How To Plan A Trip Around The World – 13 Things No One Tells You

Last Updated on 16th May 2024

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Having spent the best part of a full year planning a trip around the world, I can safely say that it’s no easy feat. There’s so much to organise, so many people to see and so many rollercoaster emotions that you’ll experience on an almost daily basis.

If you’ve been following me for a while now, you’ll know that our trip around the world officially begins TODAY. As this post goes live, Matt and I will be embarking on the first leg of our 30+ hour journey to New Zealand and I thought now was the perfect time to share my thoughts on this topic.

If you’re thinking of planning a trip around the world, or you’re just wondering what it’s like to do so, here’s 13 things no one tells you about planning a trip around the world!

What to expect when planning a trip around the world

1. People will have their own opinions about every decision you make

One thing I’ve learned about planning a trip around the world is that so many people will have an opinion on every single decision you make.

“Ooh, that place isn’t very safe.”

“My neighbour’s friend’s daughter’s niece went there 20 years ago and said it wasn’t very nice.”

“You’ll definitely get food poisoning if you go there”

And the list goes on.

It’s absolutely fantastic to hear advice from people who’ve travelled before and who know a certain part of the world particularly well. However, it really isn’t appreciated when everyone wants to share their two-pence worth about the travel decisions you’re making.

2. You’ll want to buy everything “just in case”… but you don’t actually need it

Another thing that I’ve learned about preparing for our trip is that there are so many recommendations of things you’ll need to buy that you probably (definitely) don’t need at all.

Every blog post I’ve read about packing for a trip around the world involves so many items that I desperately thought we needed but upon reflection, we decided not to buy the majority of them.

While our backpacks are packed to the brim with stuff (I’ll have a post all about what we’re taking going live in the next week or so), we’ve managed to be as ruthless as possible with the belongings we’re taking and we’re trying to only take the ‘essentials’.

3. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at your budgeting skills – how to plan a trip around the world

I’m lucky in the fact that I’ve always been pretty remarkably good at budgeting, ever since I was young. However, since starting to properly save for our trip around the world, I’ve taken myself by surprise at just how good I am at budgeting.

I’ve written a few posts about how I spent just £13 in our weekly food shop, how to budget effectively when meal planning and I’m going to write a post all about how to save a lot of money for travel soon, but I really am so impressed by just how ruthless and cost-effective I’ve been over the last few months.

4. You’ll want to spend more time with your loved ones than ever

While I’ve always been very family-orientated, I’ve found myself wanting to spend more time than ever with my friends and family.

Since going self-employed earlier this year, I’ve struggled slightly between finding dedicated time to work and spending nothing but quality one-on-one time with my friends and family.

Particularly in the last few weeks, I’ve found myself wanting to constantly be around loved ones and I haven’t really had a minute to myself (nor have I wanted to).

5. But you’ll also spend more time crying than you imagined – how to plan a trip around the world

Something that no one can prepare you for when planning a trip around the world is just how much (and often) you’ll cry, particularly in the last few weeks.

It’s not always necessarily ‘sad’ crying either; even the happiest moments have made me tear up because they’re simply so amazing and I’ve just been so emotional that regardless of whether I’m happy or sad recently, I’ve just resorted to crying!

6. The sheer expense of everything will leave you in a permanent state of shock

This is something that I don’t think anyone can really prepare you for when planning a trip around the world.

From getting travel vaccinations (which cost us £1000), our initial flights to New Zealand (£420 each), backpacks, shoes and the rest of our travel equipment, to paying for prescriptions to last us at least 6 months, there has been so many upfront costs that we weren’t entirely aware of.

Travel insurance is another huge amount of money you’ll have to part with, especially if you have any medical conditions which will bump up the cost of your premium by quite a significant amount. The fact that Matt suffers from hay fever and allergies to nuts boosted the price we paid by around £300!

Of course, we did plenty of research months ago, but somehow we still managed to get a huge shock when it came to handing the debit card over and paying for everything.

Let me know if you’d be interested in a whole post about the initial costs you can expect when planning a trip around the world.

7. There’s so much to organise – how to plan a trip around the world

This point probably actually is something that people will tell you when you’re preparing for a round-the-world trip, but there really is SO much to organise.

We’ve been talking about going travelling pretty much ever since Matt and I first got together almost three years ago, but we really only started to properly plan last summer.

