When we first stepped into this travel lifestyle, most of our days were spent with the boating crowd. It made sense, we were living on the water, and naturally, those were the people around us. But over time, our circles grew. Not because we set out to “find more community,” but because it unfolded that way.

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that travel communities overlap more than you’d expect. You might start out identifying with one group such as sailors, RVers, backpackers, or worldschoolers, but over time those lines start to blur. You end up swapping stories, sharing meals, and building friendships that reach far beyond any one label.

Looking back, I love that part the most. We didn’t just stay in one lane. We opened ourselves up to people who were on their own journeys, in their own way, and that made ours richer.

Different Journeys, Same Lifestyle

When we first set out by sailboat, most of the people in our circle were boaters, it just came with the lifestyle. But as time went on, we realized that travel has a way of broadening your connections without you even trying.

It wasn’t forced; it was simply the natural outcome of meeting people. One winter in La Paz, for example, we started making friends through the Clubhouse app. Later, when we missed the big flotilla of kid boats heading north to the Sea of Cortez for hurricane season, we found ourselves connecting with a whole new group of travelers.

Pretty soon we were spending time with RVers, van lifers, worldschoolers, and families who travel by plane and rental car. The RV crowd in particular reminded us of the boating community, the same like-minded mindset of freedom, the same challenges of living in a small space, and the same conversations about educating kids on the go.

Full-time and extended travel families often face different logistics, things like airline baggage limits, road conditions, or even civil unrest, but in many ways, the conversations overlap. The core struggles and joys are the same: storage is always limited, plans shift with the weather, and there’s a constant balance between flexibility and structure.

What stood out most to us, though, is the shared mindset across all these communities. Whether on water, road, or in the air, so many families are chasing freedom, education, and meaningful experiences. Everyone is on their own journey, and that’s what makes it beautiful. Some travelers give back by volunteering or lending a hand along the way. For us, giving back has meant sharing what we’ve learned, helping other families figure out how they can shape this lifestyle in their own way.

Why Sticking to One Group Can Feel Limiting

Sticking to just one group can start to feel limiting, and honestly, a little boring after a while. A lot of that has to do with the conversations. They tend to revolve around the mode of travel the group identifies with.

For example, sailors often talk about sails, boat setups, and anchoring spots. RVers discuss water fill stations, solar setups, and campground logistics. You get the idea, the topics are useful, but they can start to feel repetitive once the honeymoon phase of a new lifestyle wears off.

That’s why branching out, even if it doesn’t feel as natural at first, can be so eye-opening. Inside your group, you’ll definitely find strong friendships, we have. But the connections we’ve made outside of our main circle have been just as meaningful.

Making friends outside your usual community may feel daunting, but it’s worth it. In our experience, it can shift your perspective, spark new ideas, and even elevate your family’s life in ways you didn’t expect.

Real-Life Examples of Crossover

Making friends outside your usual group isn’t always easy, but for us, the rewards have always been worth it. Take our friends Sam and Blake, for example. They’d been abandoned by what RVers might call a “buddy rig” (like the boating community’s “buddy boat”), and we spent evenings swapping stories about it over beers by the campfire. Their experiences mirrored some of our own, and the conversations became learning moments for everyone.

We first met Sam through the Clubhouse app, and our friendship grew from there. When we found out they were heading to Baja, we kept in touch via Instagram and ended up meeting on different beaches over the years.

More recently, when we were staying in Cortez, Colorado, we even drove three hours to Grand Junction to celebrate their son’s birthday. Those are the kinds of bonds that make this lifestyle so meaningful.

We’ve also connected through worldschooling groups on Facebook, which help us see who’s nearby. While in La Paz, we met up with a family at different times over several months, a mix of parents and kids from Russia, Sweden, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. The kids didn’t care one bit about group labels; they just wanted to play, explore, and enjoy being together in the moment.

It reminded me of growing up in the ’90s, when you could find the neighborhood hangout just by spotting all the bikes in someone’s yard. Those moments still exist, though they’re harder to find with today’s busy schedules, travel logistics, and family dynamics.

The crossover is real, and sometimes humbling for adults. We’ve seen firsthand how the sailing community can feel a bit clique-like, almost like high school. That experience pushed us to open ourselves up to friendships with RVers, overlanders, and van lifers, and it has enriched our journey in ways we couldn’t have imagined.

