We’ve been at this whole long-term independent travel game since 1998, and we have a whole slew of great resources to help you with your travels, no matter where you’re at in the process – dreaming, planning, on the road, or coming home.

We’ve also made lots of friends over the years who are experts at this type of travel, and we always love sharing awesome resources with you.

Here are our top resources – both from BootsnAll and around the interwebs – to help you get out on the road!

Inspiration to help you get out and go

1. Browse traveler profiles to see how other long-term travelers have made it happen, then fill one out yourself.

2. 11 Reasons to Take a RTW Trip – One of our most popular and shared articles of all time.

3. Why It’s Not Crazy for Working Professionals to Quit Their Jobs to Travel the World – This is the one to read if you’re nervous about quitting your job to travel.

4. Why Travel Long-Term? An Open Letter to Loved Ones – Worried about breaking the news to family and friends?

5. 21 Reasons to Travel Around the World with Kids…From Those Who Have Done It – Just because you have a family doesn’t mean you can’t travel long-term.

6. You Can Live a “Normal” Life and Travel, Too – This article from Amanda at A Dangerous Business explains that you don’t have to be rich or give everything up to have travel be a big part of your life.

7. Do You Want to Be Happy? – Jillian from i should log off wrote this post about how their decision to travel forced them to make a conscious decision to live a purposeful life.

8. On Taking Risks, Long-Term Travel and Finding your Path in Life – Jodi from Legal nomads has been a friend of BootsnAll for years now, and this article has a video of the speech she gave at the World Domination Summit a couple years ago. Jodi writes, “In telling my story I wanted to make it clear that I wasn’t encouraging people to change their lives in the same way, but rather to use my story as a prism through which they could see their own choices.”

9. Travel Inspiration: 21 Great YouTube Channels to Follow – Matt from Expert Vagabond put together this awesome list of YouTube channels to follow for travel inspiration. The vast majority of small operations that will certainly inspire you to get out on the road.

10. The Difference: Living Well vs. Doing Well – Rolf Potts wrote this guest post on Tim Ferris’ blog. The following quote says it all and encompasses why we urge you to take a big trip. Rolf writes, “The freedom to go vagabonding has never been determined by income level, but through simplicity — the conscious decision of how to use what income you have.”

11. Vagabonding – By Rolf Potts, this is the must-read book for any long-term traveler. If you don’t have it, buy it now.

12. Travel is Not as Expensive as you Think – Sherry Ott of Ott’s World and Meet, Plan, Go! wrote this article as part of our Plan Your Career Break in 30 Days program. It addresses what we’ve found out to be the biggest hurdle (and also biggest misconception) holding most people back from traveling long-term – that it’s too expensive.

13. 20 Things I Learned from Traveling Around the World – Clayton from Spartan Traveler wrote this awesome post about what he learned from his big trip. My favorite part? That he saved the funds to do it while only making $29,000USD a year, not exactly a doctor’s salary.

14. Female Solo Travel is NOT the Problem – This past year was a rough one for solo female travelers as a few isolated (and horrible) incidents made the news, which prompted articles and media stories suggesting that females should not travel alone. Stephanie from Twenty-Something Travel addresses these issues, writing, “There are a lot of problems evident here, but ladies wandering around unsupervised isn’t one of them.”

15. No More Excuses – Your Travel Resolution Starts Now – Tim Leffel, author of The World’s Cheapest Destinations, offers this post about “why these travel excuses are usually b.s.”

16. How Travel Saved our Marriage and Transformed Our Lives – Dave and Deb, our friends from who run The Planet D, write, “Before travel entered our lives, we were stuck in a rut. We had been together for nearly a decade and even though we still loved each other, we were beginning to drift apart.”

Tools to help you plan your trip

 

17. Indie – BootsnAll’s multi-stop flight booking engine is the only one of its kind that allows you to book a multi-stop trip over 5 legs completely online. Build, search, price, customize, and book your trip – all online – or get in touch with one of our experts.

18. Plan Your RTW Trip in 30 Days was launched last February and has quickly become our most popular planning tool. It’s a free email program that walks you through all the steps of planning a long-term trip (if you’re taking a career break, you can opt into the career break version on the sign-up page).

19. Plan Your RTW Trip in 30 Days – Family Edition – The same idea as above but for families. Friend, colleague, and long-term family travel (and education) expert Jenn Miller partnered with us on this project.

20. All the details on the different options of RTW plane tickets can be found in our free, downloadable Around the World Airfare Report. so you can compare apples to apples and make the best choice for your trip.

21. Travel insurance is a necessary evil of long-term travel planning. Learn about your options here.

22. BootsnAll International Travel Phone App – For some reason, using cell phones abroad can still be expensive, but this app makes it far easier and much cheaper.

23. The Recommended Travel Gear page has a list of our favorite travel clothing, footwear, gadgets, and gear with links to get them. These are the thing we travel with.

24. The Traveler’s Toolkit – If you’re a beginner in the world of travel, start here with our toolkit. Learn about things like accommodation options, browse through the travel health guide, find more out about teaching abroad, among a plethora of other resources.

25. Fluent in 3 Months – A huge part of travel is being in countries where your native language isn’t spoken. Speaking the native tongue will open so many doors for you, and Benny’s site is the one to go to if you want to learn a new language.

