When I first decided to take a gap year, I suddenly had a whole world of possibilities in front of me. There were so many places I wanted to visit, things I wanted to experience and countries I wanted to explore.
A whole year to travel! Surely that would be enough time to do everything?
Of course, reality eventually set in. Even with twelve months (or more) to travel, there’s no way to see everything. I needed to turn all those ideas into a realistic gap year itinerary, and I wasn’t quite sure where to start.
Unlike the traditional gap year taken by students before university, ours was an adult gap year. My husband Simon and I were taking time out to travel through Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and we wanted the freedom to explore without being tied to a strict schedule.
But we also needed some sort of plan. We had a budget to consider, visa restrictions to work around and a very long list of places we wanted to visit.
In this guide, I’ll take you through the steps I used to plan our gap year itinerary, from choosing destinations and checking visa requirements to deciding how much to book in advance.
I’ll also share how our plans actually worked out once we started travelling. Spoiler alert: our final itinerary looked quite different from the one I originally imagined!
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How to Plan a Gap Year Itinerary
The first thing to decide is how much of your gap year you want to plan before you leave.
There’s no right or wrong answer. Some people prefer to have their entire trip mapped out, with destinations, transport and accommodation organised months in advance.
Others are happy to book a flight to their first destination and work out the rest as they go, choosing where to travel next based on recommendations, people they meet or unexpected opportunities.
You might also consider an around-the-world airfare, which can offer good value if you already know your major destinations. These tickets generally have routing rules and conditions, though, so you’ll need to weigh up any savings against the flexibility you might lose.
For our gap year, I chose somewhere in the middle.
I’m naturally a planner. I love researching destinations and working out how everything fits together. But I also wanted the freedom to change our plans without worrying about cancelling bookings or losing money.
In fact, one of my personal challenges was to relax a little and not feel the need to control every detail!
I planned our first month quite extensively, with transport and accommodation booked in advance. After that, we had a rough idea of the regions we wanted to visit, but very little was set in stone.
And as you’ll see later, that flexibility turned out to be one of the best decisions we made.
Whether you’re planning three months, six months or a full year of travel, I’d recommend having at least a general idea of where you want to go, even if you don’t book everything in advance.
Here’s how I worked out our gap year route before we left home.
Decide on your Regions (or Countries)
One of the hardest parts of planning a gap year itinerary is accepting that even with a whole year to travel, you’re not going to see everything.
When you suddenly have months rather than weeks available, it’s tempting to put every country you’ve ever wanted to visit on your list. But unless you have an unlimited budget, travelling back and forth across the world isn’t particularly practical.
Flights between continents can quickly eat into your budget, and constantly moving between destinations can become exhausting.
A good starting point is to decide which regions of the world you want to explore.
You could spend an entire year travelling through Europe, Asia, Africa or the Americas and still only scratch the surface. Or you might prefer to divide your time between two or three regions.
For example, you could spend a few months in Central America, move on to Southeast Asia and finish with some time in Europe.
There’s no need to visit every continent just because you have a year available. Travelling more slowly through a smaller area can be both cheaper and more enjoyable.
For our gap year, we decided to concentrate on Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Our original idea was fairly simple: fly from Australia to Europe, then gradually make our way back towards home through the Middle East and Asia.
That gave us a general direction without committing us to particular countries or dates. It also meant we could make much of the journey overland, using trains and buses rather than flying between every destination.
My advice: Start with the regions that interest you most, rather than trying to squeeze in as many countries as possible. You can always save the others for another trip.
Work Out Your Gap Year Budget
Your budget will have a big influence on where you go, how long you stay and how quickly you travel.
One advantage of planning a gap year is that you can balance expensive destinations with places where your money goes further.
For example, you might spend a few weeks travelling through Western Europe, followed by several months in Southeast Asia, where accommodation, transport and everyday expenses can be considerably cheaper.
You might also decide to spend less time in expensive cities and more time exploring smaller towns or rural areas.
Travelling slowly can help keep costs down too. Staying somewhere for a week or a month rather than moving every couple of days means fewer transport expenses, and you may find better accommodation rates for longer stays.
