GoRoundTheWorld.com - RTW Round-the-World Travel - Types of RTW Travel for the RTW Traveler

RTW Independent Travel Planning

What is meant by “independent” travel? An “Independent” traveler is one who researches destinations which are of interest to him or her, books many of their own plane, train, bus, car, and hotel reservations, and maps out most of an itinerary on their own. The independent traveler handles all aspects of his or her own travel from soup to nuts. They are rewarded with the knowledge they gain from doing all their own research and with the satisfaction of seeing to completion a significant personal accomplishment.

On the other hand, the research required in planning independent travel requires a lot of lead time and effort. For a trip of one year, it takes about six months of lead time to prepare. One must first decide on the destinations one is interested in, which takes a surprisingly significant amount time, and then one must coordinate the seemingly endless number of details that come up for properly preparing an RTW trip - one must plan ahead for visas, vaccinations, insurance, bill payment, tax preparation, and more. As one gets further into preparing for their initial departure, they find that the list of seemingly minor details which need to be addressed has grown. When planning how to have mail handled while you are overseas, you will realize that you may need a temporary mailbox and you will need to arrange for a friend to receive and sort through your mail. So while the “make arrangements for mail” line on your checklist may have been crossed off, you will have added two more lines - “find friend who agrees to handle mail” and “look into arranging for a temporary mailbox”.

Independent travel planning is extremely rewarding and, through the research and planning involved, will make you aware of many nuances and customs in the countries you are planning to visit which you might otherwise never realize. It will also allow you the opportunity to meet more people and to make more friends during your journey. Instead of being shuttled from one location to another in a caravan, you will be sitting alone, or with your travel partner, possibly on an overnight train or on a local city bus. Whatever the case, you will find yourself talking to other independent travelers like yourself, having some laughs, and making new friends.

There are plenty of resources available to help independent travelers find specific information on destinations they are interested in:

Rough Guides

Lonely Planet Books and Travel Guides

Fodor’s Travel Guides

Michelin Travel Guides

I am an independent traveler, and GoRoundTheWorld.com was designed with the independent traveler in mind. I invite you to use my website as an overall guide for planning your first RTW trip. I will show you how to approach your trip, where good sources of information are located, and what pitfalls to avoid. Now, go ahead and live your dream!