This post was first published as a guest post for Canadian RV rental company CanaDream. Full disclosure: I did not receive payment for writing this post, but I did receive a discount on my RV package in exchange for my writing work. As ever though, all opinions are mine and I would never recommend anything that I don’t genuinely believe in – our RV trip with our children was awesome!

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This post, on taking an RV trip with young children, was first published as a guest post for Canadian RV rental company Canadream. Full disclosure: I did not receive payment for writing this post, but I did receive a discount on my RV package in exchange for my writing work. As ever though, all opinions are mine and I would never recommend anything that I don’t genuinely believe in – our RV trip with our children was awesome!

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What? We Actually Did It!

Before this post, I started writing about the people I encountered when selling everything we owned on Facebook Marketplace. But that was stirring up all the anger and frustration I was so keen to leave behind. So instead, I’m just going to write this rather triumphant, self-indulgent and emotional post. Because, after almost a year of plotting and planning we are TRAVELLING THE WORLD WITH OUR TWO CHILDREN.

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I still can’t quite believe that this is us for the next year.

We’re a week in now and it still feels like we’ll be hopping back on a plane in two weeks, back to our old lives. My emotions have ranged from YIPPEEEEE to WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING on a few occasions over the past couple of weeks but now we’re here and we have food supplies (delivered by a lady from the local grocery store in her own car, only an hour after ordering it – that is service for you folks), I feel like the adventure has really started.

The Road To Here

As I write this, every member of my family is asleep. This is one of my favourite scenarios, and I think is going to become an important bit of “me time”. I’ve never been one for daytime naps (see this post), so having the time to just write, or just sit, gives me the headspace I need for an afternoon of chaos/fun.

Today is a writing day. I won’t describe our first few days in detail here because Paul has done a fantastic job with that over on his new blog. So I’ll focus on the run-up to the trip and how the first week has gone.

House Sale Woes

This was undoubtedly the single most stressful, pressurised and intense process I have ever been through in my life. The births of both of my children were no Sunday strolls in the park, so that should give you an idea of how high emotions were running.

They say death, divorce and moving house are the three most stressful things you can go through. When the moving part entails selling your house and over 500 individual items (most to absolute b*stards on the internet), death and divorce looked to be on the cards most days. Preferably death.

When we bought our house four years ago, it was one of the most competitive markets in UK history. We searched every weekend for 18 months. We were regularly outbid by £40k+ on houses that could only be described as total shitholes, and we only got our house because I wrote a begging letter to the lady who was selling it, to try to convince her to take our offer, despite it not being the highest she’d received. It worked, and we were in.

Not so much these days. The house was on the market for close to 8 weeks, and whilst we had quite a few viewings, we had no offers. None. Nothing at all for 7 weeks straight. Week 8 was what would be described in the football community as “squeaky bum time”. If the house didn’t sell, we’d run out of money in December and would be home for Christmas. This was not ideal. To say the least. Our dreams were on the verge of collapse.

Squeaky Bum Time

Whats worse than not selling your house at all? I’ll tell you what. Selling it for less than you paid for it. We were adamant this was NOT going to happen but there’s no use being adamant when something is out of your control. So when the offers started coming in WAY under asking price, it was gutting to say the least. Luckily, the estate agents were so confident in their initial valuation, that every silly offer was rejected outright without even consulting us. People started getting the idea that we weren’t desperate, even though we were a bit (a lot) desperate. FINALLY, about 10 days before we left we received an offer from a lovely couple. It was not only acceptable but was actually worth waiting for because they’re currently renting so NO CHAIN. Hurrah!

Up until this point, I was resisting selling any of the bigger items in the house because I didn’t want potential buyers to be put off by the disarray. So I waited until we accepted the offer, at which point it was all systems go. This was where the real work began.

