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[Guest_Incrediblelife_*]

Here's a question I'm curious about - have any of you travelled with young children? And if you have, how did it go? Would you do it again? What things did you have to change with your travel style to accomodate the children?

Jenn

[Incrediblelife]

Sorry, that was me, didn't realize I wasn't signed in!

[whereshegoes]

I haven't travelled with kids but I have met families who were backpacking together. They had young children who appeared to be very intelligent, well adjusted and quite repectful. If I ever have kids, I will make sure to expose them to this type of lifestyle.

[WT]

We have done lots of traveling with our child and find it great! We are about to take a years long ,open ended ,very slow ( maybe 10years or more) trip around the world with our 5yo and unschool as we go.

There are some great books about traveling with children ( a year off,exotic travel destinations for families,adventuring with children etc etc) that will inspire you.I know one family that has been living full time in a motor home with 2 kids aroound Europe since they were 3 and 5 in 2000 and its working great.Daisy has a web page that you can probably google that she is making herself ( she is 9 now).There are lots of families that full time on the road in RV's in north America.I know a family from Norway that have been on the road a while in US,Mexico and Canada with small kids that are having a ball.

I have a good friend who took her 4 and 8 yo children to Spain for 6m from Ca.,the dad took some courses in spanish ,the kids went to a rural public school and immersed in Spanish ( knew none when they went ,came back fluent) and the mom worked her job remotely by laptop.They plan on doing such in China soon.

I think it brings you really close as a family.I also think its good to be very compatible.We are happiest when we are together and traveling,so thats why we decided to go this route.I think the possibilities are endless and so enriching for parents and child/ren.

[Perantau]

I, my wife and my little daughter did a 'semi-RTW' last year. We are originally from Indonesia but have been living in different countries in Europe for the last 8 years. Last year we spent around 7 months traveling in US, New Zealand, HongKong, Indonesia, Denmark and France. Though most the time (4.5 months) was spent in the US due to my visit to a university, it was pretty tough though to bring a little kid. Our daughter was two at that time.
The biggest challenge for us was how to get our daughter enough sleep everyday during traveling. Another problem is jetlag. It took around one week until our daughter could adjust herself whenever we move to an extremely different time zone. Because of this we had to be quite relaxed once and a while and sometimes we could not even get our travel plans done. Moreover entertainment for kid is definitely necessary. For example, once or twice a week a playground is a good place to be so that she would not easily get bored.

And of course, we will do it again whenever we have a chance!!!!

[marilee8537]

We took our 14 year old son to Paris, Austria, Germany and Sweden. He absolutely loved it. We forwarned him that this is not a "vacation" where you sleep in, but this is a working vacation......where we get up and get going early so we can see many things. I planned the entire trip, so had him chose different adventures he wanted to go on. He chose a tour of Schronbrun castle in Vienna with a violin concert in the evening, and has told us that was the best tour ever! (considering he isn't into violin type music..it was an interesting comment) He absolutely loved Paris......and since then has gone to England with his English class and hopes to go to school out of London for college. This is an amazing experience but I think your kids have to be at a stage to appreciate it. I would not take young children as I think the traveling is more difficult for them and they will not remember the trip. With the internet, you can show kids where they will stay, what they will see, and this relaly helps them prepare for the trip. Hpe that helps.

[Jessica_CDN]

I have to agree. My parents took me all over Europe when I was a kid. Mostly we stayed in some hotels and with friends, but it was the best thing ever. I think if my parents had been more aware of them, we would have stayed in hostels 'cause we sure weren't afraid of roughing it!

Kids can be entertained by the darndest things. I remember playing for hours on a glacier - it was soooo cool! (pardon the pun....) Best part was for my parents: we slept the entire 9 hour trip home. haha.

[kitkatgo]

I haven't gone RTW with my kids, but we have taken them on a trip to London/Paris and to Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Himeji, Hiroshima & back to Tokyo) from California. They are 7 and 11 and did wonderfully on both trips.

It does depend on the individual kid though. I'm sure some kids don't travel so well. My kids are adventurous, love to try new foods (well, most of the time), and can go, go, go. They don't seem to be affected by jetlag (lucky kids). The only thing I do special is I have them bring their backpacks with things to do (books to read, coloring books etc) for train/plane rides, and snacks (as they get hungry often).

When the kids are with us, that does sometimes change the things we want to do when visiting a city, but they have been to wonderful museums, the London theater, temples, great restaurants (although we tend to go more casual with them), etc.

I love travelling with them and giving them the experience to see the world and other cultures. They love it too. In fact, DD wants to attend the Sorbonne when she goes to college. I look forward to many other adventures with them in many other places.

[Paul]

Just recently when I was in Nepal I was impressed by the amount of parents traveling with kids. Mainly kids about mid teens, trekking the Annapurna circuit. Excellent!! Staying in the normal tea houses and trekking in the normal sort of way - no adjustments.

Also when I was a kid in Primary School, I wasn't really interested in traveling, except I remember one of my friends came back to school after a long time away - he had been traveling in Papua New Guinea with his parents - I thought that was cool.

I am hoping to take my kids and some other kids from the neighbourhood to trek up Doi Chiang Dao soon. Hopefully it happens.

[keep_moving]

Hi, we're potentially (if all the stars align etc) looking at a year traveling around the world with our currently 18mo daughter. If it does happen I'd imagine we'll be leaving in approx 3-4 months time. We want to keep it to countries that are safe and easy with the little one, especially as she has some food allergies and intollerances. We are looking at going around Australia (we're in Sydney), through New Zealand, across the US (with a little time in Canada) and spend some time in Europe too. In Australia we're planning to buy a caravan, in NZ and the US hire or buy a campervan, and in Europe stay with friends/family. We will also sprinkle a few hotels in here and there, but we liked the consistency of the van for our daughters sake. We'll also stop off somewhere en route for a bit of luxurious holidaying for a few days, potentially Dubai, Singapore or Hawaii.

We've still got loads of research to do but I just wanted to pop in here and share our plans. I would love to hear from anyone who has actually done rtw or even long term in a camper with young kids.

[vic43ulau]

I also think its good to be very compatible.