This is a step-by-step travel guide for planning a round-the-world trip. I have been backpacking on and off for 11 years now, including 4 round-the-world trips, and I am here to help you learn from my mistakes! If you don't know where to start, read on for travel hacks, tips on seasonality, money-saving measures, and travel inspiration!
How Important is Planning for a Round-the-World Trip?
So technically you could just turn up at an airport, pick a flight at random, and hope for the best. That's for sure one way to do it, and I have met plenty of people, mostly male solo backpackers, who travel that way. If like me you would prefer to be more prepared, then this blog post is here to help you! I actually get oodles of joy out of putting itineraries together, like an ever-adapting puzzle, with excitement for the journey brewing at every stage. So here is my step-by-step guide to planning your trip around the world. I refer to my most recent RTW trip when using examples, but these steps can be applied to any extended backpacker-style travel.
Not sure what to pack for a round-the-world trip? Check out my article:
CONTENTS
11 Steps for Planning a Round-the-World Trip for Beginners
1.
Duration
How much time do you have to spare?
I know that these days, time is the most expensive thing. However, if I have learnt anything on the road it's that slow travel is the best travel. My most treasured memories are those where I have spent longer in a place, making connections, and 'lived like a local'.
If it's possible for you, I think the minimum length of time you should consider when planning your first trip around the world is three months, as this means you will be able to explore several countries in one trip, without a constant mad rush from place to place. Obviously, the longer the better.
I am very lucky in that my most recent RTW trip was 2 years long, and I went to 20 countries in that time. The amount of time I spent in each country varied, for example, I spent 5 months in India, but only 2 weeks in the USA ($$$).
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2.
Non-negotiable Stops
Where are the places that you really, really want to visit?
Choose two or three absolute non-negotiables that will mark as your pillars when planning a trip around the world. For this trip, Joe really wanted to visit India, I was really keen to spend some time on the African Continent, and we both were dying to go to Japan and Mexico.
3.
Get your map out!
So let's say as an example your three non-negotiables are India, Japan, Mexico and Kenya.
It is at this point that I would start pouring over a world map, tracing my finger between my non-negotiables, and seeing if any other countries pop up in between that peak my interest.
Skyscanner is a fantastic tool for beginner trip planners when searching for flights. It gives you the freedom to input an origin country, e.g. India, and search for flights to 'anywhere'. The search engine will then show you all of the connecting countries by flight to India, in price order. This is a great way to find inspiration!
You can also flick through Lonely Planet, Nat Geo Magazine, or 1000 Places to See Before You Die - to name a few.
4.
Things you're interested in
Aside from actually travelling, which in itself is an activity, think about other things that you are interested in doing/learning about/enjoying whilst on your trip around the world.
For us, these were:
Cannabis
Yoga
Learning Spanish
Safari
Surf
Scuba-Diving
Food
Are there any countries on your list that are well-known for these activities?
Any bucket-list destinations you can tick off as you're in the area?
5.
Seasonality
Okay, so now we have a rough idea of what the world looks like, which countries we would like to visit, and perhaps how to get from one country to another if you have spent enough time on Skyscanner.
So now we have to figure out some sort of order, or at least an awareness of when to go. Seasonality is hugely important for beginners to understand when planning a trip around the world. Visiting India in summer, from March to June, is unbearable. The 50-degree heat waves are dangerous.
And yeah, you may like skiing and want to see some snowy slopes in Japan, but are you able to carry winter clothes on your back for the entire duration of the trip?
High season may also be something you want to avoid. Prices can skyrocket, and some places drown in swarms of tourists. IMO you'll want to hit the shoulder season and avoid any school holidays (pesky kids). This isn't always possible, so you can prioritise places.
I would rather be in Mexico in the monsoon season than in the Philippines in the typhoon season, you know? This part takes a lot of man-hours. The Thomas Cook 'When to Go' travel guide is quite a good source for understanding seasonality.
6.
First draft
This is a really exciting part of planning a trip around the world and this will be the first of many, many drafts. But it's a great feeling to finally be able to put a list of destinations together. Just expect it to change constantly!
My first draft looked like this:
India
Sri-Lanka
Maldives
Indonesia
Philippines
Japan
USA
Mexico
Honduras
Uruguay
Kenya
Namibia
7.
Visas & Travel Safety
Another important logistical step not to be missed is you'll need to go down your draft list one by one and visit the 'travel advice' page for each country, to check for visa requirements and other important information.
This can be found on travel.gov.uk for British people, but most countries have their own version.
Some countries will offer a visa on arrival to citizens of your home country, some are visa-free, and for some, you will need to go to an embassy to apply for a visa before you travel. Check for things like the length of stay allowed, price, if you're able to extend your visa whilst in situ, and how to do so.