How to Create Your Own “Blended Community”

Building community looks different for everyone, depending on your travel style, preferences, and even your budget. Some families find their people within one type of travel, while others, like us, end up blending groups naturally over time. The good news? You don’t have to force it. With the right platforms, apps, and a little openness, you can create your own version of a “blended community.”

Sailboat Community

When we were living on the water, the Kids4Sail Facebook group was a lifeline. Each month they post a roll call where families list their location, kids’ ages, and boat details. It makes it easier to connect in real life, and spotting another boat with the Kids4Sail burgee flag was an instant icebreaker.

Another great resource is the Sea People app, founded by an Aussie couple raising two kids aboard their boat. Their platform helps sailors connect, share updates, and combat the loneliness that can come with long stretches at sea.

RV and Van Life Community

Our friendships with people like Mindy, Kevin, Sam, and Blake taught us quickly that the RV community is one of the most approachable. Unlike anchoring out in a bay, where it’s tough to just “pop over” to a neighbor, campgrounds naturally foster closeness.

Kids can run between sites, and adults often end up around a grill, smoker, or campfire swapping stories. Apps like Sēkr and Driftr (founded by two van lifers) help break the ice before you even arrive, making it easier to build friendships on the road.

Facebook Groups Around Homeschooling & Worldschooling

Social media groups are one of the best ways to find your travel tribe, whether it’s just for a few days, weeks, or months. There are plenty of homeschooling groups across the U.S., but if you’re traveling internationally, worldschooling groups can help you connect fast.

Many of these groups are region or location-based, so keep that in mind when searching. You’ll also find interest-based groups that focus on hobbies like Dungeons & Dragons or sports like soccer and baseball. Others lean toward academics, including subjects like robotics, STEM, and math.

Often there’s opportunities to join groups in new locations. Pop ups and those are easily searchable. They require more effort but it’s how we’ve made connections with others from all sorts of travel backgrounds.

Hosting Your Own Meetup

Don’t be afraid to take the lead. Hosting a casual meetup, a hike, a beach day, or even a dinner out can bring like-minded travelers together. Some of our best connections have happened in the most unexpected places, like airports or while waiting in line. By putting yourself out there, you create opportunities not just for your family, but for others craving connection too.

The Travel Community Is What You Make It

The travel community is beautifully diverse, filled with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life. If you’re searching for your “tribe,” don’t be surprised if it ends up looking more like a mosaic than a single, uniform group and that’s the best part.

By blending with people who travel in different ways, you create a stronger, more flexible community. Your tribe becomes richer because of the variety of perspectives, experiences, and lifestyles within it. The connections you build won’t always look the same as the ones you started with, but they’ll give you a deeper sense of belonging.

At the end of the day, the travel community is what you make it—open, varied, and stronger when you allow it to grow beyond one lane. For families like ours, that diversity doesn’t just shape friendships, it becomes part of our children’s education.

Worldschooling isn’t just about learning from museums or history books; it’s about learning from people. By surrounding ourselves with travelers from all walks of life, our kids are exposed to perspectives, values, and experiences that no classroom could ever replicate. And that, to us, is the greatest gift this lifestyle has given.

As this guest post beautifully shows, the richest connections often come from mixing worlds, not staying inside familiar ones. The more we lean into that blend, the more meaningful our travels become. Here’s to creating communities everywhere we go.

For more inspiration from the SaltyVagabonds family, you can follow them on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or visit their website. 

The post Finding Community on the Go: Why We Don’t Stick to Just One Travel Tribe appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Many families experience transitions galore during their worldschooling journey, sometimes even before they leave home. As your launch date nears, feeling sorrow or grief is perfectly normal. It’s also totally fine to feel none of that and just be excited about the trip ahead.

When it comes time, involve your kids in saying farewell to the things you can’t take with you—family, friends, your home, beloved pets. Ceremonies of any kind, whether they are small goodbye dinners or a big bash to send you off, can help kids feel a sense of closure.

Family Dynamics

Once on the road, it’s often the things we take for granted, which are routine or otherwise under the radar at home, that pop up and demand our attention. These changes and transitions may unleash a roller coaster of emotions as everyone adjusts their stride and becomes a traveling family.

