We had a crazy idea, why not travel the world with our baby? That idea is turning into reality. We are taking a family gap year.
We will show you the good, bad, ugly, and unexpected as we travel around the world with a baby.
What is a family gap year?
Simply put a gap year is long-term travel.
We are defining our family gap year as a time to disconnect from the societal norms and enjoy time together with family.
We want to watch our son grow without the guilt of having to work to purchase material things that ultimately have no value.
Why take a family gap year?
We believe there is nothing more important than family. Oftentimes we become consumed with making a living that we forget to live. We spend our lives accumulating things that we do not need. We want to take the time to bond as a family and be present with our son as he grows. Sadly, we spend more time with our coworkers than our families. We just want to take a moment to enjoy one another.
This family gap year is not just for us, we would like to motivate and inspire other families to travel. Having a baby or kids does not mean you have to stop traveling. You do not have to put life on hold for 30 years in the hopes of traveling if you retire. I say if because it seems as though retirement is a luxury most cannot afford.
When will you start your gap year?
We took the plunge and purchased our tickets with a departure date of March 25, 2020. The excitement and anxiety is indescribable.
Where will your gap year start?
Our adventure will begin in Mexico. We want to learn Spanish and would like our son to be fluent in several languages, so what better way to learn than to immerse yourself in the culture. After Mexico, we will be heading to China to explore Asia. Southeast Asia is a great destination for a family gap year because the cost of living. We can stretch our budget further in Asia, the cost for 1 month in California would get us 3 months in Vietnam.
How did you plan your family gap year?
There are a lot of moving parts when you plan to travel fulltime. We will be posting several articles on how we planned our family gap year. There are a lot of things to consider such as safety, accommodations, insurance, vaccinations, expenses, weather, and travel gear.
We will be posting every step of the way before our departure on how we planned our journey. Our strategy is to take a flexible approach to allow for changes.
How long will you travel?
The first answer that comes to mind for this question is, we will return when we run out of money. That is my first thought, but we plan on working online while traveling so hopefully, that will not be the case. We would like to travel for at least 3 years. Who knows what life has in store for us.
How much does a gap year cost?
The answer will be different for every family because it is dependent on how you travel. We are not luxury travelers, but we are not backpackers. We fall in the middle of the two. We like to save money where we can and be fiscally responsible. We use a lot of different methods to save money while we travel.
That was a long way of saying, it depends. We set a budget for our gap year and track all of our expenses to make sure we stick to it. To stretch our budget we will be traveling to places where the USD is strong and there is a low cost of living. As we travel we will write posts about the cost of our adventure.
Check out our family gap year budget
Do you have more questions about our family gap year or planning your own? Feel free to contact us.
We did the same and did a family gap year in Bali and started ouryearinbali.com. We loved it so much our one year turned into two and now we help others around the world to do the same. Highly recommend it!