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Overseas for 4 months between school and UNI (1 Viewer)

madelyn

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Hey all,

I've always wanted to take a gap year in Europe but after recently reviewing my finances (or lack of) and thinking over some stuff I've realised its better for me to go to Uni next year, and maybe take a year off later...

Anyway, so now I'm thinking about travelling during the four months btw school and uni. Except I have no idea where to go ... any suggestions? If anyone's done it, where did you go? Are there any exchange programs for that period of time? Or even projects, study, places to work or volunteer stuff...I'm pretty open to going anywhere, but I'd rather do it through an exchange program or something rather than working it out on my own...
 

woodwardbrett

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Go where ever is cheap at the time!! if you are open minded and want to go anywhere and everywhere there is always deals going, especially to asia... oh i cant wait to go to south east asia, will be fantastic (im going to vietnam in june, scored really cheap airfares with jet star... $370 return).

this means you can see heaps of places and not break the budget, and the less you pay to get there the more u have to spend while away and get to see more places aswell.

but anyway in answer to the question... go to asia!!!! or if you want to go somewhere more like home go to New zealand.

have fun!!
 

jemsta

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well usually the airfares during christmas/new year time will be expensive due to it being peak season
you're best bet is to just have a holiday up in the coast somewhere or maybe go new zealand

yeah im going hk too at the end of the year so im quite looking forward to that
 

bustinjustin

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You gotta consider the following things:
- When your formal is on (usually November)-
- When results come out (you don't really have to be in the country, unless you, er, top the state, which would mean you'd miss out on your 15min... )
Also, if you get onto all-rounders, that's around February too.
- Enrolment: Depends on the uni, but this is usually towards the end of January. You can however always get a proxy to enrol for you, and it doesn't matter what units they choose because you can always change them with a few clicks when you come back.
- Orientation (O-Week): This is usually the week before semester starts. I stupidly cut my holiday a week short just to come back for this, which was actually really useless and lame since I already had a fair idea of whereabouts everything was. The festivities are nice, but they're not worth cutting a holiday short.

You also have to consider finances. Unless you have really generous parents (mine shouldered half my fare) or you have 3 grand up and ready for the kill, then you really will have to work 35hr weeks, every week right through November, December and even January. It's actually a lot harder than you think - Year 12 is an incredibly taxing year, and that's just the HSC - you'll spend hundreds on the formal alone, plus parting gifts for teachers, yearbooks, luncheons, and Christmas is also around the corner too, so it's really hard to save.

Also, are you going to pass on Schoolies? I did, but whilst overseas, everytime I suddenly felt homesick or lonely I almost (keyword: almost) had regrets about not going to schoolies since I'd exchanged a week long piss-up with my mates for a solo trip overseas. But of course, the rewards far outweighed these few and far occasions (which were mainly on lonely flights between cities).

On that note, will you be going solo? Solo travel is an incredibly enriching but nerve-wracking experience (I flew to Singapore a few months after the Van Nguyen case, and my mother was petrified - it was perfectly safe of course, but parents will exaggerate things when you fly solo for the first time). Admittedly, I went to countries where I had family (and my main purpose was to attend a cousin's wedding).

Where to go? South East Asia would probably be the relatively cheapest, most rewarding experience for a 17/18/y.o post -HSC (unless you're up for bungy-jumping and sheep counting, maybe pass on New Zealand and look to the horizons up north for something completely different to your everyday life).

When to go? As azn_gangsta said, fares are at their peak in December/January. The 'shoulder' season is in the last two weeks of January, and off-peak is from the end of January onwards, so if you want to squeeze in a couple more weeks you'll have to pay about 200-300 extra.

And what did I do? I went solo to the Philippines and Singapore and was overseas for about 3.5 weeks. I really wanted to go to Malaysia and Thailand, but time just didn't permit (and I became lazy in Singapore). Beforehand, I worked throughout December and January at Luna Park (I spent November going to formals and looking for a job), and eventually saved up the money. I spent about 600 on the fare (I spent about $1000 on air travel, taxes included, this was the off-peak fare) and another 500-600 on spending money - though my accomodation was free and my cousins (generally) shouldered my expenses, plus I accumulated monetary gifts from aunts and uncles who hadn't seen me in a while. With regards to spending money, you can get away with about $20-25/day on food and transport (depending on how much you eat and how much you're willing to walk), and maybe $50/day on accomodation though don't take my word on this (depending on where you stay).

As for exchange problems and the sort, I'll have to get back to you on that - there are sometimes travel groups that go overseas for about 6 weeks during out summer holidays. Try this group, but there are plenty more companies that offer this. Maybe ask your careers adviser too, there are companies out there that run volunteer work programs around Asia and Latin America, but I'm not sure if they have short term programs. And of course, they're a lot more expensive too if you're worried about cost.

http://www.studentexchange.org.au/
 
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rozymisty

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With the new cut price airlines coming in soon, it will be really cheap to fly to asia etc. I found out that to fly from Darwin to Singapore is only like $80 with Tiger Airlines...now thats far cheaper than flying Bris-Melb with Virgin!

I would love to go to Tassie and NZ! And Canada, but I dont know how id go flying over water for so long. Id be freaking out so much, and definatley not wanting a window seat. First time I flew, well return flight from sydney, we flew over water, and I was like oh god please dont crash here in water! Id rather die on impact than drown!!!! It was definatley a CAPTAIN FARGUS moment (those who have seen the island -lano and woodley one, not ewan mcgregor one will know what im talking about)
 

sly_skittle

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rozymisty said:
With the new cut price airlines coming in soon, it will be really cheap to fly to asia etc. I found out that to fly from Darwin to Singapore is only like $80 with Tiger Airlines...now thats far cheaper than flying Bris-Melb with Virgin!
i saw that on tiger's site too but they hide all the costs in the taxes- airlines in australia used to do that but now it's changed. With the taxes included it's about $500 return from darwin to singapore and to go that distance with qantas is only about $100- $150 more.
it really annoys me because there is no way that taxes can cost over 3 times more than the air fare
 

747captain

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madelyn and everyone else

Iv' been thinking of doing the same thing as well. Going overseas for bout 6 month between HSC and UNI. Europe, Canada, and South America. I love travelling. Travelled all over Asia and South pacific with family.

Good luck everyone and hope you enjoy ur travels. Might meet you guys somewhere on this earth. LOL

Cheers
 

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