“The same way that slowing down improves your peripheral vision when driving, reducing your speed allows you to take more in while you travel.”

This analogy, lifted from Rough Guide’s First-Time Around the World, distills perfectly our approach to travel.

It’s highly tempting, in a trip of this scope, to visit as many places possible. It’s like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and loading on shrimps, lasagna, orange beef, chicken tikka, and Caesar salad on a single plate.

When he published his Round-the-World Travel Guide, Marc Brosius had the good sense to print, right on the first page, the following caveat:

“WARNING: This site has been known to change people’s lives!”

And wouldn’t you know it, it did.

“You’re so lucky,” people often tell me when they learn I’m taking a year off work to travel with Bianca. “I wish I could do that.”

The sentiment is understandable, but luck had nothing to do with it. I’m certainly fortunate to be in the position where I can do this. But it wasn’t luck.

Consider the following perks a well-connected traveler might enjoy: Receive free lodging, and thus eliminate one of the biggest travel expenses. Meet interesting, open-minded, well-traveled people who are interested in you. Get in on insider tips that only the locals know. Get invited to a house party or to a club that is the complete opposite of touristy. And, in the end, regain faith in humankind.

On a long journey, you can almost always sacrifice comfort in the name of savings. But not when it comes to footwear and the backpack.

1. Research destinations

You know where you want to go. You know where you don’t want to go. But do you know where you don’t know you want to go?

Accidental discovery is one of the marvels of long-term travel, the backpacker’s equivalent of finding money on the sidewalk. Which is why, with any planning, it’s essential to leave oneself room for change. When you’re reading guidebooks and travel publications, you’ll come across places you never knew existed but can’t wait to see.