My Around the World Trip Itinerary: 28 Countries in 11 Months

In 2022 and 2023, I spent 11 months traveling around the world as a solo female traveler. This was the best thing I could have ever done for myself and I made enough memories to last a lifetime. If you are looking into long-term travel of any sorts or are planning your own around the world trip, hopefully my itinerary can give you some inspiration of how to go about it.

An Overview of my Around the World Trip

Duration: 11 months 

Countries: 28

Continents: 4

Flights: 35

My Around the World Itinerary

I left on May 25th of 2022 and knew that I wanted to have my European summer. I didn’t necessarily have a country I was dying to start in but when I found a $200 direct flight to Madrid out of JFK, I knew I couldn’t pass up that price. On May 25th, I flew to JFK at 7am, headed into Brooklyn for a few hours, headed back to JFK, and flew out to Madrid that evening. 

I’m going to call this section my summer in Europe. I didn’t know my travel style yet and really raced through Europe to see as many of the major cities as possible. In hindsight, I wish I had spent more time exploring each country instead of its major cities but that just means I’ll have to head back to some of my favorite places and explore them a little more in depth.

I spent this portion of my trip with a few of my college roommates. We took lots of day trips and in Spain we actually stayed in Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia and in France we only stayed in Marseille and Nice. 

Czechia, Germany, and Austria: June 13th-July 3rd

Prague

Munich

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Salzburg 

Bad Gastein 

Innsbruck

This was where my solo journey truly started. My best friend met me in Prague straight after I finished up in France and we spent about 5 days together. My first uh-oh of my journey also happened in this section. During a night out in Prague, my wallet got stolen and I didn’t even notice until I went to pull cash out of an ATM the next evening. Luckily, Europe is super big on tap-to-pay and if you cancel the physical card, you can still use your Apple Wallet. My dad was meeting me in Italy in a few weeks as well so I shipped all the new cards to him and the issue was resolved as seamlessly as possible.

Italy: July 3rd- July 15th

Milan

Venice

The Vatican

Tuscany (Florence, Montelpuciano, Cortona) 

Rome

My dad and step-mom met me for this jam-packed 12 days in Italy. We had an absolute blast and it was so nice to be reunited with some family after having been gone for over a month. 

Krakow, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Ljubljana: July 15th-August 1st

Let me reiterate how quickly I was moving through Europe. I spent a few nights in Krakow where I saw Harry Styles and got to take a tour of Auschwitz, headed back into Austria to see Vienna, took a day trip to Bratislava from Vienna, spent 5 nights in Budapest, and then a few nights in Ljubljana. This was where I truly started to get into the groove of solo travel. As silly as it may sound, going to that Harry Styles concert was a true testament to myself that I could do anything I wanted to. At home, I would have never showed up to a concert alone, let alone a Harry Styles concert, and I had an absolute blast. I also started coming out of my shell and was starting to make good friends from the hostels.

Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia: August 2nd- August 12th

Sarajevo

Mostar

Kotor

Dubrovnik

The best hostel I have ever stayed at happened to be in Mostar, Bosnia. This is also where I took my first overnight bus of my trip and it was not the best way to be introduced to overnight buses. We had to get off the bus twice in the middle of the night because of border control and the woman next to me kept falling asleep and banging her head on my shoulder… Needless to say it was a long night. I also added Croatia to this list because I spent the night there but I only went for the night because it was the cheapest way for me to get to my next country. 

Middle East

Turkey: August 12th- August 30th

Istanbul

Cappadocia (Goreme)

Antalya

Bodrum

Izmir

Heading off to Turkey was when the reality of my around the world trip really started to kick in. Because I had friends and family joining me throughout my Europe adventure, it kind of just felt like I was having a European summer. Heading into Turkey was my first “oh shit am I really doing this” moment. It also quickly became one of my favorite places in the world.

Africa

I was getting a little too bored and comfortable in Europe so I had called my friend Kristen up to see if she would be down to travel around Africa for a month with me. My sister also happened to be in-between jobs so I was able to have her come visit for 2 weeks as well. Some of my craziest stories stem from this “era” of my around the world trip.

South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe: August 31st-September 29th

Cape Town, South Africa

Stellenbosch, South Africa

Hermanus, South Africa

Mossel Bay, South Africa

Knysna, South Africa

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Clarens, South Africa

Kruger National Park, South Africa

Pretoria, South Africa

Maun, Botswana

Kasane, Botswana

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

I spent 5 nights solo in Cape Town, then headed to the airport to pick up Kristen and our rental car before we headed off to Stellenbosh. Our Airbnb there had wild zebras in the backyard and overlooked South Africa’s stunning wine region. My sister came in and met us there the next day before we headed off on our Garden Route adventure. We then drove from Port Elizabeth to Kruger (future blog post coming… I very very highly do NOT recommend doing this) where we spent 5 nights on safari. We then said goodbye to my sister and Kristen and I continued on our journey to Botswana and Zimbabwe. 

