Thanks to our experts, who are going offline now. You can catch up on all their tips below the line in our comments section. Feel free to continue sharing your own stories and suggestions.
More on the Aussie job market
We know there are jobs down there, but what's the best way to find them?
@STATravel_UK @guardiantravel What's the best way to try and secure a job before flying to Australia or NZ?
— Chloe Goody (@Chloe22Goody) July 10, 2013
The joy of staying in one place
The temptation, when you have a few months off, is to try to cram in as much as possible, but staying in one place and getting to know a small area can be hugely rewarding. We ran these stories on Thailand, Italy and Siberia recently about the joy of staying put. Even if you're not planning a trip to these particular destinations, it's worth considering cutting back on the number of locations on your planned trip, and allowing yourself enough time to get to know one well.
Also worth looking into are some of the many sites that put you in touch with locals in your destination. Some, like couchsurfing.com, are about staying with locals, others are meeting forums where you can find a travel companion or someone who's prepared to give you an insider's tour of their city or hometown. Check out hospitalityclub.org, bewelcome.org and globalfreeloaders.com.
Has anyone come across any other useful sites?
Or you might like to consider is house sitting. Sign up to a house sitting site like housecarers.com, mindmyhouse.com or luxuryhousesitting.com and you could find yourself living, if not in the lap of luxury then certainly in a pretty comfortable home, for free, as our writer experienced in Italy.
Updated
Backpacker seeks backpack advice
@GuardianTravel is 70l bag ideal for 1year + round the world trip? Any general advice for a girl solo traveller?
— Olivia Backhouse (@OliviaBackhouse) July 10, 2013
Are you planning a long trip?
The gap year is dead. Again. Or so we are told. As the academic year draws to a close, another survey has declared that such travel experiences are on their way out. The research, conducted by Global Visas, polled 1,242 UK residents aged between 16 and 23 who were either school/college leavers planning to go to university or university students/recent graduates, and found that only 22% of recent school/college leavers now plan to take one, with 45% saying they couldn't afford it.
Perhaps it's true that the old phrase comes with too many connotations (the dreaded gap yahs) and tuition fees have made it tough, if not impossible, for some young people to take a carefree backpacking trip.
Yet there's also been an upturn in remote working, in companies offering sabbaticals and in older travellers wanting to do something different later in life (although you may not want to call it a grey gap year).
Although the phrase "gap year" may be outdated now (such experiences don't have to be a year-long or apply solely to the student market), we don't need to bash a nail in the coffin of longer-term travel anytime soon.
Yet many questions still remain. Can you make a longer trip work on a shoestring budget? Does voluntourism ever work? And what about the practicalities, such as insurance and working visas?
Our experts will be online today from 1pm to 2pm BST to help you navigate all these issues and give ideas on the planning your own break – whether you want to work abroad, learn a new skill or even do something different on home turf, whether you're fresh out of college, taking a career break or celebrating the kids moving out by taking a big trip.
We also want to hear your stories. Have you made a gap year financially profitable? Did you take one despite not going on to university? Or have you taken a break later in life? Or perhaps you've had to write off the idea for now, but have your eye on doing something in the future?
You can leave your comments below for our panel or tweet us @guardiantravel.
OUR PANEL
Paul Farrugia is a co-founder of globalhelpswap.com – a website that helps travellers find free and low-cost volunteering opportunities around the world. He started the site after noticing the prevalence of schemes with prohibitively high fees.
Richard Oliver has been CEO of Year Out Group since 2000. He advises those planning a gap year and promotes good practice among gap year providers. He has travelled in Europe, North America, south-east Asia, Australia, east Africa and the Middle East. He also chairs a BSI committee covering the safety of adventurous activities overseas (BS8848).
Hugh Felton is the sustainable tourism executive at ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents), which works with its travel industry members to ensure volunteer projects are sustainable and offer real long-term benefits for local communities. Previously, Hugh has worked for the youth charity Raleigh International, and Camp America, where he helped set up the gap year division. Contact him on twitter @hughiesurf or @ABTATravel
Anna Corbett has lived on four continents and travelled to five. She has volunteered and worked around the world – teaching English in Peru and working in HIV education in rural Uganda, before moving on to teach English in South Korea. She currently works for STA Travel in London after deciding that three gap years will do – for now.
Tim Loonen (@tloonen) is head of the Tripbod Community, a global network of hand-picked local experts who help travellers plan their trips. Tim's travels have taken him from Hong Kong to Reykjavik to Barcelona and Chennai.
Macca Sherifi is the travel editor at gapyear.com, a social network and travel advice website. He's travelled to more than 40 countries on six continents and spends his time giving advice to people about to go backpacking and travelling. Follow him at @maccathegapper.
Erin McNeaney and Simon Fairbairn are a couple who sold everything they owned and left the UK in March 2010 to travel the world. They work as they go (as so-called digital nomads) and write about their slow travels at NeverEndingVoyage.com. They also create iOS apps for the adventurous at VoyageTravelApps.com.
Peter Lynch (www.peter-lynch.co.uk) is an ex-biologist and travel writer living in the UK. He has travelled extensively and worked on wildlife projects in Africa, Asia, South American and Europe. He is the author of Wildlife & Conservation Volunteering (Bradt 2012) and is a regular contributor to Wild Travel, Silver Travel Advisor, the West Australian; his writing has also appeared in Wanderlust, Get Lost, the Irish Times and many other publications. Follow him on twitter @Big_Wild_World.
