BootsnAll Travel Community

I noticed that you both are heading out on RTW trips with kids starting in Sept and so are we ( well,just uno kiddo in our case)and I wanted to connect ,check out itineraries and see if we were ever going to be in the same place at the same time.Are you doing blogs? We are planning on it ,but have not started it yet.

We will be in Europe for at least the first 21/2 years based in Spain ( my husband & child are bilingual,so we want to immerse my child in her second language and culture) enrolling my child in local school ( exquisite 16th century white village of 2000 people)from Oct to Mar.We have bought a second hand eurovan so will pick that up in Amsterdam,spend sometime in Paris and France and northern Spain on our way to our "pueblo blanco" in Andalucia.We will explore more of Spain ,Portugal,Morrocco etc from this base and then head out to more of France,Italy,Greece and Turkey after the end of March.( (Probably until June..ish).

We are going to take a tour of Egypt either in March ( before we leave Spain) or very late May ( when we sell van and go for larger 4berth camper).Still working those details out,but we know we want to see those Pyramids and ride down the Nile

We know we want to see Croatia and much of Eastern Europe as well as much of EU,but still planning all of that.I have been to Russia ,but would love to take a quick trip into Moscow and St Petersberg to experience it with my family at some point.We will follow the weather and spend the following winter in Andalucia ,probably in the same village as we will have made connections and it looks ideal and will be nice to have a school where my child can reconnect to friends for a few months again.We will be mostly homeschooling and just using local schools as we go for the experience and immersion mostly.We will be schlepping a violin ( maybe also even the adult one that my husband & I share,but maybe not) and keyboard as we go as my child is advanced in both ( started at 23m & 3) and hope to do lessons via Skype.

I will be interested in hearing about your African Safari ,kidsnall as we will do that probably next year ( probably taking off from & returning to Spain).
We know we will want to focus on Ireland and Scandanavia the second summer & what ever else feels right.

We are still pretty open ended on intinerary as we do not have a set time and like to really spend time in some places.We know we want to spend time in Argentina,Thailand ( and may make both of those bases for other areas),India( short time) ,Japan,China,South & Central America,Austrailia,New Zealand,Bora Bora,Tibet,South Africa and we plan to end it by RVing for at least a few years around this country ,Mexico and Canada.In fact we may never leave the road,if we keep enjoying it.

I have been inspired by early retirees that are perpetual travelers like the Tershorsts ( wrote a famous book about retiring at 35 by selling car& house & living simply and are still enjoying traveling regularly in their 50's now) and families on the road for years in RV's ( mostly in this country ,but some do both sides of the pond and other countries).I went looking for others who had these desires and just started googling and reading books on the topic.

Whats been your inspiration? Whats been most helpful in your planning? How long have you been planning your trip?

I spend every spare second reading and still I feel I have hardly made a dent.So much of my time has gone into just the daily life with a super active child and the prep of selling house,selling stuff ,getting visa stuff in order etc,etc ,that I just can't plan it all at once.We will have a laptop with us ( maybe 2? ) so I will plan & research some as we go.

We have our tickets now,eurovan,apt all but done and visa all but done ( well in process as they say it takes up to 5months).We are not using our return tickets,so i am going to try and see if I can move those towards the ticket price to Egypt after we get there.

We have itchy feet,how about you? I go between feeling like I have too long to wait,to feeling like I do not have enough time to do it all before we go.Most of its behind us ( selling and moving to a rental was a biggie last year in preparation),but more to do and sometimes all the lose ends add up to more than one expects.

I just found it very interesting that there were 2 other families heading out to a RTW trip with kids in Sept so wanted to know more!

It's nice to know others are attempting similar adventures. WT, your trip makes ours look like a summer vacation!

