My wife and I are selling everything and moving to Europe for Six months in August 2007. Has anyone ever done anything like that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Colleen,

Josh, there are several here who have done extended trips to Europe or are getting ready to go. Our family (including our then-10 year old daughter) spent 14 months in Europe from June 2004 until August 2005. Part of the time we traveled (11 weeks in the UK, 11 weeks in Italy, 6 weeks in the Swiss/German/Austrian Alps, 5 weeks in France), but we lived in Provence, France for 6-1/2 months during the off-season. We used mainly rental properties during the "traveling" part of our trip-- 20 rentals ranging from 4 days to a month.

We lived off of savings, though we did have some income coming in during our trip. We rented our house while we were gone, which really helped out financially. The re-entry to life and careers back in the USA is an interesting part of the process. I could give you lots of advice on various aspects of doing a trip like this, but I think we could all be more helpful if we understood more about what you are considering-- staying in one place? backpacking around? etc.

"Selling everything" is a big step. Again, I don't know your situation (age, career, do you own a house etc.), but do spend some time thinking about what happens after the six months and make sure that you have some safety net when you get back...

You might be interested in this thread that I started three years ago, asking a question very similar to yours!

Kathy

You can find tons of information and support if you go to www.expatsinitaly.com.
There are many there who have done or are planning to do the same thing.

Yes, I too would encourage you to come over to the EXpats message board for some advice....especially if you're planning to be in Italy. Even if you'll be in another country, many of the same concerns will apply. Will you be working? Have kids? Want to stay in one place or move around?

Sure lots of people! If you are selling everything tho ,why not stay for longer,as the selling and getting rid of everything ( or most things) is quite the job? ( Or it was for us as we had a very large home with land ,gardens ,vineyard and a young child etc,etc ...so tons of "stuff" to handle that).It feels great and very freeing to lighten up,but its more work than you can imagine to sort and sell it all.( I am still not done! One must have a bit to live on and car to drive til the last minute..but I can see the finish line.)

We sold our home last summer at peak for our area and downsized to a small rental nearby while we prepared for a years long trip around the world.We take off on Sept 2nd and plan to spend the next 2 1/2 years in Europe ( much of it by RV & some rentals like our first long one in Spain for this winter)before we head to another continent.

Heres a cool family from France that just spent the last 4 years traveling the world via RV.I have been really inspired by families that have been living on the road for years in this country and others and you can learn a lot from them even if you do not plan to RV.

The time to prepare will go by extremely fast.Your time on the road will go by even faster.I know many who have done a year off ( often for world travel)and all feel it went by too fast.So give yourself as much of the luxury of time as you can to make it worth all the effort.

I think the dollar will probably be declining for a while due to our twin debts and quagmire war ,so that could be a problem with living in Europe.When the dollar was up we put it in Everbank in Euros and British Sterling and that may be something you might want to look into as what the dollar does,will impact you even more most likely in Europe.

You will also have to figure out the long stay visa stuff and how to deal with schengan. ( There are various ways and long stay Visa's can be a pain).

The Italy expat site is a great one ( wish every country had one like that!) as is this one and there is lots of help online in various places.Lots of great books and blogs on this topic as well.I have read everything I can get my hands on and one of these days I will get my blog and website up and list sources that I have found useful.

Heres some ideas you might find interesting.I know someone who bought a houseboat and did Europe that way for a very reasonable sum:
http://www.europeafloat.com/

Heres an interesting couple who sold everything when they were 35 and have been traveling ever sense enjoying a lifestyle of freedom( Perpetual travelers).They were our first inspiration as we liked the way they retired early and grew their networth as they traveled the world:

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/5315/

And something to consider if you are on a budget and like to be independent:
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/...ming_in_europe.shtml

Good luck ,you will have a ball!

Oops forgot to post the link to the family of four in France that spent 4 years Rving around the world;
http://ccarautourdumonde.free.fr/

WT, I hope you will be posting along the way as you have your adventure! Are you starting a blog?

Thanks Roz, I certainly plan to post along the way and will definately be doing a blog.We would like to do a website as well as there is so much info that I have gathered ( in many areas) and would like some place to put it to help others and keep a record for my daughter and us.Its also a great way for her to keep connected to friends/family here and educational for the kids ( both schools she has attended here are interested in following her journey).

We just bought our satellite today ( rather it will be complete on Monday when the banks are open),so hopefully we will have 24/7 connection to the internet when we are roaming.Ofcourse we bought it in Malaga and will not be there until around Nov 1st so will have to use wifi and internet cafes til that point.

I am dying to start the blog and website,but I am not tech aware at all ( barely computer literate...email is my forte & I make endless spelling,grammar mistakes in my hurry ),so it will take a bit of time.First I have to make sure everything is under control with the trip and leaving the rental here.My goal is to at least do an intro page before we leave as I wanted that as a way to mass email friends who still do not know we are leaving or where we are in our process.

I can't wait til life slows down a bit ,so I can spend some time in that area.I will be glad to have the luxury of time to just read more of others.When we are in our rental in Spain this winter ( from Nov. 1st to April 1st)I imagine spending lots of time on it when my daughter is in school.Meanwhile ,lots of ideas cook on the back burner and I put things of interest in my folder til later

Time is my enemy at the moment with so much on our plate and a whirling 5yo's summer needs distracting,but I am hoping to soon make it my friend.BTW my husband is really enjoying his Macpro ( but another thing that slows us a bit as we learn new ways of being as I could not even turn it on the other day or figure out how to change URL to explore).Its a bit intimidating to me ,but my daughter took to it immediately).The Sony vaio will arrive any moment ( we needed PC for satellite connection)...so yet another system to learn.

