Supposedly you can travel between the starter towns pretty readily, such as how you could in FFXI. It will most likely be a bit dangerous, but definitely possible. I myself haven't tried yet since I'm just getting started myself. I'm just repeating what I've read elsewhere.

I'm trying to get used to the maps which are so different from FFXI. I'm curious if I can zoom in on one. I haven't found that button yet... ^_^