Of course, there will also be experiences worth spending a little extra on. If there’s something I’ve always wanted to do, I’d rather save money elsewhere than miss out entirely.
Don’t forget bigger expenses such as long-distance flights, travel insurance, visas and special activities. I’d also recommend having a buffer for unexpected costs.
My advice: Work out a rough daily or monthly budget for each region, rather than assuming you’ll spend the same amount everywhere.
You don’t need an exact figure yet, but understanding which destinations are expensive will help you create an itinerary you can afford.
List All Potential Countries
Now that you’ve decided which regions you want to visit, it’s time to narrow things down to individual countries.
This is where I got out a world map and started making a list of all the countries along our potential route.
At this stage, don’t worry too much about whether you’ll visit every country. Just write down everywhere that interests you.
I also looked at places I could leave for another trip. For example, I deliberately left Spain off our gap year itinerary because I was hoping to return one day to walk the Camino de Santiago.
There was no point squeezing it into this trip when I already had a reason to visit in the future.
You might find it helpful to divide your destinations into three categories:
- Must-visit countries: Places you really don’t want to miss.
- Would-love-to-visit countries: Destinations you’d like to include if time and budget allow.
- Maybe countries: Places that interest you but aren’t a priority for this trip.
Don’t be surprised if your list is still far too long. Mine certainly was!
The next few steps will help you decide which countries are realistic options and which are better saved for another time.
Check Visa Requirements
One of the most important steps when planning a gap year itinerary is checking the visa requirements for every country you want to visit.
This was one of the first things that made me realise I couldn’t simply travel wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
As an Australian passport holder, I can visit many countries without applying for a visa in advance, but there are often restrictions on how long I can stay.
Europe was my biggest learning curve.
Before planning our gap year, I knew very little about the Schengen Area, which allows travel between many European countries without routine border checks.
What I hadn’t realised was that Australians can generally only spend 90 days in the Schengen Area within any rolling 180-day period without a visa. That’s 90 days across the entire area, not 90 days in each country.
I also discovered that the Schengen Area and the European Union aren’t the same thing. Switzerland is in Schengen but isn’t an EU member, while Ireland is in the EU but isn’t part of Schengen.
This made a big difference to our itinerary. We needed to work out which countries counted towards our 90 days and where we could travel outside the Schengen Area.
Schengen membership has changed since our trip. Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania have all joined, so these countries can no longer be used to spend time outside Schengen.
Europe has also introduced a digital Entry/Exit System (EES), and further entry requirements may be introduced. You can check the current rules, including information about calculating your permitted stay, on the Smartraveller Schengen guide.
Visa requirements also influenced which Asian countries made it onto our itinerary.
At the time, the Chinese visa application process was difficult to fit around our plans. We needed to arrange it before travelling, but the timing didn’t work with our proposed months in Europe.
In the end, I left China off the itinerary, along with Japan and South Korea, saving that part of Asia for another trip.
Things have changed since then. Eligible Australian passport holders can currently visit China visa-free for up to 30 days, with the arrangement confirmed until 31 December 2026. Check the current China travel advice before making plans.
Russia and Belarus were other countries I removed from our list because their visa processes seemed too complicated or expensive for the time we wanted to spend there. There are significant safety considerations for both destinations today, too.
My advice: Check visa requirements early, not just before departure.
Some countries require applications well in advance, others limit how long a visa remains valid after it’s issued, and some may require proof of onward travel.
If you’re planning to travel for many months, also check whether you can apply for visas while already overseas.
For Australians, Smartraveller is a good starting point, but always confirm entry requirements with the relevant country’s official immigration authority or embassy.
Check Government Safety Warnings
Another important step is checking the government travel warnings for your potential destinations.
Australia’s Smartraveller website provides advice about safety, security, health risks and local laws.
I’ve travelled to countries where the government warnings were higher than I expected, and my personal experiences have often been very positive. But that doesn’t mean the risks aren’t real, so I always check the advice before travelling.
Australia has four levels of travel advice:
- Level 1 – Exercise normal safety precautions: Use the same common sense you would at home.
- Level 2 – Exercise a high degree of caution: Be more alert to potential risks.
- Level 3 – Reconsider your need to travel: There are serious risks, and you should consider whether your trip is necessary.
