Travel around the world: All you need to know to do the trip of a lifetime

Leaving to travel around the world was simply the best decision of our lives! Since that one day in 2012 when we decided around a bottle of wine to travel around the world, our lives have been completely disrupted.

We travelled full-time for 19 months from China to South America via Southeast Asia, we made dozens of encounters, discovered places that will remain engraved in our memories, got to know other cultures, other languages… We first traveled at full speed, then slowed down to just take the time… the time to talk, to meet, the time that we often lack in our daily lives.

Then we returned to Switzerland, we found good jobs in Zurich… it was the end of a beautiful enchanted break. Except that here we were, we had a first taste for travel, freedom and the infinite flexibility that a round the world trip provides… and 18 months later, what was supposed to happen happened! We resigned again to reopen the parenthesis for good this time. Since then we have taken our work with us in our backpacks and exchanged our pretty Swiss apartment for a way of life that suits us better: the digital nomad lifestyle.

Since 2012, we have written and shared many blog posts with you about traveling around the world or long-distance travel. On this page, we’ve tried to put all this in order to help you find your way through all these years of blogging. We hope you will find a lot of useful information but also inspiration that may help you to take your turn in the adventure of a round the world trip.

Believe us, you won’t regret it!

Our free ebook and our book to travel around the world

First of all, we would like to start by introducing you to 2 resources that we have created and in which we have put a lot of energy and heart. We hope this will inspire you and help you embark on the adventure of a round-the-world trip.

Our free ebook to prepare your round the world trip

There is sometimes some confusion about our e-book because you can either read it online on our website or download it in pdf format. But in both cases the content is almost the same:) .

We started writing this e-book when we were preparing our world tour. At that time, we spent a lot of time reading different blogs / forums to gather information and prepare our trip. And frankly, we would have dreamed of having a document that explains to us simply and step by step what it takes to prepare a round the world trip. So we thought we were going to write it ourselves and a few months later, it was there. And since then, more than 10,000 travelers have downloaded it (the pdf version) and we hope that it will still help many future backpackers. You can read it by simply clicking on the link below (you will also be able to download it’s pdf version)

a small preview:

Read the chapter 1 of our ebook

Download the PDF

Our Book “Destination Tour du Monde” (French and German only)

Even if we had always dreamed of writing and publishing a book (especially Fabienne), we never thought that this dream would come true one day! And yet…. It just took a bit of luck, meeting the right person (Hadi the founder of the Helvetiq publishing house) and a lot of work to make this project a reality.

And in April 2017, Destination Tour du Monde was born! This book has our hearts set on it and is for anyone who dreams of travel and adventure (or their families to reassure them;)). You will of course find plenty of information to prepare your trip but also reflections on the questions you ask yourself before leaving, tips once on the road, lots of anecdotes, interviews with other travellers around the world etc…. all magnificently illustrated by our friend the talented Florian from Helvetiq.

We simply tried to create the book we would have liked to have before our world tour and we hope that it will inspire many future travellers. If you want more information, you can take a look at the book page. Otherwise you can simply buy it directly on our publisher’s website or on Amazon (or in more than 500 bookshops in Switzerland and France)

Why travel around the world?

There are certainly as many reasons to go on a world tour as there are world travelers;) and if you are reading these lines, it is because you may already have yours. But if we had to choose a few of them, we’d tell you:

• To have time (which we often lack in our daily lives)… time to admire a sunset, time to meet new people, time to go hiking for several days, time to do nothing.
  
• To meet people from all over the world and learn more about their culture and way of life
• For the freedom that a trip around the world provides… no more constraints! You do what you want when you want during this unique journey.
• To make new experiences and get out of this well-known comfort zone
• etc…

Moreover, in chapter 1 of our e-book, we review all the reasons that drive people to travel around the world… but also all those things that prevent them from taking the step and how to overcome them.

