So, you’ve decided you want to go around the world. The idea intrigues you – it’s momentous! Every traveler has somewhere they want to go. Something they yearn to experience. Maybe you want to run with the bulls in Pamplona. Walk along the Great Wall of China. Or cruise Norway’s Fjords. Face it – travelers are dreamers.
We’ve just returned from our third Round-the-World Trip (know as RTW in the Traveler Community), and we know that great journeys begin with dreams – that’s how a Trip Around the World is born.
1. So think big and create a bucket list of all the things you want to do, see, taste, or try in your lifetime.
Maybe you want to:
- Hike the trails of Machu Picchu
- Join an African safari
- Catch a wave off Maui
- See the Northern Lights in Iceland
- Explore the great pyramids of Egypt
2. Next, is there a theme? For example, do certain destinations keep popping up over and over? If your choices were a word cloud, your favorite destinations would keep getting larger. It looks like you really want to go to China and India, with a little US, Pakistan, Brazil, and Indonesia thrown in.
Or if you’re like us, your theme isn’t a specific country. It’s a concept. For us, one of our favorite passions is architecture, and we follow that around the world. Your passion might be birds, or wine, or languages.
3. Finally, Decide on Your “Elements.” These are the essence of your trip – the fundamentals of how you want your trip to look and feel. For travelers, elements are deeply personal, usually based on experience.
An element could be as straightforward as saying that you want your destinations to look like a magazine spread with a great pool, upscale lodging, and exceptional food.
Or your element could be as ethereal as a feeling. You want to go places that feel exotic, romantic, mysterious, or dangerous.
Our Elements for our RTW #3 were a mix of both concrete destinations/cultures and intangible feelings. Here’s what we came up with. We wanted to:
- Experience new countries across the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
- Create new, exotic experiences from previous journeys like our first night swimming in Bali, the serene feeling of sitting on the balcony in Luang Prabang, or the wonder of seeing Angkor Wat come into view from the back of a tuk-tuk.
- Focus on each destination’s ambiance. Look at its people, culture, architecture, history, and politics. Figure out how each destination connects to the world.
- Taste new regional foods and learn how to prepare them.
- Enjoy the fun and intimacy of sharing the experience with each other – adding new pages to our life story.
Doesn’t that feel good? Now it’s time to figure out how to turn your dreams into a reality. In our next post we’ll give you 13 tips that worked for us. Stay tuned.
Always following the Dream,
Terri & James
Photo Credits: 1. Mark Harpur 2. Sumit Mangela 3. sutirta budiman 4. Johny Goerend 5. Nathalie Marquis 6. Walking Radiance 7. Valeriia Bugaiova 8. Jane Stroebel 9. Megan Thomas
GALLIVANCE 
This is wonderful! And I guess it applies to not just RTW but any country that you want to explore and experience in depth. Certainly we ticked just about all the boxes we wanted on our three months in Vietnam. But the world? Now a lot of thought and vision work needs to go into that. Look forward to your next post. 😊
Miriam, with the emergence of low-cost airlines it has gotten much easier to plan and pull off an RTW. And of course, global internet access also makes the planning and execution easier. This is a big part of the plan, but ultimately, these pieces are just logistics. The fun part is the dreaming and researching the places to visit. For us, we’re two kids in the candy store when it comes time to pick the stops and route. And you’re right, this works on a global or single country plan – it’s just a matter of scale. ~James
I’m not dreaming that big, but there are places I’d like to go. Sometimes I’m happy just to look over your shoulder.
Jo, living in such a gorgeous place like you do, I’m sure you get the enjoyment of travel without hopping on a plane. It’s all about priorities and what makes you happy. ~James
Sometimes, I think one lifetime is not enough. I have always loved travelling, but didn’t do as much as would have liked to when I was raising my family. This year we didn’t do much travelling because of health issues. But I still have so many places I would like to visit. This post has given me even more ideas. I hope to do a lot more travelling next year.
Gilda, I love your sentiment: “Sometimes, I think one lifetime is not enough.” How true – and I feel exactly the same way. Often we come home from traveling – totally exhausted and ready to settle in for a while – but then a few weeks later we’re dreaming of another journey. Sometimes just the dream is enough to keep our wanderlust fueled … for a while.
I’m so sorry that your travels have been impacted by health issues, and hope that things are improving. I loved your Facebook posts from Budapest this past summer. What a lovely place. Hopefully next year will see you and Brian back doing what you love. ~Terri
Great tips. Without some planning and prioritizing, you may miss some important sites or experiences. I always look at our travels as if we may not get an opportunity to return. Although it is fun to just wander and see what you come across. Sometimes those have been the most satisfying experiences. I guess it’s all about balancing.
Darlene, we’re returning to a number of interesting cities that we visited years ago in hopes that we will appreciate them for different reasons now. And some of these places we say that “We’ve gotten it out of our system, and we have no plan to return.” This finality is a good motivation to make certain that we see what’s important for us because, as the old Boomer song says: “We may never pass this way again.” And it’s true. ~James
So true. A friend of mine loved Paris and visited a number of times when she was younger. She recently went again and said she no longer feels the same and has no plans of returning. I guess our priorities change over time. The good thing is there is always someplace new to discover!
