Travel The World: A Night out of Town to Traveling the World

I had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview a few Expert Travelers.  Be sure to read their story about the thought process and the planning they put forth to travel to countries all around THE WORLD with two children, four and younger, including a 3-month old baby.  Read on to soak up their journey THROUGH IT ALL!

1.What was the inspiration for your trips around the world? What are some lessons you learned the first time that you modified for your second trip? 

“We both have been keen travelers for as long as we can think. We have been living and working in various places on the planet, exploring the world and diving into other cultures. When we had our first baby we thought that this cosmopolitan lifestyle would eventually come to an end. However, not long after she was born we booked at trip to Australia and New Zealand to visit family and friends. In order to make the trip to the other end of the world slightly more pleasant, we built in stops to recover from long-haul flights.

We eventually ended up traveling a month through Asia-Pacific with the baby and found it to be rather easy, both financially as well as a family (examples during the trip: flight tickets for infants up to 2 years are free and that families with babies tend to get a basinet in the front row on long haul flights; examples after the trip: you get to spend lots of time together as a family without being distracted by your ordinary day-to-day life).

When we learned that baby number two is on its way, our immediate response was to address the question how to best spend the 6-month maternity leave Charlotte got. It didn’t take long to agree that there are more tempting alternatives than spending the entire time in the city during the hot summer. Eventually we agreed that we’d stay for 3 months to make sure the baby and mum are doing fine and subsequently use the remaining 3 months for a trip around the world.

There are three main lessons we’ve learned:

1. There is no better time to travel than with a baby - invaluable time spent as a family

2. Planning a few things is sufficient to make life for everyone easy

3. The focus should not be on risks, but on opportunities”

 

2.What special planning did you need to do in order to travel with a young infant? What did this process include? 

“The challenge for us in planning such a trip was to find a balance between having things organized in advance but at the same time still leave enough room for flexible adjustments while traveling.

Once it became clear to us, that traveling would be what we as a family wanted, the “planning process“ could be broken down into the following steps:

A. Preparation I: Kick-off

1. Goal: i.e. See as many things as possible? Relax or to be very active? Enjoy beaches or hikes in the mountains?

2. Resources available: Basically, what is our timeframe and what is the budget?

3. Restrictions: Is there something we don’t want, i.e. cities/crowded places, boats, remote areas?

4. To do prior to departure: House care/plants/animals? Vaccinations or other doctor visits?

 

B. Preparation II: Details

1. Destinations, specific conditions & timeframe: Rainy seasons? Peak/Off Peak?

2. Choose accommodations: Centrally located or remote? Cribs available? Cooking possible?

3. Infrastructure requirements: Hospitals/doctors? Swimming pools? Playgrounds? Kid entertainment? Shops/groceries? Restaurants?

 

C. Execution:

1. Packing: Basic medical supplies, clothes for the expected climate conditions, repellents, sunscreen, etc.

2. Leaving: Leave spare keys with neighbors, turn off gas/electricity/internet/TV/etc., AC to 62, etc.

3. Enjoying :-)” 

 

3.What was the easiest part about planning this trip? 

“I guess for us the easiest part was taking the decision to spend as much time as possible away from home, together as a family.

Why? Because thinking of traveling and expose ourselves to new things gets us going. We are very excited to share time together as a family, let alone going to places that we don’t know at all.”

4.What was the most challenging part about planning this trip? 

“It seemed to us that the most challenging part before the trip was to decide on how long to stay at each location to avoid that we felt like being in a hurry but at the same time not become bored staying too long at the same spot. The most challenging things during the trip is to keep to a plan and a daily structure. In particular with kids it seems to be helpful to stick to a daily routine (i.e. meals, naps, etc.), which we tend to forget with an increasing feeling of ‘wow, we are on a loooong trip’.”

 

5.What part of your trip did you enjoy the most? And, the least?

“In terms of the overall experience it was definitely to spend so much time together as a family (basically 24h) at locations that we chose and wanted to explore. Specifically, we really liked having made the decision to spend a lot of time in warm climate with access to water and a certain minimal standard with regards to infrastructure.” 

