WHERE TO START YOUR WORLD TOUR?

When to go on a world tour ? There’s no perfect time to leave everything behind for a long trip – it’s the one that fits YOUR story! In our case, we waited until one of us could take a break from studies and the other was accepted for unpaid leave after having acquired professional seniority. And during our world tour , we met travelers from all walks of life:

THE IDEAL DURATION FOR A WORLD TOUR

Most round-the-world trips last between 6 months and 1 year, and this depends primarily on your budget . Our advice? Plan at least 6 months to fully enjoy your experience and avoid missing out on time. Round-the-world tickets can be a good option. To help you visualize your travel itinerary, here’s what you can do depending on the length:

THE MUST-SEE CONTINENTS TO DISCOVER ON A WORLD TOUR

According to an analysis carried out by Sylvain and François from Tour dumondiste among 1,805 people who have taken a long trip or followed a round-the-world itinerary , here are the top continents visited by travelers:

THE IDEAL NUMBER OF COUNTRIES IN YOUR TRAVEL ITINERARY

How many countries should you choose? You’ll have to make some choices to plan your itinerary. For a year-long world tour , travelers choose an average of 16 countries. Our advice? Allow about 3-4 weeks per country to achieve an ideal pace. Not having enough time to enjoy yourself is often the number one reason travelers regret it.

OPTIMIZE YOUR ROUND-THE-WORLD ITINERARY

How to optimally organize your world tour ? We pondered this question for months before our departure. At the time, we didn’t have a world tour itinerary guide or a tool like The Planner to help us centralize everything. The idea came to us as the trip progressed. Today, thanks to our experience and data collected from thousands of travelers, we have identified four essential criteria for building the perfect travel itinerary :

THE BUDGET 💰

Budgeting is the first keystone of your adventure; it requires careful planning. The trick is to balance your itinerary between emerging economies and more expensive destinations to make the most of it without depriving yourself.

To help you out, we’ve created a map of the cost of living for every country in the world, using intuitive color coding. Clicking on the desired country will take you to a budget sheet for that country , with detailed calculations!

The Planner helps you manage your travel budget with a smart budget simulator that analyzes estimated costs by country (per day and per person). Based on statistics from over 10,000 travelers, it allows you to accurately anticipate your expenses for accommodation, meals, transportation, and activities. If your budget exceeds your goals, our system automatically suggests more economical alternative destinations.

THE WEATHER

Weather plays a crucial role in the success of your trip. Imagine being stuck in a monsoon in Thailand or freezing in Patagonia… To avoid these disappointments, the Planner includes a detailed 12-month forecast system for each destination . This is the ultimate in the Planner: its climate chart.

Planner’s Climate Table

A tool to identify at a glance the most favorable times to go to the desired destination. Our climate rating system evaluates each period using 5 criteria: “very favorable, favorable, possible, not very favorable, or unfavorable” to identify the ideal times for each stopover (green = mild, red = to be avoided).

So, by intelligently optimizing this itinerary, by moving stages or completely reversing the trip for example, you can maximize the weather conditions and enjoy yourself on site!

Pro tip : If you’re planning a world tour, consider creating one landmark city per country at the beginning of your itinerary creation with the Planner, and then rearrange these stops to optimize the weather in your itinerary. Be careful, though: some (large) countries like Australia or New Zealand have climates that are too varied to visit everything in optimal conditions.