How long should you stay in each country on a RTW trip?

Not long ago I mentioned that one of the most common questions that comes up among people planning a RTW trip is “is my itinerary okay?” That’s a broad question, obviously, and it can break down into several smaller questions easily. One of them, and the topic if this month’s highlight from the BootsnAll travel forums, is “how long should I stay in each place?”

BootsnAll member Charissa is asking this question on the BootsnAll boards, and she’s left it really open-ended:

I am planning my first RTW trip, I am just wondering ~ How long would you suggest staying in a country? For North America? Central America? South America? Europe? Asia? Oceania?

Of course, there are many ways to answer Charissa’s question, but one big one has to do with budget. As one of the replies asks, “How deep are your pockets?” Budgeting is, as I noted a couple weeks ago, not one of the fun parts of RTW trip planning – but figuring out exactly what you have to spend can help answer lots of questions about your trip, including how long you can realistically spend in each country on your must-see list.

After all, it’s great to save money with cheap airline tickets, but if your first stop is Italy in June and you use up half your budget staying for six weeks in the height of the summer travel season that’s going to severely limit your travel time.

If you have words of wisdom for Charissa about how to figure out how long to spend in each country or region on her to-do list, please pop over to the BootsnAll boards and leave your thoughts. And since budgeting and finances is the topic of this month’s Round the World Ticket Watch newsletter, be sure you’re signed up!