WHO travels around the world?

Published 21 July 2010 · Updated 12 September 2026 · MAIN QUESTIONS, Who

People that Travel Around the World

People who buy RTW tickets are far more diverse than most people would imagine. Travelling the world, I noted that the average age is around 35, but also young twenties. There is an increase in senior travelers over 55, and also in women traveling alone. People of all kinds of occupation, background and career.

Motivations can be very different:

• 20's: travel as a rite of passage, personal growth, and empowerment. Backpacking.

• 35's: travel before settling down to career, family and other involvements, with a medium budget.

• 45's: travel as part of, or as a response to, a career break or life transition.

• From 55: as the fulfilment of a lifelong aspiration, with an ad hoc organised RTW.

• For a wonderful honeymoon: high standards, and generally with an arranged tour.

Matteo Pennacchi, 2010

What 296 travellers told BootsnAll

BootsnAll has interviewed round-the-world travellers since 1999 and keeps the answers in its RTW Traveler Profiles, each with the traveller's route, budget and advice. You can filter them by age, savings, trip length and country.

The median age is 28, younger than the 35 above. Of the 293 who gave an age, 169 were under 30, but 69 were 35 or older and 33 were past 45. The most common trip was six months to a year (91 people), then one to two years (67), and 14 left with no return date. Only two went for less than a month.

The money varies more than the ages. Of the 161 who said what they saved, 32 set off with under US$5,000 and 11 had more than $35,000. The median was $10,000. Thailand came up in 164 of the 296 routes, Australia in 159 and New Zealand in 120.

Some of the interviews are more than 20 years old, so the prices have moved on. The routes and the advice mostly still hold.

Anyone can go

Read a few profiles and the idea of a typical round-the-world traveller falls apart. Marquita was a 22-year-old student who planned one to six months away on $1,500. Patricia, a 50-year-old nurse, saved $4,500 for six months to a year on the road. Calli, 38 and a self-described web guru, put away $50,000 for one to two years that took in China, India, Iran, Nepal and Pakistan.

If you're working out where you fit, these pages help:

• Students: RTW for students and student RTW tickets.

• Women travelling alone: round the world trip for women.

• Couples: honeymoon around the world.

• Career breaks and gap years, including working on the way: work and travel around the world.

• Families taking children out of school for a year: the Travel Access Project has country-by-country resources for learning on the road.

Then read why travel alone, or with others, and how much an RTW trip costs.

Tags: travel the world, who travels around the world