Denning kids with friend 'Vel' on his motorcycle in India
"Travel is a heightened state of awareness, in which we are
mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed."
Discovering strange foods in Asia. Biking from Alaska to Chile. Language immersion. Investigating new cultures. Wandering in the shadow of a volcano. Serving in India. Backpacking in Bali.
And doing it with kids.
I am pro family travel. In fact I'm head-over-heels, crazy converted to family travel.
That's what Discover.Share.Inspire. is about.
But as I search on the web for other families who are doing it, they are few and far between. And difficult to find.
I'm not looking for the family travel gear review sites, or family travel tips. But blogs about actual families who are actually traveling.
That's why I've compiled this list (in no particular order) of the twelve most amazing families (that I could find) who have mastered The Art of Family Travel.
Jennifer Miller at Edventure Project
“Hello Fellow Adventurers and Dreamers of Big Dreams…”
We are the Millers, all six of us. At the moment our kids are all fourteen and under… everyone is potty trained and no one is driving… the perfect ages for big time adventure!
So far our adventures have included trips all over the U.S. of A. including Hawaii (twice), Mexico (five times), Canada (more times than we can count) and one big bike ride through Europe and North Africa that spanned almost 9000 km and took us a whole year. And then there was the winter’s long drive down through Central America last year.
We home school our children, which gives us plenty of time and opportunity to turn every day into an adventure.
Follow @edventuremama
Christine Gilbert at Almost Fearless
My name is Christine Gilbert and in July 2008 I took the leap from being a manager in a large Fortune 500 company to being a writer — traveling and working remotely from anywhere. Some people call it being a digital nomad, location independent, vagabonding, or even flashpacking. All I know is that I live where I want, earn enough to support my family and travel when the mood strikes– all thanks to a good wifi connection and strong coffee.
In March 2010, I became a mom and we now travel with our infant son, Cole.
Follow @AlmostFearless
Jeanne & Da Vinci at Soul Travelers 3
WHO
We are a family of three from Santa Cruz, California. Mom and Dad are in our early 50's and our "nina" is 5 years old. MORE DETAILS>>
WHAT
An epic odyssey: open-ended, years long slow trip around the world as a family adventure, unschool, spiritual journey and lifestyle.
Follow @soultravelers3
Adam Baker at Man Vs. Debt
My name is Baker. Well, actually it’s Adam Baker, but I have lazy friends. Most just prefer Baker.
I create the far majority of content around these parts, however I’m blessed to be joined on my journey by my thrill-seeking wife, Courtney, and our two-and-a-half year old daughter, Milligan – a spunky, stubborn toddler with a newly found attitude problem!
Our message is simple:
The first step to living a life of passion and purpose is to remove the barriers that hold you back.
Follow @ManvsDebt
The Vogel Family at Family on Bikes
After nearly three years on the road, the Vogel family of Boise, Idaho is nearing the end of their epic quest. The Vogels – John (56), Nancy (50), Davy (13), and Daryl (13) left Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in June 2008 to cycle to the southern end of the Americas. The family is now a mere 500 miles from Ushuaia, the southernmost town of the world, and expects to reach their destination in mid-March.
Follow @familyonbikes
Heidi and Sean at Family Rocketship
Who?
Heidi and Sean Marshall and two little daughters ages 4 & 2.
What?
- First and foremost, Wife & Mother, Husband & Father – completely blessed with a super cool family
- Just your average everyday people trying to make the world a better place (cliché & vague we know but sincere)
- Happily “Outside the System” – unemployed & part-time vagabonds
- Published Author & Chicken Soup for the Soul Contributor
Why?
We love helping people playing big in life. Really. To help others be awesome. Life is more than what most people think it is.
Follow @famrocketship
Colin Burns at Our Travel Lifestyle
Our family of four are off on what we hope will be a life altering journey throughout the world. We have very little planned other than we will first travel through South East Asia, before heading to northern Asia and on to the Americas. If you want to know a little bit about our roughly planned itinerary then have a read here or if you want to know why we’d do such a thing you can have a read about it here.
