Planning Your Round-The-World Trip: 13 Tips to Make It a Reality

It’s 24,000 miles in case you’re wondering. With a well-planned route that avoids a lot of backtracking, this is the distance you’ll globetrot making a Round-the-World (RTW) Trip. And none of these miles will happen without decisions about planes, hotels, money, visas, and many other travel necessities; all of which take planning.

Whether your RTW is two months or two years, totally scheduled or flexible, there are countless decisions to make in advance. Here are 13 quick thoughts to get you started.

1. Decide where to go.

This may sound like a Duh point, but when you can literally go anywhere, it may not be as self-evident as it appears. As we said in our last post, follow your dreams. All travelers have bucket-list destinations, but when circumnavigating the globe, you have to narrow it down somehow. Staying in one hemisphere, whether north or south, can make a huge difference in flight distances, weather, and the cost of the trip. Also, to cut down on the long-haul blues you need some second-tier destinations along the way. These intermediate stops are a good way to experience new places and chop long flights into less-miserable bites.

2. Choose a fixed or flexible schedule.

When planning an RTW there are a couple of ways to schedule:

1. Stay flexible and plan the stops, flights, and hotels on the fly
2. Plan stops and make reservations in advance

You can buy an RTW ticket package from an individual airline and commit to specific dates, or purchase individual, one-way tickets either in advance or on the road. We’ve done it both ways, and far and away we prefer the flexibility of planning as we go.

However, what we found on our most recent trip is that with changes in immigration restrictions, many countries required a round-trip ticket back home or proof of onward travel before allowing entry.

In our case, we bought a series of one-way flights to complete our RTW. We made reservations and bought tickets in 2-3 stop increments which required longer term planning, so before entering each new country we had proof of a flight to our next destination. You can buy fully refundable tickets to get around these restrictions with the intention of canceling for a refund, or there are other ways to get around these requirements. There are online tips of how to do it, but these seemed a big hassle or too risky for us, and we decided against it. Some countries are very serious about this requirement, and in a couple of cases we saw some very sad travelers refused boarding because they didn’t have proof of onward travel. Caveat emptor.

3. Pick a direction of travel.

Assuming you don’t want to circle the globe over the poles, you’ll either fly east to west, or west to east. Both have advantages and disadvantages. For us, we’re less impacted by jet lag if we fly E to W, and because SE Asia was one of our stops, we wanted the challenging part of our journey early in the trip. Our thinking was that traveling around Vietnam would take more energy than relaxing on the French Riviera in Nice. And generally on a trip covering this much real estate, there will be weather considerations to take into account. But your priorities and preferences will be different, so consider direction of travel in your plans.

4. Search for flights like a pro.

As I said earlier, we hopscotched around the globe with a series of one-way flights. Primarily, we used Google Flights and Skyscanner to research flight options that worked best, and then bought the tickets from the specific airline company website. Sometimes slightly cheaper tickets are available elsewhere, but in our experience, if there are any problems or changes it’s easier to deal directly with the airline instead of through a third party.

5. Choose lodging you love.

When we travel we stay in both hotels and apartments. The internet is awash with hotel booking websites, but we’ve used booking.com for years and have never been disappointed. Their listings are very detailed with exactly what you’re getting, honest reviews, and clear-cut costs. You have to set up an account, and they have a tiered discount scheme that increases as your number of bookings goes up.

6. Educate yourself on entry requirements.

Every country has different requirements for foreigners seeking entry, and the requirements can change quickly – Covid taught us this. So do your research to discover the latest requirements and plan accordingly. Luckily, many countries that require visas have online applications, or a visa can be picked up at the airport. But there are always hoops to jump through, and sometimes the process can take time – so do your homework in advance. You don’t want the first person you meet to be a border agent with his finger pointed back toward the plane.

7. Consider Tech Carefully.

Whether you’re a hi-tech, low-tech, or something in between, your travel electronics will not only enhance your trip, but are essential.  Our most recent RTW was #3 for us, and we’ve learned that ultra-light carry-on is the way to roll. Consequently, every item that goes into our backpack has to pass the weight/size/function test. 

