This page and its links are dedicated to help you plan your trip up until you board your flight. Within the pages are useful links and references to help you with your plans

Picture right - Emily with our backpacks setting off for Heathrow from Ashford in Kent.

Planning a round the world trip

Where to go?
This is going to be quite a project. The longer the journey the more planning is required. Main considerations to think about before anything else are firstly, where are your dreams? Think about things you have always wanted to see. Is it the Amazon rainforest, a paradise island, the Pyramids of Egypt, SCUBA diving in stunning tropical reefs? Make a wish list of all the things you and any travel buddies want to do and see. Believe me the list gets longer the more you think and soon enough you'll do all of these!

Organising
Next you have to find out where you can do these things, that requires a bit of study but if your geography is fair then you'll know most of that already. If not it's time to visit somewhere like www.lonelyplanet.com or buy the lonely planet book of the world which retails at about £35 and will go through most countries from A-Z and gives their highlights. Another great tool for planning destinations is something like Microsoft Encarta World Atlas. The web is also a great tool to find out pretty much anything you want and I found in designing the first Gibbon site helped me structure my plans and design a well tailored itinerary using all sorts of media from books, the internet and speaking to other people that had traveled. Of course another way to do it and I recommend highly is to see a travel advisor at somewhere like Trailfinders and if you have a particular continent in mind ask to see an advisor that has already traveled it. Most Trailfinders staff have traveled at least two continents. Another good travel shop is STA Travel and you don't have to be a student to book with them.

www.trailfinders.com
www.statravel.co.uk

Both agencies will give similar advice and the tickets quoted are usually from the same suppliers. These can be found here. STA usually work out slightly cheaper. The differing tickets give plenty of options and either agencies will recommend the best priced ticket depending on your planned route. You can also buy 'off the shelf' routes which are usually priced well but may not cover everything on your wish list.

Once you have been to see someone about your trip come back and think some more. The travel advisor will try to get you to book it there and then but come home and digest what they have told you and change the itinerary depending on information given. At least you have a firmer idea in your head now and a price.

Practicalities
The next consideration is whether it's easy to get from one destination to another using your carriers e.g. star alliance. One great site for seeing if places have airports and routes to places is www.airtreks.com. It also has a fantastic visual tool to help build your trip. I've found prices on this to be a little crazy but it does help out significantly. The travel agencies will help out with this though.

Once all that is sorted and you know your tickets boundries you can start thinking about timings. How long you want in a country. You need to pace yourself well so that you keep your mind interested but get in enough relaxation time. It is good to soak up some places more than others and you can never plan this exactly, this is why the tickets are flexible. The only problem with this is if you set yourself times to be places e.g. We had planned and booked prior to leaving a lovely apartment in Darling Harbour, Sydney to meet up with Emily's Mum and Sister for Christmas and New Year. In actual fact we had given ourselves plenty of time anyway but had we had delays we may have come unstuck, especially through somewhere like South America where travel times change frequently. Always try to check your flight is still on using the net before turning up at the airport because they may change!

Budgets
Budget is an important factor too. We basically went through every countries lonely planet book and in it's budget section picked out a medium daily budget from it's recommendations and multiplied by the amount of days planned in that country to get a figure in each one. We then added it all together and added on other expenses like additional internal airfares. Then added about 20% so that it gives you a bit of breathing space and allows you to drop in a few bits of extreme fun like a SCUBA diving PADI Course, Skydive, Helicopter ride etc.. that always cost a fair bit. Plan your budget to your route and keep an eye on it, and obviously try and stick to it or you will either be coming home early or begging your poor working family at home for cash for you to enjoy!

Weather
Weather is something to think about when planning too! Lets face it you don't want to be in Thailand in a monsoon or skiing when there's no snow! Read up on the best times to visit keeping in mind good times to go but not in the highest seasons, especially when mixing your travels from the far flung to the package holiday destinations. Prices are often hiked up in high seasons. My thoughts at the very beginning were to follow the sun and it worked well, however, peak of summer in some places is undesirable, take for example Angkor Wat in Cambodia, at midday the temperature was 48 degrees celsius. The only thing desirable then is an air conditioned room and a bottle of cold water!