FAQs

What is "Honey Service Year?"

We are Brittany and Nathan, traveling around the world. "Honey Service Year" is a combination of honeymoon, travel, and volunteer/service/exchange. The beginning of an "official" union of our lives seemed (and still seems) like a great time to see the world, widen our horizons and perspectives and ideas, and to share and exchange our thoughts and ideas with others. 

We are "off the beaten path" travelers; we enjoy getting to know the local culture, food, art, religion, etc. No Hiltons for us please (although fans of luxury and comfort, we prefer a more authentic experience)!! As hostel owners ourselves (we have two backpacker hotels in Colombia, south america), we oftentimes seek out similar lodging, usually with the goal of networking and linkages. But throughout this journey, we have relied on and enjoyed more the Couchsurfing networking site. However, no matter the accommodation, our overall focus is always to experience and learn and engage. Our favorite way to get to know a city is to wander....popping into crowded locales that obviously speak to the popularity of the merchandise, allowing ourselves to be pulled in directions that are intriguing, and discovering for ourselves the pulse of the place, usually guidebookless.

As residents of New Orleans, we are very interested in disasters: the process of recovery and rebuilding, the impact on communities and peoples and cultures, and empowerment and resiliency. Although our personal experience mostly relates to physical/natural disasters, we are are also drawn to human, cultural, and economic disasters, as well as to strategies of community organizing, participation, and engagement. We are very interested in clean water, renewable energy, and environmental sustainability.

Our path of service on this long journey has been mostly unplanned, leaving us available and receptive to projects that cross our path. Much of our concept of service has involved conversation and exchange and sharing of ideas and shrinking the geographic and cultural divide. Our journey has also opened great streams of dialog and planning for ongoing collaborative work and exchange between peoples and organizations and appropriately bringing home valuable 21st Century lessons of human-rights and cultural understanding. The blog has also been a great part of our service project, allowing us to share the things that we learn and experience.

Where Have You Traveled?

Check out our travel map by following this link.

What Did You Pack for a 10 Month Trip?

It was difficult to pack, especially since we have traveled through three seasons...all the way from snow in China to egg-frying temperatures in Ghana. We carry a tent and two sleeping bags, along with a whole ton of gear. I wrote a blog about some of our travel essentials, you can read the posting here.

What Has Been Your Favorite Place to Visit?

Bogus question....we like them all for different reasons. I might be able to answer in regards to food, or music, or weather, you just have to narrow it down for me.

I Am Looking for Some Specific Tips and Suggestions for Hotels, Cities or Countries, Etc.

Please visit our Tips for Travelers Page, packed with suggestions, recommendations, and contact info for hotels we enjoyed.

You Must be Millionaires, How Can you Afford a Trip Around the World?

Well, the short answer is that we both saved some money. This money came from working real jobs and from living slightly below our means. Our budget has been approximately $30 a day for the first 5 months of travel (minus Japan), and an uptick to $90 a day upon reaching Europe. Even with some snafus, we have mostly been able to stick to this average.

We purchased "around-the-world" plane tickets from an agency for $3,300 each. These tickets include all of our flights, down to the date and time of departure and plane model number. It was difficult to plan so far in advance, but it truly saved us an incredible amount of money. We are waiting for a refund from the said travel agency, and upon the success of this, I will refer to them by name.

We look at it like this: we could have purchased a really basic, brand new car in the United States; or, for the same amount of money, we could travel around the world for 10 months. We are privileged enough to be able to choose the latter. 

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Please feel free to submit additional questions or comments to bittystarr@gmail.com. 

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