Our Last Stop & Final Trip Stats

We thought it would be fitting to finish our trip where it all began. Back to where we hatched the idea of the trip in the first place – Hawaii. When we first visited Hawaii in 2013, the trip of a lifetime seemed more like a dream than something that we could actually pull off. Slowly, but surely, we turned that dream into a reality and last month we enjoyed our trip “grand finale” by spending three weeks on Oahu, the Big Island and Kauai.

View of Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head

One of the many beautiful sunsets from the North Shore of Oahu

Even after spending 15 months on the road, we still find that Hawaii is one of our favorite places. Each island has something unique to offer and we got to take full advantage. We watched surfers riding huge, 15+ft waves on the North Shore of Oahu, hiked through Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, and took in the sweeping, shoreline views of Kauai from a helicopter! As we mentioned in our last post, we also got to spend some time working with Habitat for Humanity, which was an incredibly rewarding experience.

One of the beautiful beaches on the Big Island

Bubbling Lava at Volcanoes National Park

It feels bittersweet to wrap up the trip and this blog. It still hasn’t really sunk in that we don’t have any more flights booked or accommodations reserved. One thing is for sure, we haven’t gotten the travel bug out of our system. If anything, this trip has done the opposite and made us want to explore more of this big, beautiful world. We know we will be lifelong travelers!

Stopping along the bike path on the east side of Kauai

Pre-Helicopter Tour

Flying over the Napali Coast on Kauai

This is why we love Kauai

We plan to do one more post with final thoughts and reflections, but for now, we wanted to share some trip stats that we have been collecting since our journey began:

• Total Trip Time = 15 Months
• # of Countries Visited: 32 across 5 continents
• # of Flights Taken: 74
• # of intercity Trains Taken: 47
• # of intercity Buses Taken: 50
• # of Different Airports: 69 (Some of the less-common ones include ATQ, SEZ, ZNZ, PPS, NAV, LPQ, JMK)
• # of UNESCO World Heritage sites visited: 60
• Average Daily Accommodation Cost = $20.08 per person
  • This factors in the few weeks we spent back home in the States staying with family as well as nights we spent without any accommodation costs (ex: staying with friends on the road or when we were volunteering or working on the farm)
• Average Daily Food & Beverage Costs = $15.02 per person
• # of Total Airline Miles Redeemed (United & Delta) = 790,000 Miles
• Longest Time Spent in One Place: 4 Weeks (Jaipur, India)
• # of Corrupt Cops Dealt With: 2 (Bali & Zanzibar)
• # of Times We Got Sick: 4 (twice each)
• Longest Travel Day: 37 hrs (Bus from Kyoto to Osaka Airport, Flight to South Korea, 9 hour layover in Seoul, Flight to Manila, overnight in airport, Flight to Puerto Princesa, 7 hour bus ride to El Nido)

-The Morts