The Rough Guide First-Time Around The World, 3rd Edition

From visas to packing, from travel costs to the best places to visit, this book does an outstanding job in preparing a potential traveller for a long term international trip. I especially appreciated the "Basics" section which contained a wealth of internet resources.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that this book is primarily geared toward young backpackers who want to travel the world on a super tight budget. Also the writer is British and his primary reading audience is European youth, among whom the 1 year RTW (Round the World) trip is almost a rite of passage. But there is also a much smaller but equally adventurous set of young American backpackers for whom the book would be just as useful. Personally, I began travelling on the cheap at age 18. But at the ripe old age of 37 I'm more inclined towards mid-range international travel. So sometimes I felt the writer's numerous suggestions on how to scrape by on pennies weren't 100% relevant. But at age 21 I would...Read more

My husband and I are planning an extensive around-the-world trip for next year. While we are travel-savvy, we have never done this type of trip. Also, we are in our 30s, so we aren't doing a true "backpacker" trip, nor will it be luxury travel, it will be somewhere in the middle. This book is a MUST for anyone planning an extensive trip. It gives you the lowdown on a hundred topics, from medical/health, insurance, etc to basic overviews of the different regions and countries. It gave us a LOT to think about, and has me doing further research on issues that I had never even thought about. A MUST READ!!

Everythign in here is stuff you could figure out after a hundred hours on the internet, networking in a few dozen traveler ghettos and spending a few years lugging way too much, uh, luggage, but chances are your globetrotting will go farther, cheaper and (if you're smart about it) slower than if you had to figure it all out from scratch. Lots of emphasis on getting off the tourist trail and out interacting with local culture, written by a guy who's been doing just that for nearly a decade...