Our motivation for doing this was that we were both losing our passion for work and feeling like we were missing out on our kids. The turning point happened when we lost two close friends to illness far too young. We realized that nothing is certain and we may never get to enjoy the money we've been saving for retirement. We decided to sell our business, home and car and take a year for ourselves. Luckily, my business has been very successful and we will be able to finance the trip without tapping into our retirement savings or the equity in our house. We're pretty confident that both of us will be able to re-enter the workforce fairly easily when we return.

How will you finance your indefinite trip? Will you work along the way or are you independently wealthy?

We leave this September from Vancouver. Our current itinerary is:

Hawaii - Sept 15-30
Cook Is - Oct 1-15
New Zealand - Oct 16-Nov 15
Australia - Nov 16-Jan 21
Singapore/Bali/Thailand (overland) - Jan 22 - Feb 28
India/Nepal - Mar 1-31
Egypt - Apr 1 - 14
Europe (overland) - April 15 - May 31
Tanzania - June 1 - July 1

It looks like we'll be in Egypt close to the same time as you - maybe we can collaborate on finding a reasonably priced tour. Our Europe leg is very fuzzy right now but we do want to visit Spain, so, once again, maybe we can collaborate. As for Africa, we've hooked up with Donovan and he will be helping us plan that leg of our trip. I'm most excited about seeing Africa with my kids. We'll be buying tickets at the end of the month and will start on the details then. Like you, very busy with selling house, arranging for a tutor for the summer, wrapping up work details, etc. I'll be glad to sit on the beach for a few weeks at the beginning of the trip just to recover from all the excitement. We definitely have itchy feet, too.

Wow ,sounds like a great trip! We are heading off in opposite directions ,but maybe we will be able to meet up along the way in Egypt or Spain.I am still researching the Egyptian part.

Yes,we certainly can relate to how fast children grow and how easy it is to miss that as it zips by! That certainly was part of our motivation as well.We are older parents and did not want to miss any of these fast moving days of our "one and only" & even tho my husband cut back his work hours and worked a lot from home,we saw how much he was missing.Mine started school early so we saw how much time that took up and away from us.

We found we were all happiest when we were all together on vacations and just hanging out.There was so much more harmony without the pressures of school ,work ,too many "have to"s with time together & time to "tag team" for breaks.We want our family to have the most influence on our child and not peers thru school by spending all day there.School is not a good fit for my child ( or me and we enjoy homeschooling and all the time it leaves for us to have fun together.We all really enjoy travel,exploring,new experiences,& other cultures.It seemed the perfect time for us when we are young enough to enjoy such a trip and for her to be young enough to enjoy the time together and be expanded and enriched by the experiences.

We are not independently wealthy,but we realized it was now or never for a bunch of reasons and decided to take the risk of retiring early so that we could do this.We live in a very bubbly housing market & spent the last 8 or so years creating our dream home ( & organic gardens & vineyard) from scratch.The booming market ( that I knew would change) definately impacted the decision and we sold and got out just at peak last summer,before things started to decline here.

We have been living off investments and will continue to do that.Our plan is to grow our money while we travel and live simply.We think its a very good time to be "liquid".So far we have done really well with our investments and hope that continues.My husband could do some work on the road if needed via laptop for an occasional project to his clients in the Bay area,but we are not planning to do that unless we really need to as it defeats the whole purpose of our trip.We are at the age where we have pretty much BTDT with career ambitions and most everything else.Yep,you are right..carpe diem!

Its a bit of a risk to start in Europe on a budget( since its an expensive area) ,but we might eventually buy in rural Spain( or another spanish speaking country ) ,so wanted to get to know it better.We also really enjoy Europe and have lots of friends there.My child is also interested in languages ,so its a good place to improve her fluent Spanish( needs extensive time in a place where her second language is dominant),then French,Latin and Greek and the wonderful related cultural things there.Rural Spain is cheap( for Europe) and we really like that authentic life as we are concerned about raising a child in the endless consumerism that is America.RV Camping ( both free camping and in great campgrounds) will also help us keep the costs down in Europe.

