For us, the main challenges are

(1) cost
(2) kids’ sports and activity schedules. It’s rare to have a 2 week chunk with no commitments. That only happens in July. I hate July travel.

My advice is to go before high school when coaches and teachers get pissy if you miss anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, this just isn’t the time of life for this. When you were young you couldn’t yet picture these challenges of work and parenting, but now you do. Your kids will grow, and travel together will be a great experience when they are older.

OP here. You're probably right, but I just think of all those families on social media who travel together all over the world with kids of all ages. The messaging there (whether we are talking about influences or just real families in mommy travel groups) is "Anyone can travel anywhere with kids if you just want it bad enough". I guess I was stupid to fall for it.

That is true but that doesn't mean it is fun or worth the money/hassle. If you frame it as "I'm choosing to not travel right now" vs "I can't travel right now" that might help you feel less depressed about it.

I know some families who didn’t start taking big international trips until the kids were in college or graduated. It was a good way to get them to come back for family time.

You went wrong marrying a guy who can only get a week of vacation per year. WTF is that?

You can take your young children anywhere in the world - I know a family that doesn’t make a ton of money but travels the world with three kids. They just do it!! I want to be them…

Life moves so quickly, you will be able to travel more easily soon. For now maybe just save your travel budget do you can take more/better trips later. And you can start planning those trips now. You can research best seasons to visit the various places you want to go and plan itineraries and think about best ages for each trip.

I never took more than a 4 hr flight till my kids were over age 8, and I love to travel. Planning trips around school vacations doubles the airfare, IMO, and it is very hard for most people to get more that 8 or 9 days off in a row, so you're not any worse off than other people with small kids, you're just very ambitious . Incidentally, is the travel for you or for them? A 3 or 5 yr old is just as happy at a beach in Naples Florida as in Hawaii
I know adults close 60 who have never been on a plane. I know people close to 40 who have never left the state of Maryland and don't plan to

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, this just isn’t the time of life for this. When you were young you couldn’t yet picture these challenges of work and parenting, but now you do. Your kids will grow, and travel together will be a great experience when they are older.

OP here. You're probably right, but I just think of all those families on social media who travel together all over the world with kids of all ages. The messaging there (whether we are talking about influences or just real families in mommy travel groups) is "Anyone can travel anywhere with kids if you just want it bad enough". I guess I was stupid to fall for it.

You can, BUT, it's how much aggravation, how short of a trip, and how much money you want to spend on it.

For us, I don't want just 2 weeks to cram everything in, and spend a ton of money to go to places that I want to go to but my kids would not enjoy. So, I'm biding my time. I've got 2.5 years to go until DC#2 is off to college and I can retire at 56 with enough money to travel.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, this just isn’t the time of life for this. When you were young you couldn’t yet picture these challenges of work and parenting, but now you do. Your kids will grow, and travel together will be a great experience when they are older.

OP here. You're probably right, but I just think of all those families on social media who travel together all over the world with kids of all ages. The messaging there (whether we are talking about influences or just real families in mommy travel groups) is "Anyone can travel anywhere with kids if you just want it bad enough". I guess I was stupid to fall for it.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think your kids will need a separate room to sleep during travels! Plus you wouldn't put them alone into a hotel room anyway.

OP here. We book Airbnbs. We tried a hotel room together a couple of times and Kid 2 did not sleep whatsoever and neither did we. I shudder to remember it. I do think when she's 5-6, we will be able to all sleep in one room and save $$$.

My family couldn't afford to travel to different continents but I have pretty amazing memories of a 2 week camping trip to Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island when I was in middle school. We drove the whole way. Agree with don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, do what you can.

I appreciate the PP who now travels with her adult children. I hope we can do that when my kids are adults, if they want to. We are a little bit now, although different people in my family have different preferences and restrictions so we don't always travel as a full set.

Anonymous wrote:DS is 11 and we've traveled around the world with him. Here are the key factors of why its worked (so far).

1. Ds enjoys the whole process of picking and planning. He loves to explore new places
2. Dh and I have fairly flexible jobs with great vacation benefits
3. We stuck to 1 kid. We knew the travel we wanted to do wouldn't be possible with 2 kids.
4. We work within the parameters we have. Would we have loved 2+ weeks in Japan? Absolutely. We could only swing a week and then the travel days. Thats ok, we still had a great time!
5. DS is a great traveler. Rarely has difficulty with time difference and can sleep anywhere.

I think for you, number 4 is where you're going wrong. You can do Asia, Africa, and South America in under 2 weeks. Will it be your dream trip? No. Will you have an amazing time? Yes.

Agree with all of this and the PP who said to plan trips that are progressively longer/with more time difference as the kids grow. Start with something close to home and branch out yearly. You can see a lot in 2 weeks so don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I think you can manage meaningful travel on spring breaks and during summer vacations. You should probably focus on single destinations vs. "Best of Europe"/Eurail-type wanderings. You should also do some browsing of Air BnBs to see if you can find non-hotel lodgings that would fit your needs and get a sense of pricing. Regarding DH's enthusiasm levels, they may return once the trip is underway. That's what happens to me...planning the trip is not much fun but once we've gotten to the first stop and past jet lag, I'm fully with the program.

I think Peru/Macchu Picchu probably is the signature South America trip you want to plan on. Take a look at how packaged tour companies schedule those tours.

For Africa, maybe consider Morocco. The classic African safari trip to see elephants, zebras, lions is very expensive but you could make it a goal for a few years off.

For Asia, consider making a trip to only one big city: Beijing or Singapore come to mind. Singapore is close enough to Malaysia and Indonesia that you could sample those as well. Due to official use of English, it's very easy to navigate.

To feed the traveling bug in between bigger trips, do the most exotic North American destinations. Montreal and Quebec are a somewhat less expensive substitute for visiting Europe. And if you haven't been to Chichen Itza by way of Cancun, I'd recommend that.

There are Airbnb’s all over the world so you can have separate rooms. I waited until we dropped naps to travel outside us, but the wait was worth it. I know some people that do this travel with under 3 to Africa,l and Europe but he is an only

You have two children, two jobs and you don’t have major wealth.