Roles and Responsibilities

One of the biggest adjustments is establishing new roles and responsibilities. That process has a bit of an undoing of what was and a bit of creating something new. At home, our days and identities are established and distinct. Kids go off to school. Parents do their work. The bicycle gets parked in the shed; the garbage goes out on Tuesdays. When you begin a road trip, the pieces of the family puzzle may get shuffled. It’s likely that your traveling roles are going to diverge from the ones at home you’ve sorted out over years of practice and living together.

Basic needs remain: food, shelter, hygiene, clothing, medicine, sleep. Toss in education, navigation, recreation, and transportation, and many deliberate choices must be made about who does what. If you are traveling domestically in an RV, someone will have to drive, someone will have to navigate, and someone will have to learn the peanut butter and jelly two-step: open fridge, grab jelly, close fridge before the driver turns or brakes. If you are on a boat, only one person can be the captain. If you are traveling internationally, someone needs to be the keeper of the tickets, the linguist, the wrangler, the reservationist.

For families with more than one adult, there may be friction as you adjust to being a traveling couple or traveling co-parents. Perhaps at home you grew stronger in your relationship by working through sensitive topics like gender stereotypes and parenting styles. Some of these may reappear, as traveling has a way of shaking loose feelings that have settled over the years. There may be a sorting-out period in the early weeks or months of your trip. Treat it like the changing of the seasons: you may need to adjust the thermometer, change your base layer or outerwear, or eat cool food instead of spicy. Adaptation is a learning opportunity, and you’ll come together by recognizing the demands on everyone and having each other’s backs.

Adults who were accustomed to working outside the home may be less familiar with performing the day-to-day tasks of managing a family. For those who identify as a traditional earner, extended time away from work may challenge ideas of identity and self-worth. Who are you on the road, and how do you matter? The upside is that you might have time to develop or deepen a hobby or skill. Maybe you’ll find new uses for your carpentry or navigational prowess or language proficiency. Maybe you’ll spend more time with your kids and teach them how to work on engines, fix flashlights, or calculate rates of currency exchange. Perhaps you’ll just hang out with them a lot more than you ever did at home, doing both extraordinary and oh-so-ordinary things.

Children can have—and may even need—meaningful roles, too. Age-appropriate work is not only a great way to get stuff done but also builds confidence in our kiddos and can help with their focus and self-esteem. On the road, it may be easier to be patient and give kids time to try tasks and make mistakes. Older kids can read manuals and maps or become experts of any system; they can plan trip segments, make reservations, or even drive the rig. Tweens can check the hours a museum is open or wash pajamas in a hotel sink; they can plan a meal, shop at the market, and cook. Younger kids can help count backpacks, fold bandannas, stir the oatmeal, look under beds for missing socks, or hold someone’s hand when walking through an airport to make sure no adult gets lost. Go ahead and delegate! It’s good for everyone.

You may have some team building to do as everyone gets tossed into the fishbowl. Be patient. Be kind—including to yourself. Balance the challenges by finding new ways to bond. Maybe it’s dinner together every night. Maybe it’s setting an intention for 1:1 time with each of your kids. You might have fun coming up with a family nickname, a name for your vehicle, or a theme song for the journey. Roll with your new roles.

Personal Space and Boundaries

In addition to sorting out roles, it’s important to make space for yourself and for family members so you all have room to breathe.

For one, your living quarters may be smaller than what you are used to. Maybe you’re on a boat, renting small apartments, or living in a string of hotel rooms. You’ll have to play Rock Paper Scissors to see who gets the bed, who gets the top drawer, or who gets any drawer. For another, you may find yourselves cramped together in sweaty trains and taxis. The smaller physical spaces may also be tough for family members who aren’t comfortable changing into pj’s or putting on a swimsuit with everyone around. Might be time to perfect the “deck change”—wrap a towel around yourself, drop whatever you’re wearing, replace it with something new—all in the privacy of your terry-cloth “changing room.” It’s a good skill to have, so there is no better time to learn it.

