Traveling around the world with children – Is it worth it?

A trip across the world, which seemed incredibly exotic and adventurous a few years ago, has now almost become normal. Almost everyone is familiar with someone who has done it in the past or who has plans to do it soon. However, for many people, traveling the world with kids is still an impossibility. Many parents find it utterly difficult to plan and finance such a massive endeavor while also taking care of their children, with the exception of those who travel regularly. It’s not as challenging as many people believe, and above all, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime adventure for the entire family.

Why take kids on a world adventure?

When you travel long distances with kids, you get a lot of quality family time that you don’t get at home. Long-term travel allows for constant contact with the entire family. And to share highly intense trip experiences that you will remember for a super long time. Even though the child is too young to recall it now, this intense period spent with mom and dad will be imprinted in their world of experience.

All family members can rediscover, reconsider, and try out their familial duties during this vacation.

Furthermore, there is no denying the benefits that come from traveling and learning about other cultures and nations for kids. Instead of memorizing dry academic facts, they get hands-on exposure to other people’s cultures and religions. Get up close and personal with animals, sample a wide variety of foods. Discover new scents, and push their bodies to the limit while hiking, snorkeling. Or just living in the tropical climate.

What is the ideal age to travel?

Is there a recommended age for travel? Clear answer: No! Every age has its advantages and disadvantages. If a young child or newborn will accompany you to the 50th temple and is not yet picky, you will need to adjust your daily schedule to accommodate their demands. You will also need to worry more about their health and long road journeys are usually pretty much nothing. You don’t need to be concerned about attending school because it is required. With kids in primary school, you can accomplish much more. However, kids already have ideas about how they like to spend their time, and when traveling, it is imperative to respect these desires.

Additionally, you must have them removed from school, which can occasionally be a stretched bureaucratic procedure. Teenagers make very different traveling companions. It could be challenging to remove them from their familiar, secure environment. They obviously require occasional breaks because they are constantly on the run. However, kids can also become quite active in planning the trip and occasionally take care of themselves, giving their parents some independence.

Planning and organization: Where do we start?

You want to travel the world. OK. And now? How do you go about working with kids on such a big project? Following the creation of the will, four crucial points must be made clear:

Timing

Finding the correct timing for things like parental leave, sabbaticals, time account rules, unpaid vacation, and termination is aided by knowing what will happen to the workplace while you’re away. The length of the world trip might also be decided by whether the kids still need to go to school.

Finances

It is uncommon to have enough finances to immediately begin a trip across the world. In order to actualize a trip around the world, a strategy must be established outlining how much may be saved over what time period. If you don’t want to travel on a very tight budget, an average journey around the world with two kids, containing a mix of inexpensive and expensive travel places, costs between 40,000 and 50,000 Euros, all expenditures included. Cheaper is invariably more expensive.

Travel Type

Where do you want to go, what countries and cities would you like to see, what seas would you like to swim in, and what mountains would you like to climb? Planning a route involves a lot of collaboration and research. Additionally, travel experts can offer assistance since the final route frequently depends on whether countries can be conveniently connected by air to keep the number of kilometers traveled and related ticket prices within reasonable bounds. You can begin purchasing airline tickets around 11 months before the scheduled departure date.

Schedule

Once the broad first ideas are in place, it seems sensible to create a schedule to ensure that nothing crucial is forgotten while preparing. Nothing significant will undoubtedly be overlooked once it is finished.

What is important when planning a trip around the world with children?

Three key guidelines should direct you:

Less is more, always!

Nothing is worse than taking a long flight once a week with a deadly time difference added to it because of climate change. Please refrain from including all of your bucket list sights on this trip. It won’t be your final trip. And everything just takes longer when you have kids. It begins when you arrive at your destination, continues throughout the day (during which you can simply pack less when traveling with kids), and finishes with road travels. Because no child enjoys spending eight hours a day in a car or mobile home.

A trip around the world is not a vacation.

A trip around the world is significantly different from an all-inclusive holiday, where you sit down at the set table three times each day, give the laundry to the hotel’s laundry service, and your room is cleaned every day. With this, you can’t avoid doing a lot of tedious tasks every day, especially if you have kids and are out and about. Shopping, cooking, doing laundry, unpacking baggage (more frequently if you switch accommodations frequently), cleaning campers, and washing dishes—especially if the budget is tight. annoying, but necessary. Knowing that ahead will help you avoid being overwhelmed when traveling.

It should go without saying that all adults and older children should participate and that the work should be distributed. Although it can be planned in advance, this is typically discovered while traveling. If not, talking about it is crucial for maintaining harmony throughout travel. After all, no one should be the other people’s servants or housekeepers; everyone should be able to enjoy the journey equally.

To secure.

Without a doubt, taking children on a trip is no more perilous than leaving them at home. But just like at home, you shouldn’t take any unwarranted chances. This includes, of course, a good insurance against trip interruption and cancellation. As well as good international health insurance, liability coverage that applies globally. And insurance with no excess for all rental cars and campers you pile into while traveling. Even when selecting the countries, you can use common sense and your own intuition to make decisions. War zones are off limits in any case, but perhaps malaria- or the currently prevalent Zika virus-affected nations with young children are too sensitive. Or states with a high rate of crime. Leave that out, please! If you want to enjoy yourself with kids.

Returning home

Frequently disregarded and undervalued: Returning from a long journey involves more than simply seeing you. Everyone must re-acclimate to daily life, especially now that they are not present all the time. For this, buffer time should be planned. Time to reorient yourself, do nice things together at home, decorate the home with memorabilia from the trip, or sort through the holiday photos. Reuniting with old friends and relatives and being split up once more. Additionally, perhaps organizing the subsequent mini-vacation will aid in overcoming the initial culture shock.