How to Plan a Round-the-World Trip

For most people, taking time away from regular routines to travel the world is a dream come true. With cities worldwide wooing visitors with discounts on places to stay and things to do, sales on airfares and low annual travel insurance rates, a round-the-world trip has never been so affordable. So if you’re up for the adventure of a lifetime, I’ve put together some tips to get your planning started!

Where to Go?

The first step in planning a round-the-world trip is deciding where you want go! What are you dying to see? Make a list of all the places, grab a map and begin plotting a travel path from one place to the next.

If you are looking to see as many spots as possible within the time you have to travel, count on two nights per city. Anything shorter and you will not have enough time to see much of any one place, plus you will get very tired, very quickly. If you fancy spending more time visiting fewer destinations, decide on the number of nights you want to spend in each area and this will determine the number of stops within the allotted time you have available.

Budget

Your budget is going to make a lot of your decisions for you. It will determine where you go, the type of accommodations you book, and how often you will move around from one city to the next. You should also take into consideration added travel incidentals like passport updating, annual travel insurance, as well as any necessary visas or vaccinations - depending on where in the world you plan to travel to.

Transportation

Many airlines offer round-the-world fares, each with their own conditions and restrictions so make sure you are aware of the rules before booking. Compare these tickets with individual segment fares to ensure you are getting the itinerary that suits you best and is within your budget. Look into travel points too, to see if any accumulated points you have will qualify you for flights.

If you plan to travel by train or bus during your round-the-world excursion, research routes, fares and schedules online to get an idea of what is going to work best for the trip you are envisioning.

Accommodations

It is so easy to research accommodation options these days, with online reviews available on many travel sites such as Tripadvisor and Booking.com. Read reviews in their entirety to get more of an accurate picture of what staying at a particular property is going to be like. As with transportation, any travel points you have accumulated can often be used to purchase hotel rooms worldwide.

A helpful tip in devising a round-the-world trip is to post your plans and any questions you may have to online travel boards on sites such as Fodors, Tripadvisor or Lonely Planet. Travellers who have been to the same destinations will offer helpful tips on a wide range of travel subjects, from transportation to annual travel insurance, to the best time of year to travel to a particular destination.

Once your plans are in place, you can relax, knowing that you have organized a well-planned-out trip. Realise too, that even the best laid plans may end up with a detour here and there, but that it’s all a part of the journey. Happy travels!