Selling Everything We Own

My god. Even for people who thought they didn’t own that much stuff, there was SO much stuff. I was selling up to 150 items a week, from cheese graters to beds, from toys to garden furniture. Between 15th May and 5th June (the day before we left), over 200 people visited our house to collect stuff. Some of them were lovely and made us a bit sad we were leaving the area. HUGE thanks to the lady who came to pick up a solitary garden chair 16 hours before we were due to take off from Heathrow and, through pity for our plight, ended up clearing ALL of our remaining cack from the carport.

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I LOVE YOU. However, the majority were unreliable, incompetent, rude arseholes who made me want to burn the town to the ground to save them all from themselves. Bit overly dramatic I know but seriously, SOME PEOPLE.

So yeah, the selling bit was not very fun. That said though, I’d still recommend it to anyone under less stressful circumstances because the act of clearing out all the stuff we didn’t really need was a cleansing, cathartic exercise that did us all the world of good. Everything we own is currently here with us, or in a few boxes in my family’s loft, and this is a good feeling.

Planning The Trip

Amongst all the chaos, I had to find time to sit down and put some work into planning our itinerary, accommodation and transport. I have absolutely LOVED this and if anyone can think of a way I can plan people’s holidays for a living without just being a bog standard travel agent I’m all ears. It gives me such a buzz watching everything coming together and now we’re actually living the plan, even learning from my mistakes is somehow satisfying (Paul will probably use a different word for my mistakes, I’m pretty sure “satisfying” wouldn’t even make the long list).

Where To Start?

So how the hell do you go about planning a year-long round-the-world trip with two young children? I guess my best advice would be take your budget, write a list of your priorities – where you want to visit, what type of transport, accommodation and experiences you would have in an ideal world, then realise your budget doesn’t stretch that far and work out all the ways you’re willing to compromise.

My main compromise (aka gamble) so far has been with room sharing. Mainly hoping that the children are able to share a room without waking each other up every 26 minutes.

So far it’s gone OK. I say OK because we do have to go through the whole “I want a little drink, I need a cuddle, I want to lay the other way up” etc routine with William EVERY NIGHT. But to be fair to the poor little chap, we sold his bed from underneath him less than 2 weeks ago and since then he’s slept on a mattress on the floor at home, a mattress on the floor at a neighbour’s house, a plane seat, a pushchair and a bunk bed. Up until this point he’s slept in his cot, in his room, on his own, every night for the last 18 months, so a bit of bedtime cocking around can be forgiven.

Overnight has been surprisingly peaceful, though. We’ve had one 4 am wake up due to a huge rainstorm, a few middle-of-the-night squawks and shrieks and some looooooong wind-down story times, but generally I’ll take it. Speak to me again when we’ve had to sleep in a hotel room together for two nights and see how chirpy I am about it then.

Into The Groove

So how’s it feeling, a week into full-time travel? Is it all I imagined and was it worth all the hard work and buildup?

The answer, for the most part, is a resounding YES. Even though we’ve had the same meltdowns and strops (#tantrumsontour) and roughly the same routine as we had at home, everything feels easier to deal with. We’re not stuck in the same environment. Distractions and incentives are easy to come by (mainly in the form of dairy-free ice cream in two local cafes and a variety of never tried before snacks and drinks). This means we’re all more relaxed, more stimulated and more FREE to just have fun.

I’ve had a few messages from people recently along the lines of “I would LOVE to do what you’re doing. But I need to convince my wife/husband/partner it’s a good idea”. Here is my message to those who still need convincing. I’ve only got a week’s experience of this whole travel lark but I already know we’re not going to regret a second of it. If you can, do it. What’s the best that could happen?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this first post of our trip. Please drop me a comment below, or head over to Instagram and leave a comment or DM there. See you next time 🙂

First thing’s first. I’ve been toying with writing this for a while but, in the current circumstances, I feel a bit of a fraud. As it stands, we leave with our two children on a round the world trip in 36 days. For those of you who don’t know, this trip happening relies on our house selling before we go. And it’s not selling. We’re told there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just taking time and that it WILL happen. This and all the other reassuring stuff I’m not sure is just stock estate agent talk or the genuine truth. Either way, it’s making for a rather tense, uncertain and potentially massively disappointing build-up to our trip of a lifetime.