Hawaii sounds like a great starting place Gotta run...off to an Easter egg hunt

BTW, I can relate to your excitement about Africa as its such a fun one for kids.I can't wait for that one as well and will be waiting to hear all your details & what you liked best as you will be seeing it before us.

I did not think of Africa,Turkey or Egypt right away,or even India or Thailand.We live in a very new agey-organic living part of Ca ,so my child ( like many here) has never had a vaccination.So that impacts and I am researching such now in alternative and traditional ways.I would like to postpone them as long as possible ( if one is going to do them,the later one waits ,the better),so another reason why Europe made more sense for us in the beginning .My kid does not even get colds,so just reading about all the stuff a kid can get or thinking about all that yucky medicine in her can be a little depressing

I have done a ton of traveling and can't say I have had any real interest in the far east,but its growing in me.Its funny because 2 of my very best friends are Asian and one was raised in Hong Kong and we use to travel together and fool people by making up elaborate stories about how I was raised there as well as I spoke fake chinese to her real stuff My child even started out as trilingual with Mandarin and my Mom has even been to the great wall etc,but somehow I have not been drawn to the area.( Dh has great interest in Japan and we have a friend that does spectacular spiritual walking journeys there we will do).But I have always known I would make it to Africa and I am building up interest in more areas than I thought I would ever see.New Zealand and Austrailia sound way cool as well ( tho expensive too.I am finally going to make it to Tahiti too while in that area despite the costs ( enjoyed recent thread on this topic on ways to do it cheaper).

We are frugal types by nature,so always looking at how we can do more for less.We love luxury & beauty,but more apt to do high tea or drink in a luxury joint rather than stay there unless someone else is paying for it

So what are you going to see in India? Are you from Vancouver? ( One of my fav Canadian cities....btw my grandfather was Canadian and he and even my beloved great grandfather who favoured me & had great impact ...were great world travellers...so guess it runs in our genes).

Have you read any Richard Halliburton books? I could do a whole thread on reading for kids and travel as childrens lit is a fav of mine since having a child and we are passionate bookaholics and I am searching away looking for "finds" a lot.I like to read a lot before a journey and am doing the same with my child...collecting exciting kids books about areas we will visit.I actually clued into halliburton thru David Cohens "one year off'.The Story of the World is also a good kid jump off for history that my child loves.I love that travel with kids link you left in some thread ( I had found it too earlier) for its great book leads.We will definately be bringing a bag for books,but going thru many now that will be left behind but good references none the less.I will get a link going to books and URL's of interest whenever I get around to getting my blog/website up.The Melanie Martin series are kind of fun & educational ones for kids ( judy moody ish with travel info) that help familiarize a child with important aspects,art,language etc of an area.


Have you looked into Serva or WWOOF? We have had friends that did ,so looking into it for fun and connection.We definately see this as a spiritual journey and we have long been involved with peace groups and organic gardening.We love the land and will probably find some kind of WOOf just so my dh can do a little work on some land which he loves for fun How will you do Europe and what places most interest you there? Did you know France has places for free camping in vineyards? Dh built a small ( 3ton) pinot vineyard from scratch,so we love vineyards and definately want to take one of those houseboats in Burgandy at some point.

We definately want to take a trip down the nile when in Egypt as I hear its the best and do the typical tourist thing of camel to pyramids and donkey to Luxor probably for the kiddo.Staying with a family there sounds good,tho the hotels look nice and mostly cheap too.I still have much to learn in this area.

We have really needed this year to plan as there has been so much to learn on so many levels for such an ambitious lifestyle change.The good news is its much easier to live on the road than it ever has been before.I am amazed at how much we can do by laptop and that it is possible to have 24/7 connection and free phone to home etc.We have had to learn a ton about finances,banking,technology,visa's,homeschool on the road etc etc and still learning.

Its already been a facinating journey and we have not even taken off ( just small trips but its clear it will not be dull

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We are at the age where we have pretty much BTDT with career ambitions and most everything else.Yep,you are right..carpe diem!

