BootsnAll Travel Community

Wanted to introduce my family and join the discussion. We're a family of four with children ages 14 and 11 planning to embark on a year-long RTW in July 08.

We've done a lot of general planning, but look forward to mining the expertise on this board as we move from the general to the specific, in terms of our planning.

We've found Boots n All to be an incredible resource, and thank all in advance for all the great information you share.

CAJ
www.thewidewideworld.com

Welcome CAJ!

I just peeked at your blog. I look forward to reading about your travels. Kudos to you for embarking on such an incredible journey with your family!

It is a daunting task to uproot your life and everything you know to embark on on a RTW trip, but I garauntee that what you gain will be so much more. You are giving yourself and your kids a truly priceless gift.

My husband and I traveled RTW in 2001, before kids and hope...ahhh, I mean PLAN to bring our two young daughters RTW in the future.

BnA is a fantastic resource. Enjoy the process of making your dream real, it's just the beginning!

quimby

Welcome! There really is nothing better than family world wide slow travel and you will be so grateful that you made this decision!

The hardest part is the planning as it can seem overwhelming, but once you take off it gets much easier, or that has been our experience.

Every family will make different decisions. So far we have not done any vaccines and my my child has never had a shot in her life. My husband and I also did not get any more despite our time in rural Morocco and Turkey. I am still researching that topic, but I am not sure if we will get any more before we head to Africa and South America ( our next two continents).

You can be immune to things without ever having them, so it is a good idea to get blood titers done to find out if you are already immune as each vaccine does have risks. One needs to do the research and balance out the risks of the vaccines ( or cumulative vaccines as there have been problems with vaccines and more serious auto immune diseases) against chance of the disease. I find it is better to do your own research as travel clinics have a vested interest ( they get more money if you get more jabs).

All the worries do seem more nerve wracking before you go, but safety is at a very different standard around the world and you will come face to face with some fears. Being sick or dealing with a health challenge is less fun on the road and in a foreign land. We have had a few, but so far it has been cheaper and as easy to handle here. We have never even used our first aid kit! So most of the things that you worry about, you will not have to face.

The shared experiences ( even the scary or challenging ones) and the bonding is part of the great reward of family travel. My advice is to have the kids involved with the planning, researching and recording of the trip memories and to go SLOW and pack light. If you do need to do some fast travel, work together like a well oiled team and then take some time to chill. Part of the fun is doing ordinary things in extraordinary places.

Carpe Diem!

Quimby,

Thanks for the welcome. It is sometimes overwhelming to think about the adventure ahead - but it feels comforting to know that there is a resource like this web site and discussion board.

WT,

Thank you too for your thoughts. I have been a fan of Soul Travelers 3 for some time - in fact I mention your family in one of my early posts and include you in my blogroll of RTW Families. I have really enjoyed following your travels, and very much admire your sense of adventure.

You mention you may be off to Africa or South America next - do you have a sense of your timeframe? How long are you thinking about staying in each place?

I'm looking forward to the next chapter in your story.

CAJ
www.thewidewideworld.com

CAJ,
first off.....love, love, love your family's site! And you are so right about how great it is to find such an amazing resource for families like ours. I can't get over the coincidence of our kids ages. my husband is currently working on our site and our kids are coming up with the right name, so hopefully i will have something to put up as our signature soon!!

Looks like we are going to start in the UK after taking the QM2 transatlantic....nice and easy transition and maybe since we'll only lose an hour or so each day, maybe we won't be soooo jetlagged when we disembark

Look forward to reading all your entries and am very interested in your galapagos trip as that is definitely one of our listed destinations.

Please keep us posted!!

peace,
b

quote:

Looks like we are going to start in the UK after taking the QM2 transatlantic.

That sounds like a great idea! We have done lots of traveling by slow ferry ( some of them are more like cruise ships) and really enjoy this old fashion method of slow travel.

There are also freighters that sound great that we are looking into down the line, as an interesting mode of travel. We considered going that route west to get to Europe for our take off. It is a wonderful experience to arrive and leave some places via ship ( like Barcelona, Satorini , Dubrovnik etc).

We will be in the UK this summer ( doing Morocco, Portugal, northern Spain,France, ferry to Ireland and also visit UK,ferry to Scandinavia & tour with a fly into Russia probably, then back to Spain via Germany and France most likely.)

It is tricky to meet up, but if any of us overlap anywhere, we are always up for meeting people. We had a great meeting with a family in Athens that we met here on bootsnall when we were all just planning. We also met some friends we met online in Capaddoica Turkey.

We always play things by ear ( which others often do as well) so it can be tricky, but sometimes it works. Looks like we might both be in the UK at the same time bbtz. We can connect via email when we get close to see if it might work.

Just leaving it as an open invitation to all of you!

The planning part is anxiety provoking and intense, but once you take off it gets really fun!!

absolutely WT,
and CAJ as well !!
it's great to read your stories and i am bookmarking ideas and websites like crazy trying to make sure i don't rely on my memory for any of the fabulous places we want to experience.
my husband is really the writer in the family (he will really be responsible for most all of the blog entries, with the kids and i chipping as we'll feel moved to)
i'm the researcher/planner (i think he likes to feel as though the activities are spontaneous) and it is nice to surprise him sometimes when we are already somewhere (like Mexico) and i whip out a plan to go ziplining through the jungle or something else like that. And he's like "wow, so cool you found out about this....what a blast" we are definitely a family that loves adventure, hiking, and new experiences.
i do hope our paths cross at some point. with our openended plan i'm sure at some point we will end up in the same country, right.
be well.

peace,
b

BBTZ,

Make sure you let us know when you've got your web site set up... I want to be able to follow your journey (and recommendations) as well.

When you do set it up, I encourage you to think about also setting up a del.icio.us bookmark page...