Travel planning articles

26. Check out our RTW FAQ section to get answers to all your questions about planning.

27. Or check out the longer version of our FAQ’s in our epic 7-step planning guide. Find out all there is to know about planning a RTW trip.

28. The Ultimate Guide to Packing for a RTW Trip has boatloads of suggestions and downloadable packings lists for both men and women.

29. Read about the differences between multi-stop plane tickets and point to point to tickets.

30. We also weigh in on how much you should plan your trip vs. leaving it up to spontaneity.

31. Round the World Wednesday – For over two years now we’ve been publishing articles on Wednesday as part of our RTW Wednesday series. Check out every article here.

32. A Little Adrift’s Travel Planning Resources – Shannon, our friend who runs A Little Adrift, has one of the most comprehensive long-term travel resource page around. Tons of awesome articles and resources to help plan your trip.

33. The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook – If you’re planning on volunteering on your trip, check out Shannon’s (from above) book, which outlines all you need to know about this often confusing aspect of travel.

34. World Travel Resources – We have another resource from Jodi at Legal Nomads, as she has put together this awesome page about planning a long-term trip.

35. How to Pack Up and Prepare for Long-Term Travel – Caz and Craig from yTravelBlog “have relocated internationally 10 times, so preparing and packing for long-term travel is a fine art for us.” They just recently did it again, this time with 2 young daughters.

Money-saving and budget articles

36. Figure out how to fund your trip with our list of 28 ways to save money for your travels. You’ll be surprised how fast the savings add up from these little sacrifices.

37. The most important part of saving for a RTW trip is making it your top priority.

38. You may also need less than you think – find out how much money you really need to travel.

39. Travel Credit Cards are awesome to use when planning your trip. These recommended cards will help you get lots of free travel rewards.

40. Budget Your Trip – This travel budgeting tool is great for trying to figure out per day costs in the destinations you hope to visit.

41. Long-Term Travel Budget Planning Made Easy – Jeff from Career Break Secrets breaks down how he figured out a budget for his career break trip – usually one of the most challenging parts of planning a big trip.

42. 5 Things Financially You Should Do Before You Go Traveling – Angie and Jeremy from Living the Dream wrote this awesome post about getting your finances in order before you start traveling. Great tips and advice for those of you worried about finances.

Life on the road

43. Here are the signs that you want to stay a little longer in one place. And when you’re on an extended trip, you don’t have to!

44. Other times, the road may start calling you. It might be time to move on when you start falling into familiar routines and can recognize every face on the street.

45. Find out what travel burnout is and how to best deal with it.

46. You might also want to think about slowing down and renting an apartment at some point to really immerse yourself in the culture.

47. This would be a good time to take language classes

48. You could also get a job to make a few extra bucks.

49. Follow these tips to stay in shape on the road. Traveling isn’t an excuse to neglect your health and fitness.

50. Understand and deal with culture shock. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when you’ll get hit by culture shock. Travelers on an opened-ended trip, Audrey and Daniel of Uncornered Market share their tips for when you “hit the wall”.

51. 44 Little Travel Rules No One Tells You – From travel writer Robert Reid,  an awesome, funny, helpful list of 44 things you should probably remember while you’re on the road.

52. Educating kids on the road is huge part of long-term family travel. Jenn Miller, BootsnAll contributor and founder of The Edventure Project, outlines how she has been educating her four children on the road for the past 5+ years.

53. Lots of long-term travelers end up wanting to travel full-time. Friend Nora Dunn of The Professional Hobo has been traveling full time since 2007 and has a plethora of resources to help you out. Sign up for her free newsletter and get access to the 5-part guide How to Travel Full Time in a Financially Sustainable Way.

Easing back into life at home

54. Going through travel withdrawal? Lucy Corne can relate and shares some weird things she misses when she’s back at home.

55. After you settle down back home, wanderlust is going to hit again. Find out what the best ways of dealing with wanderlust now that you’re home.

56. Reverse culture shock is also a part of being home. Dealing with lack of free time is probably the worst part of reverse culture shock.

57. Elise from Positive World Travel wrote this post about coming back home to Australia after their trip. For her, “it has been some of the simplest things I had to get used to being back in Australia.”

58. Join the community and become a BootsnAll member. As a round-the-world traveler you’re now part of an elite club. Share your wealth of knowledge and help others plan their own trips.

Links to both help and entertain

60. No Baggage Challenge – See what happened when Rolf Pott’s took a RTW trip with absolutely no bags.

61. How I Travel – This popular interview series saw how people like Anthony Bourdain and Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler travel. Check out all 41 installments.

62. Top 106 Travel Books – This is a collection of our favorite travel books – if you’re looking to be inspired, learn something new about travel, or simply be entertained, you’ll find it on this list of 106 books.

63. Jennifer Miller – One of BootsnAll’s top contributors, Jennifer Miller has written 57 articles for us over the years and covers everything from family travel to educating on the road to cycling trips across Europe and everything in between. They’re consistently among our most read and shared articles. Check them out here.

64. Vagablogging – Rolf Potts’ website is chock full of awesome stories and resources that are both helpful and entertaining.

65. Sign up for one of our newsletters – We have three newsletters, each offering something unique, entertaining, and helpful for your trip planning.

Have any helpful links that we could add to this list? Comment below (and feel free to shamelessly help promote your work!)

 

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