And if it’s not enough yet 😉 take 50 minutes of your time to watch the magnificent documentary Génération Tour du Monde (Round the world trip generation with english subtitles) by our friends les coflocs… I promise you that after watching you’ll have only one desire: to leave for the adventure of your life 😉

How to prepare a round the world trip

Now that you have made the decision to go on a round the world trip and have set yourself a departure date (promised it is the most difficult stage of the preparations;)), all you have to do is “prepare” your trip around the world:)

To be honest we loved this period of travel preparations. We spent our time reading travel blogs, sharing our desires for destinations and things to do around a bottle of wine… it was a very exciting time when we breathed, dreamed, ate travel!

So certainly there are less fun aspects to the preparations for a round the world trip (I’m thinking in particular of vaccines;), insurance, bank fees etc….), but don’t worry, we’re here to help you! Many articles have been written on all the important steps in preparing for a long-distance trip, which are listed below:) #Enjoy

Round the world trip budget

That’s probably THE question you’re asking yourself:

How much does a round-the-world trip cost, by the way?

So unfortunately there are probably as many answers to this question as there are world travellers… the budget for such a trip will depend on many factors such as your travel style, the destinations you want to visit, activities, accommodations, airline tickets, visas and so on! But don’t worry, we’ve devoted a complete folder to the budget question for a round-the-world trip and after reading it, you’ll probably have a much more precise idea of how much the trip of your life will cost (don’t worry, you don’t need to be a millionaire to go around the world)

Read our chapter about the budget for a round the world trip

And if you are looking for more specific information about travelling to a particular country, you will find on this page all our travel budget articles in most of the countries we visited.

Plan your round the world trip itinerary

Ahhhhhhhh!!! The preparation of the itinerary for our round world tour…. we remember this period with a lot of nostalgia, those evenings spent adding pins to our world map, dreaming, debating, making compromises and starting to sketch out our travel project. Good memories (and a couple arguments of course). 😉

But even if it’s rather fun to prepare a round-the-world itinerary, it doesn’t mean that there are not some constraints to take into account (we think in particular of the climate, the budget, visas, security…). We have prepared a big article for you where we give you all the factors to take into account as well as our personal method to prepare the itinerary of our trip.

Read more about how to plan your itinerary

And if you’re wondering what our travel itinerary was, here it is below. This itinerary was created thanks to the great travel planner made by our friend Nico (which you’ll certainly use a lot to prepare the itinerary for your round the world trip).

Around the world Ticket – choose the right one

Unless you are going around the world on foot, by bike or by sailboat, there is a good chance that you will use the plane at some point during your round-the-world trip. And precisely, round-the-world airline tickets is a subject that divides world travellers a little bit. There are indeed 2 ways to do this:

• either you buy a round-the-world ticket
• or you buy your plane tickets as you travel

Obviously, each method has its advantages and disadvantages (it would be too easy if not 😉 ). But as we are very nice, we have devoted an entire chapter to this topic in our ebook on the preparations for a round the world trip here:

Read the Chapter about round the world tickets

The recommended vaccine for travelers

Be careful: this part is for all phobics and the ones who don’t like injections! 😉 Ohhhh yes, depending on the countries you plan to visit during your round the world trip, you may well have to get through the vaccines 🙂 . So what are the vaccines for a round-the-world trip? How much does it cost to get vaccinated? You will find all the answers to these questions in the following article:

Vaccines for a round the world trip

Travel insurance for a round the world trip

We know that the subject of travel insurance is a very boring one and that you probably don’t want to think about it while you are preparing for the adventure of your life. However, in our opinion, it is simply unconscious to leave for a round-the-world trip without being insured for some important things (we think mainly of medical expenses, repatriation and civil liability).

As the subject is quite complicated, we have prepared several resources that should help you to understand everything about travel insurance for a round the world trip and especially to choose the right insurance for your trip:

• We first invite you to read our guide to understand everything about backpackers insurance
• To find the right insurance coverage for you, we have created a comparison of the best travel insurance for your round the world trip. With this you will find the insurance you need super easily.

How to avoid bank fees while traveling?

You would rather spend your money on travel than give it to your bank, we agree! However, the problem is that many major banks are very happy with the withdrawal fees abroad (yes, even in 2019!!!!).

In Europe we use a lot online Banks when we travel. N26 is one of the market leaders and it will soon be available in the US as well! Get to know more about N26 in our blog post

What should you pack to travel around the world?

After several years of traveling around the world, we now need only 1-2 hours to prepare our backpacks.

However, I can promise you that when we were preparing our round the world trip between 2012 and 2013, we had absolutely no idea what we were going to be able to put in our backpacks and what could be useful on the roads (and that’s quite normal since we had never travelled so long with a backpack before).

However, I can promise you that when we were preparing our round the world trip between 2012 and 2013,(and that’s quite normal since we had never travelled so long with a backpack before).

It must be said that it is a tricky exercise to choose your equipment for a round the world trip. On the one hand, we want to have the gear to face all types of conditions and situations, but on the other hand we are limited by the weight we can carry on our back. So we devoted an entire chapter of our ebook to the essential equipment for a round the world trip. We listed everything we took on the trip (backpack, clothes, equipment, electronics) and commented each time on our opinion of each object after returning from the trip.

Read the chapter about our backpacking gear

Le matériel photo qu’on avait dans notre sac à dos lorsqu’on a traversé la Suisse à pied

Checklist and Planing

So we agree on this one: you still have to think about a lot of things when you prepare a round the world trip…. and frankly for some people it can be quite impressive or even discouraging. But don’t panic, with a little organization and thinking about the right things at the right time, we guarantee that it’s not that complicated:). The best thing is to make a small planning of the things to do to prepare the trip by starting about 1 year before the planned date. And as we are very nice, we have created for you the ideal planning of the preparations for a round the world trip in the form of a checklist starting one year before the departure until the D-day.

See the planning

Which camera should you choose to travel the world

When you leave for a round the world trip, you usually want to take a few pictures to keep memories of the trip, decorate your apartment on the way back or make your loved ones jealous during the adventure (or after returning) 🙂 . As a result, the question of choosing the right camera for travel often arises before the take off.

Contrary to what you will often read online, there is no such thing as the “best camera to travel” ! The ideal camera for your world tour will depend largely on your expectations. Maybe your priority is to have a small (light) and discreet camera… but maybe you also want to take portraits, or maybe pretty night pictures or maybe even video. And so the ideal device will clearly change depending on what you are looking to do during your trip.

Since Ben is totally passionate about photography and also because we receive a lot of questions about it, we wrote a big article to explain all the important criteria to know before choosing a camera. So we really recommend you to read it before you make your camera choice for your round the world trip.

Read the article

But let’s face it, if you go on a long trip, you will certainly find yourself choosing between 3 types of cameras:

• If you don’t care about the quality of the photos and want the smallest and lightest option, I simply advise you to take a good smartphone with you.
• If you’re looking for photos of good enough quality but without getting too caught up in the settings and without compromising on weight and discretion, then the compact range is made for you. And to help you choose the best point and shoot camera, we have created a comparison table here
• If you are interested in photography (or video) and are looking for more control to take beautiful pictures in more difficult conditions (sunset, night, etc.), you will probably want to buy a better camera. Mirrorless (or hybrid) Cameras have an excellent weight/quality ratio. And here too, we recommend you to look at our comparison table of the best mirrorless cameras to make your choice.

The best mobile apps for travelers

So here I’ll get right to the point and tell you only about the applications that you’re really going to use a lot during your round the world trip (but who knows if we’ll write a more complete article on the subject)

• 

  Maps.me: This application has become a must have for travellers and frankly it would have saved us a few misadventures if it had existed at the time of our world tour (yes we are oldies… maps.me did not yet exist during our trip;) ). Maps.me is in our opinion the best offline map application (it works even without an internet connection). The maps are very detailed (they are based on Open Street Map) and you have the possibility to draw routes, use it in navigation mode (for the car), add points of interest, use it for hiking etc…. In addition you will find a lot of information added by travellers such as restaurants, hotels, points of interest etc…. The must of the must we tell you!

• Google translate: If you travel to countries like China where no one speaks a word of English, a translation application that also works offline can be extremely convenient in some situations. During our world tour it didn’t work like that yet but now it’s another world;)
• Xe currency: The reference application for currency conversions (this is just to make sure don’t get ripped off by the first tuk tuk tuk driver).

While traveling around the world: our tips

Here you are! You just left and you are finally on your way to the world #yeaahhhhh! But as you will see, travelling around the world is not always easy ;). You will have to find accommodation during your trip, be on the move (almost) constantly, feed yourself, do your laundry, do your visas along the way, find activities and places to visit etc…. #SuchAHardLife 🙂

So to make your life easier during your round the world trip, we have decided to list below all the tools / sites / services that we find useful and that have made our life easier during all our travels (round the world trip and after). Because it must be said that the purpose of such a trip is not to spend all your time organizing and looking for information… the goal is simply to get the most out of this unique experience.

Backpacking: How to find a place to stay

Accommodation is probably THE great concern for people who have never really travelled long distances before and it is easy to understand why! I mean… when you are used to booking all your accomodation in advance for your 2-week holiday it may seem strange to leave 1 year without booking anything in advance;) .

By the way, if it makes you feel any better, we were also afraid to sleep a few nights under bridges or in the street before going on a world tour (and guess what… it never happened ;)).

There are different options for your stay while travelling:

Hôtels, Hostels, Guesthouses, Youth Hostels…

The most traditional way to spend a night while travelling around the world is simply to pay for your accommodation and this is what we have done most of the time. In some countries, we didn’t even bother to book in advance (as in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia…). Why? because it’s just suuuuper easy to find a room on the spot, plus not having a booking allows you to compare the options and find a better price (a concept that does not exist in Europe for example;)). In other countries (such as China, or South America) we usually booked in advance. When we book in advance we usually do it 1 or 2 days in advance and we use the following apps:

• HostelWorld: this is a site that we used a lot during our trip because it’s simply well made and has lots of cheap options and also many other guests’ reviews. This solution is ideal when looking for dorm beds or youth hostels.
• HotelsCombined: This one we use it as much as HostelWorld because this site compares in real time all the other hotel search engines like Booking, Agoda, Expedia… (but not HostelWorlds). Basically by using these two sites, you will always find your happiness in terms of hotel.
• Vrbo or AirBnb: Recently, since we also work online, we’ve started to rent more and more via Airbnb. It’s a bit more pricey, but especially in Europe you can find some pretty good options.

New to airbnb? Do not hesitate to use our referral link. By following this link you’ll get a discount on your first booking and we’ll get a small discount on our next booking as well!

Couchsurfing or sleeping at a local’s house

So that was also a great novelty for when leaving for our world tour…. Couchsurfing is a website that connects travellers who are looking for accommodation with local people who agree to provide them with free accommodation (in a room or on their sofa). The idea is to share a moment with the hosts over a meal, to meet new people, to discuss everyone and nothing (so don’t do couchsurfing if you don’t want to socialize a minimum;) )

We started by welcoming travellers into our apartment when we lived in Vienna (to test the concept as hosts and get some reviews on the site) and then we surfed some sofas in China, Ecuador or Finland and we always had very good experiences. It’s really a great way to meet new people, to exchange, to learn more about a place by talking to someone who lives there and we really recommend you to try it.

And for those who travel by bike, there is also the website called Warmshower which works as couchsurfing but for cyclists.

Doing Home exchange

We have never done it personally because you have to own an apartment or a house but we know several travellers who have tested the concept (the best known site for this is HomeExchange). It is a very good way when you are a homeowner to discover a new place at a lower cost with all the comfort of a house.

Work in echange of accomodation

For example, during our world tour we translated a website for a Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon in exchange for a week’s accommodation (as this lodge was clearly not in our budget range at the time, it was a win-win situation). So even if this were done spontaneously, there are also many websites that could help you find these kinds of arrangements:

• Wwoofing: A site that allows you to find job offers on farms in exchange for housing and food.
• Helpx: A more generalist (and unfortunately a little old-fashioned) site of classified ads for unpaid work offers in exchange for housing and food.
• Worldpackers: Same concept as Helpx with a more modern site and a very large community.

Sleeping on night buses

During our world tour we almost became night bus experts :). If we had a long trip to make between 2 places, we almost always preferred the night bus option, which saved us one night in a hotel. So let’s face it, it’s rarely the best nights of sleep 😉 (especially in Asia where buses are sometimes quite old-fashioned) but we also had very good experiences with some companies in South America where the seats almost turn into perfectly fine beds.

Sleeping in airports

During our world tour we almost became night bus experts :). If we had a long trip to make between 2 places, we almost always preferred the night bus option, which saved us one night in a hotel. So let’s face it, it’s rarely the best nights of sleep 😉 (especially in Asia where buses are sometimes quite old-fashioned) but we also had very good experiences with some companies in South America where the seats almost turn into perfectly fine beds.

Often with cheap flights or round-the-world tickets, you will find yourself having to fly super early in the morning or transiting for 14 hours in an airport. We when we find ourselves in these kinds of situations (still now) well we don’t hesitate for a second and we sleep at the airport;) (this can save some money, plus let’s face it, most of the time airport hotels are quite crappy or totally overpriced.)).

During our 7 years of travel we spent more than 15 nights in different airports around the world. In order to help you prepare for your first night in an airport, we’ve prepared a detailed blog post with all our best tips and tricks to spend a good night of sleep.

Sleeping in a tent

We rarely spent the night in official camp site during our round the world trip (if I remember correctly only on Easter Island and in a few places in South America) but on the other hand we did a lot of camping / bivouacs during the hikes over several days that we did around the world.

These itinerant adventures remain among our best travel memories and you are really encouraged to embark on this kind of adventure during your round the world trip (and if you are not really convinced yet or do not know where to start to embark on this kind of adventure, read this article). To inspire you here are some examples of treks / adventures we did during our world tour:

Transportation Methods: how to get from A to B?

There are quite a few different ways to travel between two places during a round the world trip and I think we can say that we have tested a good part of it. Here is a small non-exhaustive list to give you some ideas;)

• by plane: either with your round-the-world ticket or by buying the tickets as you go along.
• buses: I can guarantee that you’ll take a lot of them during your world tour (day, night, short, long…). I think the longest bus trip we took was a 24 hours bus ride in Argentina. To buy tickets we tend to prefer going directly to the bus stations… You’ll find some tickets online (depending on the region), but we found these to be always much more expensive
• trains: this is (most of the time) also a very nice experience! We remember in particular our great trips inside China where there was always a lot of things going on everywhere. 😉 For train, it’s usually cheaper to buy the tickets directly at the station rather than online
• by boat: We have to admit that we are not experts because Fabienne is seasick (meaning she always finds a good excuse to avoid boats). But we have taken them in Indonesia, Sydney, Finland…
• Hitchhiking: Once again we are not experts but we have done it several times in South America and each time it has been great encounters (like this time when we were picked up by a wine delivery man in Argentina who took us with him on his tour… #Hips)
• scooter / motorcycle: the main means of transport in Southeast Asia… it’s simple there are scooter and motorcycle rental companies on every street corner and we have rented them several times to make loops over a few days. For more information on scooter loops, you can read our article on the Mae Hong Son loop or the Bolaven and Thakheak loops in Laos.
• Cycling: So even if we are not frequent cyclists (for the moment… who knows?), we have sometimes rented bicycles some over several days, for example on the east coast of Taiwan.
• Car: During our round the world trip we did not rent many cars… Only in Argentina actually. But since we left again, this is clearly something we do very often like in Menorca (sometimes we even sleep in the car as in Lofoten). And each time, we use the website called Rentalcars to find the cheapest option.

Travel safe

Until now we’ve always been very lucky on our travels and nothing serious has happened to us yet (no robberies or assaults nor serious injuries). However, we must admit that we had some fears before our world tour about some South American destinations that have a “bad reputation” (thanks to the media;)). But we quickly realized that by being a little careful and applying certain rules, we could greatly reduce the risk of problems when traveling. If you want more information on this subject, we invite you to read our articles about safety in South America and the risks associated with travels.

Money and currency management while travelling

We told you a little above how to avoid bank fees around the world (by choosing the right bank before leaving) but we didn’t really explain how we managed our money while travelling. Well, there’s nothing really wicked about it;)

• If possible, leave with a Visa card and a Mastercard (and do not keep them in the same place;)). Don’t forget to change your 6-digit codes to 4-digit codes to avoid any problems with some cashing machine. We also used our paypal account a lot to make online payments without always having to fill in our bank details.
• When you make online payments on a wifi you don’t know, it is always better to use a VPN to secure your connection.
• We always had a certain amount of money in Dollars (like $3-400) hidden in different places for emergencies (in a secured travel-belt, in Fabienne’s bra and hidden in the bag).
• In many countries (Asia, Argentina…), local banks take a commission (fixed amount) for each withdrawal so it is better to withdraw more money less often than the other way around.
• Avoid changing money in small exchange stores (because they make their money by offering outrageous exchange rates) and withdraw money in local currency directly from ATMs.

Food: what to eat while traveling

Probably the thing you will do most often during your world tour and which will often be a source of pleasure, new flavours but sometimes also of some suffering 😉 Eat!

Befor leaving read a lot of advice on cleanliness, water, precautions to take to avoid getting sick… but once we were on the way, we forgot a little bit about it and ate what we had on hand 😉 . We tried to be open-minded to taste as much as possible without letting ourselves be discouraged by our cultural habits. The only thing we’ve been paying attention to is always going to eat if possible in places where there are people. Because if there are people, there is a flow of food, which is generally a good sign for the freshness of the food.

Obviously we also got sick once or twice… but it’s part of the trip and I doubt that even with a lot of care you can avoid all potential stomach disorders during your whole round the world trip;)

Visa requirements

Obtaining visas during a round-the-world trip will sometimes be a bit constraining, but overall we advise you not to worry too much about that because in most cases, you will be able to do them quietly during your trip when you arrive in the country. But here are some things you will need to think about when it comes to visas during the trip:

• You will obviously need a valid passport to apply for visas….
• In many cases, you will be able to make your visas along the way when you arrive in the country (at the border). But there are some countries like China (or Russia) where it is much more complicated to get a visa “on the spot” (sometimes event impossible). You are therefore advised to inquire about visas that may potentially be problematic during your trip
• Corruption is common at border crossings in Asia (particularly at the Laos-Cambodia and Thailand-Cambodia borders). It is not uncommon for people to try to charge you $2 for a fake medical examination, $5 more than the official price for a visa etc… In these cases, you are simply advised to remain zen and firm on your position. Don’t forget you have time! 🙂 And if you want to read epic stories of these border crossings, come and read our article on the border crossing to get to Siem-reap.
• The price of visas will vary depending on the time you want to spend in the country (sometimes you can choose, sometimes not:)) and your nationality.

Internet while traveling

The Internet is now widely democratized and there are now very few countries where the Internet is really non-existent (in some countries like Burma or Bolivia it is certainly slow, but there is the Internet). Some of you may think I’m a little paranoid, but I think it’s important to be able to secure your Internet connection when travelling for several reaso

• During your trip, you will sometimes have to make online payments on dubious wifi networks (airports, cafés etc…) In these cases, you will be happy to be able to secure your connection to avoid that someone malicious intercepts your logins.
• You may travel to countries like China or to a lesser extent Vietnam and Turkey where the Internet is heavily censored. For example, in China it is impossible to access facebook or google directly without securing your connection.
• You may sometimes want to access content that is only accessible from a specific country (video, tv etc…)

The Internet is now widely democratized and there are now very few countries where the Internet is really non-existent (in some countries like Burma or Bolivia it is certainly slow, but there is the Internet). Some of you may think I’m a little paranoid, but I think it’s important to be able to secure your Internet connection when travelling for several reaso

For all these different cases, the solution is to subscribe to a VPN for your trip. If you want more details on this subject and why a VPN solves all these problems, I recommend you to read this article. Otherwise you can subscribe to Express VPN (which we also use and pay for) which is one of the few VPNs that still works correctly in China for example.

