farm
-    March 29th to April 10th: Wwoofing at Keachi Acres near Shreveport, Louisiana
-    April 11th to April 14th: visiting New-Orleans. We’ll be able to enjoy the French Quarter Jazz Festival during 2 days !
-    April 15th to April 25th: renting a car and visiting Louisiana (Cajun country, plantations, Lafayette, Baton Rouge…)
-    Around April 25th: Greyhound bus from New-Orleans to Florida
-    April 26th to May to May 9th: Wwoofing at Caceres Organic Blueberry Farms near Gainesville, Florida
-    May 10th to May 24th : renting a car and visiting Florida (the parks in Orlando, Miami, the Everglades, the Keys, Florida’s West coast…)
-    Around May 26th: airplane from Florida to Oregon
-    May 26th to June 5th, approximately: visit Oregon and friends. We haven’t planned anything not having a guidebook about Oregon. We trust that the people we’ll stay with there will advise us about “must see” stuff.
-    June 5th to June 23rd, approximately: visit California, friends and family: San Francisco, Monterey, Fresno, Yosemite National park... Since we’ll be leaving for New-Zealand from Los Angeles, we’ll visit San Francisco + Bay area and then Fresno + Yosemite…
-    June 23rd: airplane from Los Angeles (?) to Auckland via Sydney.

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At the beginning: first thoughts for our world tour

 

 

We have a big project for 2015 : to go on a 1 year world tour !!!

It's in more than one year from now (we would like to leave in April ‘15) and nothing is sure yet, but we are actually saving money and starting to think about where we would like to go and what we would like to do.

At the moment we are thinking of spending our year in these countries :
•    6 months in the USA
•    3 months in New-Zealand
•    2 weeks in Indonesia
•    1 month in Thailand
•    2 weeks in Cambodia
•    1 month in Burma (Myanmar)


As you can see, we would like to spend half of our year in the USA. So here’s what we will need and the things we would like to do/see while in the USA.

A B2 VISA FOR LOÏC

The main difficulty will be to obtain a 6 months tourist visa for Loïc. Since I have an American passport, I won't need a visa. As French citizen, Loïc would be able to spend 3 months in the USA. But for a longer stay or if you don't have a return plane ticket, you need a B2 visa that allows you to stay up to 6 months as a tourist (working is of course forbidden). Once you have it, the B2 visa is available for ten years. Of course it's very difficult to obtain that kind of visa. You have to prove to the consular officer that:
•    you are not planning to immigrate in the USA
•    you have the financial resources to spend 6 months in the USA without working illegally
To prove the first point, to own a house in France or have an employment contract waiting for when you come back is a good thing, but we won't have any of these. Having all your family and friends in France is a pretty good proof that you will be coming back.
To prove the second point they will check your bank account and income.
You also need to prove that 3 months of traveling isn't enough. So a precise plan of what you want to do and where you want to go might be helpful.
I read somewhere that having handwritten letters of friends/acquaintances saying they would be willing to put you up could be helpful to justify a « low » budget (because then you won't have to pay the hotel each night).

The problem is that if they deny you the B2 visa you're not even allowed to ask for a 3 months authorization for some time ! That's why Loïc should probably start his visa request in spring 2014 to allow us some time to re-organize ourselves if ever his request was denied.
But we want to believe that with a good preparation he will be able to have one.
Also I don't know if saying that he will be traveling with his girlfriend who has the double nationality, an American passport and family and friends in the USA will be a good point or a bad one for him. Maybe they will think, that because I have the possibility of staying thanks to my passport, he could be tempted to stay too ??? But he doesn't want to lie or not tell that he's going with me.
The fact that our stay in the USA is part of a bigger trip and that after we'll be going to New-Zealand might be a good point. It's not as if we were just planning to spend 6 months in the States and then come back to France, then we could be tempted to stay longer... And when we land in the States, we should be able to show them a plane ticket USA-New Zealand.

WWOOFING

Loïc and I are planning to spend some of our time Wwoofing while we are in the USA and in New-Zealand. Unfortunately we can't talk about that to the consular officer to justify a low budget or the need of spending 6 months in the USA because he will consider this as illegal work. For those who don't know about Wwoofing:

WWOOFF (Wikipedia)

Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or Willing Workers on Organic Farms, is a loose network of national organizations that facilitate placement of volunteers on organic farms. While there are WWOOF hosts in 99 countries around the world, no central list or organization encompasses all WWOOF hosts.
WWOOFing aims to provide volunteers with first-hand experience in organic and ecologically sound growing methods, to help the organic movement, and to let volunteers experience life in a rural setting or a different country. WWOOF volunteers ('WWOOFers') generally do not receive financial payment. The host provides food, accommodation, and opportunities to learn, in exchange for assistance with farming or gardening activities.
The duration of the visit can range from a few days to years. Workdays average five to six hours, and participants interact with WWOOFers from other countries

OUR AMERICAN ROAD TRIP

In the beginning, I wanted to do a big loop all around the United States, but even if six months is a long time, the country being so huge, it would have meant running a lot. We really want to take our time and be able to stay enough time in the different areas to discover the culture and the people. And explore less touristic spots.

At the moment, we are planning to visit:
•    The South-East : Louisiana (3 weeks Wwoofing, visit most of the state), Florida (the Everglades, the parks in Orlando), Savannah, Charleston, Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville)
•    The National parks in the West : maybe Wwoofing somewhere in the middle to be able to visit the parks during our free time
•    Yellowstone : 3 weeks Wwoofing near Yellowstone (I would love to find a farm where they have horses and live something a bit like in “The Horse Whisperer”)
•    Oregon and California : to visit family and friends

A CAR

Of course to do such a road trip we will need a car. Renting one is out of the question for a 6 months period.
So we could buy one when we arrive and sell it when we leave the USA. In the beginning we were thinking of a mini-van where we could sleep, this way we won't have to pay for a motel/hostel/camping. But since we are thinking of Wwoofing, maybe couchsurfing to meet people, and stay with family and friends, a car + a tent could be enough. I haven’t looked for too much information yet. But I know that some states can “give” you an American driver license if you show them your French license. However, I don't know how easy or difficult it is for French tourists to buy a car.
The easiest way would be to find someone willing to lend/ rent us their car... But then, I don't know how difficult or easy it would be to work things out with the insurance.


As I said in the beginning, we are now trying to save money. People say that 15 000 euros/person is a good budget for a year world tour. Doing Wwoofing and couchsurfing should allow us to be a bit under that amount. But the more we have, the better it will be, and it would be good to have some money left for when we come back to France and have no work and no apartment for some time in the beginning.

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