Planning a World Trip: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Plan a Trip Around the World

Planning a world trip can feel overwhelming. From budgeting to choosing destinations and booking flights, there’s a lot to think about. In this step-by-step guide, I’ll show you how to plan a world trip efficiently, even if it’s your first time. Follow these steps and turn your dream adventure into reality!

1. Define Your Budget

I am a strong believer that defining a realistic budget needs to be the first step before you do anything else. Your budget will determine:

How long you can travel
Which destinations are feasible

One important thing to consider is that your budget doesn’t need to include all your savings. Decide how much money you’re comfortable spending: Is it all your savings? 50% of your savings? That’s something that only you can decide!

2. List All Places You Want to Visit

On a world trip, you’ll likely visit multiple countries or continents. It’s also important to remember, though, that even on a multi-month trip you won’t be able to see EVERYTHING. Start by:

Creating a lifetime bucket list. You can gather inspiration from blogs, social media, TV, friends, …
Pinning all your dream destinations on Google Maps, take some time to do this! I personally like to collect all my dream destinations on Google Maps, e.g. anytime I see a cool insta or tik tok post about a beach or waterfall I want to visit –> directly pin it on Google Maps!

This process will help you to gather all your dream destinations in one place, and more importantly it will help you to start visualizing potential travel routes!

All the places I still want to visit in South America pinned to Google Maps!

3. Choose a Geographical Focus

If you’re like me, you’ll have pins all over the world on all 7 continents… for most people it won’t be possible to visit all of these places in one trip.

Therefore, it’s time to start looking for clusters of destinations in a region:

Asia
Europe
South America

Even if your points of interest are spread out, sticking to nearby regions is often more budget-friendly and eco-conscious than jumping around all different continents. Examples:

USA + South America
Asia + Australia
Europe + Middle East/North Africa

Alternatively, you could also try to find a reasonable way on how you can circumvent the planet (always flying in one direction, e.g. westwards). For this you’ll need to find out which places are well connected, which will sometimes this surprise you! In my opinion, the best way to do this is by checking connections on Google Flights.

4. Research Estimated Daily Costs

Your budget only works if you know how much each country costs per day. This is where your planning becomes research intensive Consider:

Cost of living – For example, Switzerland is way more expensive than Thailand. This means that for the same amount of money you could spend more time in Thailand than Switzerland
Travel style – Whether you’re staying in hostels or resorts, and whether you’re eating self-cooked meals or dining out is another huge factor that will impact your daily budget. Preferences in these areas are highly subjective, but very important to define early on. If you’re not the cook-your-own-meals and stay in a dorm type of person you should not plan that kind of trip, you won’t be able to go through with it and end up spending more.

Where to find information on daily costs for your destinations:

Booking.com for accommodation
Google for average food, transport, and activity costs
I have a dedicated budgets section on my blog where I provide you with detailed budget breakdowns for various destinations based on my own experience

6. Decide the Best Time to Visit Each Destination

Plan your travel around:

High and low seasons – Crowds and prices can vary greatly
Weather patterns – Things to consider are Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere seasons, rainy seasons, monsoons, or hurricanes.
Special events – Festivals, holidays, or unique experiences. While experiencing a specific event might be desireable (e.g. Rio Carnival), if you’re not into it might unnecessarily make your stay more stressful, crowded and expensive.

5. Define Length of Stay

Using your budget, daily cost estimates and considerations of the seasons and special events, decide how long you want to and can afford to stay in each destination.

If you’re a planner like me, you can really start going into the details at this point and start creating a day-by-day plan for each city or country.
If you prefer flexibility, rough estimates are still sufficient at this point!

7. Book Your First and Last Flights

This is where things finally start to feel real! I highly recommend to secure the outbound flight as early as possible in order to save money and to solidify your plans!

If possible, book your return flights too. Long distance flights usually get more expensive the longer you wait, so why risk it?
If you don’t know where you’ll end up in the end, then leave the return flight open. Just remember that one way tickets are usually more expensive than return flights.

As mentioned before, my favourite method to find the best and most affordable flights is through Google Flights!

8. Optional: Book Accommodation

Booking in advance can save you money and reduce stress. I personally prefer to book my accommodations through Booking.com, which helps you to keep track of all your bookings in one place.

You should definitely consider booking your accommodation early if:

You’re on a tight budget.
You’re traveling during high season.
Your destination has limited accommodation

Remember: The longer you wait, the less choices you will have as things start to fill up. Small towns + peak season + limited budget = not many accommodation options!!

9. Optional: Book Connecting Transportation

If you’re up for it, I’d also recommend to start planning out all the in-between-flights, trains, ferries, or buses that you’ll need. Here’s why:

Avoid being stuck figuring it out last minute. While flexibility is nice, planning things as you go also take time. In my experience I get much more overwhelmed when I have to figure things out last minute, and I feel like the planning on the go takes away time that could be spent exploring!
Spread payments over time. If you book some things ahead, these costs will already be paid for (and mentally forgotten 🙂 ) by the time you actually start your trip!
Lock in availability. Some ferries or buses have limited seats, therefore, if your itinerary depends on a specific connection – book it!!

10. Book Tours & Activities

Some experiences require advance booking:

Entry tickets to popular attractions, e.g. Machu Picchu tickets
Popular museums (e.g. Prado Museum in Madrid)
Shows & concerts
Etc!!

Booking in advance gives you enough time to research the best tours and can help you to stay within budget, while ensuring you don’t miss the must-see attractions.

Final Thoughts

Planning a world trip can feel overwhelming at first, but once you break it down step by step, it becomes much more manageable. Start with the big decisions such as budget, destinations, and timing, and refine the details as you go.

Remember, no trip is ever planned perfectly, and that’s part of the adventure. The goal isn’t to control every moment, but to give yourself a solid foundation so you can travel with confidence and enjoy the experience to the fullest.

If you’re currently planning a world trip, I’d love to hear about it. Where are you going, and what are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments!