Planning the Itinerary

You’d think that in a year you could hit just about every interesting place in the world.

Alas, not so.

With well over 200 countries on the globe, and many with enough interesting things to see to keep you occupied for months, even a year-long trip requires some major decisions.

Plus, there’s the weather, visa issues, access, cost, safety and a whole host of other considerations. Thailand’s beaches may be awesome, but not during the monsoon season. France may have the Louvre, but it’s ridiculously expensive and crowded in July. Libya may sound fascinating, but will they issue a visa to Americans? Easter Island may look really cool in pictures, but it’s also out in the middle of nowhere. Ghana is supposedly one of the friendliest of African countries, but you have to have a yellow fever vaccination to enter. Iran…well, maybe not Iran.

So planning the right trip, in the right order, is something of a logistical challenge. Here’s how I approached the task:

1. First, I wrote down all the countries that I really, really wanted to visit. And the countries next to those that looked interesting. Threw them into an Excel spreadsheet, sorted by continent.
2. Next, I went to the Lonely Planet website and wrote in next to each of those what the ideal months of the year are to visit, as well as the months where it’s best NOT to visit.
3. Since round-the-world airfares usually only work in one direction (west to east or east to west–you can’t jump back and forth between the same continents), I determined the order in which I had to visit the regions in order to visit the most number of countries on my list during favorable times of year.

With a mid-November departure, this meant that I ideally had to hit southeast Asia, northern India, and western Africa by the end of February, when weather conditions in these regions are optimal. Therefore, traveling east to west, starting in southeast Asia.

It also meant dropping some destinations. No time for island hopping in the Pacific. The Australian continent was out. As was any south African destination.

Europe is a tricky continent, at least if you’re budget-conscious. Winter is cheaper, but not great for most activities. Summer, as I mentioned, is both a madhouse and budget-killer. So visiting the popular western European countries during the shoulder season of April and early May made the most sense. Throw north Africa in between west Africa and Europe and the schedule works.

July and August are peak tourism months, so I picked less-visited spots there, with the ex-Soviet states of Armenia, Georgia and neighbors. And while Brazil may be a hotspot during our winter, by virtue of being on the other side of the equator August is their winter, therefore less crowded and actually a better time to visit the Amazon.

Thus the general outline of the itinerary was born. Next up: plane tickets.