Follow @ccburns
'A', 'M' and 'J' at Got Passport
We are a family of three, with a passion for travel, seeking out new experiences, meeting new people, and living simply. We are striving to relocate, yes, you read correctly, as in MOVE, to Thailand Uhumm – as of July 2010, we did move. We did it! we sold just about everything we own in a city we’ve lived for 30 yrs and relocated to Chiang Mai, Thailand with our now 7yo daughter.
We want to experience Asia sloooooowly! And when we are done with Asia– well, how about we just wait and see which continent the wind will take us to next! (Why Asia you ask? Click here to find out!)
Follow @GotPassport
Jeff & Kristy at Vagabond Kids
We are an upper middle class family living and working in Singapore. We have lived in Asia for almost 13 years and have loved and learned from every single minute. There are four Vagabonds in the family, Vagabond Dad (aka Jeff), Vagabond Mom (Kristy) and the Vagabond Kids. The Vagabond Boy(D) is 9 and Vagabond Girl (K) is 7 going on 13…
Follow @vagabondkids
MummyT and 'Z' at Travels With a Nine Year Old
www.TravelsWithANineYearOld.com
We are a single-parent family from London, England, and this is the story of our long-term round the world trip.
Z and I have travelled since he was teeny-tiny. He took his first trip to Europe aged six months, and to Latin America at two. He rode an elephant at three, went to Africa aged five, and since he was small we’ve talked about taking time out to travel the world when he turned nine. Now, we’re finally doing it.
Follow @mummy_t
Debbi at Delicious Baby
DeliciousBaby is for parents who want to travel with their children, but don't know how to start or who want to learn how to make travel easier and more fun. I share my own travel stories (in the US and internationally) and my best tips and advice on issues like how to keep kids busy on a plane, surviving jet-lag, and flying with carseats.
Follow @deliciousbaby
Corrine McDermott at Have Baby, Will Travel
Corinne McDermott wanted to take a family vacation before her first maternity leave was over. Frustrated by the scattered information on destinations, packing, flying tips, and family-specific hotel reviews, she decided to create a one-stop web brochure for busy parents with questions on traveling with baby. Her supportive husband taught himself the basics, and Have Baby Will Travel was launched from their basement in the Spring of 2007.
Follow @hvbabywilltrvl
Follow me @rdenning
Do you know of any other amazing families who are traveling the world? Are you one of them? Please share a link to their site (or yours) in the comments below.
Comments
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Wow! Thanks Rachel for the vote of confidence!! We think your family should be on the top 12 too!!
Happy Trails!
j
Thanks Jenn for thinking so, but I didn’t want to list myself 🙂
You guys are amazing! Can’t wait to meet one day…how long will you be in Guatemala? Is Belize next?
We’re doing our best to see most of the world, trip by trip, with a potential bigger, broader trip in 2013! Check us out at http://www.theworldiscalling.com!
Awesome Lisa! Thanks for sharing. You’re site looks great, keep it up!
Thanks for the shout out! The whole point of Have Baby Will Travel is to motivate and inspire new parents to travel with their babies, so if even one person finds it helpful, I’m thrilled!
You should also check out Heather Greenwood Davis at Globetrotting Mama. She’s taking her fam on a one year RTW trip this summer.
Corrine,
I’m glad you’re doing such an important ‘work’- travel with babies is doable and rewarding, for parents and infants alike.
Thanks for sharing other great families!
We are leaving in a few months on a year-long bicycle trip with our two children (ages 4 and 18m). off to explore Canada, the USA, Mexico and Central America.
Very, very cool! I’m glad you shared. What a daring venture.
Follow @PedalPoweredFam
I’d love to meet up with you sometime!
