Product Description

The World Awaits is your guide for planning an extended, independent, international journey. You'll get practical information on visa requirements, web addresses, phone numbers, and more. Organized in three parts sequentially matched to the entire travel experience, The World Awaits also examines issues of goals, passports, shots, packing, budgeting, tickets, route planning, and life on the road. With The World Awaits, you'll learn just how much travel can inspire, reveal, educate, and transform. "Experienced globetrotter Paul Otteson provides all the details needed to plan a fulfilling journey, traveling only with what can fit in the pack on your back, teaching you how to do it yourself." -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113055 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

Review
"Experienced globetrotter Paul Otteson provides all the details needed to plan a fulfilling journey, traveling only with what can fit in the pack on your back, teaching you how to do it yourself." -- Midwest Book Review"

Customer Reviews

excellent travel advice
Paul Otteson writes this book for would-be IBATs: International Budget Adventure Travelers. He includes practical advice about planning travel routes, acquiring visas, managing money, packing, finding transportation and shelter, health concerns, mail, language barriers, bribery and black markets. Without descending into superficiality or sentimentality, he also discusses the motivations and lessons of traveling. I found this book incredibly helpful and sometimes inspiring, and I think everyone except the most experienced travelers would too. I very strongly recommend it to anyone planning their first extended overseas trip.

What you need to know condensed
I'm about to embark on a 2+ year journey around the world and have read many books about travelling on both what to see and how. I thought I had read it all until I found this easy to read gem of a book.

This book clearly describes multiple methods of travel
and why you might decide to choose the method which he calls "threading." A method of travelling that many backpackers who have taken multi-week trips or longer might already be familiar with, but clearly outlined and compared with other methods.

The author also describes route planning, and living on the road. While I have not read these latter two sections yet, the quality of writing and advice in the 1st section is good enough for me to warrant giving this book 5 stars.

As an earlier reviewer stated, most will find many nuggets of information, save for the most seasoned of travelers. Even for those - it's nice to hear another voice. This book is how-to book, not what.

Nice Mix of Practical & Inspirational
This book manages to speak to both the travel veteran and the uninitiated. Readers from either group (and in between) will find value in this enjoyable handbook.

In a friendly tone, albeit occasionally repetitive, Otteson offers real, valuable, practical advice (how to bargain, what to pack, how to deal with bribery, etc). Some of this stuff you'll find tucked away in Lonely Planet guidebooks, but Otteson's editorial sense makes his advice easier to find, and it applies globally. Backpacker networks abound with "how to's" for various scenarios. It can be overwhelming. But Otteson has gleaned the gentlest, most useful, and most intelligent tips.

The newest concept Otteson brings to the table is HOW to make a journey. This was very useful to me. He gets the reader to really think about what is important... do you want destinations only (sleep on trains as you go?) or do you want to get a feel for the whole of a region, and travel only in daylight hours (what he calls threading). You may opt for a combination of the two styles, but he makes an excellent argument for the latter.

Within the pages are wonderful glimmers of enthusiasm for travel itself; reader will be bitten by the travel bug... So if you are not really sure you should get off your duff or if you are trying to convince a homebody to join you on a trip, this book will whet the appetite for the adventure of the open road.

Now, more than ever, does the world need to see the face of the American traveler.