15+ Reasons to Travel with your Family
It’s not uncommon for someone to ask why we uprooted our stable lives to travel with our family for a year. We have many reasons but this is my top 15. Over this past year I have also been exposed to many other traveling families and I wanted to know why they travel as well. So here’s my list (with some great contributions from other travel bloggers). Enjoy!
1) It’s Beautiful out there
Like really, really beautiful. I’ve spent half of my life living in a really pretty coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico and the more recent part near the Colorado Rockies. I am very lucky to call such amazing places home but when I travel I’m still awestruck by the beauty that surrounds us regardless of where we find ourselves. Not only is beauty to be found in nature but also buildings and people themselves. We joke that our kids have an automatic “wow” anytime we say look at that but regardless of how many amazing places we have been we can still see the beauty of them all.
2) You can get out of your bubble
Our home base can be a poster child for the American Suburban “bubble.” The schools are good. The average family income is over $100,000 per year. We have recreation centers, a ton of outdoor activities, lots of restaurants, grocery choices and shopping and most of us routinely forget to lock our car doors (until some “outsiders” recently found out and started helping themselves – oops). Growing up in a “bubble” it can be really easy to feel that everyone else is just like you. In the bubble most people have a large amount of opportunities. You go to school, go to college, get a 9-5 tech job, big house, stay in the bubble and raise bubble kids. In reality the population we are surrounded by are typically top 10% earners in the US (higher when you count the world). Families in the bubble have different stressors – school grades, extracurricular activities and keeping up with the Jones can all be big concerns. I love my home base but I also think it’s really important to get out and to teach my kids that the way they are growing up is not necessarily the normal.
3) Test your Comfort Zone
Being “comfortable” is great but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are growing as person or a family. Memories are not generally made on the couch watching TV. They are made when you are doing something at least just outside your comfort level. So test your comfort zone. Do something that’s not easy. Think back to the things you are most proud of – was it in the middle of your comfort zone, just outside, or even off the cliff? Even something as simple as singing karaoke or trying a new sport can be a big boost to confidence. Traveling around the world to different cultures and climates, that’s a huge comfort zone tester.
3) Experience new Cultures
This is an obvious answer to why travel with your kids but it’s also a good one. We made sure we included locations that had very different cultures than our own so the kids (and us) could experience different cultures. We spent Christmas in Copenhagen (and NYE fireworks – amazing), ate in cafe’s in Portugal, explored the Medina in Morocco and traveled around small towns in Costa Rica. Each experience added more cultural exposures to our family.
4) Meet new people
When people travel a lot, meeting new people is huge for great experiences. I do feel that it’s an area that we could have researched more to make easier. Some of our favorite times traveling were talking to people in an Irish bar, meeting other families in kids museums and stumbling upon a worldschool group meeting.
5) Travel is one of the best classrooms
We learned about volcanoes at Crater Lake and in Costa Rica. We saw the Great American Eclipse in Oregon. We studied Marine Biology and Ecology on the Gulf Coast, Oregon, and Costa Rica. We have visited and learned a lot at national parks. We visited numerous museums and learned about Vikings, history, culture and science. These experiences are teachable moments that the kids will retain throughout their lives vs just reading about these things in books.
6) Travel changes your perspective
The world is a big place and we are but a small part of this big place. The things that seem so big when you are home can seem really small when you travel. Things that seem small (like giving a gift to someone who doesn’t have much – or finding a car seat when there is not target) can be a big deal on the road.
7) If you can drag 3 young kids around the world – the carpool lane is nothing,
After you get comfortable traveling with kids in tow, then normal daily activities seem much easier. If I can get my 3 kids on a plane and successfully navigate Morocco then getting to soccer practice on time seems so much easier.
8) Travel can help with Anxiety and Stress
Travel is not going to cure mental illnesses but it can help some people. It can be a motivator to try to accomplish bigger things at home as well. Getting outside has been shown to decrease depression in medical trials. Pushing your comfort zone can help as well. Staying locked inside because of anxiety is not going to help you overcome your fears. If you struggle with anxiety there are a lot of good resources and travel and anxiety.
9) Learn new languages
I would love to learn a new language. I would really like if my kids knew multiple languages. Unfortunately for us we did not pick up on anything except for numbers, nouns and pointing. If you make it a priority, travel is the best way to learn a new language. I recommend starting with an online language program (like Doulingo) then making sure you have ways to immerse yourself in the language.
10) Get outside
When I’m home I try to hike, bike and get some vitamin D but it doesn’t always happen as much as I like. Life tends to get in the way (of having a life). When we travel we generally have at least 4 hours of an activity planned per day. It can be hiking a mountain, strolling around a town, or just checking out the nearest playground. Regardless we’re outside more and our vitamin D levels thank us.
11) Challenge yourself
Learning to drive in Costa Rica, surfing at Jaco Beach, navigating the Copenhagen train schedule, ordering food in Spain, walking through a Medina in Morocco, and finally finding our AirBnb after getting lost in Lisbon are all challenges we overcame on our trip. Each time we overcame a challenge it felt great and made a good story. We also became more confident in our abilities.
12) Spend more time with your family
When we’re home, our family is spread out all over the place. Between work, school and extracurricular activities it’s really difficult to get in quality time. When we travel we are generally in a smaller place, watch less TV and spend more quality time together. We also face challenges together and feel more like a team. When we are home our family is spread out over a large house. Our first week in Oregon – the 5 of us slept in 1 tent.
13) You have more opportunities
When you expose yourself to different places, people and activities you’ll more likely to come across opportunities that you won’t discover at home.
14) Break your routine
Working 9-5 with 2 weeks a year of vacation, the years can go by fast. If you break your daily routine you’re more likely to be able to look outside of the box and change your life the way you want to instead of just blindly following habits.
