Our family left Canada almost a year ago on a trip around the world. So many great memories and experiences shared as a family. Exploring new places, going back to a few familiar spots, visiting family and making new friends. A journey of a lifetime that our family will cherish forever.
Early on in the trip, I found it difficult to keep up with the blogging about all the places we were going to on our rtw trip; the choice came down to either blogging or enjoying the moments with my husband and kids. From the lack of blog posts, you can see I choose to enjoy the moments! So as we get settled (somewhat) into a regular life I hope to share all our stories and update the below Trip Around the World Itinerary.
In case you didn’t follow us from the beginning, here is our Ulimate Around the World Itinerary.
What You'll Find in This Post
- Trip Around the World Itinerary
- United Kingdom – July 1 – 7
- France – July 7 – 23
- Spain – July 20
- Croatia – July 23 – August 9
- Italy – August 9 – 23
- Vatican – August 10
- Czech Republic – August 23 – 26
- Austria – August 26 – 29
- Hungary – August 29 – Sep 1
- Malta – September 1-14
- Bulgaria – September 14 – 17
- United Arab Emirates – September 17 – 28
- South Africa – September 28 – October 17
- Vietnam – October 18 – November 16
- Singapore – November 16 – 19
- Malaysia – November 19 – December 3
- Indonesia – December 3 – 29
- Thailand – December 29 – February 18
- Cambodia – February 18 – 23
- Australia – February 23 – March 28
- Vanuatu – April 2
- New Zealand – April 9 – May 13
- United States of America – May 13 – June 1
- Canada – June 1 – July 1
- RTW Travel Facts & Numbers:
- Around the World Itinerary Planning Tips
Trip Around the World Itinerary
United Kingdom – July 1 – 7
- London – 5 nights
- Cambridge – 2 nights
France – July 7 – 23
- Biarritz – 14 nights
- Toulouse – 2 nights
Spain – July 20
- San Sebastian – 1 day
Croatia – July 23 – August 9
Find out more details about our 16 days in Croatia with our itinerary here!
- Dubrovnik – 5 nights
- Split – 7 nights
- Hvar Island – 1 day
- Brac Island – 1 day
- Trogir – 1 day
- Krka National Park – 1 day
- Plitvice National Park – 3 nights
Italy – August 9 – 23
- Rome – 3 nights
- Civitanova del Sannio – 11 nights
Vatican – August 10
- Vatican City – 1 day
Czech Republic – August 23 – 26
- Prague – 3 nights
Austria – August 26 – 29
- Vienna – 3 nights
Hungary – August 29 – Sep 1
- Budapest – 3 nights
Malta – September 1-14
Find out all the things we did in Malta here!
- Bugibba – 14 nights
- Gozo – 1 day
- Valletta – 1 day
- Golden Bay – 1 day
- Blue Lagoon – 1 day
Bulgaria – September 14 – 17
- Sofia – 3 nights
United Arab Emirates – September 17 – 28
- Dubai – 5 nights
- Arabian Desert – 2 nights
- Abu Dhabi – 4 nights
South Africa – September 28 – October 17
- Cape Town – 12 nights
- Kruger National Park
- Ndabushi Safari Lodge – 4 nights
- Kambaku Safari Lodge – 2 nights
Vietnam – October 18 – November 16
Check out our 4-week Vietnam Itinerary here!
- Ho Chi Minh City – 5 nights
- Hanoi – 4 nights
- Halong Bay – 2 nights
- Hue – 3 nights
- Hoi An – 2 nights
- Da Nang – 1 night
- Mekong Delta – 2 nights
- Phu Quoc Island – 10 nights
Singapore – November 16 – 19
- Singapore – 3 nights
Malaysia – November 19 – December 3
- Langkawi Island – 14 nights
Indonesia – December 3 – 29
- Sanur, Bali – 26 nights
- Ubud – 1 day
- Kuta – 2 days
- Seminyak – 1 day
Thailand – December 29 – February 18
- Bangkok – 8 nights
- Phuket Island
- Kamala – 20 nights
- Karon – 9 nights
- Phi Phi Islands – 5 nights
- Krabi – 8 nights
Cambodia – February 18 – 23
- Siem Reap – 4 nights
Australia – February 23 – March 28
Check out our full post for all the details on our 4 weeks in Australia!
- Gold Coast – 5 nights
- Hervey Bay – 1 night
- Fraser Island – 2 nights
- Sunshine Coast – 3 nights
- Airlie Beach – 8 nights
- Whitsundays – 1 day
- Great Barrier Reef – 1 day
- Melbourne – 3 nights
- Great Ocean Road – 4 nights
- Lorne
- Apollo Bay
- Port Campbell
- Torquay
- Bondi Beach – 4 nights
- Sydney – 4 nights
Vanuatu – April 2
- 11-night South Pacific cruise leaving from Sydney – March 28 – April 8
- Vanuatu – 1 day
- Lifou, Loyalty Island – 1 day
- Noumea, New Caledonia – 1 day
New Zealand – April 9 – May 13
- 33-Day Campervan Trip – 1 Month South Island and North Island Itinerary
- South Island
- Christchurch – 1 night
- Lake Pukaki – 1 night
- Mount Cook – 1 night
- Wanaka – 2 nights
- Queenstown – 3 nights
- Milford Sound – 1 night
- Fox Glacier – 1 night
- Motuek – 3 nights
- Nelson – 1 night
- Picton – 1 night
- North Island
- Wellington – 1 night
- Greytown – 2 nights
- Taupo – 1 night
- Rotorua – 2 nights
- Waitomo – 1 night
- Hobbiton – 1 day
- Coromandel Penisula – 3 nights
- Russell – 3 nights
- Orewa – 1 night
- Auckland – 2 nights
United States of America – May 13 – June 1
- Houston, Texas – 19 nights
Canada – June 1 – July 1
- We visited more places in Saskatchewan and spent the summer boating and enjoying lake life on the praries.