Physical proximity is one aspect, but adapting to social proximity can be more nuanced. It’s all out there in the open. When you’re always together, you’re always together. Skye White put it like this:

*“When you’re full-time traveling, sometimes you just want to shut the door, but you can’t. There’s no door.”*

Be prepared to say everything aloud, in front of your kids. Even if you think you are whispering, they can probably hear you! Setting boundaries and claiming alone time can provide great role-modeling opportunities. Maybe you commit to a solo morning walk or time to listen to a podcast or music. Some couples trade off one morning a week or a monthly overnight away to do their own thing. Other families designate “quiet hours,” downtime, or headspace time. These physical and mental breaks could coincide with kids’ naps or be a new period in your daily or weekly rhythm.

If you are traveling with a partner, the time you spend together can nurture a relationship. Traveling reveals different sides of ourselves, and that may be exciting, interesting, and novel. Parenting in broad daylight is full of surprises and full of potential. Simply being together for three meals a day can feed the love.

Finding time for date nights, privacy, and intimacy can be a challenge when you are on the road. You probably need to plan rather than be spontaneous, and think about where your kids will be and who can look after them; then you need to stay awake! Our advice is to make your time together a priority. Your kids will appreciate seeing their parents hugging or holding hands, talking with each other, working through the ups and downs of travel, and being supportive partners. It’s a rare and beautiful thing for children to witness their parents’ unfolding as a traveling couple, and they will recognize authenticity in these loving moments.

We can’t predict how traveling together will affect your relationship, but we can say from experience that good intentions and openness always help.

Siblings

Sibling dynamics can be wildly tested as your family travels full time. Twenty-four seven in-your-face togetherness may take some getting used to, so be deliberate about creating space for everyone. We’ve talked about the value of making 1:1 time between a parent and each child. Maybe that can be expanded to create some physical space between siblings. Perhaps there’s a suitable event or excursion that would work for a parent and child or for a solo teen. When everyone cannot go off to their own room, you can get creative with how and where you carve out physical space for a quick break. When tensions rise, try calling for quiet time, and redirect kids to get their book, throw a ball against a wall, or head outside for some downtime.

All that together time can also lead to better sibling relationships. We’ve heard from many parents that they were pleasantly surprised by how much closer their kids became when they had time to sort out their needs and work as a team. When there’s a limited number of playmates, siblings start to look pretty good. Or maybe it’s because they’re not competing for their parents’ attention or because they’re sharing rooms, beds, and inside jokes. Sometimes the causes of rivalry wash away in shared adventures, and siblings might become best friends.

Teens

Worldschooling with teens can have glorious tension. On the one hand, it creates unique opportunities to pull together and deepen connections before they leave the nest. Being on the road can relieve pressure and give teens a break from academic demands and social expectations, which in turn creates openings to connect. Without their peers around, teens also don’t have to worry about the “(un)cool factor” of hanging with parents and siblings when the family is on the road.

On the other hand, some teens start to want independence from their parents, make their own money, go on dates, and form a community of peers. These wants might feel antithetical to full-time family travel, and while it can be challenging for all, there are ways for everyone to thrive. Some parents allow their teens the freedom to plan travel segments, take off for a solo jaunt for a couple of weeks or even months, return home for a while, or meet up with friends and then reconnect with their families later in the year. They might connect with other teens at worldschooling gatherings. There are also social media communities and online forums that can help fend off feelings of isolation.

Teens wishing to work and earn money during a Wonder Year can find online business opportunities. For instance, they might engage in digital design, writing, podcasting, and other content creation. They can look for tutoring jobs or ways to broker goods in online or physical marketplaces, too. Talk to your teens and help them explore opportunities as global citizens—they may find inspiration and influence from their unique traveling vantage points.

Only Children

Travel can make it easy to celebrate the relative independence and maturity of many an only child. And while they are accustomed to navigating their childhood with mostly adults around, it is still important to think about their personal space and boundaries. Finding 1:1 time is not the challenge. Finding 0:1 time is! You can create comfortable spaces where the parent(s) gets out of the way and the kid rules. Sometimes there are relatives or other trusted adults who are happy to help. Look for ways to connect your kid with peers at drop-in classes, camps, or clinics or at in-person or online worldschooling communities. When traveling kids find each other, it’s magic.

One-Parent Families

Traveling as a one-parent family presents an amazing bonding opportunity between parent and kid(s). As the sole adult decision maker, there’s no need for negotiation; single parents may enjoy freedom and ease in matters of planning, education, and spur-of-the-moment decisions. (We recognize that the language around families is evolving; here, we use the term single parent with broad and inclusive intent.)