Tim Riley is a director of the True Traveller, a UK travel company that specialises in adventure holidays and which also runs its own True Traveller Insurance scheme, designed for adventure trips and gap year travellers.
Erin Sparks is a placement manager at PoD Volunteer, a non-profit organisation arranging volunteering opportunities around the world. She volunteered at numerous animal projects in Africa and Asia and acted as a volunteer coordinator at a Cheetah Reintroduction project in South Africa before joining PoD Volunteer. You can follow PoD Volunteer @podvolunteer
The family gap
Is anybody planning to take their kids on a family gap year? We'd love to hear about your plans. How old are your kids? Are you taking them out of school to travel? Where are you planning to go - or perhaps you're looking for ideas? Are you avoiding destinations that will require lots of jabs? Send us your questions and share your experiences in the comments below - good and bad!
Questions on jobs, lost credit cards and security
More questions via Twitter, which our experts will be able to help with.
@GuardianTravel How can I turn my gap year/s into a job? Can I travel and write or do something that involves travelling and studying??
— Hannah | hannaH (@BigMossBoss) July 10, 2013
@GuardianTravel What is the best way to access cash when inter-railing should cards be lost or stolen?
— The Beach Factory (@beachfacts) July 10, 2013
@GuardianTravel Are there affordable short #gapyear courses teaching basic travel security & common sense? You planning a Special in Mag?
— Richard Baker (@bakerpictures) July 10, 2013
An inspiring tale of getting off the beaten track
"When travelling for long periods, it can be all too easy to fall in with other foreign travellers and stumble around in a closed group, insulating each other with a shared familiarity..." writes Cat Rainsford in this Guardian Travel feature about travelling with street performers in Mexico. We're not suggesting everyone runs away to join the circus, as Cat effectively did, but her story is an inspiring tale about discovering a country through its people, and a genuine adventure involving hitchhiking and sleeping out under the stars.
Giving it all up
A question via Twitter for panelists Erin and Simon:
@GuardianTravel Question for Erin & Simon - what gave you the final push you needed to give it all up and travel indefinitely?
— Emma Allen (@emallen85) July 10, 2013
Read about others who are travelling the world while working online.
A gap year closer to home?
A gap trip doesn't have to involve long-haul travel. We'd be really interested to hear from anyone who spent part or all of their gap year in the UK or Europe. We don't mean working in your local coffee shop, but doing something different, a conservation project perhaps in a remote corner of the UK, exploring some of the less well trodden parts of Europe, or taking on a challenge, like cycling around Britain, as Guardian contributor Mike Carter did.
Updated
Australia is calling
There is more to Australia's gimmicky best-job-in-the-world marketing campaign than meets the eye.
As this New York Times article shows, Australia is in dire need of casual workers, particularly in the tourism industry.
The country is in the midst of a mining boom that has lured thousands of young workers into resource-related fields, leaving tourism, manufacturing and many other sectors of the Australian economy short of skilled labor.
The national tourist board's marketing campaign aims to promote the working holidays programme, which enables 18- to 30-year-olds from nearly 30 countries to spend a year living and working in Australia.
Also, if you work in a specific field (such as fruit picking) for a certain amount of time, you can currently apply to extend your visa for an extra year. But be sure to do your research before you start to make sure your role and time frame meets the requirements.
Australian travel writer @laradunston tells us:
Young people on work visas are making lots of money in Oz because salaries are so high. They work more than they used to, but live/travel better
Updated
A gap month
Great question from @ID4738193 who is taking a gap month ("not quite a year but a huge deal for us as he my husband is a farmer and we have been working towards this for four years"...) but can't decide where to go:
From my previous travels, I loved Cambodia and Nepal, as I felt them to be less touched (ruined?) by tourism than Thailand and northern India. My husband loved Latin America. We would love to go somewhere original, interesting, exciting. We speak English, French and Spanish between us. And we are travelling in December/January. We are looking at Kerala, Burma, Laos, Cuba, but are open to other ideas.
Can you help us find somewhere where we can be travellers rather than tourists, and can meet local people rather than other backpackers?
Oh- our budget isn't huge... we don't mind roughing it a bit (but not too much- we are nearly 40!)
Has anyone travelled in Kerala, Burma, Laos or Cuba? Where did you go? What did you do? Were you following a well worn path or did you venture off the beaten track? Do you have any other suggestions?
Updated
Teaching in China/South Korea/Japan
@Jay90 asks about working abroad, possibly teaching English somewhere like China/South Korea/Japan. They ask:
"What other kind of jobs/things could I do that would allow me to live viably and on a relatively small starting budget? Any suggestions would be excellent!"
Has anyone taught English in those countries? Or done another job? Can you give any tips? How did you arrange it? How much did you need to live on? Where did you stay when you were there?
We'd love to hear about other readers' experiences.
Can you make money on a gap year, or at least cover costs?
We have been asking readers for their tips on how they made a gap year work for them and how they made sure it didn't cost the Earth. Here are some of the best stories and ideas so far:
@GuardianTravel My gap 3 months (walking across France) gave me the inspiration for my travel company @FootTrailsUK so yes, it did.
— Alison Howell (@howell_alison) July 9, 2013
@guardiantravel I lived rent-free in Paris by working for a famiy who provided me with a small studio on the Champs Elysees...
— Left Bank Manc (@LeftBankManc) July 9, 2013
@GuardianTravel #superyachting certainly makes for a profitable #gapyear. So much so I took 3 gap years. Alas, I am back in London now.
— Bethany Silcox (@bethanysilcox) July 9, 2013
