One think I think is really important to realize when starting your travel plans is that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. We are taking a travel year. Some people become permanent nomads. Others just take weekenders. Choose whatever method fits your family.
Our current plan is to take several travel years. This is our first one. Our oldest is in 5th grade and would like to return to her home school for 6th grade. We’re then going to discuss taking 1-2 years somewhere between 7-9th grade (or break that in to 6 month chunks). She’s then going to finish High School and we’ll try and take a gap year with her (if she’ll let us tag along) before she starts college. This way she will still have her hometown and long term friends. She’ll also have the full high school experience including jobs and extra curricular activities. For us it’s the best of all worlds – stability, independence, and 3 years of travel. Also my youngest, who may not remember much of this trip, will remember the next time we go. Even after you pick your time frame, there are still so many options when it comes to travel. Are you super speedy, checking off bucket list items as you go? Do you want to make your travel destination your second home (staying 3-6 months or longer in one place)? Do you want to see the world but at a slower pace? Do you like to backpack and spend our time in hostels? RV or Caravan? Move on a Boat? Hike? Bike? Trains? Exotic? Humanitarian? Would you like to be with the locals or in the middle of a resort? Middle of town, views, or peace and quiet? Again, make a list … set your priorities. Start with what you want to get out of the trip. As you do your research keep going back to your priorities and make sure what you ended up with still matches your wish list. It’s easy to get off track, so keep making sure what you end up with is what you want. We are what I would call slow travelers. We stay about 1 month in each place with some 4-5 day breaks of more expensive locations. If you stay more than a month in a location you save money on lodging and transportation. Sometimes we’ll pick a less expensive home base then stay in more expensive towns on the weekend. It still saves us money vs staying in the high dollar areas the entire time. I want to see a lot and I get restless so right now 1 month is my limit per place. The downside is that it’s tricky to get the kids involved in activities. If you stay 2-3 months then you may have more options for activities and may be even a few choices for schools.