HOWEVER – we have to carry on as if everything is going to be fine, right? Because everything IS going to be fine, right? Right??? Here’s our announcement video if you want to have a look. NOTE: Please subscribe to our YouTube channel if you like what you see. For two reasons: We’re going to be making videos as we travel and you might like them. And we need 100 followers so I can change the link so it matches the channel name. I like everything to match. (GEEK KLAXON).

Planning a Round The World Trip With Pre-School Children – Your Questions Answered

I’m not going to pretend I’m some kind of round the world travel with children expert. After all, we’ve not even left yet. However, I’ve collected together some of the most popular questions my readers and Instagram followers have asked about taking our children on a round the world trip and I’m going to have a go at answering them.

Round The World With Children Question 1: How Do You Actually Plan A Round The World Trip With Children?

This is a big and very broad question. The answer very much depends on a number of factors. Budget, type of travel, preferred sleeping arrangements, how long you have, the list goes on. But, roughly speaking my top tips for planning round the world travel with children are as follows:

1 – Slow Down

Our children will be almost 4 and almost 2 when we set off. This is still VERY young. They get tired easily, too many busy days in a row lead to tantrums. (Hence my #tantrumsontour Instagram hashtag – tag your own photos and I’ll share my favourites).

One piece of advice someone gave me was not to move bases too often and to build in slow days. Our first couple of months is quite full on in terms of changing accommodation every 4 days to a week. BUT I’m making sure I’m planning for plenty of rest time. When travelling the world with children you can’t be on the go all day every day like you might be able to as a couple or on a shorter trip. That’s a surefire way to induce a serious case of travel burnout. So, we’ll be having plenty of days where naps at our accommodation, a supermarket trip and a swim or a short stroll are the only plans.

2 – Flexibility Balanced With Certainty

When we’re travelling, we want to make sure we’ve got some solid plans in place – key dates to hit certain places, somewhere to sleep booked far enough in advance etc. Things that mean we’re not going to be sitting in a cafe in Costa Rica at 6pm on a Thursday evening with tired kids and nowhere to stay. That said, flexibility is key too. At the moment, we’ve planned around 2 months of our trip in detail. So if someone says “you HAVE to go to X” or we decide we love somewhere any want to stay longer, we can juggle things and make it happen.

3 – Tactical Travel Times

I’ve been told that when a full day of travel with kids is in order, starting as early in the day as possible is the best bet. With this in mind, I’ve booked our first flight (London to Boston) at around 9 in the morning. In theory, this means the children will be fairly happy when we board, our youngest will nap during the flight (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) and they’ll also get two meals on board which should kill an hour or so of flight time. I’ll let you know how it goes.

On the flip side, arriving by car late at night is apparently a good bet as the children will sleep for the whole journey. I’m not sure I like this idea because my kids don’t generally sleep for longer than 30 mins in the car, and also I like going to bed early. Our children are pretty good, patient car passengers so I think we’ll probably stick to daytime driving – but I’m interested to hear other people’s experiences of night driving if you want to drop them in the comments below.

Question 2: What Will Your Sleeping Arrangements Be?

Simple (for us at least). Apartments, pretty much all the way. We had decided this would be the case long before we went to stay with friends last weekend and all slept in the same room for the night. But last weekend confirmed we’ve made the right choice. It wasn’t pretty.

To be fair, both children were asleep by 7:30pm, so that wasn’t too bad. Oh and and A went to bed with a slight temperature, which usually puts her off her sleeping game a bit.

