Around the World for 4 years: Our Ultimate Travel Guide 2021

Are you planning to go on a world tour? What a wonderful project!

We made a first world tour (without working) between June 2016 and April 2017,
having caught the travel bug, we are now digital nomads
and are making a second world tour, at a much slower pace, while working from May 2017.

We document our adventure day by day through this blog.

We would be happy to help you with your preparations! Here is a summary of the articles we have written that can help you.

If there are any outstanding questions, please feel free to use the comments!

Budget and itinerary for a world tour

Around the world, where to start?

To mature a project of world tour, one generally starts by imagining its itinerary.

Preparing an itinerary allows you to dream while imagining yourself in the four corners of the world. It can also become a real headache because you have to make choices!

To help you, discover our itinerary. If you lack inspiration, take some time to read our travel diaries from Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania and America.

Obviously, you will have to work within your budget. There are as many round-the-world tours as there is budget, since it will depend on the countries visited, the duration, the activities, the desired comfort, …

To give you an idea, our first world tour cost us 45 000€, we didn’t refuse anything and visited some expensive countries like New Zealand and Cuba. Discover our budget tips, our detailed transportation budgets and an Excel template to prepare your itinerary and your budget.

The management of your finances is essential for the trip to go well, we explain here how to put the money aside.

To enter certain countries, it is mandatory to be able to present proof of exit from the territory. Here is the list of countries where this is required as well as a solution that allows you to “rent” an exit ticket.

Plane tickets for a trip around the world

Eternal debate among world travelers: should we take a round-the-world ticket or just take dry flights?

First of all, discover how a round-the-world ticket works.

For our first round-the-world trip, we made this itinerary by buying a round-the-world plane ticket from the Travel Nation agency (of which we are very happy).

For our second round-the-world tour, we are this time buying dry flights following this itinerary.

If you choose dry flights, find out how to use ITA Software, where you will find good deals. More tips are available here.

Also try travel hacking to pay less.

The necessary equipment for a world tour

As you are going to move around a lot, you should travel as light as possible knowing that you will be able to (almost) buy everything along the way if you miss something.

The most important thing is probably the choice of the backpack, discover Anh’s backpack and JB’s one.

JB left with 77 objects, Anh maybe a bit more🙂

Among the essentials: the pharmacy and a small survival kit.

A little less indispensable: products and facial care routine for very sensitive skin

If you like DIY, you have several fun projects here.

If you wish to limit the drudgery of laundry as much as possible, we have a solution.

Finally, think about installing these applications on your phone, they will provide you with valuable services. In some countries, it can be useful to use a VPN service.

As for the travel guides, choose the digital version (we explain how)

To take beautiful pictures (and/or videos), here is our equipment

Administrative procedures before a world tour

This is clearly not the most exciting thing, but it is important to put everything in order to leave with peace of mind.

Here is a checklist of everything that needs to be done before departure (vaccinations, international permit etc.).

We advise you to use the resilier.fr service to terminate all your subscriptions, to use the traveller’s mailbox to manage your mail and to open a bank safe to keep your documents or other most important objects in a safe place.

If during the trip you need to receive a courier or package, you can have it delivered anywhere in the world to a DHL or UPS address.

Choose an international credit card such as Boursorama Ultim, N26 or Revolut to avoid exchange fees.

Depending on your itinerary, it may be interesting to take a Free Mobile subscription to have internet and make calls. Discover the different solutions to be able to use the internet and make calls during your trip.

Don’t forget to take out specific travel insurance. We are very happy with our experience with Chapka insurance.

If you are going on a very long world tour (several years), a 32-page classic passport may not be enough, you can apply for a 48-page “frequent travel er” passport (we have a “traveler” passport application template ready for you).

If you have a driver’s license, it will probably be tempting to rent a car or scooter during your stay. So remember to apply for your international driver‘s license well in advance. If you plan to make multiple rentals, it may be a good idea to have an American Express card, you will save on insurance.

Empty your apartment before leaving on a world tour

Probably the most complicated in our preparations! Even in a small apartment, 10 years of accumulation, that makes things!

Here are some tips to resell, give or throw away, to sell more efficiently on Leboncoin, to sell clothes on Vinted and books, CDs and DVDs.

If you have a pet, take the necessary steps to have it looked after during your world tour.

During the world tour

Find out how we organize our visits as we go along, except for a few exceptional cases. How we look for good hotels with interesting prices.

We take care of our budget and protect our means of payment.

We learn foreign languages as we go (Portuguese for Brazil, Spanish for South America, Italian for Italy, Arabic for Egypt).

You can also consult our guides by country (itinerary, budget, advice…). We do not write a guide for all countries, only those for which we think we have something new to bring you.

Despite the extraordinary visits, it isn’t uncommon to feel a bit of pressure and guilt, to face the inconveniences, not to be able to stand youth hostels anymore, to cry with fatigue, but that’s life, and that’s part of the trip.

Manage the return of the round-the-world trip

All good things must come to an end! A few months before the end of your trip, start looking for accommodation for your return. Here’s how we found temporary accommodation in Paris.

Plan to do a health checkup to make sure you don’t have any deficiencies after these months during which your usual lifestyle and diet have been disrupted.

Take stock of your trip.

Manage your budget after the trip around the world and prepare for the return to work