I am planning a 7 month holiday from October 2016 that starts with a trip on the Trans Mongolian to Russia and then continues through Europe, ending in Norway / Svalbard in April 2017.

After Russia I wanted to make my destinations spontaneous and unscheduled as I dont want to be committing to things so far in the future and am unsure how interesting or safe some places will be.

However I have 2 problems that someone may have background with.

First – I am a 45F with an Australian passport and seem to be restricted to 90 days out of 180 in the Schengen zone, meaning I have to count all my days and therefore plan a pretty strict route. I cant seem to find a way around this as even getting a longer visa for 1 Schengen country doesnt extend this time in other countries. Is there any alternative way?

Second – I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to take a 7 month paid holiday but for unrelated reasons my pay will decrease by about a third in October. I dont want to stay in hostels or book through sites like airbnb so instead of hotels and to maximize my money I am thinking of renting holiday houses or apartments. What is the best way to find these, both from Australia and when in Europe? So far all the sites are listing places managed by the owners which I dont want to use. Thanks in advance for your helpful comments 🙂