Ian, This is exciting news! While your reduced availability to our team will be sorely missed, I (and I'm sure everyone on the team) fully support this endeavour and idea. As you know Kevin has been working on the road for almost a year, and I'm sure he'd have plenty to share with you. I have to admit somewhat jealous of Kevin's lifestyle and this opportunity you've created for yourself. I love to travel, meet new people, hang out with old friends in new places and explore. I get antsy if I stay in one place for too long. Though Celeste (my fiancee) and are seriously planning on doing 6 months somewhere starting late 2009. We're currently thinking Brazil, (Natál?), South East Asia (Vietnam) or possibly Italy or Eastern Europe. To collect ideas, possible places and gather your research, I have a few suggestions; Create a My maps map on Google maps and open up editing permissions to anyone. Link to the map from this blog post so I and others can add places. Talk to others who have lived abroad. Most vacations don't give the insight to a place that you're looking for. Depending on how you like to plan and research, you might like to use a note gathering tool like Google notebook or TripIt. Use and contribute to Wikipedia and WikiTravel for basic information. Don't count on them for reliability though. Buy a Travel Guide book before you leave for any destination. Lonely Planet's are recommendable, since they are easy to use. Lonely Planet is also a significant Drupal user. Businesses mentioned in Lonely Planets are usually heavily overworked after getting published, so be skeptical about it's business recommendations. Recent online and on-the-road recommendations are usually the most reliable. If you want to travel to a non-English speaking country (highly recommended), then don't assume that you'll be fine armed with the "International Language". English is not used as widely as many people believe. More importantly, without some local language, it will be difficult to understand the local culture which is the most interesting part of a journey – at least in my opinion. Spanish is probably the best language to learn since it's not particularly difficult (compared to other non-romantic languages) and opens up a huge range of destinations. It's also used heavily in your community which will make it much easier to practice. Consider what sort of experience you want to have, what budget you have, and how you want to stand financially at the end. Given you can do the same work from anywhere you like, you can put a lot of money away in your savings by living in inexpensive and/or developing nations. Alternatively you can live like a king in those places, and not save money – or a compromise of both. However this will be difficult or impossible in Western Europe, the Pacific, many large Asian cities and any popular holiday destination. Partly for this reason, Celeste and I are keen to travel to an inexpensive country. We can probably save half of the deposit on a house in 6 months abroad if we choose the destination carefully and don't raise our standard of living while there. As for specific destinations. I can highly recommend Brazil. I have never lived there, but spent about 4 weeks traveling and holidaying over a couple of different trips. The main cities are mess, and dangerous. You might like them, but probably mostly only for the nightlife and people. The less populous coastal areas are magical. Beautiful beaches, interesting places, happy people, and Brazilians love to party outside of the cities too. Brazil is scorching hot in the North, but comfortable in the South in Winter and bearable in Summer. I haven't seen much of inland Brazil but was less impressed. Cabo Frío is one place that I enjoyed and is large enough to have good internet. It's also not far from Rio de Janeiro. Natál also appears to be a great destination. Buenos Aires, Argentina is an amazing city. With more than 15 million people it's big and dense – a bit too much for my personal liking. It's quite a destination for ex-pats and has a thriving ex-pat community. It's known for amazing food and dining, beautiful women, and great cultural and social experience. It's probably still cheaper than Brazil, without the danger and messiness of Brazil's large cities. Argentina also has some of the most impressive landscapes and natural features in South America and the world. Though all of these are 12-40 hour bus trips from Buenos Aires. Keep in mind though, that South Americans know how to travel by bus with comfort and style. Most buses in Argentina and Brazil will have seats that are better or equivalent of first class airline seats. Before our recent retreat at Playa Del Carmen, México, I was lucky enough to be able to backpack for a week through the South of México, Guetemala and Belize. While the most beautiful places were too isolated to have a social life or usable internet, I was enchanted by a small town in Northern Belize, near the border with México, called Corozal. Actually I have been trying to convince Celeste that we should take our 6 month stint there. I can't find the words to describe what about it was enchanting, however it may not be everyone's cup of tea. It's small and quaint, doesn't have an ocean-beach, and gets hit by storms regularly. The other great thing about Belize is the mix of cultures; Spanish/latin-american, black African, and British cultures mix here like peas and carrots. Also, English is official language, and used widely, along with Spanish and creole (heavily localised crude variant of English). Good luck with your research and planning. And better luck for your journey!