Looking Into the Future – Our Year 2 Travel Plan

Now that we are living our 12th month of international slow travel, it is hard to believe that the Year 1 Travel Plan we posted back in June 2022 is almost over.

So much has happened since then!

We left our jobs, sold our house and most of our stuff, girded our loins, and traveled all over Latin America.

Along the way, we explored new cultures, visited new towns and cities, marveled at archaeological sites, reconnected with nature, and ate ALL the food.

We even learned functional Spanish.

It’s been a pretty great ride!

But as our regular blog readers know, it hasn’t all been rainbows and sunshine.

The occasional minor health issue and travel SNAFU did come up from time to time.

But perhaps the best thing about slow travel is that it affords you the flexibility to deal with most problems without them ruining your long-term plans.

All this begs the question – What does the future hold for Two Travel Turtles?

Since many of you have been asking, let’s take a look at what we know, and don’t know, about our future plans.

Year 1 Travel Plan Wrap-up

Technically, our Year 1 Travel Plan concludes at the end of July 2023.

Until then we will wind down our time at our Airbnb in Bocas del Toro province. But after that, we will still have about 10 days left in the month of July!

Our plan is to stay for a few additional nights on the main island of Bocas del Toro (Isla Colón) and do touristy stuff. After that, we will hop on a bus and head back to Panama City to spend the remainder of the month.

The last time we were in Panama City we spent most of our time taking care of passport-related business instead of enjoying the city, so we wanted to give it another go!

Year 2 Travel Plan – What We Know

In our experience, it pays to think ahead when slow-traveling long-term, although this time we will not be planning quite so far in advance.

This is what we have locked in:

August 2023 – Panama City, Panama

WEEK 1 – 3:

We booked a high-rise Airbnb apartment in Panama City to spend the first 3+ weeks of August.

We actually went way over our normal sub-$700 USD long-stay budget for Panama Airbnbs, but the location and amenities can’t be beaten if you want to be able to really enjoy the city.

Financially we aren’t too worried, as we are pretty sure we’ll be able to make up for the cost as time goes on.

WEEK 4:

We will be flying back to the USA to visit for two months!

We booked direct, business-class flights from Panama City to Boston on Copa Airlines. Following our cheap flight travel hack instructions, we spent 76,600 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (+ $141.20 USD in taxes/fees) to buy both tickets.

Copa Airlines doesn’t usually have the best points deals for flights, and 76,600 points for two one-way tickets is a little steep (by our standards) for only a 5-hour flight. But the fact that it is direct and business class really takes the edge off.

Looking at it through that lens, the tickets are actually a good deal. And this is another case where flying business class on Copa Airlines was LESS costly points-wise than flying coach (at 80,000 points). I don’t make the rules, but I have no problem taking advantage of them!

Once we touch down in Boston, Rhonda will get her conditional Global Entry renewal interview completed at Logan International Airport. With that done, we’ll both be able to streamline the customs process whenever we reenter the USA from abroad.

We’ll then spend a few days in the Boston area visiting my brother and local friends.

September 2023 – Connecticut, USA

The month of September will be spent visiting my family in Connecticut, as well as friends in the New England area.

We have nothing planned during our visit aside from helping out around the house and reconnecting with loved ones.

New England friends, let us know if you want to get together!

And during the last week of the month, we’ll have a rental car. This will allow us to see friends in upstate New York, as well as other areas outside of southern New England.

October 2023 – Southwest Ohio, USA

We’ve booked Southwest Airlines flights to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit Rhonda’s extended family for the month.

At 23,000 Southwest Rewards points + $11.20 USD taxes/fees for 2 one-way tickets, this is a great deal and will save us a lot of time and expense over renting a car.

As with September, we have no concrete plans.

Ohio friends, let us know if you want to get together!

At the end of the month, we will fly on Southwest Airlines to Boston.

Again, at 28,000 Southwest Rewards points + $11.20 USD taxes/fees for 2 one-way tickets, flying is a great time and money saver over driving.

We’ll use Boston as a staging ground to prepare for our flight to Mexico, where we will spend the next 6 months!

November 2023 – Mérida, Mexico

We booked 2 one-way direct flights on JetBlue from Boston to Cancun, Mexico at 27,600 Chase Ultimate Rewards points + $88.46 USD taxes/fees.

JetBlue has REALLY cheap awards flights into parts of Mexico!

Our plan is to spend 180 days in Mexico, which is the time limit for USA tourist visas.

We won’t be in Cancun for long.

When we land, we’ll spend a night at a luxury hotel on the beach. We’ll be cashing in our annual free night given to us for our Chase IHG credit card signup anniversary.

Cancun is crazy expensive! So we will hop on a bus the next day and go to our long stay Airbnb in Mérida, Mexico, about 4 hours away from Cancun on the other side of the Yucatan Peninsula.

One of the safest cities in Mexico, we’ll use Mérida as a base of operations to make all sorts of day trips to visit the many Mayan ruins in the area, as well as make the occasional Caribbean beach run.

After spending November in Mérida, we have no idea where we will go next!

But we have ideas.

Year 2 Travel Plan – What We Don’t Know

December 2023 to April 2024 – Mexico a la Carte

We plan on touring a good portion of Mexico but we have no definitive plans locked in.

That said, we do have a list of towns and cities that we may visit.

On the list are: Oaxaca, Mexico City, Puebla, Guanajuato, Santiago de Querétaro, Morelia, Puerto Escondido, and San Cristobal de las Casas.

And staying in Mérida for another month is also possible if we really like it there.

Here is a pretty map showing where all of these locations are:

Honestly, there is a 100% chance we will be going to Mexico City and Oaxaca.

We have friends in Mexico City, and the museums and culture there are top-notch.

And Oaxaca is the food capital of Mexico, which is saying something! And we like to eat.

Beyond those two cities, we’ll see where our shared interests take us.

Let us know in the comments if you have any suggestions!

May to July 2024 – Further Afield?

Our Mexico tourist visas will only last 180 days. But where do we go next?

How about Europe?

We are thinking about going to Spain for 1 – 2 months after Mexico. It would be great to practice our Spanish in the motherland!

And then perhaps a month or two in Scotland, England, and/or Ireland. And we have made friends in Germany, who have encouraged us to visit them.

So many options!

But Western Europe is expensive. So going there will be dependent on what sort of Workaway volunteer opportunities there are to help cover our food and lodging expenses. If opportunities abound, we’ll stay in Western Europe longer. If there are few or no opportunities, we’ll need an alternative, such as…

Back to South America?

Our time in Peru was cut short by the December 2022 political protests, so we have unfinished business there!

We canceled our planned stay in Arequipa, missed seeing the Nazca lines, and didn’t get to properly explore the Sacred Valley outside of Cusco.

That, and we really loved the place when we weren’t suffering from altitude sickness.

Chile and Argentina have appeal too.

The wines in Chile speak for themselves. Buenos Aires in Argentina is said to be a wonderful city. And both countries border Patagonia!

We also loved Ecuador.

There were a bunch of towns and natural areas we wish we had time to visit, and the produce options were second to none on the continent. When people ask us where we would live in all the places we’ve traveled, so far our answer is Ecuador.

Closing Thoughts

So we don’t plan on slowing down our travels anytime soon!

And who knows what our Year 3 Travel Plan might look like.

Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia sound good to you?

They do to us.

We’ll see what the future holds.

Thanks for reading!

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