Anyway, all was well when we crept into bed at about 11. However, at 4, A woke up DEMANDING (and I mean loud whispering “I WANT TO GO DOWNSTAIRS” for FIFTEEN MINUTES with me very loud whispering back “NO! GET BACK IN BED OR I WILL GO AND GET SEAN (our friend) TO COME AND TELL YOU OFF”. This obviously eventually woke W, who, after A went back to sleep at about 4:45, lay in bed singing “B-I-N-G-O” until 5:45, when he nodded back off. I then felt the urge to have a huge coughing fit, which I then fought for AN HOUR to suppress. So yeah, not fun, and cemented in my mind that hotels would only happen in VERY specific circumstances.

Question 3: What Will You Eat?

It’s no secret that we’re vegan and whilst we find it simple, in fact no, second nature, to seek out and enjoy a huge range of vegan food here in the UK, we’re under no illusion it’s going to be easy everywhere.

This is one of the reasons we’ve decided to go for apartments/self-catering is that cooking for ourselves is going to be easier, not to mention cheaper and less stressful than finding places to eat out all the time. If all else fails, we’ll be able to get ingredients for simple curries, salads, pasta dishes and the like, as well as lots of fresh fruit of course. In fact, we’ll probably be forced into eating a little more healthily than we do at the moment, without so many processed vegan junk food and dessert options.

That doesn’t mean we won’t be trying to find the top vegan food spots everywhere we go though – I have done some serious research and have made sure there’s at least one cafe or restaurant near each place we’re staying so we can go and sample the local delights. Keep an eye on the instagram grid for regular food updates as we go.

Question 4: How Will/Do You Stay Sane?

We don’t. We absolutely don’t.

Even though I am 100% certain it will all be worth it, the build up to this trip is currently killing me. My brain is so full I forget things I’ve been told 3 seconds ago. If it’s not written down, it’s getting forgotten. The worry about the house sale, the pressures of “normal” day-to-day-life with young children, meticulous planning, packing lists, shopping, cooking, making sure we see everyone we want to see before we go. You name it, it’s in my mind. All day, all night. DROWNING IN TO-DOS.

So to answer the “how WILL you stay sane?” question, my answer is that if I can deal with the period of actual, real-life insanity, the trip itself will be a breeze. At least for the first couple of months anyway.

Question 4: Aren’t You Nervous About Them Not Being In Preschool/Any Education Plans?

We’re absolutely not nervous about them not going to preschool or nursery for a year. Their nursery/preschool is brilliant, don’t get me wrong, and it’s got a cool new garden that I’m a bit gutted they won’t get more time to play in. BUT, A was born in September, meaning we’ve got a whole extra year with her before she joins the formal education system. W will be nearly 3 when we return so he won’t miss out on any preschool time either.

This is the last chance they (and we, as a family of 4) will get to have proper, unencumbered freedom, fun and exploration for a prolonged period (ie not just school holidays) until they’re at least 16, so there’s plenty of time for a classroom in the coming years.

So instead of spending this year at their current preschool/nursery, what better way to teach them about diversity, adaptability, tolerance, culture, geography, history, language, everything, than showing them the world?

Question 4: How much does a round the world trip with two children cost?

The honest answer is I’m not exactly sure yet. After doing some research our current budget (for everything – transport, food, accommodation, entertainment) is £5,000 per month. But we start our trip in the US and Canada in the height of summer so the first few months is looking a bit higher than that. But I’m a stubborn one so I’ll be trying to find ways to claw back the deficit later in the trip. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Anything else?

If you have any more questions about how we’re planning our round the world trip with our children, please drop them in the comments below, send me an email or drop me a message on Instagram.

First thing’s first, there are definitely WAY more than five things that scare me about selling everything and taking our two children travelling. I mean, there are about 50 things a day I worry about when I’m parenting from the comfort and security of our toy-filled, warm, familiar home in the UK. So the fear level is understandably going to shoot up a bit, mainly because we’ve never done anything like this before so it’s all unknown. But a bit of fear is healthy, right?

