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Originally Posted by worth
Anyone have any tips for me?
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There are many travelogue websites (mostly dating mid 90's to early 2000's) on the internet that you can find and get advice and inspiration from. The Great Out There (
http://www.gonewalkabout.com/got/) is what got me started years ago; Marie's World Tour (
http://www.mariesworldtour.com/) was (originally in 2001) done entirely overland; 2 Go Global (
http://www.2goglobal.com/) was a massive RTW trip that made me realize it was, indeed, possible to travel for a very long time; Mike Pugh's Vagabonding (
http://www.vagabonding.com/), while not a pure RTW, has fantastic videos, photos, and commentary from his travels during the early 2000s. Search around and you'll find plenty of information on how to do your trip. Long term traveling now is--more or less--much easier than it was a decade ago.
That all being said, here's my advice:
Pack so that all of your belongings fit into a carry-on sized backpack (or roller).
Get an ATM card that allows you to withdraw cash worldwide for free (Schwab offers such a card to USA-ers; they might offer a similar one to those outside of the US).
Don't plan any specific part of your trip too far in advance; you may fall in love with a particular area and just feel like settling down there for a few weeks.
Expect to get sick a lot...and expect to get bored at times, wonder why you thought taking off was such a great idea, and decline the opportunity to visit some sight that many have saved months for to see. 9 months of continual around-the-world travel was enough for me. You may have a longer or shorter timespan.
Once you have your list of everywhere you absolutely want to see and everywhere you'd like to see, try to plot a route that takes into account the weather and tourist seasons. Best case is that you visit everywhere during the shoulder seasons. Planning the route to hit that window of time in each place is hard, but can save you money and sanity in the end, since accommodations are usually more expensive during the high seasons (and there are a lot more tourists to deal with too).
If you haven't done a lot of foreign travel before, it might be smart to start off somewhere that is somewhat like home and not too expensive. For that reason (and a few others) New Zealand is a common starting point for long-term travels. That way, you can learn how to deal with extended travelling without language barriers and without it costing too much each day.
Take a journal and write in it every night. I kept a daily record of what I did each day, what I saw, and how much I spent. Over time, the trip will blur together and you'll forget a lot unless you write it down.
In hostels (and elsewhere), you'll likely run into someone who has been to a lot of places but doesn't know much about what they've seen, and who likes to talk about everywhere they have been. Don't be that person. Slow your trip down; it is cheaper to travel slowly and it will likely be more rewarding as well.
Most of all, have fun and learn something about yourself and the world. You will probably return as a different person.