Never rush it.

There could be nothing worse than jumping in to an extensive trip and ending up not enjoying it to its full potential. I’m not talking about planning out every minute of every day of your trip, but you want to go somewhere that you are genuinely interested in.

I would also suggest starting out with a huge list—a bucket list or some such—and then narrowing it down slowly. Take two off that list and compare them: in price, in interest, in remoteness, in originality. With a destination in mind, the first and most important thing to do is set a date. 3 months away, 6 months away, whatever it is, but set it. A great way to do this is to purchase your flights.

There are many reasons for this, both psychological and financial. Buying flights as far in advance as possible allows you to take advantage of numerous deals and cheap flights as well as a much larger selection of dates to choose from. If you leave it till the last minute you’ll probably end up waiting a week for a flight and missing the best festival on the other side of your own mistake. Book early and reap the reward.

Psychologically, it’s a great way to set a deadline for the other things you’ll need to do. It will happen, for certain, once you’ve bought the flights—acts of God notwithstanding. And lets face it, none of your friends believe that you are going travelling. Buy the flights, print out the receipt and wave it in their face.

The thrill of the purchase will stick around for about a week, but before long it’s time to move on to the second, third, fourth etc. stages. The key point here is not to let the other necessities fester and go foul. They will creep over your happiness like a mould, so get it sorted.

The next few stages depend on what your particular agenda consists of: if you’re planning to be a beach bum then it’s pretty easy; if you want to travel from place to place, not spending more than a night in any one town village or road-side hut then this section will take time.

The alternative is volunteering—my personal favourite choice—which offers a great chance to help out with a small community and get to know a culture inside and out. You will laugh and joke with the natives, you will talk and eat with them, get to know them, live their lives, and get lasting friends. It also makes it quite easy to organise your trip. If you volunteer through an organisation (Projects Abroad, Gap Forceet al.) then they can organise not only your placement, but accommodation, food, and sometimes flights. Above and beyond all this, you’ll most likely end up on a project where they bring in volunteers from all around the world to help out in the community; volunteers that have a similar mindset to you.

You may be intrigued by both of these options, in which case: do both!

There is nothing stopping you from doing a month’s meaningful work for an orphanage in the slums of Dheli followed by surfing, beaches, babes and beer on the Gold Coast of Australia. The only restriction—actually, there is no restriction: if that’s what you want, go get it.

With a lot of these organisations there will be an initial deposit or starting fee to demonstrate your commitment. Get this out of the way as soon as possible and a door will open to your travels. They will send you reams of information about the placement you have chosen and you can start planning which trousers, shoes and shirts to bring along for the ride.

Warm Clothing Required

Now comes for another golden piece of sound advice for the not-so-experienced traveller: ask plenty of questions.

Get an email contact of someone based in-country for your project and ask them questions about anything that takes your fancy. It’s always a good thing to know as much as you can about a place before you arrive—though of course you may want to leave some things to chance and serendipity. You’ll want to know which airport to fly in to, and where to meet your chauffeur, or if they even have a chauffeur.

If you’re planning a bit of solo travel time before or after your project placement, now is the time to start thinking about that.

I would suggest that you don’t plan this phase meticulously. Sure, you can look at hotels and hostels to get an idea of the pickings; or train times and prices to know your budget, but I think if you’re one for the volunteering, you’re one for the haphazard, three sheets to the wind style of travelling. Have some idea of the key points of interest around the area you are passing through—and even pick one out to focus your journey on—but leave the rest to Lady Fate.

When it comes down to it, you’ll doubtlessly be rewarded for hopping on a local bus out to a village you’ve never heard of to see a temple to some obscure God or spirit buried deep in the plains of Pakistan or the jungle of Cambodia.

You want to experience the country as a local would, not the tourist hotspots where the postcards come from; and fastidious planning is a sure-fire way to sap all such interests from any trip. The best thing you can hope for is to meet a local, get to know them, and have them offer a personal tour of their country, hitting all the “locals’ hotspots” and learning more about their history than any museum could tell you.

The alternative is that you book on for a whistle-stop tour and never venture more than 100ft from the air-conditioned coach and a soft droning voice, ”On your right, you will see the nth wonder of the world…” It may be all right for some, but I couldn’t stand it.

So now you have a volunteering project or two to attend, and some rough ideas of where you may want to get to later on. The flights are booked and you’re ready to go.

Not so fast! There’s still a lot more to get through here!

Have you even considered how much extra money you’ll need when you’re out there? It’s no good guessing and ending up underestimating your expenses and having next to nothing after the first week. No, plan it properly. Find out the exchange rates and have a nosey around to see what information you can gleam from one travel book or another. Lonely Planet guides have pages of information on restaurants, attractions and hotels for almost any country, so that would be as good a starting place as any. Look through some of the budget options as well as the higher end to get an idea of what you can and can’t afford. Perhaps you’ll want to treat yourself on the last day in a particular country?

There is another key step that has to be taken, and perhaps I should have mentioned it earlier—though as with planning a real trip, the planning and fantasising is always the best bit and often distracts from the fastidious necessities that lurk in the shadows—get an appointment with your nurse or go to a travel health clinic near you and ask about vaccinations.

Depending on where you go, there may be mandatory injections before they will even consider letting you past border security. These vaccinations and jabs go beyond getting you in to your chosen country though; there are few things worse than a night spent on a grubby toilet seat in the outhouse of the village hall whilst you hear sounds of the entire community laughing and dancing to live music.

It’s a good idea to get this foreboding chore out of the way quickly. Doing so will take a weight off your mind and allow for the three months required for some vaccination programs.

You’re getting close now, I promise.

In fact, thinking about it, you’ve done everything, right? Better check over everything again. Maybe once more after that too. Commit the flight details to memory, the number, seat, time departing, time arriving, everything. Check through your bags, pack them and repack them at least a hundred times.

Perhaps that would be a little bit of overkill, but I would recheck a few things. You don’t want to be arriving in to the wrong country with no-one to collect you and no hotel booking ready. Of course, that would be one hell of an experience in its own way, but if it’s not what you want, make sure it’s not what you get.

Bottom line is: you shouldn’t be worried. Take things as they come because once you board the plane to the destination of your choosing there’s only so much you can do. I hope you’re good at adapting and improvising as having these skills will help you to no end.

Good luck and happy travelling!