If you are unfamiliar with del.icio.us bookmarks and social bookmarking, take a look at http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english this - and the way we are going to try to build a set http://del.icio.us/thewidewideworld here.

CAJ
www.thewidewideworld.com

quote:

Thank you too for your thoughts. I have been a fan of Soul Travelers 3 for some time - in fact I mention your family in one of my early posts and include you in my blogroll of RTW Families. I have really enjoyed following your travels, and very much admire your sense of adventure.

You mention you may be off to Africa or South America next - do you have a sense of your timeframe? How long are you thinking about staying in each place?

Thanks CAJ, that is nice to hear! I did check out your cool blog and appreciated seeing us mentioned there. ( I can so relate to your process!). I knew most of the others, but not all. I always enjoy reading about other travelers too. We can all learn a lot from each other.

We are not sure yet on the timing for Africa and South America. It will most likely be at least a year and possibly two. We still have things we want to do here and we are still coming up with a plan for those areas. We have become quite attached to our little village in Andalusia, so it will be sad not to come back to winter here. I am also working on getting more weight off which is easier to do in a stable environment like this. ( I have lost 37 lbs recently!). We do so much walking and climbing here that even my slender husband gets in his best shape here.

My step father has also recently got cancer and that could impact our trip at any time, although at the moment he is in remission.

We also live on a really tight budget, as one of our goals is to build our nest egg as we roam. So we are also watching financial things in Europe and how that impacts us, so that could possibly change the time frames.

I am still looking into how long we can stay in each place.Some times we will go in and out to spend more time or follow good weather. We have lots of interest in Argentina and South Africa so want to spend longer times there. Much will also depend on how we like them once we are there. We really play so much by ear, so it is hard to tell. For some reason they ( Africa and SA)interest us more than SE Asia, but so many like that area that we must also see it.

If you know our style, I have a basic plan, but then it goes the way it goes. We had no intention of staying a month in Dubrovnik, Barcelona or Santorini this year, but they all just called to us for various reasons. We had planned to see Poland, Budapest and Romania, but after my trip to the hospital in Vienna and the weather closing in on us, we had to let those go. There was some unbelievable heat this summer ( like over 100 in Tuscany in May!!) which we had not planned on and other such things which colors choices and we tend to find it impossible to go fast. ( Or if we do, we need rest afterwards). We were really pleased with all the ancient civilization sites that we saw this year and Turkey and Morocco were stand outs.

I guess the short answer is we are clueless. We always start out like this...and when the time is right we jump. It is always a little scary as you jump into the unknown...but that is part of the thrill too. You don't really know what you are doing until you just do it one step at a time and you build confidence as you go. I am a fairly big coward with lots of phobias

It has been a wonderfully bonding experience for our family and we find that we thrive on living in the now. I think you will find it extraordinary and well worth all the effort!!

I found the prep stressful, but our friends from the UK who have been on the road with 2 kids since 2000, told us once we jumped off it would get great....and they were right!!

CAJ-
Welcome to the wonderful world of family travel. I have just set off (Jan. 30,08) for a 6 mth RTW trip with my 3 children (ages 12,14,16). We left the west coast of US and landed just under 30 hrs. later in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. You are in for a trip that you will NEVER regret. Use the Bootsnall forums to answer most (if not ALL) of your questions.......I found these forums to be worth their weight in gold. Your web site is great. I published a site as well.....I have to say that was the hardest thing for me to do in prep for this trip. I am just a soccer mom trying to get caught up into this century with all of the techno stuff. Our site address is http://web.mac.com/young_nomads and our travel email is young_nomads@mac.com Drop us a line. Happy planning.....don't let that part stress you out. Lots of the fun of family traveling is to shoot from the hip and follow the lead of the kids. My kids are doing mental math daily calculating the exchange rate and reading city maps like it was second nature. We are also doing lots of book reading. We are learning that the night bus is great for saving money (because you travel at night and save the cost of a hostel room) BUT we are not sleeping on the bus so we spend the day napping at our destination. So we are changing up our plans to travel during the day, see the country side, and arrive early evening at our destination. This is just a simple example of what you learn on the road and what works best for your family. We are having a blast!

I am not into giving unsolicited advice but I will say......pack light, or lighter!!!!!!! We are traveling too heavy with a full backpack and a small shoulder bag each. I packed 4 pair of under garments....only need 2, 6 shirts (3 long sleeve, 3 short) only need 3.... things that I have used and could not travel without is a sink stopper(for washing out clothes nightly), with a portable clothes line, and duct tape(for minor repairs and blister prevention).

Good luck with the planning, but don't over plan. If you have your money, your tickets, your passport, and your family, you could get on the plane tomorrow and be just fine. You could even go without luggage and gather what you need along the way.

Happy Trails!

Mom (a.k.a mamma nomad in our website blog)

Glad to see that you are off and having fun, MOM!!

You are right, packing light is key! It is amazing how one adapts to wearing the same things over and over. LOL! We looove exofficio clothes and the like to get longer wear and multi purpose. We like their underwear ( and Tilleys too) and yeah, two is all you need. We loooove our smartwool socks...one pair each and have worn them to death. They are cool when it is hot and warm when it is cold.

My most favorite piece of clothing was a designer black pair of gaucho pants that I got at Ross on sale for 5 dollars. They could be worn in 3 seasons and every occasion, washed out & dried in a snap and I have finally worn them out.

Our black vests have been life savers as well....especially for our child ( who is about to grow out of it and I am not sure if I will be able to replace it).

Black is a wonderful color for travel and one gets use to a "uniform" of black, even for our child. She has more than us ( because of school) but we live in the same few things and it sure makes getting dressed in the morning an easy decision. LOL!

It is great to discover how little we really need!!