A sign! A sign from heaven. We ARE on the right track. We just saw "Dead Poet's Society" again.

Well, we're going to hit some of the same spots I think, though we're leaving in November. We plan to do 3 months in Australia, 1 month in NZ, 2 months in Thailand and VietNam, and then fly to Turkey or Greece and overland or ferry all over Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Then we will overland across Europe to Spain and southern Italy, then to France. We are not heavily funded, but we'll either live very simply or come home early.

I love books too, and they have been the mainstay of our homeschool curriculum. I missed the reference to Halliburton when I read Cohen's excellent book, so will go look him up. I love the "Bantry Bay Series" of books by Hilda VanStockum. They're about Ireland in the 1930s, and I'd say they're written on the level of "Little House on the Prairie". Great books.

We'll be WWOOFing too, mainly in Australia and Europe, and I'm looking forward to that because I have an interest in real food, which is getting harder to find.

How old is your daughter WT, if you don't mind my asking? Mine are 11 and 14, and they're getting really excited about going. They're back in public school this year after homeschooling for years, and they like it okay, but are ready to homeschool again.

Well, it sounds like a definite possibility that we could run into you WT and kidsnall on the RTW. I'm excited about that, because it sounds like we all have much in common.

You asked about inspiration. Well, this was just inevitable. I've always been a wild bohemian at heart, and some of that is rubbing off on my husband. We'll be camping in Australia--a lot. Will any of you guys be doing the same? There is a great site called www.camping.com.au
It tells about all the national parks and camp sites. There is a lot of info there.

Very cool to have our own little section now on kids trav eh?

So did you decide to delay your trip a bit ( I thought I had read you were leaving in Sept too)? We are tempted to start ours a little earlier ,but will not hit Europe til Sept 2 now because we bought our tickets.We might do some traveling in this country while we wait as our feet are definately itchy...but depends on how soon everything gets done.We have perfect weather here in the summer ,so its tempting not to leave( we live in an awesome beach town)and that was the oringinal thought,but we are hangering to go,so...we will see.

We will be living off interest,so will also be quite frugal in our approach as well.We have splurged a bit with our winter rental,but because its long term ( 5m) and in the winter,the price is low for such awesome places.( Too many great ones to choose from! We also needed one to enroll my child in school for immersion and because we wanted to actually live in a small village in Spain,tho most of our trip will be by RV.These same places rent for much more by the week in high season than what we are paying per month..so timing is everything). We are going to get a blog/website up one of these days soon,so hopefully we can all stay in touch and plan ahead when we see we will be in the same area and learn from each other when we get around to the areas the others have been to.Are you going to do a blog?

Thanks for the tip off on the bantry bay series as I was not familiar with them.They look good for anytime,but seem like they will be especially nice next winter when we are preparing for a tour of Ireland.( I already have found some good sources for UK/english books while in Spain).

My child is 5 at the moment ,but will turn 6 in the fall and in many ways is much older than her age and always has been ( explained in my thread below on Egypt travel with a kid) and is a big part of our reason for this trip and interest in homeschooling.We will also have her best friend and cousin with us ( who is 11) for parts of our travel .May even have her 2 ohter boy cousins ( 9 & 10) for a short time as well.( Everybody wants to visit when you are in europe and we are all for that as its great for kids

"wild bohemian at heart "...yep, I can relate Camping looks way cool in Austrailia,thanks for the link!

Yeah, thanks moderators, for our own family section. Hopefully some others will step in when we all get off on our travels.

We do plan to do a blog for our trip, and will turn it over mainly to the girls for a great homeschool project. We never did set September for a date. That would just be too soon.

I love your plan to live in the village in Spain. I mean, how romantic can you get? I wouldn't even care if there was electricity! Have fun planning--my husband is yelling at me to get onto a FSBO home sales site.

OK, so my husband has accused me of becoming an internet junkie , but I've got our blog off the ground! I plan on posting updates throughout the planning process and trip itself (obviously).