RTW Travel Facts & Numbers:
- International Travel Dates – July 1, 2017 – June 1, 2018
- Countries Visited – 23
- Cities Visited – 81
- Continents Visited – 5
- Europe
- Africa
- Asia
- Australia
- North America
- Days Out of Canada – 336 days
- UNESCO sites – 28
- Transportation we took:
- Flights – 37
- Ferries – 7
- Trains – 4
- Car Rentals – 4
- Cruises – 2
- Campervan Rentals – 1
- Taxi/Uber/TukTuk/Trams/etc – Too many to count
- Places we slept:
- Apartment Rental – 154
- Hotel/Resort – 82
- Campervan – 33
- Family & Friends – 32
- Boats – 13
- Safari – 6
- Planes – 5
- Cabin/Cottage – 8
- Hostel – 3
- Quirky Information:
- Broken Glasses – 2
- Worn out Shoes & Sandles – 10
- Teeth Lost – 3
- Haircuts – 16
- Lost Wallet – 1
- Lost Luggage – 0
- Total Avg Weight Luggage – 62kg / 137lbs
Around the World Itinerary Planning Tips
The toughest part for me was when I started to plan the trip and how to travel around the world. I didn’t know anyone that had done an around the world trip before. I had no idea where to start and how to plan a trip around the world, so hopefully, a few tips below can get you started on the world trip planning!
- Check out our Pre Travel Checklist of Things to do Before Travelling for a Year!
- Set some clear expectations on what you want to get out of your trip around the world. We outlined what we thought would be our world trip success in here before we left so we always looked back to make sure our trip was aligned with these trip goals.
- Being from Canada we knew we wanted to follow the sun and stay in warm climates! This also helped with packing for a year too. So we spent a significant amount of time in Southeast Asia, both for the temperatures and also the cost helped stretch our budget for a year.
- We looked into RTW tickets (round the world flights) and we found they would have been cheaper if we knew what our exact route was going to be. But, we wanted to have the freedom of planning out our destinations 4-6 weeks out ahead of time.
- We also were open minded about if we needed to come back for any reason we would have only lost money for accommodations and flights for approximately 6 weeks.
- We found that three days in major city centers was the right amount of time for us. This would give us 2 full days of sightseeing and also helped with the budget since bigger cities generally cost more money.
- We found it useful to sometimes book half day tours or day tours to be able to see more within that timeframe and help with taking some planning away from us. We used Get Your Guide and Viator to book these tours and get some ideas.
- We really wanted to go to South America to reach our 6th continent on the trip, we researched into it a lot but we had a budget set aside for the trip and this was not going to fit it. So we decided that we could spend a month in New Zealand to extend our trip. We had to make adjustments with closer flights to keep on track with the budget. We generally used Skyscanner to help us search for destinations and compared flights to different locations with this tool.
- Staying longer in places was just simply cheaper, so if you can travel slower you will be able to save more money and travel longer.
- We used and stayed in Airbnb for most of our accommodations and overall was happy with the places we stayed at. This provided us with a home away from home feel that we needed being away for so long.
- A general guiding rule we had was anything less than 3 nights we would stay in a hotel. We used mostly Booking.com to book our hotel rooms.
- Be sure to have travel insurance for your rtw trip, we used World Nomads and was extremely happy with their services. We had to extend our coverage to the United States (as that was not originally part of the plan), and making the changes with World Nomads was extremely easy! You can read our ENTIRE review of the family travel insurance in this post here.
- Schooling for kids was a big item for us to sort out. I worked through the kids school plans for our world trip in detail and outlined their worldschool program here.
- Pre planning for this trip around the world took approximately 1 year to put everything together and prepare to be gone from our regular life. Although, the saving for the trip took alot longer, you can check out more details on how we saved for the trip.
- We started itinerary planning for our world travel with our family bucket list and mapped out the tentative travel routes with the months of the year.
- For the first destination on our round the world trip we chose was London. This was to help transition our kids into traveling fulltime and ease their way into it with same language, adjust to different time zone and slowly get our kids into the rhythm.
- Don’t take anything for granted! Be in the moment and truly enjoy you are going to travel around the world! This was my dream and I learned so much by travelling with my kids and this was our tour of the world together!
Looking for more inspiration? Check out some of our favourite family travel quotes here!
Nat says
Wow! What a journey! It is a lifetime experience for the kids for sure! Interesting to know what were their favourite places and the most memorable moments of the trip.
The Passport Kids says
Hi Nat – An amazing lifetime experience for our entire family. Everyone has their favourite or special moments it is tough to pick just one. I think for me it had to be the safari in South Africa… it was everything that I imagine and more. Just so different than anything like our typical lives in Canada and I am a wilderness gal :) I am going to be getting more blog posts up about our trip now that we are getting back to a “regular” type life and we will share more about our moments! Thanks for following along!
Kuheli says
Such a leap of faith to do this. And I am glad you chose not to blog while on the trip and just experience it. A year of travel is a lifetime of experiences. Please do let me know what’s the best age to do this. My son is 3 and I would love to do if not a year then 6 months of travel.
The Passport Kids says
Thanks so much for the support and understanding. To me, it was about enjoying the moments… I won’t ever get those moments back and will never regret that decision. To be honest, any age is the best age. I think it would be different experiences with every age, the most important part is really to just go and do it! You’ll know in your heart when the right time is, but regardless spending time with your son and exploring the world will be remarkable! Best of luck and please let me know when you go! I would love to hear when and where :)