I suggest also checking the 'Safety' page, as well as 'Local Laws and Customs'. The British Gov. notes down every single serious crime that has affected tourists in recent years, and it is very intimidating to read. Don't look too deeply! It always sounds worse than it is, and is very biased towards countries the UK government does not have a good relationship with.
Just check that there are no 'red zones' to avoid, where your travel insurance may become invalid and you may not be able to reach consular assistance.
It is recommended to avoid these areas, but you can make your own judgement call. I went to Iraq in early 2024, a country completely in the 'red zone'. I have never before felt so welcome or well looked after as I did as a tourist in Iraq, and I had zero safety concerns whatsoever.
The 'Local Laws and Customs' sections come in handy for knowing things that could catch you out. For example in many Muslim places hotel rooms can't be shared by unmarried couples. It's important to be respectful of other cultures and you could be acting offensively without even realising it. It's also worth noting that special permits may be required for entering some areas within a country as well e.g. tribal areas in India.
There are more complications... for example; if you travel to Cuba right now, you are no longer eligible for an ESTA - and for the USA you need an ESTA visa just to transit in the airport! See what I mean about countries being biased?!
8.
Budget
Step 8 when planning a round-the-world trip for beginners is less enjoyable than other steps, as you may realise that your itinerary of dreams is out of reach financially.
But as mentioned above, everything can be jiggled about and there's always a second pot of destinations for the next, next trip!
Start with flights. Use Skyscanner to get a rough price estimation for all of your flights, and hold that in a separate budget.
Next, you can find information online for the average nightly price of a budget hotel in each country, using booking.com. We decided that we could achieve an average budget of £15 per night for accommodation. I say average because Japan could be much more expensive, but accommodation in India and the Phillippines can be much less.
Hoping to be able to cook for ourselves and also enjoy some meals out, we budgeted an average of £10 per day for food.
Now comes the extra budget for buses and other transport excluding flights, bottled water (this adds up!) beers, coffees, excursions and activities.
9.
Second Draft
This is where you can jiggle things about a bit. Below is the countries we actually travelled to during our 2-year RTW trip, and as you can see, it is very different from the first draft!
India - Thailand - Indonesia - Philippines - South Korea - Japan - USA - Mexico - Colombia - USA - UK - Italy - Kenya - Tanzania - Malawi - Zambia - Botswana - Namibia - South Africa - India - Thailand - Iraq - Türkiye - Greece - Spain - Poland
10.
Volunteering Opportunities
Another way to spend time in more off-beat places, save money, meet people, and give back to the community your'e travelling to, is to volunteer.
This is where Workaway comes in - which is a fantastic tool to save money when planning a trip around the world for beginners!
There are alternatives like HelpX or Worldpacker, but we found Workaway seemed the most comprehensive for the countries on our itinerary. To sign up it cost us £45 for the year (as a couple).
The deal is that you work five hours a day, for five days a week, and in exchange, you get free food and accommodation. When you create a profile you can narrow down your interests, for example to organic farming and teaching English. You then search for hosts in your chosen country and make a connection.
11.
Book stuff!
You are now in a position to start arranging stuff! But be warned, even worse than having no clue what's going on is having everything booked up, stacked one behind the other. This is a common mistake that beginners make when planning a round-the-world trip.
This is because if something goes wrong, which it inevitably will, you will stress! I always say with backpacking be prepared to take the good with the bad, it's not all smiles and white sand. Things WILL go wrong along the way.
You also could stumble across the place of your dreams and want to stay there longer or take a wicked recommendation from a fellow traveller you meet on the road.
This flexibility also needs to be balanced with booking flights well enough in advance to avoid huge price hikes. So how do we balance this?
For our most recent trip, we booked our initial flight to India 11 months before departure and arranged our India visas and booked our first night's hotel 3 months before departure.
We also booked our pricey flight from Japan to the USA as a halfway marker, knowing that we wanted to be in Japan during April's cherry blossom season.
The rest was left blank.
This gives us the freedom to be flexible, and add in stops if we get an ace recommendation from a fellow traveller. But from reading this blog post you know I am not making it up as a go-along. In my head (and my travel journal) is all of the information I have researched on seasons, budgets, routes, visas, etc.
This means you have everything you need to start booking stuff for the following 1-2 months, as you go.
Last Preparations
PACKING ESSENTIALS
OTHER THINGS BEGINNERS SHOULD THINK ABOUT WHEN PLANNING A ROUND-THE-WORLD TRIP
Vaccinations
Visas
Money
Student Loans & Other Debts
Phone
Driving
Contraception & Period Stuff
Passport & Photos
So there you are... 11 Steps for Planning a trip around the world for beginners!!
I hope this blog post has been helpful, I would be glad to answer any questions so please hit the comments section! if you enjoyed the read, please consider subscribing to my blog where I post new travel articles every 1-2 weeks.
If you're looking for ways to extend your travel, check out my post on how to travel for longer!
Happy Travels
xxx
START PLANNING YOUR NEXT TRIP
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