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How to Plan Your Big Adventure
A little bit of planning
Ok – so you’re here on our site, so you’re probably at least considering a big trip of some sort, whether it’s a gap year, a career-break or a reward for yourself after a lifetime of work. But, like many things, it pays to put just a little bit of effort into planning, so you get the best bang for your bucks and most importantly, give yourself the trip you really want and deserve.
But, don’t over plan!
Round the world or multi-destination travel should be as flexible as you can make it. Allow for the unexpected and give yourself room to linger in those places you’re enjoying and perhaps move on a little quicker in those places you’re not. So don’t over plan your trip. Get the basics in place before you go - flights, first couple of nights accommodation in each new destination, one or two highlight tours, perhaps in places where it’s easier to travel in a small group - but leave the rest to make up as you go. By the way, our free Travel Butler service can help you make additional arrangements whenever you like as you travel – handy!
Step One – Destination Research
Sounds dull, but can be a lot of fun and is where many dreams start. Use any source of information you can think of. Ask friends and family who may have travelled in the past; check out the discussion boards on specialist websites like gapyear.com and our own Facebook page, where there are heaps of people in the same situation as you.
Browse the internet, check out TV programmes, guide books and travel magazines for ideas. Don’t forget the travel sections of national newspapers too – and think about the online publications in the places you want to go – they may have a load of local knowledge you can take advantage of.
And of course, take a good look through our website for likely routes, possible adventures and cool ways of getting around.
Step Two – Timing
Think about the timing of your trip next. Get a map out and see what the distances are really like, especially the bits you’re planning to do overland. Remember, many maps are not true to scale – Australia is far bigger than it generally looks on a map. Driving from Sydney to Brisbane for instance looks like a skip and a hop on a map, but is a 12 hour non-stop road journey – that’s similar to driving almost the entire length of the UK, Plymouth to Aberdeen.
Seasons
Check the weather too. Not just the scattered showers and sunny spells daily stuff, but the bigger seasonal stuff that could affect your travel. You probably want to avoid monsoon seasons, (roughly June – Sept in India), remember that July is mid-winter in New Zealand and January is a great month in Thailand.
If you’re looking for wildlife experiences in Africa, then consider July or August for migration time for wildebeest of the Masai Mara; dry season from July to Oct when wildlife spotting is easier around waterholes or rainy season (April – May) which is a bit harder to get around but when there are far less tourists.
Budgets
If you want to save money and get the best fares, then here’s a rundown of when round the world flights are going to be cheaper departing the UK, based on the season of your destination. You might have to compromise a little here, but it can be worth it.
- January Shoulder / Low Season
- February – May Low Season
- June Low / High Season
- July August High Season
- September – Nov Low Season
- December Shoulder / High Season
Use The Hubs
Another tip if you’re on a budget is to consider ‘hub’ cities. Hub cities are the airlines’ home if you like, e.g, Emirates’ hub is Dubai, for Cathay Pacific it’s Hong Kong.
If you keep your initial itinerary simply and predominately fly into or via the airlines’ hub cities then the cost of your ticket will be much less as there won’t be any add-on trips at extra cost to you. The trick is to fly into a major city, go overland (the best way to see a country anyway, no?) and then fly out from another major city. Throw a tour in between each place and your trip is starting to take shape. Ask your travel consultant for advice on this.
Step Three – Short List
Draw up a rough itinerary list of your ideal, non negotiable experiences and destinations. Then add to that those you would like to achieve, but could compromise on. Do the same with dates, e.g. ‘must leave Singapore on 23rd October but flexible up to a week of when I leave Sydney’. Remember that less can be more. Spending more time in fewer destinations can be more rewarding that blitzing through multiple destinations quickly.
Journey Planner
Round The World Experts easy to use Journey Planner will come in handy here. You can plot your route, and using the interactive map, zoom in on your key destinations to see what it’s like on the ground. Then use this plan when getting quotes for your journey.
Step Four - Talk
Next, around 6 months before you want to travel call us and talk your plans through with an expert. We have the knowledge to take your sketched ideas and turn them into something solid making sure you get all your “non-negotiables” and as many other experiences as budget and time will allow. We may even come up with some suggestions you hadn’t thought of. Remember, anything is theoretically possible, but some routes are cheaper than others, some more flexible than others – and that’s where our specialist knowledge will prove invaluable.
Flight Changes
After receiving quotes it’s a good idea at this stage to find out if you have the ability to change your dates whilst you’re away. If you save money on your initial flights but then want to change two dates later on at £150 a pop then you’ve got to look at that as an extra £300 you’re spending on flights. That’s a serious dent in your travel fund that could be spent on much more exciting things.