It’s taken this long to get everything sorted and organised and while of course, you can 100% go off travelling the world on a complete whim (and kudos to you if you did this), there is actually an awful lot of stuff you need to organise if you’re planning to go for a long time.

The thing that’s taken the most organisation and planning is actually our travel vaccinations.

We had our first consultation with the travel vaccine nurse all the way back in January and we only just finished our course on Thursday (just 6 days before we flew!).

I do actually think we just got unlucky with the treatment we received from our local GP and travel service (that’s another story for another time!) but if you are planning on visiting a lot of places on your trip around the world, I’d sincerely recommend planning everything out in advance as much as possible.

We’ve also had serious issues with obtaining our prescriptions (I’m on medication probably for the rest of my life so this factor really wasn’t very negotiable) but our doctors and pharmacists have resisted us so much and caused a lot of havoc with receiving our medication.

Thankfully, it’s all sorted now but it really has taken months to sort out; when it definitely shouldn’t have…

8. The day of leaving comes around much quicker than you anticipated

As I mentioned before, as this post goes live, we’ll be on our way to Heathrow Airport ready for the first leg of our journey to New Zealand.

While we’ve been planning this trip for literally years, it’s come around way quicker than I could have ever imagined.

I’ve been writing monthly countdown posts for the last six months and it doesn’t seem like two minutes since I wrote that first one about our trip around the world: 6 months before.

No matter how much time you leave yourself before you go, your departure date will arrive so much quicker than you could ever anticipate.

9. People will ask where you’re going so many times

One thing that no one prepared me for was just how many times you’ll tell people where you’re going and what your plan is when travelling.

If you’re anything like Matt and I and aren’t really planning every little detail and just taking your trip day by day, you’ll find people looking at you with a completely incredulous look at the fact you’re not ‘prepared’.

There’s nothing wrong with having a detailed itinerary carefully planned out before you depart for your world trip, but that’s just not the way we wanted to do it.

However, despite this fact, so many people have asked literally countless times where we’re starting our trip and what our plan is. In the end, you get a little fed up with repeating yourself but it’s still nice to know that people are interested and invested in your trip which sort of makes it worth it.

10. Packing your bag will likely be a tad stressful

I actually only just finished packing my bag this morning (as in the day I left for the airport…) and I think that’s simply because I was putting off packing it.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about packing a 3-day trip into 1 backpack but when you’re planning a trip around the world that could last between 18 months to 2 years, it gets just a little trickier to try and fit your entire life into one 70L backpack…

I got so stressed packing my backpack for travelling as it’s pretty damn hard to fit two years’ worth of your life and belongings into less than 23kg.

As I mentioned before, I will write an entire post about what’s in my travel backpack but I’ll just say for now that packing cubes will become your new best friend.

11. You’ll feel like you’re doing so many things for the “last” time

Whether you’re planning to go travelling for 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years, you’ll still feel like you’ll be doing so many things for the “last” time.

Even if you’re gonna be home from your trip in a matter of weeks, you’ll still be doing things for the last time before you go.

For me, it’s been things like “oh that’s the last time I’ll eat that thing in however long”.

The “last” time you get a shower at home.

The “last” time you’ll walk down that street.

The “last” time you’ll see people.

It’s not going to be the last time ever, but if you’re planning a 3-year round-the-world trip, it’s sure gonna be the last time in a long time that you do certain things!

12. Make sure you’re aware of your phone plan

One thing that’s not always mentioned in many blog posts about planning a trip around the world is that you need to be aware of your current phone plan and whether you need to unlock your phone and purchase an international sim card.

Thankfully, my phone plan means that I can use my phone in the majority of countries that we’ll be visiting without much extra cost (this includes phone calls, texts and data) but many people won’t have this option.

It’s a good idea therefore to check out your options and see whether you’ll need to invest in another phone plan or just buy an international sim.

13. You’ll feel so conflicted about going all the damn time

Another thing that’s constantly taken me by surprise over the last couple of months is just how conflicted I’ve felt about going all the time.

Of course, an overwhelming majority of the time, I’ve felt an immense rush of excitement and giddiness about the incredible adventure ahead of us. However, I’ve also felt sad and down too and at times I’ve even questioned whether we’re doing the right thing.

It’s entirely, completely and utterly normal to feel this way and I can assure you, you won’t be the only traveller who feels like this.

Pin for later – how to plan a trip around the world

Have you got any advice for us for our trip around the world? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @imjustagirl_16.