So what are the things I’m most scared about when it comes to full time travel with two young children?

1. Toddler On A Plane

This is a bit like the film Snakes On A Plane, except snakes are probably a little more containable, a little less wriggly and a bit more predictable than a 22 month old with legs that want to walk and a mind that can’t yet be effectively reasoned with (or bribed).

Our 3 year old will be fine, I’m sure of it. She loves snacks, can sit through a whole film, play a game and when tired, will lie down and go to sleep almost anywhere (for more on sleep please read on). She also responds really well to other people telling her she must do something so if all else fails I can just ask the cabin crew to give her their most authoritative stare.

Her little brother? Not so much. He only learned to use his little legs about 7 months ago so the mere suggestion that he may want to sit still for longer than 5 minutes is generally not well met. He responds well to snacks, but generally wants to walk around when eating them, so that won’t help. Oh and his sister has taught him this high-pitched angry shriek that I’d like to say can only be heard by the sensitive ears of dogs, but sadly it’s audible to the general human public too.

2. Sleep

The big one. Every parent knows that parenting and life in general is 543848548345 times easier if everyone is SLEEPING well. Every parent knows how rare it can be for every little piece of the sleep puzzle to be in place for every member of the family.

Generally speaking, someone is usually ill, or teething, or having a nightmare, or scared of fox sex outside (who ISN’T scared of that horrific sound?), or needs a drink, or a wee, or a multitude of other sleep-depriving issues. That’s just at home. So what happens when you throw in warmer temperatures, biting insects, unfamiliar beds and sounds and overtired travellers? Time will tell, but this is the biggest thing I’m feeling uneasy about. Anyone have any travel/sleep tips?

3. Food

Take two hungry but averagely-fussy toddlers and the need for nutritious vegan food on the road and I’m absolutely sure we’ll run into some food-related meltdowns. I’m trying to prepare for this by putting together a list of recipes using ingredients I think we can get everywhere.

Also, by staying in self-catering properties at least we don’t have the pressure (financial or otherwise) of finding restaurants with vegan options. We’ll always have access to fresh fruit and veg, and we’re also considering following in the footsteps of fellow vegan family travellers Our Venture Beyond and lugging our Nutribullet around the world for daily smoothies. I think I’ve actually talked myself out of being worried about this one. Well done me!

4. Lack Of Adult Time

Let’s face it, having children tends to be pretty all-consuming. Paul and I often find ourselves going months without going out, just the two of us. At home, we don’t have any family or close friends particularly nearby so time out has to be well-planned. But it’s not impossible, and we can at least go out with friends separately to get the headspace we need. It’s a bit daunting thinking that when we’re away, it’s just going to be the four of us, with even more limited options for getting away for a bit.

We met the lovely Lynsey of Four Go Exploring last week. They’ve just come back from 9 months of world travel with their two boys. She told us that one of the biggest challenges were the sheer intensity of being together ALL THE TIME. They booked a cruise with a kids’ club so they could regain some all-important adult time. I definitely think we’ll benefit from something similar. We’re also planning on staying with friends in a few places, and hoping that family will join us in others. So we’ll definitely be on the lookout for any opportunities to decompress and just spend some time as a couple.

5. Are We Doing The Right Thing?

This is basically a whole ball of different worries and uncertainties all bundled together. Are we doing the right thing for our children by taking them out of the only home they’ve ever known? Will they cope with messed up routines and a series of exhausting journeys? How do we protect them from any dangers in unfamiliar countries? What if they get sick? Will they get homesick? Will WE get homesick? Can you get homesick if you have no home? Will they have enough contact with other children? How will they resettle into “normal” life when we come home?

So there you have it. It’s the most exciting thing we’re ever going to do. But that doesn’t stop me waking up at 4am silently screaming “WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING?”. But I did the same both times I was pregnant and I don’t regret having children.

So it’ll be OK, won’t it?

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