Thanks for including us and we’re so glad to see more families doing this! We’ve been on an open ended world tour for the last 5 years ( 39 countries on 5 continents on 23 dollars a day per person so far) and couldn’t agree with you more about the value of family travel. We have no plans to stop! 😉
Our child was 5 when we began but is now 10 and we are monolinguals raising a fluent as a native trilingual/triliterate from birth who speaks some of many other languages and we have found our travel lifestyle to be the best education in the world!
I have a whole list of families that have in the past or are currently doing RTW or world travel with their families on our website and FOTR has a great list of traveling families ( most are full time USA RVers).
I think few people actually travel full time as a family because they do not realize yet how easy, enriching and cheap it can be as most people still have the illusion that one must be very rich to travel. But ….it is a growing trend and tech makes it easier than ever.
Yes, I’m very inspired by what you guys have done and are doing! It is definitely an up and coming trend. I’ll have to check out the family travel resource on your site.
A french family of 4 traveling by bike around South America:
http://www.unefamilleunmonde.com
Hi Family Travel Masters!
I wanted to pass on the exciting news that Tripping just launched a Traveling Families Network! This is a platform for experts like yourself to share your tips and experiences as well as connect with other family travelers or local family hosts in the cities you visit! Please check it out here: http://tripping.com/networks/traveling-families It’s of course free to join since cultural exchange is good for the world.
Thanks for being masters in your art. Happy Travels!
Lauren
Thanks for sharing the resource!
Family of 6 traveling the US (for now) in an Airstream travel trailer.
Awesome! Thanks.
Thank you for the mention Rachel! I’m inspired to learn there are so many families out there. It’s a trend that needs to grow. I really feel traveling kind of shows you who you really are and then gives you the chance to learn from it. Very useful as when trying to be the best parent possible.
Heidi found your site a while back and she made me sit down and watch the video you guys have on your home page. It’s very inspirational! Thank you!
No problem Sean! We can’t wait to meet up with you guys sometime. We’re planning a new trip, hopefully we can cross paths, as we’ll be headed down to the lower 48 for part of it.
Keep up the good work at Family Rocketship!
Great list of amazing families!
We are a family of four and we are selling our house and heading over to Asia. We unschool our two young boys and plan on traveling slow and letting the world be their teacher.
http://worldschooladventures.com
Cheers!
Thanks Rachel! You’re always an inspiration to me. This is a great post idea because now we have families to connect with. Thanks again. You’re the best!
Thanks Heidi. You guys are inspirational as well, that’s why I included you!
I wanted a place where I could keep track of all the cool families out there that I can hopefully meet up with one day!
Your adventures are inspiring! Great list of traveling families, some new ones for me to check out! We are a family of 5 living, working and traveling in SE Asia.
http://www.eastsidecurry.com
Hi
We’re a family of 4 from Australia currently 4 months into a 12 month trip around SEA and India with our 2 pre-school aged children. Check us out at http://www.with2kidsintow.blogspot.com There are so many traveling families out there at the moment–it’s great!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Rachel for the vote of confidence!! We are leaving in a few months on a year-long bicycle trip with our two children (ages 4 and 18m). I’ll have to check out the family travel resource on your site.
Awesome!
Hi Rachel,
We are a family of 4 currently living in the Pacific North West. We are working towards breaking free from our current location and seeing where the wind takes us.
Your example is a great motivator for us and we hope that someday our paths will cross as we explore the world around us.
Cheers!
Hi Mike,
Thanks for commenting. Congrats on taking the steps to live deliberately. I do hope our cross paths sometime. Keep in touch.
Rachel, thanks for the list! We know of very few families traveling with young children and living out of their vehicles. I have tons of questions so it’s nice to have some other resources. Here is another family that we love http://pasdansunfauteuil.fr/frroadbook.html Follow their “roadmap” section to see where they’ve been. It’s mostly a photographic journal of their expedition but enjoyable just the same. -stephanie
Cool! Thanks for sharing Stephanie. Their trip looks awesome!