A trip around the world. Right on. You’ve decided to do it. Now you get to enjoy the planning. Planning may not be half the fun, but it is a big part of it. The dreams the ideas.
First of all, you need to figure out a few very important things.
What is your budget? and What countries do you want to go to? and How long do you want to travel?
One way to start thinking about these things is to use the Round the World Travel Planner which lets you map out where you will go, how you will get there (air, land, or sea) and then gives you an idea of how much your transportation is going to cost.
Alternatively you can pick set round the world trips which take you to a variety of recommended locations for the best possible value. An example is the route of New York – Hong Kong – Delhi – Madras / Chennai – Bombay / Mumbai – London – New York which can be purchased for right around US $1100. (Here) For some examples of how a trip like this works, check out Andy Davies Around the World in 16 Days
Or, you might want to schedule more stops, more time such as the circle Pacific Tour – Los Angeles – Nadi (Fiji) – Sydney – surface – Cairns – Darwin – Bali (Denpasar) – Singapore – surface – Bangkok – Hong Kong – Los Angeles (here) which starts at about $1800 U.S.
Of course, if you are like me, you will want to use the Online Travel Planner
to pick all of your own destinations and travel.
As an example, here is my dreamtrip around the world. Leave Istanbul and fly to Zanzibar, from there take a boat to Madagascar and then a boat to Mauritius. Fly from there to Colombo, Sri Lanka and then sail to India, work my way up through the country overland to Kathmandu in Nepal. Fly to Suribaya in Indonesia and then catch a flight to Darwin. By land to Sydney and Melbourne before a boat trip to New Zealand. From NZ catch a flight to Hanoi before another flight to Osaka and then on to Tokyo. From Tokyo hit South America and do some serious overland exploring (by caravan ideally) From South America hit the Caribbean Islands and then on to Mali, a flight to Northern Europe, a train to St. Petersburg, and a flight home to Istanbul. It’s a wacky trip and the price for airfare comes out to about $9000 U.S. Still, I just spent a very enjoyable 20 minutes mapping it out at http://www.vagobond.com/airtreks.html
Essentially it’s like sitting down with a pen and an atlas and then being able to see how much it costs. Fun and in terms of planning your trip…it’s pretty damn useful too.
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Vago Damitio (@vagodamitio) is the Editor-in-Chief for Vagobond. He jumped ship from a sinking dotcom in 2000 and decided to reclaim his most valuable commodity, time. He bought a VW bus for $100, moved into it and set out on a journey to show the world that it was possible to live life on your own terms. That journey took him from waking up under icy blankets in the Pacific Northwest to waking up under palm tress in Southeast Asia. Three years later, his first book, Rough Living: Tips and Tales of a Vagabond was published. After diving into the Anthropology of Tourism and Electronic Anthropology at the University of Hawaii (with undeclared minors in film and surf) he hit the road again in 2008. Since that time,he's lived primarily in Morocco and Turkey, married a Moroccan girl he couchsurfed with, and become a proud father. He's been to more than 40 countries, founded a successful online travel magazine (this one!), and still doesn't have a boss. Life is good. You can also find him on Google+ and at Facebook
