RTW 2024 Carefree Travel

  What To Pack? Allison has been worrying about this for months. There is no easy answer. If you look at the countries and climates for the trip, bearing in mind we spend a lot of time in the Southern Hemisphere, followed by India, Africa, and the Mediterranean - the answer is the typical "dress in layers." The coldest place we'll visit will likely be San Francisco in about 2 weeks (I hope). However, we've still packed a blend of shorts and sundresses, many t-shirts with a collection of light sweaters, and a couple of heavier hoodies. Plus, of course, the obligatory raingear. It's further complicated for Allison as when we visit the Middle East, she'll need to be covered up from wrist to neck when we visit some of the historical/religious sites.  It all seemed like a great excuse to go shopping! Fortunately, we didn't have to lug all the suitcases and clothes from Philadelphia to Miami. Regent arranges a pickup service and will collect four (4) suitcases a...

  There's actually a lot of work and preparation required before we leave.  Aside from the packing (multiple climates and dress codes), the two major items are passports/visas and prescription  drugs. First-world problems but definitely time-consuming. In order to take the trip, we need ten blank pages in our passports to account for all the entry and exit stamps. We also have to get visas for India (longest form ever), New Zealand (fairly easy), Australia (through a really cool phone app), and, in a few weeks, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and finally, Nepal. We've also created multiple paper and electronic copies of everything - just in case! The second major issue was getting a 5 month supply of prescription drugs. Nothing about the American healthcare system is easy. For those of you outside the country, prescription drugs come in 30 or 90-day supply with no exceptions. Except .. we needed more than 90 days. Engineer-brain John did some research and created a flowchart of how...