The primary purpose of this blog is to start a discussion about extended family travel with children. My family and I are in the planning phases of a one year trip around the world. On this site, I’m posting all of my collected research to keep a record of it and to hear you opinions. The world is a big place and we hope that you’ll help us explore it!
Before you’re ready to dig in, here’s a few questions that may be wondering:
Why?
Where?
What?
Argentina seems to be a place of great variety. I’ve focused my research so far on Buenos Aries, but have been more exited about the possibilities of waterfalls in teh north and ice fields in the south. Here is a guided trip I’d like to take!
We don’t need big fancy vacations to make us happy – we’re equal opportunity travelers. Our planned road trip to North Carolina and Tennessee to visit family and friends is proof of that. It’s also proof that this economy is making nearly everyone reconsider what will be cause enough to part with their so-called disposable cash (in our case more appropriately defined as credit card debt!)
We’re planning to spend a few days in Charlotte, NC with my brother and sister-in-law. I’m not doing too much planning for that as it sounds like they’ve got it covered. After leaving them, we’re got a few ideas on where to go:
Asheville outside ideas:
Gatlinberg outdoor ideas:
Gatlinburg indoor ideas:
If we get stuck for ideas (which actually never happens) these sites have a good list of attractions:
There’s really nothing wrong with the official Fiji tourism web site per se. But I have to admit that 2 things bothered me after spending less than 3 minutes on the site. The first is that the video I happened to start with had some phrase about the Fiji Islands formerly being known as the cannibal islands, although the nice gentleman narrating the video assured me that nothing could be farther from the truth today. Oh-kay. Then, I watched as second video and while it had all the right clips, I found myself thinking that laying on the beach, snorkeling, getting a massage and eating some good food is really the same thing that I could do at one of over a hundred places. Why would I travel half way around the globe to do that?
I’m trying to like this place, I really am, but I’ve found little written about the more authentic visits to the South Pacific Islands. On one blog I found a guy bragging about all the sharks he had seen. Grrreatt… Then when I clicked the like I say this person’s underwater pics of the amazing creature along with what looked to be pics of a moray eel and a puffer fish. Where do I sign up to have my family swim with this kind of sea life? Great for Discovery HD TV, not so great for little kids just learning to swim. If the other post didn’t get you revved up to go, just read this one and don’t miss the last sentence.
I don’t want to bash what I’m sure is an absolutely lovely country so here are a few of the good things I found. If you’ve got something good to add, for heaven’s sake, don’t hold back!
Waterfall and cave tour on Coral Coast
Here is a reasonably priced vacation rental for about $800 per week. I don’t think we’d stay here for more than a week so it’s not a bad option at all.
I’ve got to admit that this place kind of intrigued me – if I was looking to see what it would be like to be stranded on a remote desert island with minimal accommodations that is.
Papa Sataua Fishing Boat in Samoa
Originally uploaded by The Long Haul for Hunger
Samoa is the first place that has really got me thinking about spending some time in this region. While I was in the Navy, I met a young Samoan man who raved about his home. He was one the most genuine people I have ever encountered and that experience makes me believe what I have read about the Samoan people. They have even branded their way of life – Fa’a Samoa.
The official Samoan Tourism web site is a good place to start. This site has a good description of the largest Samoan Island – Savaii.
Based on numerous reviews the Savaii Lagoon Beach Resort looks like a nice price to stay for about $100 per night. Of course that’s a little more than we’d like to spend, but when I find a place like this it helps put my mind at ease that there would be a somewhat reasonably place for us to stay.
Let’s be clear that I am talking about Samoa, not American Samoa. Not that have anything against American Samoa, but we’re looking for a more authentic Polynesian experience and American Samoa is well, just too Americanized from what I have read.
The self-branded Aiken/Widom family has a really nice collection of information from their unique version of the around the world family trip. Their approach seems unusual in that they broke their travel up into 4 distinct segments including “traditional traveling”, sailing and hiking. In between they returned to their home in the states to resupply/recharge. They also provided an estimate of $33,000 per person for a year. However, it appears as if this was done without RTW tickets, spending several months in expensive Europe, opting for more expensive options, i.e. sailboat rental and diving and during the time of a very weak dollar.
I appreciated several of their comments regarding the appropriateness of the trip for a 10 and 12 year old, the fact that the kids did just fine with home schooling and that there ARE other families who are doing this. It’s these areas where I get the most questions so hearing this from an experienced family is quite encouraging.
March is tentatively planned for the South Pacific. Although the islands of the South Pacific cover about the same area as so much of our world, I hadn’t really considered them until my wife suggested that we go there. At first, I wasn’t sure that it made sense from an economy standpoint as I expected a stop on these islands would be very costly from a transportation perspective. Unless we took a slow boat from China, flying is really the only practical option. But as I’ve learned more about RTW fare options, stopping over here actually seems quite practical. Now the question has turned to where should we go in the 3 million square mile area?
I expected that the task we be difficult form the perspective of how we would narrow down our decision to just one island or group of islands. Then I get the 1,000 plus page Moon Handbook for the South Pacific and quickly realized the difficulty of the task. One doesn’t just choose any old island thinking that every South Pacific ocean island is of the garden variety paradise. What I’ve discovered so far is an amazing diversity of cultures and experiences. Perhaps most surprising is that I haven’t yet fallen in love with any one place. Maybe I’m being too picky but I’ve either been turned off by malaria, bugs, lodging expense, limited options or cultural practices that I’m not sure my kids are ready for.
Someone on Trekaroo suggested that I check out the RTW fare from Star Alliance. At first glance it appears like another good option. They provide you with options for 29, 34 or 39 thousand miles for a set fee. You may make up to 15 stops and travel schedule appears to be flexible. The current cost for the 29K ticket is $3,700. Once you get used to these kind of prices (multiplied by 5 for our familiy) they start looking more reasonable.
My uninformed opinion that the South Island would be more interesting to visit was validated by this excellent post from the Travellerspoint web site. I’m was intrigued by the Magic Bus but it may be more geared for the backpacking set. Another way to get around would be by train, but a 4 day, 3 night trip looks like about $1,100NZ per person. Too pricey, but you can check it out for yourself at Rail New Zealand.
So far, every person I’ve talked to about the trip has had some immediate and important concern spring to mind. Some of the reasons have included – What about your jobs? What about the kids? What are you going to eat? These certainly are all valid questions. But, for me, the biggest concern about the trip has been the air travel component. In my initial research I was seeing fares of $5,000 or more more a limited number of stops. Tonight though, I happened upon an “alliance” called oneworld that has some pretty good options. I was able to create an itinerary with 16 stops on 5 continents for the base price of $4,650. Yes, that is still pricey, but I was able to add some really interesting and somewhat out of the way places that I had previously thought were out of the question like Inverness, Hong Kong, Philippines, Ayers Rock, Easter Island and the Falkland Islands. That got me excited and more willing to shell out the big bucks for one of these fancy around the world fares. I was able to save my itinerary which I believe is aptly named “The First of Many Itinerary”.
