How To - Plan a Trip Around the World
So you want to plan a world trip? You’re probably wondering what to do first - we did too - but don’t worry there are lots of ways to get started, you just have to pick what’s right for you. Maybe you can make your unique bucket list of countries to visit, find interesting organized trips through companies like Education First, talk to friends or family about the amazing places they’ve visited to find what might interest you, or even throw darts at a map and let fate choose your next adventure! For us, the best way to start was to begin with our travel bucket lists and build our trip from there. Here’s how we did it!
Step 1: Compare Bucket Lists
After Sarah and I both wrote up our lists on a Sunday in late 2022, we sat down on the floor at our coffee table to compare notes. Together we started with a list of nearly 50 countries and a route that would take over two years to complete (!!!). Over the next few hours we whittled down the number of countries and amount of time per location on our list, until we settled on a list of 33 countries that would take us just under 13 months to explore. Quite the feat, if you ask me!
Step 2: Map Out A Realistic Route
Next, we needed to map out the optimal route for the list we had just finalized, so we pulled out our National Geographic world map and stuck a piece of tape on top of each country on our list. Once we had visualized where we were going we started to get an idea of a logical route to follow, trying to avoid backtracking as much as possible so we could spend our time exploring rather than traveling. We also wanted to stay in the summer season as much as possible, as it’s much easier to carry lightweight summer clothes around the world compared to heavy winter clothes. One more hurdle we had was the need to be in certain locations at certain times, Thailand in December for a wedding, Japan in April for the cherry blossoms, Switzerland in July for a school reunion, Tanzania in September for peak migration season. With these considerations all in mind we started to write down an order for each country on the pieces of tape, refining it until we had a working route for our 13-month adventure.
Our final country selections before we determined how to travel.
Step 3: Determine How To Travel
This step involves a number of different things to consider: from the type of luggage you want to bring to the modes of transport most realistic for your route. For Sarah and I, we knew we wanted to keep things light and adventurous, so we already knew we would be packing up a massive backpack each, alongside a carry-on pack to house our day-to-day belongings for the year. From there, we knew we could pretty much lean on any mode of transport we wanted: from walking, to trains, to regional buses, and of course, planes. We also knew that there would be some places we wanted to explore the special types of transportation on offer, like a campervan in Australia or overlanding vehicles in southern Africa. Once you’ve determined what your travel will probably look like, the next step is to find out the best way to book your trips.
Step 4: Consider Options For Booking Flights
For our large travel segments in between regions we knew that the fastest and most realistic option would be to fly, so we looked into what options were out there for an around the world trip.
Booking Flights Individually with Cash:
By far the most widespread and traditional way to book your around the world travel is to pay for each segment as you go with cash. This allows you to keep each flight isolated, so that a change or cancellation of one does not affect the others. While this method is more flexible, timing matters, as depending on where you’re flying flights will be more expensive during certain times of the year and the closer you get to your departure date. Typically, if you’re traveling during your destination’s peak holiday season, flights will be cheapest as soon as they become available but if you’re traveling during the low season flights will typically be the cheapest about 6 weeks before the departure date.
Around the World Tickets:
Each of the major airline alliances offer around the world packages, essentially allowing you to bundle a series of flights into one booking and manage them all through a central location. However these packages usually have some restrictions, such as the number of times you can land on each continent, a limit to the total number of flights you can bundle, or the length of time from your first flight to your last. These packages can also end up being more expensive than booking each ticket individually depending on the airlines you’re flying and the number of connections you’re making.
Using Points & Miles:
Another option is to utilize any credit card points & miles you have to pay for the large travel segments. Maximizing the value of these points & miles depends on what reward currency you have and where you’re trying to go. Many banks that offer travel rewards have online portals where you can book flights but be aware of the class of travel you’re booking as some will only offer basic economy tickets with restrictions on baggage and seats. Airline miles can often be transferred between partner airlines for better redemption rates and wider redemption availability, so it’s key to check all of your options before starting to redeem. Be on the lookout for some upcoming blog posts which will do a deep dive into our approach to earning and redeeming Points & Miles!
Step 5: Consider Options For Regional & Location Specific Travel
Several nations present an opportunity to experience something totally new, and unique to the part of the world you’re visiting. Once you have a route and timings for your trip, it’s interesting to explore what new experiences you could have in each region you’re visiting. After we had our route we came up with at least 3 unique experiences to add to our trip, and researched how it would be best to book them. Although we wanted to stay as flexible as possible overall during our 13-month trip, we knew these experiences would have to be reserved as early as possible.
Long-Term Rental Cars
With long-term car rentals, the best prices are typically shown when car bookings first become available, usually 11 months before the rental would take place. For the countries where we knew we would need rental cars for many weeks at a time - like New Zealand, Japan, or Argentina - we made those bookings as far out as possible, usually for less than half what the price would have been if we booked at our departure.
Campervans in Australia & New Zealand
These go INCREDIBLY fast so it’s essential to book them as early as possible, sometimes up to 18 months before your departure date! Keep an eye on various campervan rental companies in each place you’d like to rent them and as soon as one becomes available, confirm your reservation.
Overlanding Safari in Southern Africa
Whether you want to do a multi-nation overlanding trip like us, or a shorter standard Safari somewhere in Africa it’s important to look at your options at least 6 months before your departure date. Many tours limit their availability to less than 10 people and with experiential travel demand at an all time high, making a reservation for one of these trips between 6 months and a year before your departure greatly improves your odds of confirming a spot on your dream Safari.
For the rest of our trip we decided to stay as flexible as possible, which means leaving trains, overnight buses, regional flights, and miscellaneous travel bookings until our plans in each country or region were more solidified.
Summary
Starting to plan a world trip can feel overwhelming, there can be a million questions swirling around in your head and you just don’t know where to start. For us, it meant writing down a list of everywhere we wanted to go, cutting it down to a route that was realistic for the time we had, determining how to travel, and starting to book our long-distance flights. Keeping in mind when flights & experiential travel will be at the most affordable is key to stretching your budget as far as possible. In upcoming blog posts we’ll continue to share how we timed the booking of our experiences and travel, alongside some of the tips and tricks we’ve employed to get more out of our Points, Miles & overall travel budget.