BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi, I posted on the round the world site, but this is probably the place I belong!
We are taking our four children around the world (from UK) next summer (right after our eldest Luke takes his GCSEs)
Our youngest is six, and we sold our house last year to finance the adventure.
We are in the process of converting a 1987 Leyland Tiger coach into a home for the six of us to travel for 16 months through Europe, Africa, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada.
We will be homeschooling as we travel, and are offering ourselves as an educational resource to English speaking schools accross the Globe.
If anyone wants to find out more please check out our site www.welcometotheworld.org.uk
All advice, comments, thoughts, experiences of travelling with children gratefully received!
Also if our paths cross anyones (check out our provisional timeline on the site) It would be so good to meet up
All best wishes Manny

wow, good for you. that is soooo expiring, i gotta have my hubby read this to light a fire under his but. i'll be watching and reading your site.
good luck

Hi, yes keep an eye on us!! It's all moving a pace, sorting out visas and health stuff and building the bus!
We,ve got growing media interest which is really nice - makes it all the more real when you read about yourself in the paper!
Stay in touch!
Manny

Hi Manny,
Great site! I applaud your bravery at taking on this adventure. I was able this last summer to spend a couple of months in Europe with my husband and 3 daughters while I maintained my income via telephone and internet. I'm intruiged by your plans to communicate with schools while you're gone. It's exactly the kind of thing we've been talking about on a new site I've recently created called Nu Nomad. We're trying to become a resource for people who are doing extensive travel while they maintain their income from afar. I would love to hear what you experience with internet and phone technology especially while in Africa!

Hi there, what a fantastic site Nu Nomad is, we shall keep a close eye on it and put a link from our site if that's OK with you. You are so clear and honest with your aims..I hope it thrives, I'm sure it will! I will definately keep you informed of our communication successes and difficulties! We are in the process of piecing together exactly how we link up with schools; we want it to be as immediate as it can be without committing ourselves to deadlines we can't meet. It will get clearer as we talk to more schools and find out what suits evreyone the best.
Lots of luck, and thanks for alerting us to your great site!
Manny

Manny,

Thanks for visiting our site. I have also visited yours and am completely inspired by your plans. Please know there is a welcoming house for you when you get to Austin Texas. We have plenty of room for your bus! I would also like to do some writing about your family in my blog.

Hi, I am definitely going to keep reading about your adventure. If you make it out to Costa Rica I've got a great blog about living and traveling here, also give my family a shout and we'd love to meet with you guys.
Backpackermom.typepad.com

Hiya, thanks for that! If we get to Costa Rica we will definately give you a shout. and if you can join us at any point in our trip that would be great too. Once we set some definate sea crossing dates etc. we will be able to give a more accurate timeline and route for all to see on the site, and hopefully happy travellers will catch up with us all over the place!
Manny

Hi all,
Just wanted to let you know I've done a blog entry mentioning both your sites at Nu Nomad Blog. Manny/Joe thanks for the link. I've put a link to you also on my blog on the left sidebar. If anyone else would like to tell me about their adventures, I'm always looking for writing material!

Cool sites all! Mind if I join in on the conversation? This is a topic that interests me too as you might guess.

I can not see your site any more Manny,so not sure what you have added.I am curious as to what you will use for communications?

The biggest challenge on our world tour has been the trouble of getting internet connection ( and we are just in Europe thus far) so be aware that it won't be easy.It is just not quite there for cheap ,mobile communication and most that I know who are on the move have challenges.

We just got our satellite up ( MUCH more challenging than we expected and burned out a few converters in the process) so now we should have 24/7 connection no matter where we roam.

What is your plan for connecting online and what phone are you going to use?


numomad,you have great site and I will add all of yours to my site and you are welcome to use mine too.I am in rural Spain now ,but still trying to find a way to upload as I don't have my mac connected yet.We are going at a slower pace than Manny and with just one kiddo,but that is challenging enough for us.It has been the best thing we ever did!

Have you heard of families on the road? It is a great site for helping families on the move...some of them have been on the road in a bus with lots of kids for years and can give lots of good feedback.

Hi WT, Nice to hear from you again, glad to hear all is going well on your adventure. The whole technical side of our communications is still in it's planning stage as our main energy is being spent building that bus. I will keep you updated as it all firms up (it is also much more Joe's area than mine!)
Our current challenge is to sort out the bigger crossings for the bus... I thought I had my contact to work through it with me, but I'm back to square one, and now think each crossing will have to be treated in isolation with no one masterminding the whole route. Hey Ho... one less middleman to pay I guess!
Hope all continues as well for you guys, and that our paths will cross along the way
Best wishes
Manny Welcome to the World

Hey Manny,
I did get into your site after all and it is looking great.I DO understand that there is sooo much to do to prepare for such a trip.We took a year and it went buy really fast.

I just wanted to warn you that communication on the go is a REAL challenge and every family I know who are doing or have done a RTW trip ran into more trouble in that area than expected.It is doable ,but even in Europe ,more challenging and I just talked to a family today that are in the far east and they have had lots of challenges too even tho he seems quite the whiz with electronics.

