Q: What is a gap year?

Not sure what a gap year even is? We don’t blame you—”gap year” has come to be somewhat of a blanket term for any extended period of time taken off away from home or “normal” life. Gap year programs can even vary in length. (That’s right...a gap year doesn’t have to be a whole year!) You can take a gap year after high school, during college, after college, mid-career, during retirement—anytime! The unstructured pursuit of personal growth abroad tends to be what defines a gap year.

Q: How to afford a gap year

The good news about gap years? It’s incredibly common to work odd jobs while on the go in order to pay for them. If you know you’ll need to earn money while traveling, we suggest heading to a destination that offers Working Holiday Visas, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, among others.Otherwise, start perusing online jobs boards for backpackers in your chosen destination prior to arrival, so that you know what type of work is common and where to go looking for it. Gap years tend to be lessons in extreme budget travel, so you’ll surely learn how to make your dollars stretch as far as they can go.

Q: What to do during a gap year

There’s so much to do during a gap year, which is (again!) why mapping out your goals is important. Deciding what to do in a gap year will depend on what you want to get out of the experience. Do you want to volunteer for a cause? Learn a new language? Summit a mountain? All of the above? The world is your oyster during a gap year, so don’t be afraid to pursue every opportunity. If you do have something specific in mind though, traveling with a gap year program will help you iron out all the logistics, so that you can focus more on fulfilling your gap year dreams!

Q: Where to take a gap year

You can take a gap year anywhere—as long as you can get a visa, of course! However, some destinations are better suited for gap years than others, especially if you’re on a tight budget or looking for job opportunities. Research the cost of living in your intended destination(s) and whether or not you can offset those costs with gap year work programs or odd jobs. Other great places to take a gap year include accessible locations, so that you can hop around at will. It can be expensive getting to and from more remote destinations, like New Zealand or even Hawaii.

Question 1

introduction

Accepted Answer

Looking for the perfect balance between globetrotting and enlightenment? Take a gap year! Whether it&rsquo;s a year off between high school and college (a healthy break from monotonous school life!), a gap year after college (which can give you time to figure out your next steps), or a gap year at literally any other time, it&rsquo;ll be time well spent. Gap year programs are riddled with opportunities for personal growth, attainment of new skills, reevaluation of personal and career goals, and (of course) once-in-a-lifetime adventures. So wait...how do we make all this exciting stuff happen? Let&rsquo;s have a heart to heart about how to take a gap year!

Question 2

What is a gap year?

Accepted Answer

Not sure what a gap year even is? We don&rsquo;t blame you&mdash;&rdquo;gap year&rdquo; has come to be somewhat of a blanket term for any extended period of time taken off away from home or &ldquo;normal&rdquo; life. Gap year programs can even vary in length. (That&rsquo;s right...a gap year doesn&rsquo;t have to be a whole year!) You can take a gap year after high school, during college, after college, mid-career, during retirement&mdash;anytime! The unstructured pursuit of personal growth abroad tends to be what defines a gap year.

