My Itinerary

In many ways my itinerary has just fallen into place. As most of you know, I'm passionate about the water and scuba diving so I've decided to base much of my trip around diving world-renowned locations. As I began to research diving, I found a number of dive shops in NoVa sponsoring group trips on set dates. I have also taken a number of recommendations for live-aboard operators b/c in many places being trapped on a boat with 20 of your newest friends is the best way to go! On top of my diving desires, my friend Jess has one consecutive month of vacation in the next four years and she has decided to spend it with me (smart girl!) traveling through parts of Asia. Her month off is set and thus so is my timing for that portion of my trip.

My friend Erin recommended that I check out an "around the world ticket" and as it turns out, www.oneworld.com has a great offering. There's a lot of fine print but the gist is that you have 12 months to travel consistently in one direction around the world (by continent, not by country), making a limited number of stopovers per continent and staying within a predetermined mileage limit. Your destinations can be changed for a fee but your dates of travel can be changed for free as you go.

Who are you traveling with seems to be a popular question. On all of the diving trips I will be with organized groups so while I won't actually know anyone ahead of time I'll at least be with a defined group. My mother will be with me for the Bahamas, NZ and Australia up until April 13. Then I will meet up with Jess for Vietnam and Thailand. In Italy and Ireland my mom will rejoin me (yep she's blowing through all of her leave!).

Here's my plan as it stands today:
Bahamas- Paradise Island: Feb.1 - Feb. 8
Turks & Caicos live-aboard: Feb. 9 - Feb. 16
http://www.explorerventures.com/turksexp/index.html
Bonaire: Feb. 17 - 23
http://www.thediveshop-va.com/Travel/travel_calendar.htm
Three weeks back in DC
Fiji (Taveuni island) dive trip: March 13 - March 2http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif1
http://www.learn2dive.net/travel.asp
Fiji (Taveuni and Viti Levu): March 21 - 25
Southern Island of New Zealand: March 27 - April 4
Melbourne: April 4 - 7
Sydney: April 7 - 9
Driving from Sydney up to Cairns: April 10 - 22
Liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef: April 22 - 30
www.explorerventures.com/nimexp/index.html
Singapore: May 1 - May 5
Vietnam: May 6 - May 15
Thailand: May 16 - May 28
Cambodia: May 29 - June 4
Laos: June 5 - June11
London: June 11 - 19
Stockholm: June 20 - June 23
France: June 24 - July 4
Istanbul: July 5 - 10
Italy: July 10-27
Seattle/Spokane: July 28 - August 3
HOME: August 3