- Level 4 – Do not travel: The risks are extreme, and the Australian Government advises against travelling there.
Everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to travel safety.
For me, a Level 4 warning is enough to remove a destination from my itinerary, particularly because of the potential implications for travel insurance.
It’s also important to look beyond a country’s overall warning.
Türkiye is a good example. During our gap year planning, I wanted to include Türkiye but decided to avoid higher-risk areas near its eastern borders.
Today, Smartraveller advises exercising a high degree of caution in Türkiye overall, but has higher warnings for certain southeastern provinces and areas near the Syrian border.
Travel warnings can change quickly, particularly in places experiencing political unrest, natural disasters or conflict.
My advice: Check the warnings when planning your itinerary, again before booking and regularly while travelling.
Don’t automatically rule out an entire country because of a warning affecting one region, but don’t ignore the advice either. Understand the risks and how they could affect your safety, transport plans or insurance.
Check Travel Insurance Requirements
Travel insurance might not be the most exciting part of planning a gap year, but it can have a surprisingly big impact on your itinerary and budget.
It certainly did for us!
When I was researching insurance, I discovered that the cost depended partly on which regions we planned to visit.
Our original itinerary included Morocco and Egypt, but adding Africa to our insurance policy almost doubled the premium.
For a short holiday, that extra cost might not have been such a big deal. But when you’re buying insurance for an entire year, it adds up.
In the end, I decided that a couple of weeks in Morocco and Egypt wasn’t worth the additional expense, so both countries came off our list.
North America would also have increased our premium considerably, although we’d already decided not to visit on this trip.
Insurance policies vary between providers. Some offer worldwide cover, while others divide destinations into regions, so it’s worth getting quotes before finalising your plans.
There are a few other things to consider when buying insurance for a gap year.
First, make sure the policy covers the entire length of your trip. Many annual multi-trip policies are designed for several shorter holidays, not one continuous year overseas.
You’ll also need to check whether activities such as hiking, skiing, scuba diving or riding a motorbike are covered.
And if you change your itinerary while travelling, make sure any new destinations are included in your policy.
Government travel warnings can also affect cover. Some policies exclude certain claims relating to travel against official advice, so read the conditions carefully.
For more information, take a look at the Smartraveller travel insurance guide.
My advice: Research travel insurance before finalising your gap year route. Understanding the costs and exclusions could influence which countries you decide to include.
Consider Local Events and Weather
Now that you’ve narrowed down your list of countries, it’s time to think about when you want to visit each one.
Are there festivals, celebrations or special events you’d love to experience?
Perhaps you’ve always wanted to visit Brazil for Carnival, experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans or attend a music festival somewhere along your route.
You might also have personal commitments, such as a wedding, Christmas with family or friends planning to meet you during your travels.
For our gap year, we had an event in Europe right at the beginning. That gave us a starting point and helped determine our direction of travel.
Weather is another important consideration, especially when travelling through several regions over many months.
Summer in Europe might sound ideal, but those same months can bring extreme heat to parts of the Middle East, making daytime sightseeing uncomfortable.
If seeing the Northern Lights is on your bucket list, you’ll need to visit somewhere with sufficiently dark nights, generally between autumn and early spring.
And if you’re visiting tropical destinations, it’s worth checking the monsoon seasons.
Personally, I don’t mind visiting Southeast Asia during the rainy season. In some places, the rain comes in a heavy afternoon downpour and then clears.
In others, though, the wet season can mean flooding, transport disruptions or rough seas.
You don’t necessarily need to visit every country during its ideal season. Sometimes shoulder-season travel means fewer tourists, lower accommodation prices and a more enjoyable experience.
My advice: Identify any fixed dates, then look at seasonal weather patterns to help work out the best order for visiting your destinations.
You might not get perfect weather everywhere, but a little research can help you avoid arriving somewhere at completely the wrong time.
Consider Your Bucket List
Are there any bucket list experiences you’d love to include in your gap year?
When you’re travelling for months rather than weeks, you have a fantastic opportunity to tick off some of those things you’ve always dreamed of doing.
Perhaps you want to see the Northern Lights, take a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia, walk on a glacier or go on an African safari.
