RTW Trip Planning
Planning your own RTW trip? Start with these posts:
– We answered your FAQs at the beginning of our trip.
– How we saved enough money for our RTW trip.
– Packing lists for men and women (with downloadable PDFs!).
– Our favorite items we packed for our RTW trip.
– A year-long countdown for what to do before starting your RTW trip.
All About That Money
Check out our Money & Budgeting page for more info on budgeting, including daily cost estimates for different countries around the world. We also recommend reading this helpful post on avoiding money mistakes while traveling (especially internationally).
Our favorite travel credit card: Chase Sapphire Reserve ($300 annual travel credit, no foreign transaction fee, 3x points on travel and dining, Priority Pass airport lounge access, rental car insurance)
Our favorite travel debit card: Charles Schwab High Yield Investor Checking Account (refunds your ATM fees at the end of each month)
We also highly recommend opening a high-yield savings account for your travel fund. This Nerd Wallet post was really helpful when we were deciding where to open our account. (Psst: High interest rates might be frustrating when you’re trying to borrow money, but when you’re trying to save, take advantage of higher interest rates on savings accounts!)
Find Flights
These are our favorite tools to find affordable flights. When possible, we book our actual flights directly with the airline, which often makes it easier to rebook or cancel if needed. (If you use a third-party website to book your flights, you’ll also have to go through them for any changes.)
Kayak — We primarily use Kayak to search for flights and car rentals. Its “Explore” feature offers many similar features to Skyscanner (see below).
Skyscanner — If you have flexible dates and/or destinations, use “Search Everywhere” to browse flights worldwide from your home airport.
Expedia — Another tool to search for the best deals on flights, as well as hotels, vacation packages and more travel purchases.
Find Accommodations
We typically search the following platforms when looking for lodging:
Expedia — You can search for hotels, flights and more on Expedia and earn “OneKeyCash” through their free rewards program to use for future travel.
Booking.com — Includes all types of lodging, e.g. hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and guesthouses. Once you’ve made a certain number of reservations, you also become a “Genius” member, which comes with an automatic discount off many accommodations plus perks like free breakfasts or room upgrades.
Hostelworld — Dorm beds and private rooms at hostels worldwide.
Find Things to Do
Honestly, we never have a problem finding things to do when we travel—the problem is deciding which things we’re going to do! After that decision is made, we often use Viator to book travel experiences including guided tours, cooking classes, outdoor excursions and more. We also often get great ideas from locals such as taxi drivers, tour guides, and hotel or restaurant staff.
Travel Gear
Our backpacks: Tortuga Outbreaker 35L for Megan and 45L for Jonathan (now the redesigned Travel Backpack).
We maintain a personal wishlist of items at REI.com and take advantage of their regular holiday sales and member coupons to stock up on high-quality gear for travel and outdoor adventures.
See our travel packing lists for specific product details and links.
Travel Insurance
Looking for travel insurance? First, check your credit card to see if it includes travel insurance. (Our Chase Sapphire Reserve card does!) For longer trips, we use World Nomads.
Other Travel Blogs We Love
Check out these travel blogs for more advice and resources:
Two Wandering Soles | We think Katie & Ben have a very similar travel style to us, so we’re always checking their recommendations for both international and domestic travel. They also recently had a child, so if you want to learn about traveling with a baby/toddler, they are a great resource!
Wander-Lush | Emily’s colorful and charming blog became our go-to website when traveling through the Caucasus and Southeast Asia, though there is content for other parts of the world, too.
Adventures of A+K | This is a great resource for U.S. travel, especially national parks and van life, though they have some international content as well.
Organized Adventurer | Sarah is one-half of an American couple that has completed two RTW trips. We actually met them on our own RTW trip–twice! They now live in Colorado and spend a lot of time exploring outdoor destinations in the U.S.
Hey Ciara | This solo female traveler has a fantastic Instagram with lots of great travel tips, especially for beginning travelers.
Adventurous Kate | One of the OG solo female travel bloggers. Content is mostly focused on Europe.
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