Photocopies Gap Year Travel

"A passport, as I'm sure you know, is a document that one shows to government officials whenever one reaches a border between countries, so the officials can learn who you are, where you were born, and how you look when photographed unflatteringly."  ~Lemony Snicket

Many will have access to a scanner before they leave. Scan your passports, birth certificates, insurance documents, important numbers, credit cards, drivers licence, travellers cheque numbers etc and email them to yourself. Should these get lost or stolen at least you can print out a copy as some form of ID.

Leave a photocopy of all the above with someone you trust at home too.

School work

Of course this is whole different kettle of fish and you can read more about this on the Home schooling pages.

Paul Carroll says:

I started by challenging the two-week maximum single holiday period permitted without CEO approval in the software testing company where I had been working. Upon completion of a major new project for our largest client, I requested a one-month holiday for trekking around the Himalayas. This was rejected. I then did the same six months later upon completion of the second phase for this client. Again this was rejected. The third time was four months later and the CEO personally took me aside to explain that if he agreed to my request, others would want a month or more.

Although two of the three directors feel flexibility is needed, the CEO (who is responsible to the investors) doesn't believe the company can risk key members being away for longer than a fortnight at a time. So I had to reconsider my options, and decided to quit altogether. This left me with six months to join a VentureCo expedition and to travel independently round South America. On my return my old employer offered me a consultancy role but I had chosen to change my lifestyle considerably, exchanging the work-hard, play-hard London lifestyle for a more relaxed travelling consultant's job based near the Peak District. Although I still work quite hard, I now feel more mobile, in control of my career and a lot happier with life in general because I am able to achieve my personal goals outside the working week. - Extract from Gap Year For Grown Ups - Susan Griffiths