MD is a 21-year-old from Frankfurt, Germany, who worked as a Cultural Representative at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, before taking a round-the-world trip in 1997.
I worked in Florida for a year and didn’t want to go back to Germany to start university there, so I decided to go to Australia for some time. Then all the other places came to my mind. Financing was a problem, and I have no idea how exactly I had the idea to do the trip. I’m still thinking about why everything went so smoothly, don’t know.
The Snapshot
- Departure: 1997
- Age at departure: 21
- Nationality: Germany
- Location: Frankfurt, Germany
- Duration: About 8 months (March – October 1997)
- Occupation: Cultural Representative, Walt Disney World, Orlando (before the trip); university student afterward
- Original budget: Not reported
- Regions: North America, Oceania, Southeast Asia
The Route
East Coast U.S., Hawaii, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and a bit of Southeast Asia.
In Their Words
Here's what MD shared about their RTW journey:
What is your advice for other travelers?
Get in contact with the locals and stay away from gossiping with your mate about the latest newspaper from home during the trip. Travel alone if possible. Keep an eye on your money, travelling without it isn’t much fun. Most important: make your ideas and dreams become real.
What is the biggest myth people have about round-the-world travel?
The people who haven’t done it compare it to travelling to the moon; people who’ve done it know that all this actually is easily possible on the surface of the Earth.
2026 Context
- Budget inflation: This traveler did not report a budget, but late-1990s round-the-world costs are substantially higher in 2026 (roughly 90% cumulative inflation).