Some tech gear is inherently heavy, so our watchwords are: simple, lightweight, reliable, and multifunction. For us this means tablets and folding bluetooth keyboards instead of laptops; cellphones instead of cameras; and multipurpose charging cables and adapters. Every time you trudge that 2 miles to the train, or grit your teeth at another airport security checkpoint, you’ll be glad that you have less, not more tech gear. 

And finally, a weightless item for the tech list is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) loaded on your devices that protects your privacy. Because every time you connect to public wifi (hotels, airports, coffeeshops), your personal and private data is at risk. There’s an entire industry out there anxious to steal your data … and money, so VPN services are cheap peace of mind for a long International trip. In addition, an added benefit is that you can continue binge-watching your favorite series from home.

8. Keep the home fires burning.

Unless you leave someone at home taking care of your affairs, you’ll need a plan to ensure your personal business runs smoothly while you’re gone. Nobody wants to come home to overdue bills and a Jungle Larry lawn. Online accounts and bill pay make this a lot easier when abroad (Use that VPN for security!), but the internet can’t water plants and take out the trash. 

9. Get your meds, jabs, and travel insurance.

It’s a harsh reality that if you travel long enough, you will get sick. There’s the upset-tummy sick that, while not fun, will pass (no pun intended). But there are other diseases that you do not want, and these are the ones you need to know about and prepare for. Plan well ahead for vaccinations and oral meds because some of these may be hard to find locally. And be sure to consider travel insurance in case you experience a serious health problem.

10. Find the best source for bob, loonies, or dong.

We live in a global economy, but that doesn’t mean that every country has the same attitude toward payments. Some places are credit-card friendly, others not so much. And ATM rates and fees are all over the map. Regardless, there’s no doubt that you’ll need some cash, so you’ll do yourself a financial favor if you find out the best way and place to convert currency or access funds from your home bank account. ATMs and credit cards really are the best way to go, but sometimes local cash is a must. No Boy Scout ever leaves home without a money plan.

11. Don’t guess the budget.

Unless you have a rich uncle’s credit card, you’ll need to run the numbers on how much you’ll spend on the road. In our experience, for long-term travel, 2/3 of our overall travel budget goes to transport (planes, trains, etc) and lodging. You can use a sharper pencil for your calculations, but if you can estimate these two numbers you’re close to what the overall cost will be.

12. Figure out what bugs you, and deal with it in advance.

One of the joys of travel is the unexpected, but sometimes surprises are no fun … at all. For us the big question is What Bugs Us? Turns out it boils down to 3 things: lodging snafus, transportation challenges, and long-haul flights with no breaks. So our plan is to be proactive, and smooth out the bumps before we hit them. 

On extended trips we love to stay in apartments instead of hotels, but we’re no longer willing to chase landlords across the city to get the keys. Now we reserve apartments that have a 24/7 reception so there’s someone there to give us the keys – no matter when we arrive. 

Also, we research transportation options in advance, so that upon arrival in a new place we know if we’re looking for a bus, train, taxi, or tuk-tuk. No more guesswork. And we’ve solved the long flight issue by making more stops … and taking advantage of them. On the last trip instead of flying directly to Japan, we took advantage of a free stopover in Hawaii to explore the islands; not too shabby.

13. Prevent travelers’ burnout by planning downtime.

An RTW will be the trip of a lifetime, so you may try to do it ALL. This attitude is a classic formula for burnout, and when traveling on an RTW it’s a must to plan for days off the tourist merry-go-round. Our attitude is that we see what we see, and the rest, well … maybe next time. Quality over quantity wins every time. 

If this planning sounds like a lot of work, it is. But if you want your travel time spent appreciating the places you’ve worked so hard to experience instead of solving problems, the planning is worth the effort. 

There are eight billion people in the world getting on with life day-to-day, and you’ll get a chance to meet some of them. An RTW will forever change your perspective, and like all travel experiences, it’s a chance for a slice of humble pie. Except for leaving the planet in a rocket, there’s no travel experience to equal it. If you can make it happen, there won’t be a sorry bone in your body. 

Happy Trails,

James & Terri

Photo Credits: 1.  Illia Panasenko 2. Savvas Kalimeris  3. Torsten Dederichs 5. Valeriia Bugaiova 6. Global Residence Index  7. Nick Noel 8. Anna Stampfli 9. Madison Agardi  10.  Christine Roy 11. Tyler Raye