I’m so glad you were able to do it. The only advice I would add to your post for your readers is “do it while you can even if it is difficult.”
We are experiencing mixed emotions now: we have done and seen so much and are very grateful, but our travels are rapidly winding down due to health issues, and there is so much more we would like to see. But we are happy – we did what we could at the time.
Ray, sorry that health issues have impacted your ability to travel. I agree wholeheartedly with your advice and hope that things turn around for you guys in the near future. Each of us has had a serious health episode, that luckily, passed. But our philosophy now is “If not now, When?” We never take our ability to travel for granted, and in fact, never have. And we know that we can always stop traveling, but won’t always be able to. ~James
I think there are different approaches to a RTW trip. I like your top three and the term “elements” was new to me. You do, indeed, need somewhat of a concept to create a successful trip like that.
One day, I’d be able to afford all the airfares and actually compile a trip of dream destinations, but for now, we will just stick to slow travel in our own vehicle. 🙂
Liesbet, we have a small camper van, and we know there’s a lot to be said for having all the necessary gear and your special things at hand. It’s a feeling of independence that’s hard to achieve other ways. And as I’m sure you’ve heard, there are lots of folks who are very envious of your “slow travel” lifestyle. ~James
We’re off soon on an expedition that includes Tristan de Cunha, South Georgia and Antarctica.
This sounds like an exciting trip Peggy. I must admit, I had to look up Tristan de Cunha. It seems a good idea to combine it with a trip to Antarctica. Neither is a place one just “drops by.” Bon Voyage. ~James
Enjoyed reading your thoughtful suggestions about how to approach a RTW trip. As so many people have already commented, do what you can while you can. As we’re getting older and also encountering significant health challenges, our mode of, and ease of, traveling changes. We still hope to continue to travel but perhaps that will mean a guided trip for once – not our ideal but it would still allow us to see the world!
Annie, organized tours have never been our thing either, but we’re facing some of those age-related realities as well. So we make no judgements on how anyone travels. The important thing is to be out there experiencing new cultures, places, and ideas. As I said to someone else, the rest is just logistics. ~James
And why not? Those are my thoughts when it comes to travel, Terri and James. We spent five months this year with our small trailer exploring the Pacific Coast from Carmel to Olympic National Park, came home, and immediately took off for a river trip down the Danube. At 81 and 74 there is always the question of how much longer we will get away with it. But as long as possible. That’s for sure. Grin. How exciting to hear about your around the world tour. While I was just reading your post, Peggy announced she was looking at an around the world tour. She didn’t know I was reading your post. Is it fate?
Back in 1976 my first wife and I decided to buy around the world airplane tickets with options of stopping off along the route in places of our choice and staying as long as we wanted. Eventually, we decided on a great circle tour of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia because I really wanted to spend time in New Zealand and Bali. It was incredible. Looking forward to your tales. And also your planning! Just maybe we will… –Curt
Why not indeed? Curt, I guess we’re all getting to the age where there’s lots of reminders to be getting on with what we want to be doing. And it sounds like you and Peggy feel like that’s travel. And of course, I agree. Your Pacific Coast trip sounds wonderful. I’ve always loved the Olympic Penisula which is truly unique. And how romantic is a tour on the Danube?
Good for Peggy for thinking of an RTW. The advent of low-cost airlines has made going around the world much easier and affordable. And the internet makes travel research so much easier, both for advance planning and on the road as well.
It’s interesting to consider, but from our home in KY, when traveling to SE Asia, if you travel west of Bangkok about 200 miles, it’s closer to keep flying west and make an RTW than it is to return across the Pacific. Now there’s an excuse for an RTW if I ever heard one. I look forward to hearing about your plans. ~James
Sorry for this late response, James. Peggy is quite excited about RTW possibilities, but more like a slow boat. Grin. We tend to get like that after long flights anywhere.
The ability to stop along the way and spend time in various locations makes air travel much more enjoyable. That’s how I did my circle of the Pacific ever so many years ago in 1976. It’s how we’ll plan our RTW if we go for it. –Curt
Curt, we try and take the “slow boat” and go overland when possible. For instance, on one RTW we took a bus from Bali to the ferry port on the west side of the island, took the ferry to Java, and took a month-long train trip along the island to Jakarta. Sometimes, for various reasons, this sort of thing isn’t possible, but it certainly can be wonderful fun when you can work it out. On our most recent trip, we flew from LAX and broke our trip for a week in Hawaii, before flying the 9.5 hour trip to Tokyo, which was the longest flight on our entire trip. With stops, on the remainder of the trip our longest flight was 6.5 hours. So, long story short, depending on the amount of time, logistics, and priorities the trip can be as long and slow as you want. Good luck on making it happen soon. ~James
Appreciated James. I like the sound of your Bali to Jakarta trip!
What great travels!
Pam, we know that we can always stop traveling, but we won’t always be able to go, so while we can, we’re going for it. ~James
My thoughts exactly! Make those memories!