We’ve lived in a different country nearly every month for six years straight. I’m writing from the island of Aruba, country #50 for our four daughters! Six years ago, my husband and I sold everything from our downtown San Diego home and decided to work and school remotely while traveling the world. At the time, our girls were ages 2, 4, 6 and 8 years old.
We have now achieved our goal of taking them to 1/4 of the world’s countries on a non-stop, epic journey of discovery. Traveling as a family with four kids is no small thing. It’s logistically complex, emotionally intense (yay!), and the mental acuity it takes is monumental.
But we wouldn’t trade our travel memories for anything.
We’ve traveled through all the seasons, and through a global pandemic, and through natural disasters, and through terrorist scares, and through childhood milestones.
Though we started with the primary focus of the traveling for education for our children, it soon became so much more.
Our Absolute Most Favorite Memories
As part of reaching our goal this month, we took some time as a family to reflect on our global travel experiences.
“Sledging the Alps at Les Diablerets at the age of 3 in Switzerland. This is actually my earliest memory in life.” — Peyton, Age 8
“Spending my 9th birthday on safari in Addo Elephant Park in South Africa. — Devyn, Age 11
“Road tripping along the fjords of Norway up to the Arctic Circle.” — Madison, Age 13
“Getting PADI Open Water Scuba Certified while diving around the volcano in in Santorini, Greece as a ten year old.”— Reagan, Age 14
“Exploring my favorite country of Italy with kids, especially the art and architecture in Venice, Florence and Rome. “— Janelle (the mom)
“White water rafting, ziplining, rock climbing — all the crazy adventures!”— Jedd (the dad)
61 Superlatives About Traveling the World as a Family
As we’ve been reflecting on this amazing Journey Into Wild, and we’ve come up with a list of “superlatives.” Do you remember those from your high school yearbook?
These help share some of the most unique memories. I think you’ll enjoy these, and hopefully, they will spark wanderlust in you as well.
Most Magical Sunset — Oia, Santorini overlooking the volcano caldera. It’s one of the only places we’ve seen in the world where people actually burst into cheers and clapping for the sunset! [Greece]
Coldest Night in a Tent — Camping with the Berber Tribe in the Sahara Desert [Morocco]
Most Epic Train Journey — 60 days of train travel across Europe on Eurorail after buying only two First Class Adult tickets, and getting two free kids tickets for each adult for a total of six first class tickets for the price of two!
Scariest Adventure That Turned Out Okay — We were kindly offered cups of Turkish tea from a vendor near the mosque in Bursa. Then he joked that he “might have slipped some sleepy pills” into the kids’ tea cups! [Türkiye]
Best Street Food Discoveries — Gelato in Italy, picarones (gluten free donuts) in Peru, falafels in Egypt, $2 boxes of rose flavored Turkish delight in Montenegro, and gyros in Greece
Most Unexpected Animal Encounters — Monkeys! A monkey aggressively stole a cookie right out of our six year old’s hand in the Monkey Forest in Bali [Indonesia]. I was bit on my hand by a monkey in Marrakech. [Morocco]
Best Place for Currency Arbitrage — Leveraging the “blue dollar” in [Argentina]
Most Breathtaking Hike — From the top of Pulpit Rock on the Preikestolen Fjord [Norway]
Biggest Culture Shock — Israel overall, from the Orthodox Jewish culture to the palpable tension between religious groups in Old Town Jerusalem, to the armed soldiers patrolling the streets in Tel Aviv.
Most Unforgettable Event — Being unexpectedly given free tickets on race day to the Monaco Grand Prix right across from the pit crew.
Hardest Place to Say Goodbye To — Cape Town [South Africa], which is one of the most incredible cities in the world
Worst Travel Fails — When a car guard put a nail through out tire on purpose when he was supposed to be watching our car [Costa Rica], or when we arrived in Jerusalem to check into an Airbnb at sunset on the start of Shabbat [Israel]
Most Incredible Historical Site We Had to Ourselves During the Pandemic — The Acropolis in Athens [Greece]
Best Place in the World to Drive — The Atlantic Road [Norway]
Craziest Border Crossing — From Cyprus to Northern Cyprus through the soldier patrolled, eerie, war-torn UN peacekeeping zone [Island of Cyprus]
Dirtiest We Ever Got (and Loved It!) — Hiking straight down and straight up Waipi’o Valley to the black sand beach in the rain, passing wild horses and in the rainforest along the way [Hawaii]
Best Place to Be a Kid—The Swiss-style alpine town of San Carlos di Bariloche high in the Lakes District in the Andes Mountains [Argentina]
Most Beautiful Beach We Had to Ourselves — White sand beaches on the incredible Island of Milos [Greece]
Worst Travel Day That Became a Great Story — Driving the most dangerous road ever from the Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes, then hiking three hours through the jungle to Machu Picchu. The road goes around cliffs, along landslide areas, and up to 14,400 feet in elevation along hairpin turns (not recommended!) [Peru]
Most Colorful Market — The old medina in Marrakech [Morocco]
