About Our Family and About Our Family Gap Year

My name is Stephen. I live in Santa Cruz, California, and I just turned 38. We have two kids, ages 4 and 6, and my wife, Wendy, is 12 days my senior. We’ve been married for 14 years. Wendy is a registered nurse and was my college sweetheart, and I’m a family practice physician assistant. Our son is in preschool and our daughter just finished first grade. This is the story of our one-year (343-day) journey into and around the world. Here’s a photo of our family in November, while we were traveling in Rotorua, New Zealand:

We wrote this page during our trip, so the kids are a lot bigger now! Everything we learned along the way, including our route, what it really cost and a step-by-step plan, lives in our Plan Your Family Gap Year hub.

Read our Manifesto

The Traditional Gap Year

A gap year was originally meant to be a break from academics before college: time for personal growth, travel, community service or internships.

The term is common in Europe and Australia, where roughly 230,000 young Britons set off on this kind of adventure every year.

In the United States, no one tracks exactly how many students take a gap year, but most agree the trend is growing.

Studies have shown that students who take a gap year benefit from the time off. It helps them stave off burnout and make room for self-discovery.

• They can benefit from cultural and language immersion programs, homestays and community service programs.
• They can learn valuable communication skills, build a network and make important lifelong connections.
• Students who return from a gap year do well in college. They’re often more focused, party less and study more.

Grown-Up Gap Years

An estimated 90,000 working-age Britons take a career break every year, and another 200,000 retirees aged 55+ join their ranks.

Common terms for this generation of gappers are:

• Career breaks
• Sabbaticals
• Mature volunteers

After months or even years of slaving away at the same job, many people feel that now is the right time to take a career break or sabbatical.

A career break can be anything from a few weeks abroad to a full year’s sabbatical seeing the world.

If you want some breathing space from work to travel and explore the world, you might try negotiating a career break of a few weeks or months.

A career break is usually unpaid, but the advantage is that you get to travel and then return to a secure job, refreshed and ready for a new challenge.

Sabbaticals can be a great way to escape the stress and responsibility of the workplace. They’re usually longer than a career break, and they give you time to explore a range of exciting destinations at your own pace.

A career break or sabbatical can be the perfect opportunity to take a short gap break without all the commitments of a full-on trip.

Senior Gap Years

An estimated 200,000 British retirees aged 55+ also join their ranks.

Common terms for these “senior gappers” are:

• Grown-up gappers
• Golden gap years
• Mature volunteers

More and more career breakers, grown-up gappers and retired gappers are venturing into the unknown. Why not live and work in a community so far removed from the routine of the Western world that it’s impossible not to come back with a brand-new perspective, higher energy, greater motivation and a real sense of clarity and peace?

The Family Gap Year

You have a good job, 2.5 kids, a townhouse in a decent neighborhood, 2.5 cars and a stable marriage, and you’re making some headway on your retirement goals. All is perfect, right?

Your job is challenging, but it has become routine. Your sex life is stagnant. You have some discretionary income, but it seems like all your money goes to repairing or replacing something that needs repairing or replacing.

You have this sinking feeling that there’s more to life. But what is it?

In college, you dreamed of traveling the world, but you never found the time. After graduate school, you were offered a good job, so you took it. Your spouse is your rock: supportive, kind and loving. They’ve also built a life to support the family.

You remember your grandfather telling you how the years flew by, and before he knew it he was an old man. You sense that life is flying by. Your kids were babies just the other day. You have big dreams, but how do you live them now?

Now Is the Time

2015 was an unprecedented time in history for family travel, and it has only gotten easier since. Communication technology keeps spreading, internet speeds keep getting faster and more widespread, life in the US keeps getting more expensive, and more and more families are in a position to negotiate remote work.

The growth of the internet has let families connect, explore and learn in ways I never thought imaginable, and on very low budgets.

• You don’t need to be a millionaire to take your family abroad. (Here is what it really cost us.)
• A gap year can be a stepping stone to career development instead of career burnout.
• A family gap year can rejuvenate your marriage and bring you closer to your spouse.
• A family gap year can bring you closer to your kids.
• A family gap year can teach valuable lessons in generosity, kindness and community service.

