Well, I'm finishing college this year and I find that many of my contempories are heading off to university. However I am not. I'm going on a GAP year. Does anyone have any experience or opinions on this? Anyone elsetaking a GAP year?

What are your plans for your gap year?

I took a year out - I spent it in Australia, travelling the Eastern coast and New Zealand for 6 weeks before settling down to work for the remainder, then I went to Japan for 4 days on my way back to the UK.

What you do on your gap year depends on what sort of person you are. Are you a traveller? A worker? A learner? A volunteer? Your year out is the chance to be independent and have a go at doing things that you've never tried before. There's lots of different types of gap year. You can go with an agency like Gap Activity Projects, i-to-i, JET or Conservation Volunteers, or you can try and organise your own year out.

The most important thing you need is a good stock of savings behind you - I worked for a year and a half to earn the money I needed for the first six weeks of my gap year. After those six weeks of travelling I kinda ran out of money and had to work some more, and it's hard to get jobs when you're overseas because of visa issues and so on. Some countries can be dead expensive and airfares strip you heaps. Don't let that stop you, though, it's the opportunity of a lifetime!

Check out www.gapyear.com for ideas, and STAtravel.com.au have lots of deals on round the world tickets and discounted airfares for students.

Woah, a maz spiel. XD

I'm going with an agency called GAP Australia. It entails going over seas to do volunteering. Your food and accomodation is paid for my your host as you voluteer for them. There is still a hefty amount of mondy involved but it's a lot cheaper than going it alone.

Yeah, I know them - I applied to their UK counterpart to work in Poland in a blind school but couldn't go because of my dodgy feet XD They're pretty reputable and will see you right - my friend went to Malaysia with them a few years back and had a fantastic time. You get a fair bit of time off to travel independently and as they're often 6 month placements you can often go off on your own afterwards. Just don't be afraid to contact them if you have any problems with your host family, although they use pretty reliable ones so you should be okay :) Any country in particular you're wanting to visit?

UK or Ireland is my first choice but Canada is coming a close second. Although in the interest of having a varied package I even put Vanuatu down as a last choice thing. XD

Well, if you come to the UK we'll have another forum meetup ;) Though Canada sounds cooler in my opinion... and Vanuatu even better. But if you wanna just get down to the business of volunteering and worry about travelling/language etc some other time then an English speaking country is a good choice.

Yeah, that was my main thought. A forum meetup sounds good. ;) It's only a couple of weeks before I find out where. Fingers crossed!

Best of luck! On one of your days off you should come up to Liverpool and visit me and my crazy flatmates XD

If I get there, I'll be sure to. XD