We are Five Take Flight. A family of five who sold our house to travel the world. So far we’ve been to 38 countries in 52 weeks. We’ve experienced kid meltdowns, parent meltdowns and a lot of laughter along the way. It is our hope that in a shrinking world our children, through their travels, will have broader minds and increased tolerance and understanding.
Traveling the world as a family has always been a dream of ours… but it’s a small part of a bigger dream. Which is to have a happy-healthy family. We wanted to take this time while our children are young to create unity and a family bond. We decided to focus on making our home around each other instead of confined with in four walls. So we became professional parents for a year by creating as much quality time as possible.
The decision to travel was really easy to make. We are young, healthy and financially able … so nothing was holding us back. If we keep putting things off until it seems more convenient we might not have this opportunity again. So we said yes, and never looked back.
For my husband and I our favorite places have been Israel, Morocco, Angkor Watt Cambodia and the Solomon Islands. Even though they all are vastly different in climate and culture they all had an authentic atmosphere. When we were in these places we felt a rare sense that, where we are is truly unlike any other place on earth. This is special.
Our kids favorite places have been anywhere with animals! Kangaroos in Australia, Safari in Africa, feeding elephants in Thailand, pandas in China, snorkeling with millions of fish in Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, or the penguins of South Africa – it’s all a win.
This year we took over 60 flights and slept in 40 different beds
Must have products are first packing cubes! They make traveling much more organized and simple. I never pack with out them. Next would be our pop up travel tent. Our baby slept in this little tent for a full year and it saved us. We also used and abused our Double stroller. It is the lightest stroller in its class, folds down the smallest, and I can personally attest to it’s durability. With our two older boys the foldable car seat was perfect. It’s a booster seat that folds down small enough to fit in the boys backpacks.
This year we took over 60 flights and slept in 40 different beds so a large part of our time was dedicated to logistics.
We mainly used travel search engines like Google flights and Kayak. We had the luxury of flexibility, so we were able to pick the best dates and time. You can find deals along popular flight routes because multiple airlines service these airports, and they compete on pricing. Small airports will always have a higher ticket price.
For accommodations we did a variety of hotels, resorts and Airbnb’s. Traveling with young kids, we grew to love AirBnB. The kids could run, snack, do school and sometimes even jump on a trampoline. Where adults go for pampering in accommodation, we put a huge emphasis on location and interior space. If they have a box of toys in the pictures, that’s hard to pass up!
When we posted a video online looking for a travel nanny, we didn’t expect it to go viral. The video had more than 8 million views and brought in more than 24,000 applications! We picked Alexandra from Iceland and she really helped make our year enjoyable. She was a perfect fit for our family. While traveling we still worked full time from our computers so she took on homeschooling 2 of my children. We couldn’t have successfully done all of this without the additional hands. She cried and smiled over them with us and our children genuinely love her. If you find someone who works well with your family it is amazing.
