Planning a trip is an exciting task, but it can be a bit daunting for some – especially if you’re new to traveling abroad. A lot of time goes into researching, obtaining visas, buying plane tickets, booking accommodation, and it can all be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, we have boiled it down into an easy step-by-step process that you can use to plan, book, and set off on your next international adventure.

Before you can ever begin to determine a travel path … you sort of need to know what countries you’re interested in visiting. Otherwise, it’s kinda like building a house without having the foundation set. So, first things first, decide which countries you’d like to visit. Ask your network for their top picks, read travel blogs, search on Pinterest, look at a map, and compile all your info. Next, take all your research and pick some countries. If you like warm weather maybe Russia in the winter isn’t for you. If you like the challenge of learning a different language pick countries where something else is spoken. Once you have chosen a location it’s time move on to looking for flights!

For our first long term travel together, we picked SE Asia, specifically: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. We may also add in Nepal, Japan, and Sri Lanka depending on how we feel in a few months.

One of the most expensive parts of traveling is getting to where you want to go, especially when traveling from another country… or continent. Thus, scoring the cheapest deal possible is one of the most important parts of planning your trip. The more you can save on airfare the more $$$ you will have to explore awesome places once you arrive. The good news is that airlines post thousands of amazing deals each day. Whether companies accidentally publish dirt cheap “mistake fares” or slash prices to beat out the competition for your business, cheap fares are out there if you know how to search for them.

If you want the process we use, then check out Nomadic Matt’s “13-point guide to easily finding cheap flights, based on over ten years of travel and thousands of flights flown”.

When searching for flights to start our year-long adventure through SE Asia we started by searching for the cheapest day to fly for the entire year on Skyscanner, Google Flights, Kayak, ITA Matrix, and Momondo. We searched all the countries listed above and found that it was hundreds of dollars cheaper to get one-way tickets into Indonesia! So, we booked those (knowing it would be shoulder season- see next step) and flew into Bali a few months later 🙂

One of our favorite ways to save on our travels is to ride the shoulder and low season. What are these seasons? Well, they’re descriptions of time spans based on weather, holidays, and when tourists typically travel to said areas. Traveling in low and shoulder is great for many reasons:

• You’ll spend less money (places are much more expensive during high season), you’ll have more opportunities to explore on your own (during low season some tours shut down and you can do the treks yourself without paying a fee or seeing many other people).
• There will be fewer travelers (you’ll get amazing views and landscapes all to yourself!)
• You can be more flexible and save more money (fewer people traveling overall means you can wait longer to book your accommodation and flights).
• You’ll have more opportunity to interact with locals (naturally people are more keen to chat when they’re not bombarded by foreigners).

If there is a certain activity or place that you are dying to go, you’ll want to make sure that it still runs/is open during these seasons – you don’t want to be heartbroken if you find out you can’t do something in particular!

To figure out when would be best for us to visit different countries in SE Asia we built a spreadsheet (Alli loves spreadsheets!) and listed out the seasons for each country by month. This way we had a nice and easy visual representation (that we color coded 🙂 ) of the seasons to help us chart our path.

Just because you bought a plane ticket and are excited to see a new country doesn’t mean they’ll let you in. Make sure you check out visa requirements based on your country of citizenship! If you’re traveling to a country that requires you to get a visa at home before you travel make sure you do so. If you’re traveling to a country that requires a visa but allows you to get it at an embassy or consulate abroad make sure the country you’re in beforehand has the appropriate consulate.

Some countries will also require you to show proof of departure in the form of a ticket out of the country (this requirement is often dependent on what country your passport is from). Sometimes, you can prove that you’re leaving the country by any means, so boats, trains, planes, and automobiles are all fair game – but planes are your safest bet. If you aren’t sure what your next destination may be after visiting one of these countries, then you can always buy the cheapest possible ticket option out of that country and just consider it a lost cost (e.g. a cheap bus ticket to a bordering country). Obviously, visas are not the most glamorous part of planning your adventure but don’t be the naive traveler. We have heard horror stories of people being turned away at the border or airport for failing to meet visa requirements and trust us, you DO NOT want to be them.

As Americans, we’re very fortunate with the power of our passport and don’t require visas to many of the countries in SE Asia. For some, we’ll do Visa On Arrival and others don’t require a visa at all. For Myanmar, on the other hand, we’ll need to get a visa at the embassy in Thailand before arriving. Thus, we’ll be traveling to Thailand before Myanmar.

You’ve picked your countries, found a sweet deal on a flight to start your journey, mapped out the seasons you want to travel in, and have considered visa requirements for your country of citizenship but there’s still a little bit more to do. Next step – charting a travel path that makes the most sense based on geography and movement. A great way to save money and time is to travel to countries (or cities) that are close to one another instead of darting back and forth across a continent (or country)! In other words, instead of starting in Portugal, heading to Poland, and then darting back to check out Spain… do it the other way! Go from Portugal to Spain and then over to Poland. There’s no sense in going back and forth especially if you can partake in some amazing train travel to see the countryside and save yourself the $$$ of plane tickets 🙂

When it comes to our journey in SE Asia we try to travel in as logical an order as possible (given the other requirements listed above) so that we can make the most of our time and money in this magical place. Thus, after leaving Indonesia we left for Malaysia (home of our favorite place we have visited thus far, the Cameroon Highlands, pictured below) and then traveled to Thailand. While we have extenuating circumstances (see below) that change our path from here… it would have made sense to go to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and then Vietnam next. But we’ll just have to hop back over and hit those later.