Frequently Asked Questions
As we prepared to leave on our family trip around the globe in 2005 and 2006, we got lots of questions from curious family and friends who did not quite understand why we would want to leave our lovely life and wondered how we would do such an unusual journey.
As we travel, we meet a lot of wonderful people in person and online who also ask a lot of questions. Many of these questions are the same ones, so we thought it would be good to create a FAQ page to have it as a quick page/link to refer to. Much of my time is taken up by communicating with others and helping others in preparing for their journeys and I really enjoy that, but as our readership increases, I need to find ways to do more in less time. Hopefully, these will be helpful to those following us or interested in planning their own trip.
Here are some of our key posts that will answer many of your questions.How To Do Extended Travel & Mini-retirements
How To Travel The World as a Digital Nomad Family!
How To Eat Healthy & Cheap Traveling Europe!
Questions & Answers About Soultravelers3 Family Travel
Camping Europe in a Motorhome RV: 5 Best Sites!
10 Best Tips for Family Friendly Travel
New York Times Q&A with Soultravelers3 on Frugal Traveler
Biking St. Emilion & Bordeaux Vineyards in France
How to Enjoy Family Travel Abroad at Christmas!
WINTERING IN SPAIN
If you have interest in wintering in Spain quite luxuriously on a very low budget, we have many posts on our experiences that you can find under Spain, but also check out these two detailed posts about how we do that and what it looks like:
Lifestyle Design a Winter in Spain
What's a Winter Rental in Spain Like?
WINTERING IN PENANG
How to rent a tropical winter home in Penang
20 Stunning Photos Georgetown, Penang
Tropical Christmas Abroad in Asia
EDUCATION WHILE TRAVELING
If you have interest in educating your child while traveling and the many advantages of road schooling or world schooling by using homeschool, digital resources and local foreign schools, we have many posts on these topics. These key posts will interest:
Long Term Family Travel =Homeschool, Road school, World School
Family Travel, Homeschool, Education & Global StudentsAround the World Family Travel Soultravelers3
Kid's Art, Creativity & Travel
Pint-sized Pilgrim's Joy in Learning
Semana Santa Easter in Andalusia
Flamenco
LEARNING LANGUAGES AND HOW TO RAISE A BILINGUAL OR POLYGLOT
How to Raise a Bilingual or Multi-lingual Child 1
How to Raise a Bilingual or Multi-lingual Child 2
Language Benefits with Around the World Travel
A FEW INTERVIEWS WITH SOULTRAVELERS3 THAT ANSWER MORE QUESTIONS
New York Times: Q&A With Jeanne Dee, the Nomadic Family Traveler
Family Travel Suite 101 Soultravelers3 Take an Extended Vacation
Wandering Educators: Global Travelers-Soultravelers3
Travel Blogs: Travelling Slow with Mozart: Interview from Soultravelers3
Location Independent Parents: Inspiration & Social Proof Interview with Soultravelers3
Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE?
This is a difficult question because there are so many wonderful places that it is hard to narrow it down to just one place. It is like asking what is your favorite book when I love so many that I can not limit it to just one. I will say that Morocco made the biggest impression, then Turkey and then Croatia. Morocco is just so exotic and not like anywhere else on the planet. Turkey is beautiful as well and definitely wins for best hospitality. Croatia has pristine nature that is unique as does its close neighbor Montenegro. Of course we love all of the wonders of Europe, but perhaps the more unusual stands out a little more.Hallstatt,Austria, Andalusia, Spain, Rhodes, Santorini,and Delphi Greece, Umbria, Florence, Tuscany and Venice, Italy, Provence and Burgundy, France, Prague,Czech Republic, Brugge,Belgium and Edam, Netherlands all stand out in our memories too.There is so much diversity, that `I think I will have to write a post or two on "bests" for various categories to really do this question justice, but this will have to do for now.
Q. HOW CAN YOU DO THIS?
It really seems so difficult before you do something like this, but it is really quite easy, especially in today's world where there are books like "The Four Hour Work Week" , and "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel" to give great direction. Also I would highly recommend Adventuring With Children.
The internet has made all the difference in the world. I see that clearly because I was an expat who spent a year in Italy when I was young. Today one can immerse deeply in one culture while maintaining your home culture and keeping in touch with free webcam calls with family and friends at home. Today one can work and school online and this trend will continue. We have seen in increase greatly since 2008.
We are just an ordinary family and not wealthy. We were as overwhelmed by this choice as anyone before we tackled it. The hardest part is making up your mind to do it and the preparation can also be intense, but actually doing it is very easy. We chose to sell almost everything we owned and retire early in order to do this. It is a certain amount of a gamble like our decision to marry each other late in life and after only knowing each other for three months. Life is a gamble and we just felt this one was worth the risk.
We live very frugally and find that we can live much cheaper while traveling the world than if we stayed at home. Our goal is to have fun, educate our child and build our nest egg as we travel the world, just as we would have done at home. The experience has turned out even better than we imagined and we have no plans to stop at this point. We may or may not end up back in California, if and when we settle down. The world is in too much flux today to predict. We will do this as long as we are all enjoying it.
Q. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
This is a more personal subject than what we would normally discuss, but it seems to be a burning question for many, primarily so they might gauge for themselves if they might be able to afford their own version of such a trip. Most people guess our expenses as much higher than they are, so for that reason, we felt it was important to discuss this. We are frugal by nature, but we live large in many ways and have stayed at some of the nicest hotels and eaten in some of the best restaurants in Europe. Yet, our total living expenses for a family of three for our first year was just twenty five thousand dollars.We have been traveling now going on our 4th year and find it easy to stay in the 25K a year total costs range for our family of three.
Obviously, how much it costs depends greatly on how you plan your trip. I have been astounded by the budgets that some around the world family's have spent. Of course, enjoying slow travel as we do and cooking most of our own healthy meals helps keep our expenses down. Read the posts listed above for more details. Flights and housing are your biggest costs with travel, but if you keep that down ( while still living luxuriously) it is easy to live large on little. We saw 28 countries on 4 continents with just one long flight, so skipping flights can save you a bundle as well as allowing you to immerse deeply.
A family from our area wrote a recent book called Armageddon Pills and said they spent $121,275.89 for 52 weeks around the world. They didn't think anyone could travel the world for less than 30k per person, per year. That certainly has not been our experience and sounds outrageously expensive to us. So expenses really are all relative.
One can actually travel the world for free or even get paid to do it ( teaching English) as I mention in several of my posts above. Travel does not really costs much, buying and maintaining "stuff" is what costs money. It makes me sad to think that so many people miss travel because they think it is expensive. It is not! Slow travel and extended travel is MUCH cheaper than staying at home.This question and page is in process....please stay tuned for more as soon as time permits.
