Planning a long multi-country trip? Follow this simple and easy guide that will help you whether you’re visiting one country or multiple countries!

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Planning a trip can be super exciting and it can also be super daunting. If you are somebody who loves to plan in general, you’ll definitely have an easier time planning a massive trip than someone who doesn’t.  

Either way, I’ve come up with an easy step by step guide on planning a long multi-Country trip.  

After planning my own super long multi-destination trip, I think I have a pretty good grasp on what is needed to make the planning stages as easy and as uncomplicated as it can be.  

Even if you decide to go to only one country, you can still follow the steps outlined in this post and simply nix the ones not needed.  

11 Tips to plan your next long multi-country trip

1.  Decide where you want to go.

Ah, the start of planning a trip, it’s so exhilarating!  

You fantasize about the different places you want to go, all the culture you’re going to take in, and the beautiful pictures that will fill up your camera roll. It’s so freakin’ exciting.  

But this first step is where you have to reel all that excitement in and really figure out exactly where you want to go.  

Are you going to visit one place or multiple?  

Either create a list or a folder on your computer. A google doc or spreadsheet can also work beautifully for this especially if you are traveling with a group.  

Note all the countries you’re thinking of traveling to, then do a bit of research on each one to see the different things offered in each country.  

After you’ve jotted down all the things (pros and cons included), you can begin to eliminate the countries that are no longer appealing for this trip, or on the contrary, add other countries that have become appealing.  

What you should have left are the Countries/Cities you really want to visit.  

When my group of gals were planning our trip to Southeast Asia, we had only nailed down Thailand. After some research, we decided to add on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos since all the countries were all very close together. They also all had some amazing experiences to offer and traveling in between them was fairly inexpensive.  

I also decided to add on Bali, Australia, and New Zealand as I would already be down on that side of the world and wouldn’t know if I’d have that opportunity again. I traveled that leg of the trip with my boyfriend when my friends all flew home.  

You can read my quick recap of my amazingly massive trip here!

2. Once you know where you want to go, figure out how much time you will be traveling for in total.  

For myself, I tried to get the most time possible off work, and I stretched that time off as far as I was able to.  

I had originally planned to leave Feb 14 and come back on April 27th. However, my manager said the absolute furthest he could stretch my time off to was the 18th.  

I HAD to be back to work the 19th or I’d (most likely) be written up.  

While I wouldn’t have minded a write up if it let me travel till the end of my intended date, I knew he was already being super generous in the time he was allowing me to be away from work.  

So I finalized my travel dates for the 14th of Feb till the 17th of April.  

I used a mixture of vacation days, sick days, personal days, and a leave of absence to make it all possible.  

Talk to your boss and determine how much time you yourself can get off. That will ultimately determine how long you will be able to travel.  

If you are self-employed and you don’t have to answer to anyone, we need to switch jobs because you can travel whenever you please.  

 

3. Figure out your start and end date and start looking for flights.

This step slightly overlaps the one above but just bear with me.  

When figuring out your exact dates, the cost of the flights on those days may determine what days you actually travel.  

The date can make a big difference in paying $800 for round trip flights, vs. $650. If you are able to be flexible with your travel dates then definitely keep an eye out for deals as you could save a good chunk of money simply by changing your dates.  

For others, like me, who have a strict time frame that they can travel in due to work, start checking flights early to get a feel for the pricing.  

Research to see what the average cost is for the return flight you’re looking at, and when the price drops, snatch up those tickets.  

They may not be the cheapest you can get them, but when you’re traveling with a strict timeline, you can’t really get around that.  

Also determine if you will be flying back from the same country you flew to, or if you will be returning from a different country.  

This is called a multi-flight ticket.  

For my trip, I used this option as I was flying to several different countries, the last one being New Zealand.  

It wasn’t feasible for me to fly back to Thailand and then to Toronto, so I chose the multi-flight option and flew back to Toronto from New Zealand.  