At the same time, there may be unique challenges. There’s no other adult to navigate the logistical hurdles at airports, bus stations, and guesthouse check-ins, or to help juggle all the gear. No one is there to respond when you yelp, “Hold this, take that, watch Aidan, I’ll be right back.” If there’s an appointment or meeting you must take care of, there’s usually not another adult who can easily stay with your child or children. As a single parent, you may be well synched with your kids, but they can’t provide you with adult-sized shoulders for support when you need it.

Other single-parent travelers are out there, and many are savvy, resourceful, and eager to connect and share advice. Check out the increasing number of meetups and local chapters of single-parent travelers as well as social media communities that have helpful information. Some parents tap into expat networks to get recommendations for nannies or babysitters so they can get in some extra work time or enjoy an art-museum visit or dinner out on their own. Others find great utility in a regular Zoom call between kids and family back home.

Visits from family and friends can also provide a welcome interlude. If your budget allows, consider travel companies that cater to one-parent families. Their excursions can offer great adventures as well as opportunities for adult interaction.

Family Communication

Traveling as a family can be a giant exercise in communication. You’ll have to talk about logistical, financial, and parenting matters and make decisions about immediate next steps or longer-term arrangements. Travelers may find that their dialogue—even about sticky subjects like finance or work—on the road is better and more immediate than when they are at home. We encourage you to keep the lines open with your family members. You can model what it looks like to listen and agree, or listen and disagree, and come out on the same page. Not always that simple, but do keep trying.

Some families relish the chance to make travel decisions together at a set time or in an impromptu huddle. When kids take part, they have the chance to learn practical skills such as brainstorming, active listening, sharing feedback, negotiating, articulating trade-offs, compromising, and contributing. They can also present some fantastic ideas—you might be amazed by what your kiddos will come up with when given the “speaking baton” and permission to contribute.

The post Family Life on the Road: Interpersonal Dynamics appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

A week before, we’d taken our final safari drive in the lush rains of Botswana, parked the jeep at an airstrip, then flight-hopped across thirty-seven hours and nearly ten thousand miles to land in the frigid, leafless suburbs of Cincinnati. Jarring, but worth it to reach my parents’ welcoming home and spend the holidays together. Especially since we had no home to go to—not even a hometown. That also meant there was no pressure to return to a house and unpack, or to be anywhere else. No one knew we were back, so we could fly under the radar and get our bearings.

We’d been watching this house as we trekked across two continents. It needed loads of work, but there were job opportunities nearby, and it was on a sweet bit of land at the intersection of mountains and prairie. Having spent so much time in nature while on the road, we needed space to breathe as we put down new roots. We negotiated the purchase, but the house wouldn’t be ready for a while, so first we settled into a bland corporate apartment furnished with hard mattresses and hotel soap. It was bigger than most of the places we’d stayed during the past two years; I preferred the coziness of our RV and single-room rentals. We sold the RV, and I was sadder to see it go than anything we’d ever owned.

We tried to calibrate into a semblance of “normal,” although I wasn’t quite sure what that meant anymore. Ronan, fourteen, enrolled in an entrepreneurship program so he could meet some kids his age. He wouldn’t start school for many months and was navigating a rocky social road in the meantime. We visited California so he could spend some time with his old crew. For Asher, now eleven, we found a temporary spot in a quirky experiential school with self-paced learning, a chicken coop, and daily chores. He was psyched to be with peers again, but missed unstructured days and the ocean.

Setting up shop in a new place was like a tailwind of our Wonder Year, and we threw ourselves into becoming Coloradans. The boys learned to ski, and Mark and Ronan ran the BOLDERBoulder 10K with fifty thousand new friends. We went to concerts at Red Rocks. I worked for a state ballot campaign and joined a hiking group to stay connected to my boots and the earth. Our home served as a rest stop for friends and family heading into the Rockies, giving us a chance to be the hosts rather than the hosted.

That fall Ronan and Asher both started at new public schools. District administrators didn’t blink an eye at their unusual academic histories, slotting them into grade years based on their birthdays with no questions asked. Asher was elected to student council, and Ronan attended his first homecoming. Mark found a good job, the two-year gap on his résumé inconsequential. He was away a lot, and I missed him.