Dealing with world phone and communications thru internet have been a challenge for us,but hopefully we have that mostly behind us now.We are on a very long trip so it is important for us to be able to do research and skype call our family at home via skype as much as we want.It was actually a family on the road from the UK who told us about this much cheaper second hand satellite that might be ideal for you too.Perhaps tho your husband has other ideas with his background and experience.

I hope we can meet up at some point.We have had a blast meeting people in person that we connected with on the internet..it is a small world.I have 24/7 access again ..YEA...so we can communicate more easily now.You can email me at soultravelers3@hotmail.com if you have any questions and I will be more than happy to give you experiential information that we have learned along the way.

You will have a blast,so hang in there with the prep.I am going to do a blog entry soon on families on the road and will include your website and others here and you are welcome to use ours.

You are going to soooo love it when you take off ,so hang in there in the prep phase...it all comes together and its worth all the work.It is an amazing way to do family!

Dear WT,

I just went to your site. Very cool! I was amazed that you were in the exact places we visited this summer. Amsterdam, Luberon, Rousillon, Gordes, etc. If you take a look at my blog, you'll see pictures of the same places! Your movie of your California home was also fun to watch. It must have been difficult to sell something you put so much love into.

Your story is very inspirational.

How are you liking living in an RV? I didn't try to deal with satellite communication in Europe as we had homes/apts. to stay in that had Wifi. When we didn't have Wifi, I used an international calling card from a land line that was quite inexpensive.

I would be more than happy to link to you at some point when you're ready to upload.

Hey NuNomad!

You have a great site and I didn't see the part where we visited some of the same places until you mentioned it.Cool! I will definitely link you when I get to that families on the road blog entry soon and would be honored to be on yours.

We loved the freedom of living in an RV making it up as we go and it was amazingly comfortable and Europeans have very cool campsites.Some of the best spots in Europe are campsites near major tourists attractions ( like Venice ,Rome,...right in Paris etc etc ) and it is a great way to meet lots of people from all over ( except Americans who have not caught on yet for the most part,but the Ozzies and Kiwi's and Brits are English speakers who do).

We are now in a 4 bedroom rental with 2 ocean view terraces for the winter ( for a song,tho it is super expensive by the week in high season )and enjoying the extra room and life in a 15th century village,but still enjoying our jaunts in the RV.As soon as we get a bit more settled we will take longer trips so have the best of both worlds.I think the combo is perfect for us as both have their advantages and disadvantages.Satellite was really teh only way for us to go to have the 24/7 mobile connection that we need and ours is the cheapest way to do it that we could find.

We have found wifi scarce and often quite slow when you could find it in Europe.Look at us in Burgundy sitting outside a hotel to upload the blog and you get the idea of what a pain it was many a time.So much has been on hold for us until now,but its all good as we learned thru it all.

I actually tried to join your forum the other day ,but couldn't so gave up,but I think they are great.There is a cool RV rock and roll family out of Austin who are a full timing family that you might know.Fulltiming RV and bus families have been good resources for us as many have been doing it for many years.

We will have to "talk" some more as it seems we have lots of the same passions and enjoy lots of the same things.

Hi, mannyatkins, backpackermom, NuNomad, & WT (soultravelers3) and all the other traveling families out there!

My name is Karen, I've been reading your posts for a few weeks now (only just joined boots'n'all this month) and have been trying to build up the courage to contact you all

Anyway, I've done it now, so here goes.... I am off on my RTW trip with my 3 kids, Josh 13 yrs, Joel 11 yrs and Grace 10 yrs, and my lovely mum!! no husband I'm afraid (I'm a single mummy, but happy) I love my kids to bits, and they're happy and I guess that's all that matters isn't it?

We leave on January 10th 07 for USA to find and buy our RV (we are going to name our RV 'FREEDOM 5'), as we figured (and researched) that it would work out better and cheaper for us to buy one there.

We plan to spend 3 months in Florida (in some sunshine and warmth) for a little while to start our planning, buying supplies and finding best ways to be able to connect to the internet (as we are homeschooling too)....and general relaxation (if that's possible with 3 kids) so that we can really 'think' about where we want to go. We are planning on our trip taking no less than 5 years, but who knows it could be less, it could be more than 5 years.

We are going to tour USA (north, south east and west) first, mainly to 'get a feel' of driving an RV - which neither of us have ever done, that should be funny, (mum and me laugh at everything when we're trying to be serious!) and as well to get used to life living 'on the road'. The other reason we chose the States first was that I wanted to break the kids in gently, not too much of culture shock for them straight away. We kind of planned around 9 months to a year there, perhaps Bahamas for a few weeks for the kids to be able to swim, and have fun running around with no shoes on.... and then it's over to Europe, India, Africa, Aisa.... Australia.... everywhere really.

I really hope I'll be able to ask you all for any advice I need, whatever it may be? and that perhaps as I become more experienced I'd be able to help you out too.