Some experiences are available in several destinations, so you might be able to work them into your route without making a big detour.
For example:
- See the Northern Lights: Norway, Finland, Iceland or Alaska.
- Walk on a glacier: New Zealand, Iceland, Chile or Alaska.
- Take a hot air balloon ride: Türkiye, Tanzania or Australia.
- Go on a wildlife safari: Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa or Botswana.
- Sleep under the stars in the desert: Jordan, Morocco or the Australian Outback.
Research these experiences early because some are seasonal, need advance bookings or could have a significant impact on your budget.
Interestingly, many things on my own bucket list were in places we weren’t planning to visit.
Even though we were away for more than twelve months, I didn’t actually tick off as many as you might expect!
But that’s okay. A gap year doesn’t have to be about completing a list. Sometimes the unexpected experiences are just as memorable.
My advice: Choose a few bucket list experiences that really matter to you and use them to help shape your itinerary. Just don’t feel you need to squeeze everything into one trip.
Consider Your Travel Pace
One thing that’s easy to overlook when planning a gap year itinerary is how quickly you want to travel.
When you’re planning a two-week holiday, it’s tempting to fill every day with sightseeing. But travelling for six months or a year is completely different.
You simply can’t keep up that pace indefinitely without becoming exhausted.
There will be days when you don’t feel like visiting another museum, climbing another hill or spending hours on a train.
Sometimes you’ll just want to sleep in, catch up on laundry or spend an afternoon doing absolutely nothing.
And that’s okay!
One of the best things about long-term travel is having the luxury of time.
During our gap year, we had periods when we moved every day or two, particularly when our children were travelling with us.
But we also spent longer periods in one place, and I really appreciated being able to slow down.
Looking back, some of our busiest periods were the least enjoyable simply because we were trying to fit too much in.
I’d recommend building slower periods into your itinerary, even if you normally enjoy a busy holiday.
That might mean spending a week in one city, renting an apartment for a month or allowing an extra day or two between destinations.
My advice: Don’t measure the success of your gap year by how many countries you visit. Give yourself enough time to enjoy the places you’re in rather than constantly thinking about where you’re going next.
Decide on Your Gap Year Route
By now, you should have a clearer idea of where you want to go and which countries are realistic options.
You’ve considered visas, safety, insurance, weather, budget and special experiences. Hopefully, a general route is starting to take shape.
The next step is to work out the most practical and affordable order to visit your chosen destinations.
If you’re travelling through neighbouring countries, this might be straightforward. You can often travel overland by train or bus, which can be cheaper than flying and allows you to see more along the way.
But if you’re visiting several regions, it’s worth comparing the costs of travelling in different directions.
For example, imagine you’re starting in the USA and want to visit Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
You could travel from the USA to Australia and New Zealand, then continue to Southeast Asia. Or you could visit Southeast Asia first.
Depending on flight prices, seasons and available routes, one option might be considerably cheaper.
This is where I start researching flights, even if I’m not ready to book.
I also look at overland transport options. Sometimes a train or bus makes more sense than flying, particularly once you factor in airport transfers and waiting times.
For our trip, we had a general route through Europe, the Middle East and Asia, but deliberately left the details flexible.
We knew roughly where we wanted to go, but not necessarily when we’d get there or how long we’d stay.
My advice: Plan your overall direction of travel and research the major transport connections, but don’t feel you need to decide on every stop before leaving home.
Now You Have Your Gap Year Itinerary
Once you’ve worked out your route, it’s time to think about what you need to book before leaving.
How much you organise in advance depends on your travel style and how flexible you want to be.
If you’ve chosen an around-the-world airfare, you’ll need to plan your major flights in advance, although some tickets allow date changes subject to availability and conditions.
Alternatively, you might prefer to book individual flights as you go. This gives you more freedom, but can mean paying higher prices for last-minute bookings.
There are a few things I’d recommend organising before departure:
- Your first flight and accommodation: It’s nice to know where you’re going when you first arrive.
- Essential visas and entry authorisations: Some must be arranged before leaving home.
- Travel insurance: Make sure your cover starts when you need it.
- Major events or experiences: Book anything you’d be particularly disappointed to miss.
