Our Round-the-World adventure

[tacototheworld]

After two years of planning and 11 months of full-time truck living in the US and Baja, my wife and I shipped our highly modified Toyota Tacoma to Europe to begin what will hopefully be a five year drive around the world going through roughly 100 countries.


Our truck at Kinderdijk, Netherlands

After a long arduous process we decided on a new-at-the-time 2019 Toyota Tacoma with a Four Wheel Camper Fleet on a Norweld flatbed.

After selling our house in August 2020, my wife and I hit the road full-time while still working our jobs. Over the next 11 months, we visited 29 US states, 42 US national parks, driving 25,000 miles all while testing ourselves and the truck. Last month we declared ourselves ready and shipped our truck to Liverpool, England.

We are Dawn and Andy Elsbree, who recently retired from a fairly normal lifestyle and hit the road.

More posts to come

 

[Tucsontom]

We look forward to your posts and best of luck!

 

[ITTOG]

Congrats. Be safe and have fun. I look forward to your posts.

 

[Christian P.]

Awesome !

 

[tacototheworld]

Thank you all for the kind words.

Here’s an undoubtably rough outline of our route

 

[1leglance]

I would really really like to hear about shipping in a Container as that is something we want to do in a couple of years.

 

[tacototheworld]

In the end, we decided to do a roll-on roll-off shipping from Baltimore to Liverpool, England. This was due to shipping in a container of $4000 versus $2200 for ro-ro. Also we felt that the risks of our truck being damaged or things being stolen was minimal on a trip from the US to the UK. Time was also a factor, it was 3 1/2 weeks for ro-ro vs 12 weeks for container shipping. However, we will put the truck in a container from Indonesia to Australia and from Australia to South America, but that’s a few years away.

We do have a blog site called, www.roguewanderers.com where we do have a post about shipping overseas

good luck!

 

[Madoxen]

Dont forget to stop by New Zealand.

And good luck with your travels.

 

[wurningdirt]

Can't wait for you to post your adventure, have fun and be safe.

 

[tacototheworld]

Dont forget to stop by New Zealand.

And good luck with your travels.

Thank you! We were hoping to go to New Zealand this winter while avoiding running afoul of Europe’s 90 day visitation restrictions, vis-à-vis their Schengen Agreement. But it looks like they won’t be opening up their country until next summer. So this winters plan are still an open switch.

 

[buenavides]

You're living a lot of people's dreams. Have fun and stay safe. Keep us posted on this expedition when you have time.

 

[billiebob]

Europe’s 90 day visitation restrictions, vis-à-vis their Schengen Agreement

Schengen is about open borders between EU countries, the 90 day restriction is separate for non EU travellers.
Canada/USA have a similar provision requiring us to leave the country after 6 months.

 

[tacototheworld]

Beautiful Belgium easily exceeded our expectations! The architecture, the people the pastries, chocolate and beer. With no expectations, the history and beauty of this small country has blown us away.

Typical street in Ypres, Belgium


Initial research told us that wild camping is illegal in Belgium. We have since found out that throughout much of Europe there is more of a grey zone. People are using excellent apps like Park4Night to find places to stay. Our biggest camping resource in the US and Baja was iOverlander but it is sparsely populated here. We are not set up for stealth parking with our pop up and we elected to stay in established campgrounds as we got our bearings. We found it easy to find convenient spots and book online, although the style of camping has not been our favorite. Our truck, while small enough, is definitely not built for urban camping!

Ypres again!

Beautiful Bruges. Our favorite Belgium city

Never get tired of seeing all the beautiful churches

Ghent, another pretty Belgian city filled with history and beauty. And a castle.

The chocolates were to die for. Probably the best we’ve ever had.

Bottom line, don’t miss Belgium, it’s way underrated

If interested, we have more write up and photos on our blog at www.roguewanderers.com

 

[tacototheworld]

Schengen is about open borders between EU countries, the 90 day restriction is separate for non EU travellers.
Canada/USA have a similar provision requiring us to leave the country after 6 months.

The result of this 90 day limitation, in IMHO, is that less well known European countries will probably get the short end of the visitation stick. For us, we would have gladly extended our European stay, overwintering in Southern Europe but instead will leave. I do find it interesting that some countries like Ireland, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria are members of the EU, but are not apart of the 90 day Schengen limitation, therefore we’re going to be able to slow WAY down in those countries. I’ve also heard that the EU is considering a 12 month extended visa, but it has been tabled for now

 

[Lucidless]

I’m suprised you’re skipping Iceland. You can take a ferry there, have you guys got a carnet de passage for your taco?