Asia Pt. 1

India and Nepal: September 30th-October 16th

Delhi, India

Kathmandu, Nepal

Everest Base Camp Trek, Nepal

I only ever count countries if I’ve at least spent a night there so India gets added to the list. Kristen and I flew to Delhi where we met up with her boyfriend before moving on to Nepal for the craziest idea I’d had yet- trekking to Everest Base Camp with zero training, zero trekking experience, and zero idea what I was getting myself into. 

UK and Ireland

Scotland: October 17th-October 30th

Oban

Isle of Skye

Loch Ness

Inverness

Fort William 

Edinburgh

A few months prior to this, I saw a TikTok of a girl saying she was heading to Scotland in October and to DM her if you would be there and want to meet up. I took this as “let me DM her and see if she’ll be there at the end of October when I finish up Everest and see if she’ll rent a car with me to roadtrip the Scottish Highlands.” Spoiler alert- she said yes! So I flew to Scotland to meet up with my newfound internet friend and hope she wasn’t a serial killer. Turns out she was amazing and we had such a great time. Shoutout internet friends. 

I also want to explain why I sort of started backtracking. My route up until this point had just been heading further East into the world. I had decided that I wanted to go home for Christmas so I backtracked back to the UK for 6 weeks before I did that. I also really wanted my mom to come meet me somewhere and this was way more feasible for her to get to and travel around than some of the other places I was looking into going after Nepal (I.e Egypt, Israel, or Jordan)

England: October 30th-November 8th

York

Bath

London

Oxford 

After a hectic almost 2 months in Africa and Nepal, being in the UK felt a little bit like a taste of home. It was so nice to be able to chill out a little bit and explore this part of the world with my mom on her first big international trip. 

Ireland: November 8th-November 18th

Kilkenny

Cobh

Kenmare

Ring of Kerry

Cliffs of Moher

Galway

Dublin

After Ireland, I flew to Chicago, visited with a friend for 2 nights, and then flew back to Atlanta for 5 weeks to be with family for Thanksgiving, a family wedding (the main reason I came back home) and Christmas. 

Oceania Pt. 1

December 31st-March 4th: Australia

Melbourne

Great Ocean Road Trip

Sydney

Byron Bay

Surfers Paradise

Brisbane

Noosa

Rainbow Beach

Fraser Island

Airlie Beach

Whitsundays

Magnetic Island

Mission Beach

Caines

Visiting Australia was not at all on my around the world trip bingo card. It had always been on my bucket list but when I left back in May, they had just reopened their borders and I didn’t think I would be able to swing it financially.  I was able to pick up some freelance work while I was home for the holidays which gave me the extra cash I needed to add this adventure on to my trip. I only intended on staying in Australia for 4 weeks… clearly that didn’t happen. I met the best people and truly had the best 2 months of my life there. I cried when I left- it was truly the first place I didn’t want to leave. 

Asia Pt. 2

Indonesia and Vietnam: March 4th-March 30th 

Canggu, Bali 

Ubud, Bali

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Hoi An, Vietnam

Phong Nha, Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

My time in Asia was a bit of a whirlwind and I definitely didn’t see as much as I had hoped to. Initially I was going to spend 4 full months in Asia but when I tacked on Australia, and literally couldn’t get myself to leave, that cut my time in Asia short by a ton. I also ended up meeting two girls in Australia to travel around my final country with, so I only had a small window to see Asia. Bali wasn’t my number one choice but it is the cheapest place in Asia to fly to out of Australia. I also didn’t see much in Bali because I was interviewing for a job while I was there so I stayed in Canggu for a long time to secure a private airbnb. 

I had a friend visit me in Vietnam and he only had 10 days to zip around so I let him pick out his must-sees and followed along with what he mostly wanted to do. He added on a day-trip to Sapa that I didn’t go to because of a tooth issue I was dealing with.

Oceania Pt. 2

New Zealand: April 1st-April 27th

Christchurch

Akaroa

Lake Tekapo

Mt. Cook

Oamaru

Queenstown

Wanaka

Franz Josef 

Fox Glacier

Blenheim

Wellington

Tongariro

Rotorua

Auckland 

+Many More

I spent one month road-tripping New Zealand with two girls I met in a hostel in Noosa, Australia. We rented a campervan and had an absolutely amazing month in this stunning country. I seriously went out with a bang. This and South Africa had been my two bucket list countries for as long as I can remember so getting to end my around the world trip this way was just the cherry on top of an already amazing year. 

Back Home: April 27th-29th

From Auckland, I found a cheap flight to Hawaii and then another cheap flight from there back to Atlanta. I spent one night in Hawaii to end my trip. I thought it would be all sunshine and rainbows and a great way to get back my tan from Australia. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain the day I was there… silver lining though, the girl I traveled to Scotland with just so happened to be there as well so I got to snag dinner with her and catch up!