Hiking and trekking around the world

You will have probably noticed it but we have become hiking addicts 🙂 (be it for one day or over more days with our tent)… and guess when we caught the virus??? During our round the world trip, of course 😉

To be honest, hiking is something that you’ll do almost naturally during a long-distance trip. We automatically walk a lot when we visit new places every day. So why not take it to the next level by doing trekking – multi-day hikes (and don’t think it’s so difficult… you don’t have to be an extreme adventurer to go hiking for several days).

Furthermore, walking allows you to discover a place gently and freely and very often far from the crowds. And since during a round the world trip you have time to embark on this kind of adventure, it would be silly not to give it a try 🙂

But we realize that starting the first time on a hike of several days with all your stuff on your back can be a little scary. So we have prepared a complete article on how to prepare an autonomous trek during your round the world trip. Otherwise you can also take a look at our gear when we hiked across Switzerland… it’s very similar.

And if it’s the bivouac that frightens you, we have also written a super complete guide about everything you need to know to leave for a bivouac adventure (equipment, respect for nature, advice etc…).

Learn a new language while traveling

After traveling 9 months through China and Southeast Asia, we were tired of not being able to talk to the locals (or only in English with people who wanted to try to sell us stuff;) ). So once we arrived on the South American continent, we decided to take the time to learn a little Spanish in order to have more contact with the locals. This decision was certainly one of the best of our round the world trip and changed a lot of things for the rest of our trip.

There are 2 ways to learn a language during a round the world trip:

1. You can learn by using a web service (site, application etc…) like Mosalingua. This will allow you to learn at your own pace during the trip on your computer or smartphone.
2. You could stop at a place to take language classes for a few weeks. For example, we rented an apartment in Quito for 2 months to take Spanish classes for 8 weeks. It allowed us to rest a little, get back to a pleasant routine for a while and above all to learn very quickly a solid base of Spanish that was very useful for the rest of our trip. We can only recommend it!

You will see that once you can speak a little bit of the language of the country in which you are travelling, the experience will be completely different.

Work and travel

Working around the world can also be a great way to finance or extend your trip. For example, many travellers take advantage of the fact that you can earn a lot of money in Australia to fill the bank account between Asia and South America. But of course with digitalization there is a growing list of jobs that allow you to travel while working a little. And as we are nice, we have prepared a small non-exhaustive list of jobs that allow you to travel right here.

Doing Laundry

We left for our trip full of good intentions with our multifunctional soap that could clean us as much as our clothes. So we certainly used this soap, but only once on our clothes ;). The thing is that there are so many cleaning services or washing machines available in the Guesthouse that we did our laundry by hand only once in the whole trip!

Obviously maybe you will have more courage than us but as far as we are concerned, we didn’t last long with the laundry in hand and we chose the 100% lazy option;)

Tips and tricks to take nice travel pictures

You have followed our advice above and found the right camera for you, here are some very simple tips to improve the quality of your photos based on our experience:

• Don’t be afraid of manual modes (PASM): The automatic mode of your camera will not always make the right choices for you. Take some time to fully understand the 3 fundamental components of photography (aperture, sensitivity and exposure time) and take control of your camera. The result will be even better.
• Get out in the morning and evening: The light after sunrise and just before sunset is warmer and softer which will enhance your photos.
• Think about the foreground: when you take a picture of a landscape, always try to add an element to the foreground that could enrich the picture.
• Do you want to take pretty pictures at night or of the Northern Lights? That’s good I wrote a full article on this subject 😉
• Theory is good, practice is even better: Take your camera out as often as possible, try it out, change your perspective, make mistakes… it’s still by practicing that you improve the fastest;)

Coming home after a long time on the roads

You have certainly already heard it or read it on the internet:

Going around the world is easy but it’s coming home that is difficult!

And yet I swear to you that for us the return was not that difficult. It’s all a question of state of mind! If you can keep the positive momentum you had while traveling, if you come back with lots of new projects and objectives, we are sure that the return from such a trip can be very well experienced.