Traveling Before Kids

Before our boys came into the picture, we would make the most of every second of our travels. We’d live out of our suitcase, methodically visit all of the sights we’d meticulously researched, move on to the next location. Repeat. Then take the latest flight possible back home and show up to work the next morning feeling like we’d just crushed our vacation. Our ideal style of travel is much different now! 

What is the Right Pace for Our Family?

For our current trip we spent a lot of time considering how long we wanted to travel for, how many different destinations we wanted to experience in that time and what we felt would be the right speed for our family. What follows is the style of travel we landed on and how we came to it.

We fully expect that our experiences, as well as external forces, will cause us to shift these plans at some point. That said, it is something we felt confident enough about at the time in order to keep forward momentum. Don’t let analysis paralysis hold you back!

Our Reasons Why

Originally we considered a full year of travel but shied away from that for a few reasons. First, it was difficult to justify based on Mike’s line of work. Mike is a real estate agent, and while he has built systems to keep his business in motion while he’s away, he can maintain stronger client relationships and make more money if he’s there in-person.

Secondly, we considered the social aspects of traveling. We felt it would be valuable for our boys to have a period of time with their friends (and us with our friends too!), participating in activities they have gotten accustomed to, and potentially even having the ability to spend some time in a traditional classroom for part of the year.

Our Family’s Resolution

The solution we came up with for this initial journey was to take a trip for 6 months. In this scenario, we worked out that it should be possible for us to split future years into 6 months of traveling and 6 months in Bozeman.

Now we had 6 months of globetrotting to plan for! Unlike our younger years noted above, we no longer have endless energy or desire to stay in motion all day every day during our travels. Beyond that, going “full tourist” on this journey would be impossible due to ongoing work and school obligations. We landed on spending 1 full month in 5 destinations, as well as a few weeks of “road tripping” as our style of travel.

This allows us to unpack our suitcases, get to know where we can find the best deals around town, not feel rushed to experience everything a location has to offer in a short period of time, and hopefully build some new relationships along the way. We can make some plans, but will leave most of our days flexible enough to adjust for bad weather, bad internet, attending festivals or unexpected events that pop up.

Now It’s Your Turn

Consider these questions when deciding your family’s style of travel:

• What are the pesky responsibilities that will follow you during your travels, and what accommodations do you need to make for them?
• Do any of these commitments require you (or reward you substantially) to be at a home base for some portion of the year?
• Do you want to return to your home base frequently, annually or are you ready to rip out all of the roots and travel continuously?
• How do you feel when you first arrive to a new place? Do you have anxiety until you get fully settled, are you comfortable embracing some level of uncertainty in new situations or do you yearn to constantly be outside of your comfort zone?
• When you arrive at your destination, do you instantly unpack your luggage to start settling in, or is your first instinct to throw your luggage in the door and immediately go out to explore your new surroundings?

Our Style of Travel Conclusion

As we continue our nomadic wanderings we will keep tabs on how we are feeling about the length of time spent at each location. Early indications (see below) hint to us that it will differ depending on the type of location for us. 

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galápagos is amazingly beautiful and a true treasure that we will remember fondly forever. At the same time it is the most expensive place we will visit in this initial trip. Check out our post on how much it is to live in the Galapagos. It also causes us to feel conflicted to be living in a very touristy location. Part of us feels the need to do EVERYTHING, while the other part of us struggles to remain responsible to our school and work commitments… as well as our budget. I think the general consensus for us is that 1 month is a little long to be in the Galápagos with a “limited” budget and the type of traveling that we are undertaking.

Quito, Ecuador

Quito, on the other hand, has a big city feel and seemingly endless opportunities to discover not only the city but the surrounding beauty. We felt that one month was a sufficient amount of time to see the highlights of Quito while also realizing there is much more to see and discover. That said, to really see many of the surrounding areas, we would want to get a car. As far as budget goes, Quito was pretty inexpensive. See just how much we spent in Quito here.

Medellin, Colombia

Our time in Medellin felt long. The city is fairly easy to navigate with the metro system running through it. However, there just wasn’t many things to do that didn’t involve eating or drinking. We like eating and drinking, but when that is the only thing to do, it gets old. For us it was the lack of family friendly activities. Many people enjoy Medellin, it was just not for us. It is quite affordable! Here’s a run down of the cost of living in Medellin, Colombia.

Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena checked a lot of boxes for us! The cost of living is fairly low. Highest part being our stay. Here’s how much we spent during our month in Cartagena. We could have found a place that was less expensive though which would have lowered our overall costs. There are so many family friendly things to do, mainly due to the surrounding beaches. Kids love to play in the ocean! This is the one place we could have stayed longer in. We didn’t have the opportunity to explore many of the close national parks and other nearby attractions such as Tayrona National Park and Minca. I guess we just need to return. 😀

Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Panama is familiar to us. We were in the Peace Corps in 2009-2011 and were based in the providence of Bocas del Toro. We weren’t on the islands during our service, so this month was a little different than our Peace Corps experience. Also, we weren’t living off of 600 dollars a month. 😁 As much as we love the beach, we could have stayed less time on the islands. It was hard to go to nice beaches and swim. Also the added expense of taking boat taxis everywhere where they charge per person instead of per boat, started to add up. Plus the bugs and no AC! If the circumstances were a little different, a month could have worked out great because it is a beautiful place. Check out what we spent in Bocas del Toro here.