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Plan Your RTW Around History’s Greatest Journeys

August 19th 2008 | Posted to: Travel Talk

One of the questions I often get from people starting to plan an around-the-world trip is “where should I go?” There are many ways to start to put together a trip:

  1. Get idea from your picture books in the library
  2. Paste a route together from the “classic routes” in the front of Lonely Planet Guides
  3. Think back to the “far away, exotic lands” you read about or the stunning articles you saw in National Geographic as a child
  4. Plan a route based on a theme (museums, tallest buildings, festivals)
  5. Grab inspiration from historic explorers

If you’re interested in in #5 this site (flash) might be of some help. It has potential to be much more than it is but it does give an overview of historic explorers’ routes like The Silk Road and Marco Polo’s route from Europe to Asia (two that I briefly followed). I wish more information was listed on the individual route pages but this is something to start with.

Comments

  1. Ant
    August 21st, 2008 | 4:12 am

    Or for shorter trips, follow Mother Nature’s tears;

    The Amazon: Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela
    The Ganges: Nepal, India and Bangladesh
    The Nile: Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea(!) and Kenya
    The Mississippi: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana
    The Mekong: China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
    The Danube: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine

    I could go on, but I’m getting a bit bored of Wikipedia!

  2. Megan
    August 26th, 2008 | 10:22 am

    Sure, there’s tons of possibilities. I like the idea of regional travel in following rivers as well.

  3. Malena
    August 27th, 2008 | 4:07 am

    I planned mine around candy :)

  4. Megan
    August 27th, 2008 | 10:50 am

    Then there’s you, of course, Malena!

  5. Emanuele
    September 8th, 2008 | 10:58 am

    Hey there, thanks for sharing that link! I’m planning a gap year myself and that site is very “inspirig” :-) also, I like your blog. Well done!

  6. Megan
    September 8th, 2008 | 4:50 pm

    E—
    I just found another link today. This is a Google Map with Marco Polo’s trip, check it out: marco…

  7. Emanuele
    September 9th, 2008 | 8:49 am

    Thank you! Actually looking up into google maps is another way to get ideas for travel itineraries. I have found a few users’ RTW routes…

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