- Difficult transport connections: Research border crossings and routes where services are limited.
Also check whether your first destination requires proof of onward travel. Even if you intend to decide where to go next after arriving, you may need to demonstrate that you’ll leave within the permitted time.
If you’re taking an adult gap year, there may be commitments at home to consider too. You might need extended leave from work, arrangements for your house or a return trip for an important family event.
Your health is another consideration.
Check whether you need vaccinations, particularly as some require multiple doses or must be administered well before travel.
If you take regular medication, you’ll need to work out how to manage prescriptions while overseas. Some countries restrict certain medicines, and there may be limits on how much you can legally carry across borders.
You can find more information about travelling with medication and travel vaccinations on Smartraveller.
For our gap year, I booked the first month’s accommodation and transport because we were travelling with our children and wanted to make the most of their time in Europe.
After that, we had very few bookings in place. Most of the time, we organised our next destination only a few days before travelling.
That approach won’t suit everyone, but it worked well for us.
And remember, your gap year itinerary doesn’t have to be perfect before you leave home. It’s just a starting point.
As we discovered, even the best-laid plans can change considerably once you’re on the road!
Our 13-Month Gap Year Itinerary: What Actually Happened
Before leaving Australia, my original plan was to spend around two and a half months in Europe, another two and a half months in the Middle East and most of the remaining time in Asia.
As it turned out, that’s not quite how things happened!
For the first month, I’d booked all our accommodation and transport. Our children were travelling with us, and since they hadn’t really explored Europe before, we wanted to show them some of the major sights.
It was a whirlwind trip through Western Europe, visiting capital cities and ticking off famous attractions.
Once the children flew home from Rome, though, we had nothing booked.
I knew I wanted to explore Italy, and we’d arranged to meet a family member in Austria about six weeks later. So we spent those weeks travelling through Italy at our own pace.
After that, we mostly made things up as we went along, rarely booking more than a week in advance.
Occasionally, we’d commit to a date because we were meeting friends or needed to organise a longer journey, but mostly we enjoyed having no fixed schedule.
A few weeks later, we met friends in Prague, around day 90 of our trip. By then, we’d already spent longer in Europe than originally planned, and we were nowhere near leaving!
We continued into the Balkans, where we received a message from friends back home who were planning to visit Croatia.
Should we hang around until they arrived or continue towards Asia as we’d intended?
We decided to stay.
And I’m so glad we did, because it gave us the opportunity to explore several Balkan countries I knew very little about before our trip.
At the time, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania weren’t part of the Schengen Area, so travelling through those countries also helped us manage our permitted time in Europe.
Eventually, after five and a half months in Europe, we booked a flight from Dubrovnik to Istanbul.
We were finally moving on!
Our time in the Middle East ended up being much shorter than planned. One of our daughters joined us for part of it, and we enjoyed some downtime staying with a cousin in Dubai.
By this stage, we realised there was no way we could fit everything we’d hoped to see in Asia.
It was time to reassess the itinerary.
I reluctantly removed Central Asia from the list and spent quite a bit of time debating whether to visit India.
I’d originally wanted to spend several weeks exploring the country, but we simply didn’t have enough time left.
Since Sri Lanka was somewhere I really wanted to visit, we decided to include Goa and Kerala in southern India, giving us some time to relax before continuing our travels.
Then another opportunity came up.
We discovered an event back in Europe that we really wanted to attend towards the end of our trip.
We decided to fly back to Europe for a week before heading home. It was a huge detour, but we had enough flexibility to make it possible.
Except, of course, that one week turned into something much longer!
Friends invited us to visit them in the UK. Others suggested a road trip through France before the event. And then I started wondering whether we could return even earlier and try to see the Northern Lights.
Before we knew it, we’d added another two months in Europe.
In total, we spent around seven and a half months in Europe, rather than the two and a half months I’d originally planned!
Despite all the changes, we still followed our basic route through Europe, the Middle East and Asia, eventually travelling for 13 months and visiting 40 countries.
That might sound wonderful, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to visit quite so many countries in such a short time.
Our first month in Western Europe and another particularly busy month towards the end were exhausting. They were also among the most expensive parts of the trip.
We saw some incredible places, but oft