Long Term World Travel Inspiration for Families

Last weekend, the kids and I were invited to a gathering of a fascinating group of people. They are families who are taking open-ended trips around the world. For a few days, they converged in Penang to share their experiences and meet face-to-face instead of keeping their relationships in the virtual world. The longest trip I've ever taken is 3.5 weeks, so for me, embarking on a multi-month (and in some cases, multi-year) trip seems rather remarkable. Listening to their stories, I felt like I was in the midst of an inspirational Oprah episode on realizing your dreams.

What struck me is that they all seemed extremely normal. At least, they're no crazier than the folks I usually hang around with. No one was a Facebook IPO millionaire or an heiress with unlimited funds. Most of them have figured out how to utilize the internet's ability to let people work from home. Except for them, "home" moves around to anywhere they can find internet connectivity. If your work is done online, you can do it just as easily from a tropical island in Malaysia or cafe in Europe as you can in a suburban home in Silicon Valley.

Furthermore, these weren't just footloose and fancy-free flashpacker couples. These folks had kids in tow! Some families had preschoolers while others had tweens and teens. They've found a way to educate their kids through travel. Some follow homeschool curriculums (perhaps "roadschool" would be more apropos) while others do unschooling which is an education led by a child's interests. Imagine having geography, social studies and world history come alive by actually traveling to places many kids only read about in books.

Most importantly of all, these were people who found a way to turn their dreams into a reality. They didn't dismiss it as some crazy pie-in-the-sky idea. They prioritized and planned in order to transform around-the-world travel with kids from something floating in their heads to actually getting on a plane and starting their trip. What an inspiration! Even if I have no intention of doing long-term travel myself, I can still take their example of commitment and living with intention and transfer it to my own life goals.

Traveling Mammas with multitudes of kids and dads missing from this picture. This group was HUGE!

Who were these cool families? Read on and click through to delve deeper into their journeys.


Travel with Bender
Erin spearheaded this gathering and, luckily for me, noticed my blog post about kids' activities in Penang and invited me to join them. This Australian family with two wee little ones started traveling in May and have since hit numerous Southeast Asian countries, spending a couple months in each one before moving on.

Edventure Project
In 2008, this family with 4 kids (currently ages 10 to 16 years) old biked through Europe and part of North Africa. They've roadtripped across Central America, the USA and Canada and are now exploring Southeast Asia. I was geeking out just listening to all they've seen. The mama of this family is passionate about education and helping others realize their dreams.

Going Anyway
Traveling the world with 5 kids, one of whom is a baby is one thing. Add a wheelchair and tube feeding into the mix, and it's something even more extraordinary. We actually just missed each other at the meetup which is quite a bummer because it was the only blog I had followed before this gathering.

Bohemian Travelers
Six years ago, this American family with 3 boys took off for Costa Rica and never looked back. They'd visited Penang previously and loved it so much, they returned here while saving up money for traveling around Spain, Portugal and Morocco. What struck me about this mama is her savvy for using her blog to get comped everything for her stay in expensive Singapore.

Worldschool Adventures
This Canadian family with two young boys was only on Day 8 of their long-term travels when I met them. I bet that hanging around this can-do attitude group erased any questions of "Are we crazy?" and replaced it with "Wow, all these other people have managed to do it." I thought it was great that other traveling families were taking Worldschool Adventures under their wings and offering to show them the ropes.

A King's Life
This American family with two adorable preschool-aged kiddos are currently hanging their hats in Bali. Two years ago, they embarked on a 6-month visit to Costa Rica (where they met Bohemian Travelers) and decided to just keep going around the world. According to the King mama, they're more likely to settle in a temporary home base and head out from there instead of continuously keeping on the move.

Sojourneyers
Kismet was certainly smiling down on this family with one young girl. Our hostess graciously invited these strangers in to take shelter from one of Penang's sudden downpours. It turns out that they are a long-term traveling family, too! They are just beginning their journey and had been following some of the bloggers in this group. I'm sure they must have been delighted to join in the festivities.


This post is part of Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox and Friday Daydreamin' at R We There Yet Mom? Check them out for more around-the-world travel inspiration.