Having said that, if you’re happy with the price of your ticket and you really, really don’t think you’ll change your flights or you know you’re only likely to change perhaps one, then go with the cheap ticket you’ve been quoted.
It’s something you have to weigh up for yourself and your own individual trip. Double-check there are no service charges even if the date changes are essentially ‘free’. Ask this directly. Round the World Experts don’t charge an administration fee for date changes, through our Travel Butler service. If the airline charges a fee, they pass this on but they don’t charge to actually make the changes like many other travel companies.
Step Five - Have Fun
Have fun and make friends and memories in equal measure
Family Gap Years
More and more families are taking the plunge and getting away for months at a time, en-masse, in the process discovering amazing experiences and parts of the world they had only seen in books and on the TV. Sometimes they also discover a lot about each other too.
But as with any great project success will always lie in the planning. Getting the foundations right is key and considering all the eventualities will help create an adventure to be cherished and remembered for ever.
Check out our guide on How to Plan a Family Gap year
Booking Your Big Trip
Decide Your Must Haves
When you’ve finally decided you want to go travelling, the next exciting step is to start getting quotes for your flights, tours, accommodation and anything else you might want or need to make your trip the best it can be. You may only do this once so it’s important to get the absolute best deal for you. So, how do you make sure that happens? There are a number of things to consider when booking your trip.
If you’re on a budget and really price conscious one thing you might want to consider doing first is constructing a basic list of all of the places you MUST see – the places you simply cannot miss, the places that instantly spring to mind when you think about your travels. Then make up a separate itinerary of a trip that takes in all of these must-haves but also incorporates places you’d like go, but that maybe you’re not dead-set on – you could go on your next trip maybe. Do the same with dates, e.g. ‘must leave Singapore on 23rd October but flexible up to a week of when I leave Sydney’. Once you’ve prepped both your basic as well as your ideal itinerary, give all this information to your round the world expert and get them to do you two quotes – one you’d book if you have enough money, and one more basic one that still includes all the basic elements of your trip but will invariably come in cheaper.
Start Getting Costs
So, where to look first? Get a few quotes in from agents that specialise in multi-stop and around the world itineraries. Companies like Round the World Experts are good at looking at your whole trip and working out what the best fare is based on the information you give them about it. Big companies like this also have big buying power and so have contracts with airlines that give them really good prices. Get a few quotes and see what the ball-park figure is looking like. Tell your consultant your budget for your trip and let them find the best deal for you. This is their job after all!
Build In Flexibility
After receiving quotes it’s a good idea at this stage to find out if you have the ability to change your dates whilst you’re away. If you save money on your initial flights but then want to change two dates later on at £150 a pop then you’ve got to look at that as an extra £300 you’re spending on flights. That’s a serious dent in your travel fund that could be spent on much more exciting things. Having said that, if you’re happy with the price of your ticket and you really, really don’t think you’ll change your flights or you know you’re only likely to change perhaps one, then go with the cheap ticket you’ve been quoted. It’s something you have to weigh up for yourself and your own individual trip. Double check there are no service charges even if the date changes are essentially ‘free’. Ask this directly. Round the World Experts are the only company in the UK that don’t charge an administration fee for date changes, through their Travel Butler service. If the airline charges a fee, they pass this on but they don’t charge to actually make the changes like all the other travel companies.
What Else?
Once you have a price that seems reasonable and you’re happy with the conditions of your ticket, consider whether you are going to buy tours, campervan hire, accommodation or anything else along with your flights. If you’re thinking, ‘nah, I’ll just do that separately – it’ll be cheaper,’ then maybe you might want to reconsider. Travel agents get deals on land products like these where they pay up to 20 per cent less than you do – this means there’s room for negotiation here. You could pay the stated price online or in a brochure for a tour or you could level with your agent and say, ‘look, if I book this tour through you with the flights today, will you give me a percentage off of it?’ That way, they get your business and you save money. Everybody’s happy.
Use The Hubs
Another tip if you’re on a budget is to consider ‘hub’ cities. Hub cities are the airlines’ home if you like, e.g, Emirates’ hub is Dubai, for Cathay Pacific it’s Hong Kong. If you keep your initial itinerary simply and predominately fly into or via the airlines’ hub cities then the cost of your ticket will be much less as there won’t be any add-on trips at extra cost to you. The trick is to fly into a major city, go overland (the best way to see a country anyway, no?) and then fly out from another major city. Throw a tour in between each place and your trip is starting to take shape. Ask your travel consultant for advice on this.
So, the most important things to remember when looking to get the best deal for your once in a lifetime trip are: know what you want, ask for a few quotes, know the conditions of your ticket and, book as early as you can. Oh and of course, enjoy your trip – it’ll almost certainly be one of the best things that you ever do.
