People often ask us to tell them about the vacation we took in 2017—and we often offer a gentle correction: When you’re traveling for eight and a half months, that’s not a vacation. It’s a sabbatical. And the difference is more than just semantic. It represents a totally different state of mind.
Read MoreTraveling The World
We have found out first hand that traveling the world is not easy. So if you are looking to plan a trip across the world (especially with a child!) you have come to the right place. We will discuss how and why we decided to travel the world, how we planned the trip including finances, what we packed, bookings/reservations and so much more.
How do you plan an 8.5 month trip across the world?
Hello, everyone! It’s AJ here, offering some thoughts on what goes into the planning of an eight-and-a-half-month trip. You may be wondering why I’m flying solo on this one, and the short answer is that I handled 99 percent of the planning for our family’s sabbatical. But don’t worry: Natasha will be writing a first-person post of her own, and it’s bound to be interesting!
Read More31 Countries, 8.5 Months, Five Unexpected Life Lessons
This article first appeared on AJ’s Medium account.
Six continents.
31 countries.
More planes, trains, automobiles, boats, Ubers, Airbnbs than you can ever imagine.
And one extremely durable stroller.
Read More5 Reasons You Should Take a Family Gap Year NOW
One of the most often questions we are asked is about taking a gap year with our son. To travel 9 months together meant leaving our jobs and putting our home life on hold. We had to plan a budget, save for the trip, make tough decisions, and have a plan for life at home once we returned. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, but was it worth it? Absolutely!
8 Tips for Staying Healthy While You Travel
When you take a vacation, it can be easy to overindulge and put on a few pounds. Cruises are notorious for all-you-can-eat buffets and lots of fruity alcoholic drinks, with passengers gaining an average of 5 to 10 pounds during the duration of one cruise. To take a 9-month trip around the world, however, we knew we couldn’t eat our way around the globe — although we definitely wanted to sample the local foods. We made a commitment before we embarked on our journey to do it in a healthy way. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t come back from our trip in worse shape than when we left. And we didn’t!
We know it’s tough to maintain your health on the road, so we’re sharing our tips on how we stayed healthy.
Coming Back Home After A Family Gap Year And Trip Around The World
We knew we wanted to take an around-the-world trip as a family. It would be the trip of a lifetime and we couldn’t be more excited to plan and take our 9-month adventure. But, like all good things, the trip had to come to an end and we had to return to Charlotte, North Carolina, and settle back in.
After living out of a suitcase, moving every few days, spending days at leisure, and seeing brand new things at every turn, we discovered coming back home was harder than leaving! If you’re considering taking a sabbatical with your family, here’s how we dealt with the return — hopefully we can help make it easier for you.
What’s Next On Our Travel Bucket List? 12 Places For Our Next Trip Around The World
We may have traveled to over 50 countries each (and over 40 with our child) but that has not cured our insatiable wanderlust. We knew our 9 months of nonstop travel would have to end, yet even while on the road, we were always planning for our next big adventure, saving our list of places we wanted to visit onto our phones. Our list has grown since we have returned home. Some would call it a Bucket List.
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