Lessons from Planning Our Around the World Route

After years of daydreaming about long term travel, our dreams became reality and it was time to plan our route around the world! No surprises here, I had a list full of places that we wanted to see. Japan, Machu Picchu, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand, Angkor Wat. The list went on and on. Where would I begin the planning process? It was a dizzying experience and even a bit overwhelming at times. But it was ultimately the most exhilarating part of the planning process. It’s truly a pinch-me, once-in-a-lifetime experience!

There are as many possible routes around the world as there are travelers in the world. (I’m not sure if that’s mathematically true, but you get the idea!) While I didn’t want to be tied down to a complete itinerary, I knew that I needed to get an initial route laid out to work from. And, wow! This exercise was beneficial and taught me a lot of lessons about planning an around the world route. And I’m sharing them with you today!

If you’re currently planning your own long term travel route or are dreaming of a year of travel, I think that you’ll enjoy my book How to Travel the World: Long Term Travel Planning. In the chapter on planning your route, I dig into topics like identifying dream destinations, defining your travel style, and the ins and outs of route definers (like Passports, Visas, and other destination restrictions). All useful information when planning your itinerary. You can find out more about the book here and on Amazon.

Let’s dig into the top 3 lessons that we learned while mapping out our initial route around the world. Including our final itinerary and a few possible routes ideas that we loved, but ultimately just didn’t work this time around.

LESSONS FROM PLANNING OUR AROUND THE WORLD ROUTE

LESSON #1 - A YEAR IS NOT THAT LONG!

This thought seemed laughable at first. Before our year-long trip, our longest vacation had been 14 nights in Italy. A year seemed full of possibilities. Revisiting my favorite spots in Argentina & Uruguay, a safari in South Africa, campervanning through New Zealand. We had planned to visit every continent, except for Antarctica. But when you want to travel slow, balance school, and maybe a little work, a year starts to fill up quick! We could spend an entire year exploring Europe. Actually, we could spend an entire year traveling Italy or Spain. So a year to travel and see as much of the world as possible started to seem limited.

We needed to pick our priorities. We landed on exploring Europe and Asia (primarily Southeast Asia) for a few reasons. These regions are packed with many of our dream destinations. Each only a few hours distance from the next. They’re also both relatively safe and easy to travel with children. And Southeast Asia also really helped us on the budget front.

LESSON #2 - GO AT YOUR OWN SPEED

As I mentioned above, we didn’t want to head out on a whirlwind adventure. Spending two to three nights in each city was not what we were looking for. When you see our itinerary below, you’ll find that we decided to travel in spurts. We have stretches where we hit a string of cities, spending only a few nights in each to sightsee and eat at great restaurants. Then there are longer sections where we have a week or two, or longer, in a destination to chill out and recharge. Catching up on school, cooking at home, enjoying time at the park. This rhythm to our travels was perfect for us. Just the right amount of adventure without burning out.

LESSON #3 - LEARN THE RULES

Visa requirements helped build out our itinerary more than we thought they would. Visa applications, 30 day stays, 90 days stays, the Schengen region. There is a lot to learn about destination duration restrictions. Each country is different. (Check out the travel.state.gov website for country-specific information.) We became semi-pros in the visa requirements for the countries that we planned to visit and then built our route around them. Route planning tip: always leave a day or two window for mishaps. Rather than booking a flight on the last day that you’re eligible to be in the country, book the flight one or two days before.

A route definer that greatly impacted our around the world route? The Schengen area. Many countries in Europe are a part of the Schengen area. This means that you can cross the border of two Schengen area countries (example: Slovenia and Hungary) without going through passport or other types of border control. You can visit these 26 countries for up to 90 days in any 180 day period. In our itinerary below, you'll see that our plan was to make the most of our 90 days and then to travel outside of the Schengen area for the next 90 days. We left plenty of wiggle room during our first 90 days, just in case our plans changed!

Notecards with each country we wanted to visit, plus a calendar, helped us put together the puzzle that is planning our around the world route.

We also wrote country information on the back of each notecard for easy reference. Info like visa requirements, ideal times to visit based on weather, and desired duration of visit.

ROUTE IDEAS THAT DIDN’T MAKE OUR ITINERARY

Camping Road Trip through the USA - Yosemite National Park, caves in New Mexico, lakes in Michigan. Our intention was to show our kids how beautiful the United States is before heading abroad. We planned on starting from our home in Los Angeles, head north to the Pacific Northwest, and then make our way across the country to the East Coast. I wanted to spend September in New York City. My favorite time of year there. We cut out this entire route for time. But have no fear! I’m planning out our next 5 years of travel and the U.S. fills much of our plans.
Repositioning Cruise - There are some great deals when taking a repositioning cruise. I had my heart set on a transatlantic, repositioning cruise from Miami to Spain until I realized it was only offered once a year in March. Definitely an idea for another time!
Safari and a trip to South Africa - Short story, safaris are expensive. Especially ones that are in a malaria-free zone. I will always remember that our family friends went on safari as their last, big family vacation when their youngest kid graduated from college. I’ve got my heart set on doing the same.
Camper van through New Zealand - Hiring a camper van for free? Sign us up! We heard that you can score a great camper van deal by simply relocated the vehicle for the rental company. Most people hire a camper van to drive from north to south. So all you need to do is travel from south to north through a relocation program. Same sights, different direction!

OUR AROUND THE WORLD ROUTE

Interested in learning about how we spent our time in each destination. Follow the links to our destination-specific blog posts.

EUROPE LEG #1

United Kingdom - 16 Days (London, Devon, Lake District, & Edinburgh)
Vienna - 3 Days
Slovenia - 16 Days (Ljubljana - 6 days in total, Camping - 10 days)
Budapest - 14 Days
Croatia - 17 Days (Pula, Split, & Dubrovnik)
Greece - 18 Days (Athens, Santorini, & Paros)
Istanbul - 8 Days

ASIA LEG

Japan - 24 Days (Tokyo, Ito, Kyoto, Nara, & Osaka)
Cambodia - 21 Days (Siem Reap)
Vietnam - 27 Days (Hoi An & DaNang)
Thailand - 27 Days (Chiang Mai, Koh Lanta, & Krabi)
Singapore - 9 Days
Cruise through Malaysia & Thailand - 5 Days

EUROPE LEG #2

England - 5 Days (London & Hastings)
France - 8 Days (Paris & Normandy)
Marrakech - 7 Days
Portugal - 15 Days (Lisbon & Sintra)

(The following was altered due to the coronavirus pandemic. Here was our planned itinerary.)

Spain - 30 Days (Seville, Valencia, & Barcelona)
Road trip through Spain, France, & Italy - 26 Days
Ireland - 14 Days (Belfast, Doolin, Kilkenny, Dublin)
New York City - 5 Days

Have any questions about planning your route around the world? What destinations are on your dream destination list? Share them in the comments below!