Get Out, Adventure and Explore With Kids!

While preparing for our family gap year, I spent countless hours (OK, maybe days or weeks) on the internet researching around-the-world family travel.

Most of the time, my research came down to three basic questions:

1. Where should we go with kids?
2. Where should we sleep with kids (finding accommodations)?
3. Where should we explore with kids (what kinds of adventures can we do as a family)?

Let’s be honest: when it comes to family travel, Lonely Planet guidebooks leave a lot to be desired.

So I’m creating this blog to help you while you plan your gap year. And not just any old gap year: a family gap year.

Saving You Time by Focusing on Family Travel With Kids

This blog will tell you exactly:

• Where we went with kids: how we got there, what transportation we used while we were there, and exactly how much it cost.
• Where we slept with kids: how family-friendly each place was, what amenities it had and exactly how much we paid.
• Where we explored with kids: the best places to go with children in each destination, and exactly how much we paid.

I want to create resources, guides and handouts that help your family navigate the often treacherous waters of global family travel. Good places to start: our family travel gear, staying safe with kids and travel health insurance for families.

Our Route: 12 Countries in 343 Days

1. South Africa2. Bali3. New Zealand4. Australia5. Thailand6. Cambodia7. Vietnam8. Hong Kong9. Malaysia10. Singapore11. Taiwan12. Japan

Time Above All Else!

• Time is the only currency of true value, and we should value it above all our possessions.
• Life is short, and life is beautiful. The worries that seem so important today are mere distractions compared to the full spectrum of our lives.
• Our children grow up fast. In a world focused on collecting stuff, they don’t need stuff; they need our time and our attention.
• Live today, care deeply for others, take time to enjoy the little things (the simple things) and have confidence in the journey!

This is an unconventional guide: a site built for families who need a straightforward, no-nonsense, simple-to-follow path for breaking the “rules.”

The web is an amazing resource for planning any kind of trip, but it’s overwhelming, and the resources for families are often limited.

• Most bloggers and travelers give advice as solo travelers or couples.
• Much of the information is wonderful but very disorganized.
• I just want a simple start-here, end-here guide (much like my man Rick Steves) for a one-year around-the-world adventure. One that’s dedicated to families!

Families need special accommodations, travel info for three, four or more, and a way to work out a real family budget. Kids travel differently than adults, and families often come with homes, jobs and too much stuff, all of which needs to be dealt with before leaving on an around-the-world adventure.

So this website is made for us: families who need a straightforward, no-nonsense, simple-to-follow guide to traveling around the world as cheaply as humanly possible while still enjoying everything the world has to offer.

Why Is Learning How to Learn So Important?

“It is the single most important activity that you can undertake. It is the Archimedes lever for squeezing the most out of every hour you have on this planet.”

Cast of Characters

Our family has four members: two children (Lucca and Layla) and two adults (Stephen and Wendy). The kids are currently 4 and 6.

Why Subscribe

• We see long-term travel not as an escape but as an adventure and a passion: a way of overcoming your fears and living life to the fullest.
• By following our blog, you’ll find out how to gain an impressive wealth of travel (and family) time through simplicity.
• You’ll find out how to discover and handle new experiences and adventures on the road. Not as a solo twentysomething traveler, but as a family. And as much as anything, you’ll find out how to travel the world on your own terms, by overcoming the myths and pretensions that threaten to cheapen the experience.

If You’ve Ever…

• If you’ve ever felt the urge to travel for long stretches of time but weren’t sure how to find the time and freedom to do it, this is the place for you.
• If you’ve traveled before but felt something vital was missing from the experience, this blog is for you, too.
• This blog isn’t for misfits, daredevils and thrill seekers (although maybe just a little bit :-)). It’s for any family willing to make an uncommon choice that allows for weeks and months at a time on the road, improvising (and saving money) as you go.

If this sounds like an intriguing possibility, then by all means subscribe to our blog… and start planning your own adventure:

Plan your family gap year See what it really costs