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Planning Your Trip

Soooooo many things to prepare, so many situations to consider and so many decisions to make.

This section focuses on the preparation for our 6-month trip but most of it can be reused for any long trip.

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In a nutshell, we want to go over the details of how we planned and prepared, not only for our trip, but also for our return home. Of course there are many ways to do this but we just wanted to share our process and we welcome any new advice!

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Warning! I am going to get into my consulting work mindset, which involves a lot of notes, but I think it helps to write down the entire process, because during the long time it takes to prepare, there will be a lot of back and forth on decisions, itineraries, timing, things to do and so on.

First steps for your trip and overall budget

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A first step is to have a general idea of what you want the trip to be:

  • define a timeline with countries to visit and hypotheticals

  • have a general idea of the trip's budget, but also of the remaining costs still needed to be paid at home, and, when you return, what you need to live at least a few months (3-6) without a job (in case you would need to quit your job or go on leave). And you can add a contingency of a certain percentage at this stage - somewhere between 10 to 30%, for example.

  • make key decisions such as the use of PTOs, LOAs or quitting the job, buy a Round the World ticket or individual tickets, cancel phone plan, best means of payment during the trip, what to do with your current apartment, what to do with your things, etc. 

  • define a deadline. Planning this project is a huge endeavor so we suggest having a deadline to help you stay on track, a birthday or a family event, and base your trip around that date. Of course, this date needs to make sense for the trip (you want to try to visit each country during the best season) and shouldn't be too close or too far away.

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To estimate the budget per country, we used three main websites: Routard, Budget Your Trip and the Lonely Planet Guide Books. For flights, we found that Skyscanner offered the most comprehensive options and Hopper helped us keep an eye on price trends.

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Based on that, you will have an approximate view of the timeline, and how much you need to save in order to afford the trip and return home with limited risks. Then the next step is to open a big cookie jar (eat all the cookies!) and start saving up!

The To-Do List aka The Anxiety Inducing File

 

Let's face it, between preparing for the trip and preparing the return, there are a lot of aspects to consider - a to do list and a timeline are important to track everything that you need to do and, if you're anything like me and forget everything, to confirm what you've already done and decisions that were made.

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We used a simple spreadsheet, with 4 main columns and a few additional columns for dates.

These columns for dates can be split into months and/or weeks depending on the time you have to prepare your trip. Being able to filter these columns by month, helped us stay focused on time sensitive tasks.

 

The main 4 columns are: Categories, Actions, Status, Comments

  • Categories are your main topics: Prepare the apartment for departure, Bookings, Other preparations for the trip, To do while away, Prepare return/Work;

  • Actions are your to-dos. Further below are some examples of actions when preparing for a long trip;

  • Status helps you to focus only on the remaining actions by filtering out "Completed actions";

  • Comments is a space to add more details, such as, answers to questions raised while completing the action.

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  • Examples/List of actions:

    • set up a shared space where to store all the documents for the trip

    • upload your important documents/itineraries and information to the cloud, and if you have a travel partner, don't forget to share it with them

    • check renewal date of IDs/passports

    • check renewal of your debit/credit cards

    • check renewal of your health cards/insurance

    • check visas and entry requirements (covid-19 testing/vaccines, proof of insurance)

    • check your credit card insurance/personal insurance for possible coverage while away, both medical and travel. If not an option, look up travel insurances

    • get a medical check-up and check what you may need during the trip health-wise (request a doctor's note if you carry prescribed medication, such as, birth control, anti-histamines, malaria medication, etc.)

    • check vaccine recommendations for all countries - you may need quite a few vaccines and some of them might be more than one dose, so do not wait until the last minute

    • decide what means of payments you're going to use in each country and, if you decide to use a credit card, don't forget to consider currency exchange rates and additional fees

    • get a password manager app, especially to store those passwords that will not be using for a long time

    • create a file with all the embassies' phone numbers and addresses and each country's emergency phone numbers 

    • try to anticipate what to do in several problem scenarios - when stressed, it will be helpful to refer to a document with possible next steps or options 

    • rent/release apartment

    • change/cancel home/tenant insurance

    • change/cancel phone plan, internet and TV plans

    • store your belongings, especially your important ones in a secure place

    • inform property management, bank, landlord

    • take advantage of your bank's security alerts and adapt them to your travel conditions (e.g. set up an alert when there's a transaction on an account you don't plan on using) 

    • set up a voicemail messaging letting people know that you are unavailable and they can contact you via email/other means 

    • buy necessities for the trip (comfortable shoes, medication, appropriate clothing, etc.)

    • check if your work offers different leaves of absence, duration of leave and conditions of return

    • plan the return; keep contacts, update social media and resume

    • take a picture of your luggage

    • ...

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.... yes the file is a long list of things to do, but it will feel good to see items being crossed out.

Detailed Budget and Bookings

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To have an initial idea of the budget for your trip, you can use websites like the Routard, Budget Your Trip and the Lonely Planet Guide Books.

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But when you start booking and paying for the flights and hotels, you will need a single spreadsheet with all the information on cities, dates and costs.

 

A table of estimated costs by country and by category of costs will help with that. For each country, you need to assume costs for:

  • International arrival flight, domestic flights or other means of transportation (only expensive ones like inter-city trains or a train pass such as the JR PASS for Japan)

  • Accommodations

  • Visa costs; some visas may be free but keep notes of the maximum duration

  • Tour costs, in case you decide to book a tour- always check if you will need to pay for the meals and entry fees, and always budget for a tip

  • Food and beverages - if you are planning on goin out often, you definitively need a specific budget for that 

  • Activities such as national parks, museum entries, bungy jumping, etc.

  • Extras - surprise fees

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In that same spreadsheet, we added indicators, such as, if the hotel/car/plane was booked and paid for. It helps to have a view of booked and paid amounts. Always use one currency but keep track of the amount in the original currency.

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Of course, you will have a table with dozens of lines, but with the help of some formulas, you will be able to have a dashboard to see how much each country will cost. (if you would like a ready-to-use spreadsheet, reach out to us through the Contact us page).

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Another tab can be added for costs at home during your absence as you may continue to pay your taxes, phones, mortgages, maintenance fees, insurances, streaming platforms, storage facilities, etc., but also include what you would earn if you rent your apartment, for example. 

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A final tab can be added for info/decisions just to keep track of all decisions that were made and important information that you had a hard time finding with links to websites that may be relevant.

What else?

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  • You will look at dozens of travel books and websites to plan your trips - keep track of those in case you need to refer back

  • Keep in mind that you can also use your hotel or airlines points to save some money (see Tips & Tricks for more details)

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