I'm feeling so nervous at the moment, hoping that I'm doing the right thing, for the kids and mum and me? I have spoken to lots of friends and teachers, who have all (mainly) been very encouraging, but you know how it is, you get the odd 'look' here and there from some people, who obviously think I'm crazy, taking the kids out of school, etc. etc, but like I said mainly good reactions. But those doubters out there do seem to make me think sometimes that I am being irresponsible. I suppose my argument is that the children will learn so much.... the places they'll see, the cultures, people and friends they'll meet, languages, food and the whole 'life experience' , I think that's a good enough argument isn't it?

Mum and me are working like crazy at the moment, trying to get the house all packed up, all the legal stuff sorted, and generally tying everything up and then Christmas and birthdays between all that . Which is a real headache, but, we do know it will be worth all the late nights very soon.

Anyway, I know I'm babbling at the moment, but just wanted to introduce myself and say "hi". Hope to speak to you all soon, take care - Karen x

Nice to hear from you Karen, what a great tale... These are momentous decisions we are taking aren't they? But my overiding feeling is that we are offering such life experiences to our kids, that they will benefit so much more than they will lose! My hope is that our guys will grow up feeling that anything is possible, and be empowered to take action at any time in their life when something doesn't make them happy!time will tell!
Are you UK based?
Hope our paths cross somewhere on the planet! stay in touch
Manny

Hi Manny, thanks for the friendly reply, yes I am UK based, we live in a village called Nayland in Suffolk, and as you can imagine, life here in the countryside is pretty quiet, I'm sure our RTW trip will open the kids eyes!

I work at a playgroup as a nursery assistant with children aged between 2 and 5 years old, and I'll miss all of the kiddies so much... As a 'project' for them, they are going to 'follow me' using a map to see where I am, and I'm hoping to use a wireless laptop to be able to send them photos of all the places we visit. And hey you never know, maybe I could start my own little nursery somewhere. You see we are not planning to come back here to the UK, we don't know where we want to 'end up' yet, hopefully, we'll find our own little paradise on our travels?

I hope our families will be able to meet up one day, and I will keep in touch, I know I'll be following your posts. Take care - Karen x

Hey Keliz,
So glad that you did speak up and your adventure sounds wonderful! You really must join families on the road as they are a wonderful resource for families on the road expecially in the States ( http://www.familiesontheroad.com/)

I have lots of resources on my site that should be a great help to you.Wifi should be easier to find in the US than anywhere else and you might also want to look into a pocketmail.

There was a Danish family that was in the US for sometime ( they were in Utah the last I spoke to them and interested in staying).They toured the US by RV ,then went to Canada and Mexico as well.I have been to most of the States and lots of Mexico and Canada ,so we will do that last on our years long world tour.

When I was young I took a 6 month trip in a two seat fiat convertable and tent from Boston down to Key West and across the south of the country ,including New Orleans and Texas big Bend state park ,up to grand canyon and then down to San Diego and up to San Francisco.Its a fantastic route and I can answer lots of questions about that if you want.There is so much to see in the United States and the roads and parking tend to be great ( camp free at walmarts and such if you want) but you will be doing some of your longest driving there most likely.

Homeschooling is quite popular in the states and there are endles resources.Most libraries have internet computers free for everyone to use.

You can email me with any questions and I will tell you what ever I know and will keep posting things on our site that may be useful to you.

I understand the concerns and the odd looks,but it really is a wonderful ,wonderful free life and sooo enriching for the kids that I am sure you will love it.We had never been on the road so long nor drove such a big RV before ( tho ours is quite small on a van chassie) ,but took to it quickly like a duck to water even in countries where we did not read or speak the language.It is just a movable home and works well with kids.There are always playgrounds and usually pools at the RV parks.I think you will be very happy that you are making this decision.Things do fall into place.There are a lot of fulltimers in the US,so lots of resources for you there ( unlike Europe where it is very rare for families to full time and homeschool in an RV).

Wishing you a great prep time and lovely adventure!

Hi WT, thanks for your reply.

I have looked at the link you posted (thanks), and it is great! just what we needed. I will definately use it... just got to think what to write first, It's hard to know what to say, as we haven't actually left for our trip just yet, not long tho, only a couple of months to go now, and we can't wait!

Your blog is great by the way, and you all look and sound so happy with the lifestyle you have chosen, it has given me more confidence in what we are doing, so thanks for that too.

I'll keep looking out for you on BnA.

Take care and happy travels - Keliz

Hi Keliz,

What an exciting adventure you're embarking upon! I'd be happy to be of help with any information I can offer. Have lived in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and now Texas. I think you're going to love the feeling of freedom you'll experience.

Just FYI - in many states of the US there is a chain of restaurants along the highways called The Cracker Barrel. This is a staple of ours when we do road trips in the US mainly because they have a book on tape system with kid friendly books. You can rent books on cassette tape at one restaurant and then return them hours down the highway at another location. They have many to choose from. The tapes are a great way to bide the time along the road.

NuNomad