My total flight ended up costing me a whopping $1750 as opposed to my friends who paid $900 for their round trip flights to and from Bangkok.  

I like to track flight prices using services like Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak, and Hopper. Be sure to visit my travel resources page to see all the different services that will make your trip planning experience even easier.

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Related: My end of year travel recap

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4. Decide how much time you will spend in each place.  

Now that you know just how long you will be traveling, you need to figure out how much time you will be spending in each place.  

How many countries are you visiting, how much time do you need in each one to soak up the culture, sightsee, experience the food, and do as many fun activities as possible?  

Don’t forget to factor in the travel time between each country or city you’ll be stepping foot in.  

Take into consideration the different activities you may want to partake in.

If you are traveling for a very long time, you should also definitely consider scheduling a rest day in each country so you don’t burn out.  

 

5. Look for accommodations.  

Are you going to stay in hotels, Airbnb’s, or hostels? Maybe you’ll mix it up and stay in a few different types of accommodations.  

This is where you’ll need to take a look at your budget and decide how much you’re willing to spend on the place where you’ll be sleeping and sometimes eating.  

Decide if you’re going to go cheap at the beginning by staying in hostels or Airbnb’s and then splurge towards the end of your trip and stay in a nice hotel.  

Throughout my trip, we stayed in cheaper priced Airbnb’s, and then for the last week, we went all out and stayed in a beautiful hotel in Aonang and then a penthouse Airbnb in Phuket.  

Because it was in Southeast Asia, we were still able to stay in beautiful places without breaking the bank.  

 

6. Decide on your budget.  

For some people, this step might be a little earlier in the planning steps. This step may also be a lot more difficult to figure out.  

I know for myself, it was super hard finding and sticking to a budget. And I definitely paid for it later on in my travels. 

So far, you’ve paid for your flight, you know what countries/cities you’re traveling to, and you know how long you’ll be traveling for. Now you need to determine how much money you want to be spending each day or in each country.  

This is more research comes into play.

Find out how much things typically cost where you’ll be visiting. What is the average price of a meal, drinks, activities, transportation, etc?  

Make note of it all and come up with that final number. Once you have it, try to stick to your budget as much as you can. If you see yourself going above in one country, know that you’ll have to cut back in others to keep on track.  

Take it from me who went way over budget in Southeast Asia and had to bum off my boyfriend towards the end of our trip while in New Zealand because I ran out of money.  

Trust me it’s not fun.  

I was lucky enough to be traveling with someone but if you are traveling solo, you may not have anyone to fall back on.  

So keep your wallet tight and you’ll be just fine.  

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Related: My top 11 travel mishaps of 2019

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  7. Plan activities

What kinds of activities are offered in that country, what is it known for?  

Utilize sources like Airbnb experiences or with locals and book an activity or excursion with the locals for an enriching and authentic-time.  

You can also scour other sources like google, trip advisor, blogs and good ol’ Instagram to see what others did during their time in the country you’ll be visiting.  

In Vietnam, we went on a walking food tour around Hanoi using the app With Locals. We got to experience some awesome food we may have otherwise missed had we gone out alone.  

We also went on a boat cruise around Halong Bay which was such an awesome experience and made our time in Vietnam so memorable.  

In Cambodia, we visited Angkor Wat and the genocide museum as they are musts when traveling through the country. They are unique to Cambodia and experiences we could only get there.  

 

8. Start saving!

This one should be easy right?  

Wrong.  

Sometimes we think we’ll have enough time to save but don’t factor in our monthly expenses that we still have to keep up with.  

The easiest way to start saving for a big trip is to set aside money each paycheck.  

Start this as soon as you decide that you will be taking this trip and your life will be so much easier. 

It’s much better to put a little away every two weeks, instead of throwing a large sum of money at your trip all at once.  

It’ll hurt a lot less too. Trust me.  