Check it out at http://blogs.bootsnall.com/kidsnall/

I'm interested in the WWOOFing concept but don't know a lot about it. How does it work with families? Have you guys done it before? Do tell...

Way cool,LOOOVE the blog! I am itching to get mine up too,but emeshed in visa crapola at the moment ( waffling on which way to go as all of the choices seem risky to some extent).We bought our van tonight tho,over skype,so one more step done.( Actually just deposit,but we are locked in).


WOOF's really vary and you will have to read up on them,but YES they do take families.I have never done it ,but I have a friend here who did it for a year with her husband and 2 little boys and they really enjoyed the experience.I had never heard of it before them,but have read some since.We probably won't do them much ,but might down the line as my dh loves working the land and might miss that on the road.

quote:

I'm interested in the WWOOFing concept but don't know a lot about it. How does it work with families? Have you guys done it before? Do tell...

No, we never have. I have read up on it and it sounds like something we'd really like to do--connect with other families in the places we'd like to see, do some interesting and productive work, and knock a little off the budget too. You pay a fee to the company, and unfortunately they are not completely tied together, so if you want to wwoof Australia and Europe, you will need to pay twice. But after you do, you get a listing of host families, and you contact them ahead of time to make arrangements and make sure that they will accept families. You may have a harder time because your kids are young, but if you can match with a family who also has young kids, you'd be in business. We plan to do this for the Australia leg of the trip, and also in parts of Europe. As for safety concerns, the best advice I've heard is to have your own ride. In other words, it would not be a good idea to have someone pick you up at the train station and drive you 3 hours into some wilderness place! Anyway, check out that site--there are sample listings.WWOOF

Just FYI ,the friends I know who WOOF'ed ,had very young children ( I think 3 and 5 at the time ),so its possible with younger kids ...and I believe it was in more than one place.

I will be interested in hearing about your experiences if you do this.

Hey, just tapping into your conversation on RTW with kids. We have two of those (8 and 5) and will be leaving on a RTW in two days (!!!!! thats the reason this one is short, for we are kinda busy packing...)
We head for southern Europe first - Italy, Spain, Southern and wetsern France, in our caravan (VERY old thing, real cute), then ship the caravan to Halifax in AUgust, travel Canada East to West, down US to L.A. Sell the caravan (or dump it, depending on how its in shape. New Zealand from End of No. to mid Feb (2007 then already), short week in Sidney and a month in South Africa (March. So only ten months, making us the "shorties" among you....
Looking forward to the experience very much, also to having loads of time with the kids, homeschooling, just showing them that there is more to life than what people think.
Gotta go now, still so much to do...

Hey Family4W...join the club and conversation as you have time!! How exciting ...sounds like a fabulous trip and I am envious that you get to start now as our feet are soooo "itchy" and ready to move I hope you can blog your experiences.

I am going to just miss you in Europe since I get there in Sept( but maybe we can meet up at some point once you return) tho it looks like your timing might sync up with gogirl and kidsnall possibly.

Bon Voyage....you are going to have a blast!

Hey family, Way cool you get to leave now. What an adrenaline rush that must be! It sounds like you will have a great time. Canada will not be on our itinerary, but I would love to do it the way you guys will. If you like Irish music, Cape Breton Island has a great tradition going, and some famous fiddlers are from there. Be sure to hit the dance halls if you like that kind of music.

kidsnall, I checked out your blog and got some ideas. I guess we'd better get started ourselves--be sure to get some predeparture pix of yourselves, so you can remember what you looked like before you got: sunburn, windburn, the sultan's revenge, and somewhat less well fed.

Hey Family4W, nice to meet you! Hope you are able to check in once in a while on the road. Where are you from originally? I'm from Nova Scotia, so let me know if you want some tips on travelling in Canada. I've been coast to coast and we're starting our trip by driving across the country this summer. I'm especially well-versed in the Maritimes and can give you some insider advice there.

Have a great trip - I'm envious!