The Sabbatical
The long one. Often after something: a sale, a retirement, the kids leaving, a year that asked too much. The shape of the trip is what makes it work or doesn't.
A sabbatical isn't a holiday with more days in it. The rhythm has to change. After two weeks of moving, most people break. After three weeks of stillness, most people get restless. The trip that lands is the one that builds in the right ratio of motion to rest, and the right unspoken permission to do less than the brochure suggests.
The work is mostly about pace. Where you start, where you end, where the trip changes register. A month through Japan and northern Thailand. Six weeks split between southern Italy and the Greek islands. The South American loop done slowly: Buenos Aires, the Iguazú border, Salta, into Bolivia. Africa and the Indian Ocean combined, with ten days on safari, ten days at sea, and no flight in between you can't recover from.
The properties matter less than the through-line. A sabbatical with three brilliant hotels and the wrong order between them is a worse trip than one with two competent hotels and the right shape.
It is the trip type where having someone who knows you across multiple journeys earns its keep most quickly. The second one is materially easier than the first, because I've already learned how you actually travel rather than how you say you do.
How the design starts
With what the time is for. Some people want a sabbatical to be a rest; others want it to be the opposite, a long run of things they have never had time to do. Many want both, in a particular order. I ask what the last year has been like, what you are hoping to feel at the end of the trip, and what you are slightly afraid of: boredom, exhaustion, missing home, missing work.
Then the length, and the honesty about it. A sabbatical of six weeks is not three fortnights stuck together. It needs a beginning that lets you arrive properly, a middle that changes register at least once, and an end that brings you home in a state to use what the trip gave you. The return deserves as much thought as the departure.
What the design holds
Fewer, longer stays. On a long trip the number of moves matters more than the number of places. Four nights is a short stay on a sabbatical; a week in one place is often the part people remember.
Rest built in, not left over. Days with nothing planned are designed as carefully as the full ones, and placed where they are needed: after a long flight, after a demanding week, before the trip changes direction.
Room to change course. A long itinerary is easier to adjust if it was built with that in mind. Before you confirm, the proposal sets out each component's cancellation and change terms, so it is clear in advance which parts of the trip can move and which are fixed.
Home, while you are away. Post, plants, a pet, a house sitter: none of these is travel, but each of them can spoil a long trip if it is not settled before you leave. It belongs on the list we go through before departure.
Journeys to begin from
These are on the site in full, and each one can be lengthened, slowed down or joined to another.
- Perth to Hobart, 18 nights
- New Zealand, North to South, 17 nights
- South America by Private Jet, 17 nights
- Argentina and Chile in Depth, 16 nights
- Japan, Art Islands and Onsen, 14 nights
Questions
Can we decide part of it as we go?
Some of it, yes, if that is planned for. The fixed points, such as flights, a ship or a lodge in high season, are booked first; the softer middle can be held more loosely, with the change and cancellation terms of each part set out before you confirm.
How do payments work on a long trip?
A deposit is taken when each part is booked, and the balance is normally due 56 days before that part begins, unless your confirmation says otherwise. On a long trip that means payment dates are spread out, and they are all set out in writing at the start.
Will you be reachable the whole time?
Yes. My number is in your phone for the length of the trip, as it is on any journey, and each journey has its own private page with the itinerary and documents in one place.
When to start
Six to 12 months ahead suits most sabbaticals, because a long trip crosses several seasons and each part has its own best time. The order of the trip is usually decided by the weather, and the weather is decided a long way in advance.
The other five
When you're ready