If you are someone who enjoys eating out daily or getting that Starbucks drink every day, consider cutting these out for a while.  

Calculate how much you spend on these things a week and you just might be surprised how much you’re actually spending. This is good money that could be used towards your trip, so think about packing a lunch and making your coffee at home.  

The biggest tip I can give to you here is to save however much you’ve budgeted that this trip will cost you, and then save a couple hundred dollars more.  

Save yourself any heartache and headaches you may experience later on when you realize you didn’t actually save enough money.  

There are always unexpected costs that come up when you’re away.  

They’re inevitable.  

Also, you may just want to splurge in one country, you know, treat yourself. So make sure to give yourself (and your wallet) enough wiggle room to do so.  

 

9. Choose how you will travel from one country to the next.  

Will you fly in between destinations, or does it make more sense money-wise to take a train or a bus?  

Check the climate.

If you’re traveling in between super hot countries, is an unairconditioned bus really how you want to travel? Maybe not.  

There are several different types of transport you can take advantage of though. So weigh all the pros and cons, check your budget to see how much you can get away with and book your tickets in advance to save you time and money later on.  

 

10. Pack  

Depending on where you’re going may determine whether you’ll take a suitcase or a backpacking pack.  

Because of the number of places we were going and not knowing what the terrain would be like, we decided to take oversized backpacks to make our lives easier.  

This also meant packing less stuff because we would be carrying everything on our backs.  

My girls and I decided to twin and get the same backpack because the price was good and it came with an extra pack that could be used as a carry-on and/or a day pack. It also opened up like a suitcase which was a feature I absolutely loved for the ease of getting stuff out of it without having to struggle.  

I got my pack from MEC. You can check out the very one I got here.

Now, I have always been a last-minute packer.  

I usually start my “what to bring lists” early, but the actual act of packing generally happens the night before I leave.  

For this massive trip where I would be gone for the better part of 2 months, I was not taking any chances. I started packing about 4 days before our departure date, and a few days before that, I had already started putting aside clothing options, toiletries, and necessities.  

Lists will be your best friend when it comes to packing.  

Start early, research exactly what you’ll need, what the weather will be like and start compiling your lists early on. You may add things daily and you may subtract things you actually don’t need later on.  

Your next best friend will be packing cubes.  

People packing cubes are life!!  

You can pack so much more into these things, and it organizes your items perfectly making your life so much easier.  

By having one cube for t-shirts, another cube for shorts and pants, and one for underwear, etc., you don’t have to dig around trying to find what you’re looking for and it keeps your pack super organized.  

I got these ones from Amazon.

 

11. Travel insurance

I am totally guilty of not getting travel insurance in the past.  

In my mind things would always work out, even if I got sick, you better believe I would still be going on my trip.  

I thought this way right up until my unfortunate incident when I was supposed to travel to France and the airline suddenly went under the day I was leaving.  

After that terrible day, I vowed never to book a trip without travel insurance again.  

I did a lot of research and comparisons and World Nomads travel insurance seemed to give me the most bang for my buck. It wasn’t crazy expensive like some other insurance packages I’d seen and they had really good coverage.

I also loved the fact that they donate some of their proceeds to charity when you book with them.  

Definitely check out World Nomads for your next trip.  

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And that brings me to the end of this list.  

I sincerely hope these tips help you plan out your next big adventure. Just make note that no matter how much you plan something, right down to the letter, some things may still go wrong.  

Did I just freak you out a little?

Haha, really it is okay!

Take a deep breath. It’s all part of the experience.

The things bound to go wrong are usually small little things that you can easily fix and take care of.  And if you’re prepared then it should definitely be easy to do.

As long as you stay open to new experiences, trust me, you will have an amazing time.  

Hiccups, mishaps, or not.  

So start planning your trip early, remember thatlists are life, and just have fun.  

Until next time, Stay blessed ♡  

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I do believe it’s time for another adventure!

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