 

6.How did you choose your destinations? Would you return to these destinations again? If so, what is the draw?  

“We were always dreaming of visiting Hawaii. Due to the distance - it is ‪a 10 hour flight - we thought everything under 2 weeks would not make sense, hence after giving birth to our baby girl, the timing was perfect.

Once we decided to travel to our top-on-the-list location Hawaii, we immediately thought about visiting friends and family in New Zealand. As a result, we decided to do it and cross the equator which implied that we were going from summer in Hawaii to winter in New Zealand.

Of course, we had to recover from that shock and immediately thought about South East Asia, were life is super cheap, people are friendly, the temperatures and beaches are awesome, the food excellent and traveling safe. We went for Bali as it seemed to be the perfect place for a family with little kids due to its infrastructure and other amenities.

Well, and then we obviously wanted to show the baby to grandparents in Europe, notably Switzerland and France, - which made the around-the-world-trip a done deal.

In hindsight we would rank our destinations as following:

1. Hawaii: an absolute MUST-DO for families - especially Maui was very laid back with good food, stunning sceneries, good beaches, and everything you need to relax

2. New Zealand: Very relaxed to travel with kids. People are incredibly friendly and welcoming to families with small kids.

3. Europe: I guess we don’t have to explain that Europe is an incredible place. However, as we are Europeans, we felt like having much more exciting times in places we didn’t know that well.

4. Bali: I suppose we would not spend 4 weeks on Bali anymore but either visit another island on Hawaii or go to other South-East Asian destinations such as Cambodia or Thailand instead.”

  

7.How did you select the activities for each destination?  

“We found from our ‘holiday experience’ in various destinations that kids love to play outdoors, even better if there is any form of water, preferably combined with warm weather. Therefore, our goal was to spend as much time at beaches.

At the same time, we wanted to make sure that single flights are not longer than 8 hours at a time. Therefore, you have to spend a couple of nights in cities that you would not necessarily choose with kids. At the same time all those cities provide excellent amenities and hotels for families too so it can be used as a short stay to smoothen the trip.”

 

8.What were the highlights of each of your destinations? 

“Hawaii/Maui: We had a beautiful small house in the lush native jungle up the volcano. Only a 10-minute drive would bring us to the most beautiful beaches on the island. Also, the highlights were the food: if you love fresh fish on a BBQ, it’s THE place to be. 

New Zealand: Bay of Islands. Simply put: it’s magic! With its’ dozens of little islands where you can spot whales and dolphins one of the most beautiful places down under. 

Bali: The food, the friendliness of locals and the sunsets from our veranda. 

Bangkok: The food, no doubt about that! 

Switzerland: Swimming in a cold mountain, while the kids would collect stones.

France: Visit to the little town of Blois, approx. 2 hours south of Paris, with a number of castles along the Loire river”

 

9.Would you take another trip around the world with young children? If so, are there any components that you would modify? 

“Absolutely, no doubt at all!

If we stick with our route (DC-LA-Maui-NZ-Bali-Bangkok-Zurich-Paris-DC) we would adjust our route slightly to spend more time on Hawaii as well as choose Cambodia instead of Bali.

If we would have the opportunity to do another trip around the world it would look something like DC-Hawaii-Tahiti-Australia-Cambodia-Portugal-DC.”

 

10.What advice would you give to others that are looking to travel with infants or young children? 

“If you want to spend quality time with your loved ones getting out and about is a great. Taking a step beyond what you usually do provides you with inspiring (but sometimes also challenging) moments.”

 

Anything else you'd like to share?  

“Well, we have only talked about taking flights from the different destinations. Depending on the time available there are excellent ways to travel without taking a flight. However, this requires a more detailed planning schedule as well as more travel time.”

Want to be in touch with this traveling couple!? Email info@homedayhero.com or send a DM to Stacey.homedayhero on Instagram for more details!