Traveler. Wanna-be expat. Giant Stepper. Gillian writes about travel, moving abroad and stepping out into the uncomfortable on her blog One-Giant-Step.com.  From personal experiences, to expert travel tips, to inspirational stories, she shares her numerous adventures with us in the following blogger interview.  Tours4Fun had the delightful opportunity to learn from this enthusiastic explorer, and now you can too!

Tours4Fun: What has been the most difficult part about continual traveling?
Gillian: The most difficult thing, for me, about long term travel was the not having a home. I have never been homesick per se but I do miss having a home. I like the little routines of being home, but I like having those routines in unfamiliar settings. That’s why, now, we’ve decided on slow travel; to stay in one place for months at a time to get the best of both worlds!

Tours4Fun: In your blog you mentioned that having a set of criteria can help any decision.  What are the steps that need to be taken to set that criterion?  What knowledge do you need to have to put those parameters on yourself?
Gillian: Yes, having a criteria for some things has really helped reduce the decision making process. I think we all have criteria for the regular decisions we make but maybe just don’t recognize it as such. It just means knowing what the decision points are up front; having thought about what the ‘go-no-go’ items are before entering into the fray. For example, our criteria around finding a room; we want a private room with a private bathroom, in a quiet hotel/hostel preferably in a real neighborhood. We like to self cater breakfast so it’s nice if that’s possible. There should be at least a double bed (rather than two singles) and linens included. We should be able to easily walk to restaurants in the area. We set a budget for that particular area, and trip, and don’t look at places outside of that budget. Our criteria are quite normal things to consider but having thought it out ahead of time makes our decision making much less stressful.

Tours4Fun: Your “Not-A-Bucket-List” concept is a unique and interesting way of thought.  Can you elaborate on that?  Why is it more beneficial for you to not have a bucket list as opposed to having one?
Gillian: I worry that if I had a bucket list that I would stop considering other experiences in favor of only striking things off the bucket list. There is SO much of the world to see and so much to experience; I don’t want to limit what is possible.

Tours4Fun: What is the first thing you want to experience when you step foot in a foreign country?
Gillian: I always feel discombobulated when landing in a new country; like I want to experience everything all at once. Usually we find our hotel, unpack a little bit, and then find a restaurant or bar to have a drink, relax, and get a plan together for exploring.

Tours4Fun: Budgeting is a crucial part of any travel experience (long term and short).  Can you give us a few tips on how to budget wisely so travelers can rest easy while they venture out into foreign lands?
Gillian: I think the most important piece about budgeting is to be completely honest with yourself about the level of budget you can travel at. There is no point in committing to a backpacker budget if you truly cannot travel in that manner; you will be miserable. Do some research as to how much travel in a particular country costs – there are plenty of bloggers who are reporting detailed in-country costs. This is my favorite way because I can see how that blogger travels; are they backpackers? Flashpackers? Luxury travelers? Are they a couple? Or a single with a penchant to party? You can get a real feel for costs this way – it’s worth doing the research.

Tours4Fun: It seems like you promote other bloggers on your site (which is fantastic!).  Tell us why it is important for travelers to read each other’s blogs and swap stories.
Gillian: Two reasons. Firstly I think it’s good for travelers to read all kinds of travel stories and when I find fellow bloggers who tell good stories I just want to share them with everyone. Secondly, it’s a community. Travel bloggers share resources and information and support each other; no matter what you do in this world, it’s always good to have friends and a community behind you!

Tours4Fun: What are some of the biggest obstacles you’ve had to encounter overseas?
Gillian: I think the biggest obstacle is always my expectations; this has always been the case for me although I am getting better as I travel more (and get older!). Having some unrealistic expectation of a place, and then being disappointed and not being able to adjust to the reality, has tripped me up more times than I care to admit. I battle this by trying to research a bit more and by being more relaxed so that I can actually enjoy the reality rather than pining for what I thought it should have been.

Tours4Fun: Out of all the countries you’ve visited, which one is your favorite and why?
Gillian: I think this is the hardest question of all because it depends on so many things; not just country specific such as the best hiking, or the tastiest food, or the friendliest people but also on personal attributes; is the country one of the first foreign places I visited, did we visit at the right time of year, was I tired of traveling at that point, where is my relationship with Jason? All of these things affect how I experience a place and where on the ‘favorite country hierarchy’ it sits.
Having said that I absolutely loved the food and scenery in the Greek Isles, being in the mountains in Peru, Nepal, and Germany, and the frenetic energy of Vietnam. I was brought to tears by the beauty of Petra in Jordan, deeply affected by our time in India, and surprised by the sophistication of Argentina. See…I can’t have a favourite!

Tours4Fun: Traveling for long periods of time must get exhausting at some point.  How do you keep the passion for what you do alive?
Gillian: I think that slow travel is going to be the key here. We returned from our RTW in 2010 and are just about to head out again now. The RTW was an exhausting, unsustainable pace as we moved every 3 or 4 days. This time we plan on staying put for 3 or 4 months at a time. This will help us established the routines that make us comfortable and yet still experience all the things about travel that we love. I just love exploring, experiencing, and being challenged; the passion just is…I don’t have to feed it.

Tours4Fun: Finally, what are your plans for future travels?  Do you have a particular itinerary in mind or will you figure it out as you go?  Bon Voyage!
Gillian: Our future plans are imminent! It has long been our dream to live outside of our home and native land, to experience travel at its slowest by living, and working, in a place for a while. We finished our jobs 2 weeks ago and are planning our very own expat experiment whereby Jason will find mid length IT consultant work (3, 6 or 12 month contracts) and we will live wherever that contract takes us. It means that, right now, we have absolutely no idea where we will be in a year! And that excites me!! Wish us luck!