Months in, I couldn’t shake my attachment to the old crossbody purse that held my essentials while traveling. Remnants of both jungle and desert were ground into its worn surface. I missed the weight of the camera pack that was usually slung over my shoulder with it. Mostly, I missed being outside a ten-mile radius and spending time together as an unhurried, unscheduled family.

It became a running joke that we kept finding ourselves together in the same room of the house—four humans and a canine. Timber, our dog, was enthralled by the elk that passed through our woods but terrified of Colorado thunderstorms. One evening, we returned home to an enormous black bear in our front yard. For a fleeting moment, life felt wild again.

But: a creeping realization set in. The structure of our lives was looking a lot like before. Unconsciously, we had recreated the way things were prior to our worldschooling journey—and what a folly that was, since we had intentionally stepped away from the before to find ourselves. There was no shedding the impact of a Wonder Year; we were fundamentally changed, and things couldn’t just go back to the way they were. So why had we rebuilt our lives to look almost the same, just in a new place?

With that awareness, we spent the next several years undoing it all again. Finally untethered once more, we took a Wonder Summer, and some Wonder Weeks and Wonder Weekends, to recover the real us. We had a better sense of what us looked like now. We recognized those people when we saw them, and we liked inhabiting their skin.

The post Coming Home – Angela’s Family appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Accommodations

Airbnb
An online site for hosts to list available places, and travelers to book accommodations and experiences. The site has expanding functionality and offers search features to locate special-interest accommodations such as islands, national parks, tiny homes, monasteries, etc.
https://airbnb.com

Booking.com
An online platform to reserve transportation and accommodations for both hosts and travelers. Available in forty languages with 24‑7 customer support.
https://booking.com

Couchsurfing
A website, Facebook group, and app-based membership service to connect travelers interested in community. Offers a free exchange of hospitality. It has 12 million active members in over 200,000 cities.
https://couchsurfing.com

Furnished Finder
A website for travelers interested in longer-term stays. Created to serve roaming professionals and medical providers, some slow-traveling families may also find furnished-housing options here.
https://furnishedfinder.com

Home Exchange
An online membership-based home-exchange platform available in over 150 countries.
https://homeexchange.com

Home Swap
An online membership program for home swaps, active in over a hundred countries. Free trial period and tiered membership options with varying features.
https://lovehomeswap.com

Hostelling International
An over 100-year-old nonprofit that works with youth hostel associations around the world to promote affordable, sustainable, and good-quality accommodations. Many hostels are family friendly; check to see if there are age limits or restrictions.
https://hihostels.com

House Sitting Magazine
A magazine and website that provides useful information and resources for house sitters and pet sitters around the globe, including house‑sitting sources (for a fee) and location-specific information.
https://housesittingmagazine.com

Vrbo
An online resource that helps families looking for accommodations find and reserve entire homes around the world. Expanding functionality serves the needs and budgets of various travelers.
https://vrbo.com

Workaway
An online resource to connect travelers who wish to work and immerse themselves culturally with hosts who need some form of help such as gardening, baby-sitting, or other tasks.
https://workaway.info

Worldschool House Swap/Sit/Rent Facebook group
A private Facebook group for worldschoolers to post available accommodations and to search for places to stay.
https://facebook.com/groups/worlschoolhouseswap

Cultural Exchange

AFS Intercultural Programs USA
American Field Service (AFS) emerged out of WWI and WWII with the goal of advancing cultural exchange. Today, AFS hosts exchange students from eighty countries.
https://afsusa.org/host-family

The Pen Pal Project
A partnership between WeAre Teachers and the United States Postal Service that connects classrooms around the world to foster friendships and build tolerance and understanding.
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/1108-usps-introduces-pen-pal-project.htm

Health & Safety

Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT)
A nonprofit organization that provides helpful information to travelers worldwide about road conditions, local laws, and other road‑safety topics. In the interest of safety, ASIRT partners with many organizations including the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
https://asirt.org

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The CDC’s Traveler’s Health website is a comprehensive travel health resource that includes a disease directory, information on finding a clinic, travel notices, country-specific information, and a helpful FAQ page. Additionally, the CDC website provides information for immunocompromised travelers. The CDC also publishes the Yellow Book.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/yellowbook-home-2020

