Blog Roundup: Destinations

Over the course of creating the Wonder Year blog, we’ve featured inspiring destinations for family travel. And choosing your destination can add to the excitement of extended family travel. This blog post roundup is full of destination inspirations. How will you choose yours? Will you stay in-country? Choose one of the many alluring places featured in travel podcasts?  Explore your ancestors’ places of birth? Tick off your bucket list? This blog Where Will You Go? highlights the ways and a sample of locations we might choose. 

Here are some ideas to illustrate and inspire your decisions. These posts also offer ideas to make your travel time educational, family-friendly as well as suggestions for how to get off the beaten path. We hope this mashup of blogs helps plant a travel seed for you and yours.

Doesn’t get more Western than Yellowstone by horseback

US-based Destinations

If you know you want to stay in the US, you can’t go wrong with the US national parks. Many worldschooling families frame their trip around these beautiful, educational and low-cost destinations. We wrote about one of our authors’ love of Yellowstone and she shares a high level introduction to the park and its wonders. Then there’s Alaska, a place on many people’s bucket list. And here’s a blog about incorporating worldschooling education into a family outing to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Bucket list: to see a moose in the wild!

Popular Family Destinations

These international places are often featured on social media and family itineraries for luscious reasons. All of these blogs are written by one of our authors who has been there with her family as a worldschooling destination. Costa Rica, home of Pura Vida, jungles, beaches, and volcanoes, is a great destination for its bounty of natural and cultural gems. Then there’s Italy, home of gelato, tiny cars, old cathedrals, olive groves, and bullet trains. Italia will give your family plenty of la dolce vita and history. Speaking of old, read about Greece, with its roots of democracy, mythology in motion, and Aegean paradise. If you’re tempted by Asia, Thailand is a wonderful first foray. Its ease of travel, friendly people, and beaches (seems to be a theme) will tick every box. And finally, Kenya, an English-speaking country full of diverse cultures, geography, and ease of travel in Africa, will leave you wanting to explore more. You will leave a better global citizen from safaris, snorkeling, and cutting-edge environmental practices.

Recreating a temple to Demeter on Naxos, you can see archaeologists at work.

Unexpected Destinations

These are a few unexpected and off-the-beaten-path destination inspirations sampled by our authors that are not common destinations. Consider adding them to your list for unique educational experiences. The Pantanal, located primarily in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Pantanal also crosses the border into Paraguay and Bolivia. At around 68,000 square miles – 20 times the size of the Everglades – it is the world’s largest tropical wetland area and largest flooded grassland savanna. And then there’s the quiet European destination of Finland, often called the happiest country on earth, with mild summer weather, northern lights, cold-plunging culture, and dense forests. Finland offers educational fun for the whole family.

Midsummer flora in Finland

We hope these destination inspiration blogs will assist and inspire your own family travels. From the US to Thailand, from well-known to the unexpected, may your travels make you closer and pique the curiosity in your whole family.