I am sure I will not be as articulate as many here are with thier travel stories,but I will get something going.

Thanks, WT, for your interest in sharing your experience with others!

Good luck !

From a slow traveler who lived abroad for three years (Tanzania and Zurich) with our two children,

Charity

I am 28 and my wife is 30. We're actually thinking about renting out our townhome. We're thinking about spending a month or so in and around all of the large cities (Rome, Madrid, Paris, Prague, London, Budapest, etc.). We currently make a good living but we both feel like there's more to life than a 9-5 job and living to pay the bills. We don't have any kids yet, so now feels like the time to blast off to Europe for a while. Keep the advice coming. Thanks.

Where can I find the Expats message board?

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Originally posted by Josh Saxton:
Where can I find the Expats message board?

From the Expats in Italy site (click "forum", or at Expattalk.

Josh ,you might check out this blog of a couple who had a similar idea to you and are roughly the same age:

http://atasteofeurope.blogspot.com/

They just sold there house and have been in Europe for only a week.They plan to be there for a year ( and took their dog) and will be working a bit via computer as they go.She goes as "houseblend" on this ( and other) sites and perhaps her story will give you some ideas.Or contact them when they get a little more settled.

Charity,

quote:

Good luck !

From a slow traveler who lived abroad for three years (Tanzania and Zurich) with our two children,

Thanks , I appreciate that.Ooooh, I would love to hear your story. Is it on a blog or website or anywhere? Sounds very cool!

I'm also checking out www.ayearineurope.com. It's the blog of a mid-30s couple who sold their home and headed for Europe. Thanks.

This is a different scenario to yours but....when I got a contract to work overseas for 1 year we put a houseful of goods into storage, rented the house, sold 1 of the 2 cars. left the other with a friend, took our animals with us, incl the quarantine issues. The 12 months turned into slightly more but I would not do the same again for a period of less than 2 years at least. 12 months goes by so quickly. In the same situation again, we would probably use housesitters but I realise that cuts out the rental income. My advice would be not to burn too many bridges for such a short period.

WT, no I don't have a blog or anything online about our sojourn abroad. Msybe I'll write something. I'll let you know.

Regarding eliza's comment:
I think it depends on your ages, your dependents, whether or not you are interested in returning to the same location in the US.

Maybe you are young enough and carefree enough to relocate to a diferrent homesite on your return. I enjoyed moving every 3 years when we were younger. Now, in my 70s, I am where I have always wanted to be--in Santa Barbara.

Charity

Josh,

I'd advise more time in fewer places, to give you a more relaxed and more intense experience (and also, you're going to find arranging monthlong housing somewhat challenging unless money is no object, and I wouldn't want to have to arrange 6 such rentals all at once) as well as a mix of big city and smaller-town stays. The latter may prove to most flavorful and distinct. The major European cities are, not surprisingly, cosmopolitian. Of course there are differences, but they aren't as striking as country-to-country differences in the provinces.

Dave

Hi! As WT mentioned, my husband and I recently sold our house so we could travel Europe for a year. We are now in our second week here, so I can't give much advice about what the actual experience is like (yet!), but I can certainly share what it has taken for us to get here. After much debate, we decided that we will stay in one city for 2 or 3 months and then move on to another in a different country. We are starting out in Switzerland and will go to Italy next. We haven't decided where to go after Italy yet. I do wish we didn't have to work during our travels, but in some ways it really allows us to experience life as a local rather than just hitting all the tourist spots.

I see you are from Dallas. We actually were living in Fort Worth before our move! Feel free to PM me or check out my blog. Hope to see you around the boards more!

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I think it depends on your ages, your dependents, whether or not you are interested in returning to the same location in the US.

I agree.Personality will affect things as well as some people thrive on change and some like sameness,everyones got their own comfort zone.I think the other thing to look into is if you are in a declining housing market or rising.( They usually have patterns).One famous family ( they wrote about their year off traveling around the world) made the error of selling their home in an expensive area in a rapidly rising area ,so when they returned they had to buy a much smaller home,so in 20/20 hindsight it would have been much better to rent since they knew they were coming back.I think they did not have time to look at real estate before going,but its something to educate your self about when considering a long trip.Look at past patterns,whether people are coming into your areas, rent to buy ratios,affordability in your area ,foreclosure rates in your area ( they tend to be rising nationally now & I think this trend will continue) etc etc.

This has been a declining market for many areas,but housing tends to be "sticky" and takes years to hit the bottom.So if you catch it at the beginning ,you can probably come back and buy one for less.If one waits too long tho ,it gets to the point where there is so much supply that even great houses are very hard to sell & townhouses often even harder.( Remember when people just walked away from gorgeous homes in Texas in the 90's or those that got crushed in Japans bust after boom that lasted 15 years? Many areas now are in the beginning stages of "correction").So learn about trends and project that into the future ( there are books on the topic).

The trip will probably change you and your perspective,so try to think ahead of all possible scenarios.In our case ,we are very glad we sold even tho it was a hard decision to make at the time & we could have done it either way.

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We are now in our second week here

VERY cool houseblend!! I have been reading your blog when I can.I can't wait to join you on the road!