15) Memories
Every time I look back on all the places we have visited and all of the memories that we made it just makes me smile. Now, it may take a while before I can get those wonderful memories printed and displayed but the photos are a reminder of all we accomplished and how much we were able to see. I’m sure way down the road when the grandkids are all running around we’ll still have those – “remember that time we swam in a volcano” stories.
16) Because you can!
This is the reason I give the most often when people ask me why we took a year off to travel with our kids. It’s a simple answer but very true. Of course we wanted different experiences and everything listed on 1-9 but the most appropriate answer to that question of why we travel is simply because we can. I’ve always enjoyed traveling and experiencing new places and people but with our day to day typical 9-5 American work life travel can seem like a far fetched dream. Vacations are too few and can be hectic cramming everything in to short breaks. One day I chose to run the numbers and guess what – the numbers worked. So we travel because we can. Once I realized that we could travel on our budget then not going wasn’t an option. I firmly believe the saying that at your end of life you’ll regret more about the risks you did not take vs the things you tried and failed. So run the numbers, look at your options, if it’s something you really want and if you can do it – do you really want to risk not going?
Now that you’ve read about my top reason to take your family travelling, lets see what other super travellers have to say when we asked – Why do you Travel?
Travel Melodies
I travel because I want my daughter to see the world, accept cultural diversity and nurture respect for herself as well as for others wherever she goes. As a parent, I strive to raise her to be a global citizen and help her make the world a better place. When kids grow up to be global citizens, they become more aware and sensitive of other’s feelings and aren’t quick to judge based on their own perceptions or assumptions.
Also, I strongly believe this world is a lovely classroom without walls where kids can learn more than what they learn in school classrooms. I love it when my daughter shows excitement every time we plan a trip. Traveling with your child is utterly beautiful. There’s a different kind of joy to see the world through your child’s eyes.
When we look back, it is unbelievable how far we have come.10 years and counting! We decided to travel the world with our daughter when she was just 2 months old. Having a child didn’t deter us from exploring. We chose travel as a way of life for our family. Our dream of traveling the world and exposing our daughter to different languages and cultures blossoms with each passing day.
Special Thanks to – Anjali from
Little City Trips
We choose to travel because it opens up new experiences, cultures, questions and emotions with our children. It has made us more open-minded as parents too.
Whilst it’s great to simply holiday and relax with your family, we’ve become great believers in actually TRAVELING and immersing ourselves in what we are seeing and doing. We particularly love city travel as we feel this is a great way of understanding more about the places that we visit. Exploring markets, visiting museums, even just hanging out in the plazas and parks where local people do. When surrounded by people from other cultures, who look different, speak differently, act differently to us it sparks our children’s curiosity and forces us to think about why and explain these things without prejudice.
Watching our children’s interactions with other children in new places is a truly magical experience. Whilst as parents we are still hiding on the side lines observing, our kids have no fear asking a new child to play or joining in a game, even if they speak no English. This is what really excites us and motivates us to travel and keep learning from our own children.
This Contribution provided by:
Keri – Co-Editor at Little City Trips
littlecitytrips.com | instagram | twitter
Everyday Wanderer
My childhood was full of frequent moves and the incredible opportunity to live abroad for roughly half of my most formative years. While I wouldn’t trade these experiences, I do sometimes wish I had roots in one place and I occasionally long for a childhood home to visit. When I became a mother, I vowed to find a way to give my four children the best of both worlds — the chance to live their entire childhood in one place but the opportunity to know first-hand that the world is much bigger than the community where they were raised.
Submitted by: Sage from
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Horizon Unknown
I had been planning and waiting for friends to travel for over a year. Eventually, in 2013, I decided to not wait any longer and book a solo, one-way ticket to Ireland and then the rest of Europe. I planned a rough route I would take through, visiting every country in Western Europe and a few in the east – but there is always more to see and my list of places to visit in Europe has never been as long as it is now.
Back when I left in 2013 I had no idea travel would become so important in my life. In my mind, it is the best way to learn about the world and yourself. Not only does travel (solo or not) force you to solve unusual problems – such as using a shoelace to tie up a broken window in an unventilated train, the lessons you gain about others are so valuable.
Interaction with locals is always a unique insight into a different way of life, plus other like-minded travelers turn into good friends.
Positive experiences far outweigh the bad days in travel. Exploring the world is something I will never get tired of and will always be planning my next adventure.
Contribution by Ben from Horizon Unknown
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The Learning Excursion
The more I travel, the more I value it. When my husband and I first moved overseas, my desire to travel was mostly the result of a “make the most of it” attitude. I was curious, but I didn’t realize how much travel would impact my perspective. After two and a half years overseas, and our second international move, I’m motivated to travel deeper.
My empathy and compassion for others have developed in ways I never expected (I thought I was empathetic and compassionate before). It has shifted my political views and redefined some core values. In order to benefit even more for myself and my kids, I want to travel to be immersed in new cultures- language, traditions, music.
My kids are only one and three, but they are expressing their interest going places and seeing new things. I have started journaling with them as a way to process our experiences and to be able to look back and remember all of the amazing places we’ve been.
Thanks to Megan from The Learning Excursion
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Our travel experiences with our family are moments that I treasure and will never forget. We’ve grown a lot as a family. We’ve seen beautiful places, learned a lot of history, met wonderful people and have had some fantastic experiences that we would not have had a home. We have the ability to adapt, to overcome challenges and have learned how to chill. If travel long term travel is something you want to do, keep reading through this site and others like it and you can likely find the way. Happy Journeys!!!
– From Fitz5 on the go
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We’re a family of 5 (Physician Assistant mom, IT project manager dad and 3 kids ages 3,6,10) taking a gap year from normal life to travel. For blog posts, locations, and more information on how we did it and how you can to click here.
