Travelling around the world in 2024

How old are you?

Where do you live?

What are your interests?

Get some good books on world travel and read them.

Start budgeting.

While I commend you for wanting to travel around the world, if you don't feel capable of doing some preliminary research, you might want to start off your travels with a smaller trip. That's a lot of planning and only you know what you like, what your interests are and what your budget is.

Prices will vary a LOT depending on when you travel, where you travel and how you travel. For example, some people stay in very nice hotels that are $250 or more a night and eat out for every meal - they might budget $500 a day. Others stay in youth hostels (which are not limited to youths), which can be $50 a night or less, shop at carry outs for picnic lunches - they might budget $100 a day. You need to factor in lodging, food, transportation (car rentals, plane fare, train or bus travel, etc) and all the miscellaneous sundry items out there.

So the first thing you need to figure out is where you want to go. Around the world is a relative term and one person's world trip will be very different from another's. It will be hard to help you until you have figured that out. Once you have, come back with a ballpark destination, time frame and budget and it will be much easier to give you travel advice.

First, check with the airlines to see if an around the world travel pass is a available. At one time that was a good deal. Fifteen years ago our son and new dil did a five month around the world honeymoon using the airline travel pass.

How much time do you have available for this junket?

Do you have a bucket list? If no, buy Lonely Planet’s The World guidebook: https://shop.lonelyplanet.com/products/lonely-planet-guide-to-the-world-2.
If spending time in Europe read what 27 countries are within the Schengen Area. You cannot exceed a stay in the Schengen (90 days) and it’s best to leave the area before your 90 days are up in case there’s a disruption i.e., a flight cancellation.
Also check https://travel.state.gov/content/travel.html to learn what’s needed i.e., visa, etc., and what the current situation is in each country. You should also enroll in STEP: https://step.state.gov/ to stay informed.

If you don't know where you want to go yet (beyond Thailand), start by making a list of potential destinations. For each destination, list how many days you think you might want to stay there. You also need to decide if you want to stay in one central location and take excursions, or if you are okay packing up and relocating every couple of days.

Then get an Excel spreadsheet or other similar tool.

In the first column, put your dates. If you aren't sure of the exact dates, put Day 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

Then start filling in the second column with where you might sleep on that date. Sometimes you might be on an overnight flight or train or bus, so list that.

When you've finished doing that, come back to this forum and post your potential itinerary and ask for comments and suggestions. But when you do, be sure to tell us your age, your interests, your goals for the trip, and your budget. That will make it easier for us to offer useful advice.

It's exciting to be thinking about this, but you need to be methodical in your planning.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

You’ll need to do some legal and logistical research: which countries require entry visas; which countries can tourists legally work in, if you plan to work (even remotely) during this time, etc. With the abundance of travel vloggers, there are tons of videos about the fun side of travel. Few go into detail about the work it takes to make it happen.

No one can tell you what it will cost. There are too many variables: will you stay in hostels, 3* or 5* hotels? How will you be traveling? How long will you be traveling? How many countries do you want to visit? The list goes on and on.

When I was in my mid 20s in the early 80s, I was travelling solo in Australia, the South Pacific islands and New Zealand. I bought a one way ticket from Auckland to London, open dated and open carrier. So long as I stayed in a semi straight line, I was able to plan on 11 countries. I did a lot of research and my bible was “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring”.

I knew where I was staying for my first night in each country….no internet or cell phones, but my book told me how to get from the airport to the hotel or hostel. If I got off a plane is a country or city, and listened to my spidy senses telling me this place could be unsafe, I went to the next airline counter and booked my next leg. It only happened once, in Jakarta.

Without knowing your age, budget, and interests. It’s difficult to advise, but I think everyone will agree, that research and planning will go a long way. I don’t know, but probably doubt that the airline arrangements I had are available today. I took a year to finish my travels, and it was the most enriching experience of my young life.

Have a wonderful trip, however, and wherever you go. Report back and let us know how your planning goes and your eventual trip details.

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Are you able to travel internationally for 2-3 weeks this year? Before planning a huge trip, I would suggest taking a shorter trip to get a feel for the positives & negatives of this type of travel. It will give you a much better idea of your likes & dislikes to plan for 2024 for success….some on-the-ground training. : )

In the meantime, I recommend purchasing a Rick Steves guidebook for a country in Europe. Read the entire book. There’s so much helpful info in it - many answers to questions you will encounter that will save you money.

Hello all, first of all thank you all for replying I really do appreciate it, firstly I will be 25 when I start my travels, my budget is around 30-35k for the year but I also work from my laptop so I’ll be earning whilst away, since I was young I would say I go travelling for around 3-4 weeks a year in various places so the aspect of going to these new places aren’t entirely new to me, it’s just I don’t have a clue on where the best places are to go and what a rough budget is. I’ve done my research on travelling and every site I go on the information is completely different to the last. After reading I’ve decided o want to do 12 paces over 12 months. It’s just deciding the places to go which is the hard part haha. I appreciate all replies and comments and look forward to reading more about your suggestions.

The first stop in your long range planning should probably to review the various Airline Alliances that offer Round the World (RTW) fares.
My wife and I booked RTW tickets on Star Alliance about a dozen times back when my job required extensive travel around the Pacific Rim, Europe and the US several times per year. It's a great deal and might be exactly what you're looking for regarding basic, cost-effective transportation for your proposed trip. Briefly, the pass allows up to 15 stops over the course of a one year period - starting and finishing in the same city and heading more or less in the same direction (East or West) for the duration of your journey.. There are other strategies you can use along the way to get the most out of the program which I'll be happy to share with you if you're interested.
Don't have direct knowledge of the other Alliance programs (One World and Sky Team) but as I recall they're all pretty similar regarding rules, pricing, etc. , the only real difference being which particular flagship US Airline (United, American or Delt) best serves your home airport.
Might add that the alliances offer specialty passes too that might be of interest for a shorter trip. For example, we used the Star Alliance Circle Asia and Circle Pacific fares a few times as well, always saving a considerable amount of money versus booking individual or multi-city tickets.

In your research, make sure the countries you plan to visit don't consider remote work--working from your laptop-- to be work for which you need a work visa. Many countries do.

If you plan on staying in Southeast Asia, $30k would be enough for you to live comfortably for a year. A hostel bed in Thailand would cost you $10 or less on average and a budget hotel $25-30. Street food is super cheap only costing a couple dollars while international foods at a sit down restaurant could set you back $15-20. There is enough to see and do in Thailand to occupy 2-3 months so I def suggest staying longer than a month if you start there. Plus they have a huge digital nomad community there. Chiang mai, Chiang Rai, Bangkok, Phuket, Koh phi phi, koh toa, koh lanta, are all good destinations to check out in Thailand and I’m sure you will learn about more while traveling. Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines are a good starting point. Singapore is the most expensive with prices similar to the US, while the Philippines, Malaysia, and parts of Indonesia are slightly more expensive than the other destinations. Also consider hopping over to India or Nepal but those countries aren’t for the faint of heart. A bit of sensory overload but full of fantastic experiences.

It will be hard to plan out an entire year, so I would stay start with two months and make a rough iteniary. Also research a few countries and pin some places on your google maps to help better keep track of ideas. Then create a list of countries you most want to visit. Your trip will probably greatly be influenced by flight prices so flexibility is key and they more ideas you have, the easier it is to change gears.

Above post by "weyph...." reported to webmaster.

My suggestion would be to go to The Wonderlusters travel blog. They did a round the world trip and list their detailed costs.

4 and a half months and reecebird1 hasn't been back with an update since the first day....

and this is the only post they have ever participated in here