Visas

Visas are something you really need to plan as far ahead as possible. Dealing with beaurocracy in other countries in other languages is a pain and you should plan your visas as far as possible in advance.
Research what visas you may or may not need before you leave for all countries you are thinking you may go to. Hopefully you can get a stamp on arrival but sometimes you need to get them in advance and you need to check where and how long in advance you can get them

Visa information changes often and is different for all nationalities so check with the relevant embassy - don't just do what we did without checking!

We normally looked for a website for the UK consulate for the country we were going to as this seemed to have the best information and also in English. US consulates often only give information for US citizens.

Some other sites we checked with were:
Project Visa
Thames Consular
travel.co.za