Knowing where to start is one of the hardest parts of planning a round the world trip. The best thing to do is make a cup of tea (or grab a beer) and ask yourself some of the following questions.
1. Who are you taking with you?
If you’re travelling around the world with a friend, it’s essential that you want to travel to the places and that your budgets are similar. It would be pretty disastrous if you run out of money and have to come home while your friend travels on to Fiji or Hawaii without you. You really need to make sure that your priorities and round the world plans align.
If you’re planning to travel around the world alone, you might want to consider adding some small group adventure tours to your trip. This, of course, means extra costs on top of your round the world ticket, but it does that almost everything will be paid for up front and it can be comforting to know that you have a few essential travel plans in place. There are some great small group tours out there, involving some great activities, whether you’re planning to trek the Annapurna Circuit, party until dawn at the Rio Carnival or camp on the Ganges in India. It’s up to you – your round the world trip can be entirely what you make it.
2. How long are you going for?
To be honest, you probably need at least 6 months if you’re really planning to travel around the world. If you only have a few months available, it might be a better idea to explore one continent in detail rather than rush around the earth with your head in a spin.
3. When are you going?
This is a pretty important question, especially if you’re hoping for blue skies and sunshine during your round the world trip. Climate is changeable across the planet, and each destination will have its own monsoon season, hurricane season or cold snap. If you’re planning on trekking while you travel around the world, you’ll also need to bear temperature in mind. It’s no use trying to trek to Everest Base Camp when the route is impassable due to heavy snowfall. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions and do plenty of personal research – all this kind of thing adds to the excitement of your round the world trip.
4. How much money do you need?
This is a really tricky question, because living costs vary massively between countries and continents. If you’re planning on spending the bulk of your round the world trip in Asia, you’ll need a little less, but if you’re going to travel extensively in the US and Australia, you’re going to need around three times as much. Basically, it’s better to save more than you think you need, just so that you won’t have to come home or make that all-embarrassing begging call to Mum and Dad.
Hopefully, these tips will make booking your round the world ticket seem a lot less daunting and help you, quite literally, get off the ground.
