Mind the gap

SO WE’RE still knee-deep in February mulch.

Our backs are against the wall with budget cuts, dreary weather, healthy eating regimes and a never-ending trickle of household bills. Not the best time, you might think, to contemplate a year-long vacation.

But isn’t that precisely the point? Aren’t gap years, sabbaticals, years-out — whatever you want to call them — the ideal way to get away from it all? To reinvigorate, to rip yourself from routine by plunging headfirst into exotic, challenging and meaningful adventures overseas? Instead of getting stuck in a personal fog, why not go the way of Phileas Fogg, and travel the world? It doesn’t have to cost the earth, either. Trailfinders has been offering round-the-world tickets for 42 years, with prices quoting from €1,166pp in economy class.