Start With Your Why (Not Your Map)

Most people start planning a round-the-world trip by opening a map and pointing at places. That feels productive, but it leads to bloated itineraries that cost more, exhaust you faster, and leave you sprinting through cities you chose on a whim. Start differently.

Ask yourself what you actually want from this trip? What are you optimizing for, or how do you want to feel after?

Is it a career break where you slow down and live in a few places? A highlight reel of the cities you've always wanted to see? A food-focused crawl through Southeast Asia and Southern Europe? A spiritual reset where you sit still long enough to hear yourself think? Your answer shapes everything: how many stops, what pace, which ticket type, and how much it costs.

The biggest mistake we see at AirTreks is over-ambition. A traveler comes to us with 14 cities across 6 continents in 8 weeks. That's not a trip. It's a flight schedule with jet lag. The travelers who come home happiest are the ones who picked a theme and committed to it, even if it meant leaving entire continents for next time, and came back with memories and feelings that last a lifetime. You will not regret doing this trip on your deathbed.

We've been doing this for over 40 years. The pattern is clear. People who say "I want to understand Southeast Asia" come back transformed. People who say "I want to check off 20 countries" come back tired. There's nothing wrong with moving fast if that's genuinely your style. But be honest with yourself about what recharges you and what drains you, because a round-the-world trip will amplify both.

Here's a useful exercise. Write down three feelings you want to have during the trip. Not places. Feelings. "Awe" might point you toward Patagonia or the temples of Angkor Wat. "Freedom" might mean fewer bookings and more open days. "Connection" might mean staying in guesthouses instead of hotels, or spending a month in one city instead of a week in four. Once you name the feelings, the destinations start to pick themselves.

Choose Pillar Destinations

Once you know your why, pick pillar destinations, the places your trip would feel incomplete without. These are your anchors. Everything else gets built around them.

Pillar destinations matter for routing because they lock in the geographic shape of your trip. If your pillars are Tokyo, Bangkok, and Barcelona, you're looking at an eastward or westward loop through Asia and Europe. If Cape Town and Buenos Aires are on your list, that changes the geometry entirely. You're now dealing with Southern Hemisphere routing, which has fewer direct connections and different pricing dynamics.