The Plan of Our World Trip

It was a slow process. Between the noise of everyday life, beach holidays, city trips, hikes, family visits and work, it wasn’t easy to develop a clear vision of a dream we both shared. After years of planning, discussing, restarting and reshaping our ideas, we finally had a fairly clear vision of a trip around the world.

Changes – both intentional and unexpected – in our personal and professional lives eventually led us to September 2026. We saved enough to leave our jobs, gave up our apartment, said goodbye to colleagues, friends and family, and made the decision to set off on what we truly believe will be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure: a journey around the Earth.

Over the years, we deliberately passed up several opportunities to visit Asia and South America, because we wanted to make them part of this journey. Fitting Argentina, let alone Australia or New Zealand, into a two-week holiday simply didn’t make sense. They are far away and expensive to reach, so we wanted to make the journey worthwhile.

We’re not looking for luxury, but neither do we want to travel on the absolute minimum budget. A simple hotel room or rental apartment is perfectly fine, but we’re just as happy with a hostel dorm or a capsule hotel. We love food and discovering local cuisines, but it certainly doesn’t have to come from a Michelin-starred restaurant. One thing we know for sure: we want to travel overland as much as reasonably possible, and we won’t be flying business or first class.

We’ll start in mid-September in Türkiye, followed by a few days in Azerbaijan.

From there, we’ll head to Central Asia, where we plan to spend around two months exploring Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Around mid-December, we’ll arrive in Novosibirsk, Russia, and travel by train to Lake Baikal, before continuing on to Mongolia for a shorter stay.

After spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve in South Korea, we’ll spend the rest of January travelling through Japan.

From the beginning of February until July, we plan to explore the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

After that, we’ll head south to Australia, the islands of Oceania and, finally, one of our biggest travel dreams: New Zealand.

Around October, we plan to reach South America from the east. We’ll explore as many countries as we can, starting with Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. From Bolivia, in the heart of the continent, we’ll continue north through Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, eventually finishing our journey in Brazil.

That’s the plan, at least. Who knows how much of it we’ll actually manage to do? We’ll do our best – promise.