Place That Changed Us the Most — Jerusalem [Israel]
Best Place We Watched the Stars — Kīlauea Volcano on the Big Island [Hawaii]
Warmest Welcome from Locals — The gracious people of Thailand who greet have such joy and happy smiles [Thailand]
Most Scenic Bus Journey–Five hours over the Andes Mountains from Puerto Montt in the Lakes District [Chile] to San Carlos de Bariloche [Argentina]
Sweetest Airbnb Host s— A family who owned our Airbnb in Fethiye. They brought us fresh fruit and vegetables from their farm each day and invited us for traditional meals in their home with their extended family. [Türkiye] A house in Chile in the Lakes District, where the host built a rock climbing wall for our kids in one day [Chile]
Top 5 Places We’d All Go Back to Tomorrow — Greece, Italy, Hawaii, Australia, South Africa
Most Delicious Meal Ever — Freshly cooked pasta and cakes we made with two chefs in Tuscany [Italy]
Longest Travel Day — Double overnight back to back flights while transiting from Buenos Aires, Argentina through Saõ Paulo, Brazil (overnight layover in the airport) to Montreal, Canada (another overnight layover in an airport) to Paris, France
Most Peaceful Place–Lapland area in in the Arctic Circle [Norway/Sweden]
Worst Airport Experiences — All the airports in India
Most Beautiful Villages We Stumbled Upon — Varenna, Lake Como [Italy] or Saint-Émilion in the Bordeaux Region [France]
Most Impressive Historical Sites — Machu Picchu [Peru] or the underground cities in Cappadocia [Türkiye]
Best Wildlife Sightings — On many safaris [South Africa]
Most Jaw-Dropping View — Sleeping in a Birdbox during the Midnight Sun on the edge of Eikefjord [Norway]
Best Parties We Crashed As a Family (shhhhh!) — Fourth of July Party at the Manea Kea Resort and New Year’s Eve Party at the Mauna Lani Resort [Hawaii]
Craziest Beach Experience — The non-stop market and itty bitty bikinis on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]
Best White Water Rafting Experiences — Tara River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world [Montenegro/Bosnia & Herzegovina border], or down the Petrohué River in Patagonia with River Friends [Chile]
Best Places for an Family City Walk — Paris [France] or London [England]
Most Surprising Favorite Country — Türkiye, for the warmth of the culture, value for money, range of experiences, and historical significance
Most Beautiful Festival — Tulip Festival in the spring [Holland]
Best Zipline in the World — Canopy Tour at Selvatura Park in Monteverde [Costa Rica]
Funniest Travel Mistake —When heated up rosehip juice and ate it in bowls with spoons on a cold night in Sweden because we mistakenly thought it was soup only to find out later it was just juice! [Sweden]
Cities with the Most Incredible Museums — Dubai [United Arab Emirates] and Rome / Vatican City [Italy]
Best Swimming Hole — North side of the island of Bali [Indonesia]
Best Wine Tasting Experience— Spending an afternoon feeding kangaroos and wallabies then having a private tasting with Scott Collett, owner of Woodstock Wine outside Adelaide [Australia]
Best Resort Stay — JW Marriott Khao Lake [Thailand]
Most Photogenic Spot — Hot Air Balloon sunrises over Cappadocia [Türkiye]
Worst Accidents While Traveling — Breaking a foot in Bali [Indonesia] then traveling the next day to Australia without a cast or support, Cutting a thumb on a machete while stripping fresh sugarcane in Luxor [Egypt]
Most Unexpected Travel Friends — We met a family from Israel who we met on a beach in Hawaii. We spent a few weeks with them, then spent a month with them in Tel Aviv, and then another few weeks in San Francisco.
Biggest Wow Moment for the Kids — Watching 2,000 people perform live on stage in a Greek open amphitheater during the annual Vindemia Grape Harvest Festival show in Mendoza [Argentina]
Worst Places for Getting Speeding Tickets — Australia!
Best Spiritual Experiences—Personally baptizing our children as followers of Jesus in the Jordan River in Israel near where many think Jesus was baptized, or being given the keys to film an episode of our travel show inside the innermost part of the Garden Tomb, where many think Jesus may have been buried [Israel]
Craziest Place in the World to Drive — Cairo [Egypt]
Most Unique Cultural Experience — Tooth Cutting Ceremony in Bali [Indonesia]
Coolest Mode of Transportation — Taking camels across the Sahara Desert to our camp with the Berber tribe [Morocco]
Place with the Best Playgrounds for Kids — Jerusalem [Israel] and the Winelands [South Africa]
Airbnb with Best Value for Money — Villa Bloom in Bali, which comes with two full time chefs who make whatever you want each day and do the laundry and cleaning, a private pool overlooking the jungle, all for $95/night for a group of 6! [Indonesia]
Furthest North and South Places We Traveled — North: Arctic Circle Center [Norway/Sweden border], South: The Lighthouse at the End of the World in the Beagle Channel near Ushuaia [Argentina]
Best Travel Hacks — We can’t tell you that unless we hang out in person or if we are speaking live at your event! Contact: janelle@bravelytravel.com
The Best Day of the Whole Trip–The next day!
If you are curious about any of these stories or about traveling with your family, please comment below and let me know your thoughts and questions!