Question 3

How to take a gap year

Accepted Answer

ap years are still somewhat unfamiliar to Americans, while in Europe they&rsquo;ve come to be a norm. If you want to know how to do a gap year, here&rsquo;s a general overview:
Figure out why you want to take a gap year. Don&rsquo;t set off on your life-changing journey without knowing what you want out of the experience. Do you want to learn a new language? Gain career skills? Just plain old immerse in a brand new place and culture? There&rsquo;s no wrong way to take a gap year, but mapping out your gap year goals is a helpful first step.
Where do you want to go? There are some places that seem like they were made for gap year travelers (we&rsquo;re looking at you, Australia and New Zealand). But that doesn&rsquo;t mean you need to be limited to one country for your gap year! Maybe you want to budget travel Europe or South America. Or maybe you just want to go where the wind blows you! Either way, it&rsquo;s good to remember that the wider you cast your net, the more money you better have in your savings account.
Decide between solo travel or a gap year program. You don&rsquo;t have to book a gap year program in order to take your dream gap year, but it can be immensely helpful, especially if you plan to go to more than one destination. Gap year programs will help you sort out visas, find safe places to stay, and maybe even find you some paid work opportunities. But if you&rsquo;re looking for a year of solo transformation while figuring out how to navigate an unfamiliar continent on your own, that sounds like a pretty cool gap year too!
Get your visa and passport. As a gap year traveler, you will most likely need to apply for a tourist visa in your destination of choice, unless you&rsquo;re headed somewhere with a Working Holiday Visa. Either way, it&rsquo;s important to note that these visas are usually limited in duration depending on your nationality. For example, Americans often can&rsquo;t get tourist visas in Europe beyond 90 days. Once you know where you want to go, it&rsquo;s important to do your research on which visas you qualify for (and how much they cost). It&rsquo;ll also be time to get your passport if you don&rsquo;t have one yet!
Map out an itinerary. Gap years don&rsquo;t really have any kind of structure, unless you&rsquo;ve booked a gap year program. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s important to figure out what you want to do, and then make a general itinerary for yourself. We&rsquo;re not saying you need to plan out every moment! Spontaneity is a cornerstone of some of the best adventures. However, for your own safety (and your loved one&rsquo;s peace of mind), it can be helpful to have a rough idea of where you&rsquo;re headed and what you&rsquo;ll be doing.
Figure out where to stay. Hostels and WWOOFing are common accommodation types for gap year travelers. Pro tip: You better book ahead of time, rather than when you arrive, especially depending on the time of year you&rsquo;re traveling. Tourist seasons will sell out reputable hostels and hotels, and you don&rsquo;t want to show up somewhere at midnight after hours on a train or bus, only to be turned away with that heavy backpack.

Question 4

How to afford a gap year

Accepted Answer

The good news about gap years? It&rsquo;s incredibly common to work odd jobs while on the go in order to pay for them. If you know you&rsquo;ll need to earn money while traveling, we suggest heading to a destination that offers Working Holiday Visas, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, among others.Otherwise, start perusing online jobs boards for backpackers in your chosen destination prior to arrival, so that you know what type of work is common and where to go looking for it. Gap years tend to be lessons in extreme budget travel, so you&rsquo;ll surely learn how to make your dollars stretch as far as they can go.

Question 5

Why take a gap year?

Accepted Answer

There are lots of reasons to take a gap year, and plenty of benefits of doing so. The best reason to take a gap year though is to learn more about yourself and your future goals. You&rsquo;ll be surprised at how much a gap year can change your life and perspectives! Gap year benefits include a better sense of what you want for your future, increased confidence and feelings of capability, and even hard skills like new languages.
Gap year pros and cons can be a long list depending on your goals, but the most common con of taking a gap year is that tight backpacker budget. Traveling is expensive! However, we&rsquo;re confident that the benefits and pros of taking a gap year will be well worth overcoming any roadblocks.

Question 6

What to do during a gap year

Accepted Answer

There&rsquo;s so much to do during a gap year, which is (again!) why mapping out your goals is important. Deciding what to do in a gap year will depend on what you want to get out of the experience. Do you want to volunteer for a cause? Learn a new language? Summit a mountain? All of the above?
The world is your oyster during a gap year, so don&rsquo;t be afraid to pursue every opportunity. If you do have something specific in mind though, traveling with a gap year program will help you iron out all the logistics, so that you can focus more on fulfilling your gap year dreams!

Question 7

Where to take a gap year

Accepted Answer

You can take a gap year anywhere&mdash;as long as you can get a visa, of course! However, some destinations are better suited for gap years than others, especially if you&rsquo;re on a tight budget or looking for job opportunities.
Research the cost of living in your intended destination(s) and whether or not you can offset those costs with gap year work programs or odd jobs. Other great places to take a gap year include accessible locations, so that you can hop around at will. It can be expensive getting to and from more remote destinations, like New Zealand or even Hawaii.

Question 8

When to take a gap year

Accepted Answer

Is there a wrong time to take a gap year? Not really. (Although, we do suggest steering clear of rainy season in Asia if possible.) It&rsquo;s all about finding the right time for you. If you&rsquo;re a recent high school graduate who has no clue what they want to study in college, your time will be better spent on a gap year abroad, getting a firsthand look at how the world works, and learning more about yourself and your wants.
Or, if you&rsquo;re about to graduate college and aren&rsquo;t sure you actually chose the right field of study anymore, going on a gap year is a great way to take some time to figure it out, while still building skills and having one-of-a-kind experiences. Don&rsquo;t worry about timing your gap year the right way&mdash;just keep your (you guessed it!) gap year goals in mind and your experience will be worthwhile.