Environmental Working Group (EWG)
A nonprofit organization that publishes consumer guides on the efficacy and safety of various consumer products, including sunscreen and insect repellent.
https://ewg.org

Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE)
A US-based nonprofit that supports individuals living with food allergies. The FARE website has comprehensive information on traveling with food allergies, including a travel checklist.
https://foodallergy.org/resources/traveling

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
The TSA website provides useful information for persons with disabilities and medical conditions, including passing through security checkpoints with medications, liquids, and other accessories.
https://tsa.gov/travel/special-procedures

United States Department of State
A credible and up-to-date source of information on critical topics including health and safety and country-specific travel advisories, embassies, consulates, doctors, and hospitals. It also includes resources for high-risk-area travelers, special‑needs travelers, and LGBTQ+.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel.html
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/your-health-abroad.html

UNWTO/IATA Destination Tracker
A user‑friendly platform providing travelers with information on health-related travel restrictions and requirements.
https://unwto.org/tourism-data/unwto-iata-destination-tracker-easy-travel

Inclusive Travel

ABC Travel Green Book
A resource available in both paperback and ebook formats with information to celebrate and inform Black travelers across the globe.
https://abctravelnetwork.com

Autism Travel
A website that helps families choose travel options that are safe and supportive of all family members. It lists certified travel resources and tools recognized by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards.
https://autismtravel.com

Green Book Global
A travel review website that seeks to empower and inspire Black travelers to explore the world through destination ratings and crowdsourced tips.
https://greenbookglobal.com

IGLTA, the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association
Provides information and resources for LGBTQ+ travelers. IGLTA works to “promote equality and safety within LGBTQ+ tourism worldwide.”
https://iglta.org

Lonely Planet’s Accessible Travel Online Resources
A free guide providing country-specific information for travelers with disabilities or access challenges.
https://shop.lonelyplanet.com/products/accessible-travel-online-resources

Tourism Diversity Matters (TDM)
An industry resource that seeks to improve the tourism industry’s diversity, equity, and inclusion through research, data, and expertise.
https://tourismdiversitymatters.org

UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme
A multistakeholder program intended to spawn tourism that respects natural and cultural assets. Provides information about UNESCO sites, partnerships, publications, and activities.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tourism

United States Department of State LGBTQI+ Travelers Site
Provides information for LGBTQI+ travelers to help with planning, security screening, and staying safe while traveling overseas.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/travelers-with-special-considerations/lgbtqi.html

United States Department of Transportation – Passengers with Disabilities
Provides information about laws, regulations, rights, and support for travelers with disabilities.
https://transportation.gov/airconsumer/passengers-disabilities

Wheel the World
An online repository to help travelers with disabilities find accessible places to stay, things to do, and trips.
https://wheeltheworld.com

Pets

BringFido
A website and mobile app that shares information and booking options for pet-friendly accommodations and sites around the world, including hotels, restaurants, hiking trails, and parks.
https://bringfido.com

Rover
An app and website that connects dog (and cat) guardians with pet lovers for boarding, house-sitting, drop-in visits, doggy day care, and dog walking by location.
https://rover.com

Sustainable Travel

B Corp
A nonprofit network that seeks to build a global economy that delivers environmental, social, and community benefits. B Corp certification for travel companies may indicate alignment with sustainable practices.
https://bcorporation.net

Center for Responsible Travel
A nonprofit organization that serves as a research center and promotes responsible travel.
https://responsibletravel.org

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Their Travel Carbon Footprint website is an interactive tool that lets travelers calculate and reduce their carbon footprint based on flights, car travel, rail travel, and hotel stays.
https://edf.org/travel-footprint-calculator

Future of Tourism Coalition
A coalition of NGOs, including the Center for Responsible Travel and Tourism Cares, aiming to drive positive change in tourism.
https://futureoftourism.org

Global Sustainable Tourism Council
Develops sustainability criteria and oversees their use in various sectors.
https://gstcouncil.org

Impact Travel Alliance
Educates travelers, promotes sustainability, and hosts meetups and chapters globally.
https://impacttravelalliance.org

United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
A leading intergovernmental organization that seeks to inform and promote sustainable tourism.
https://unwto.org/sustainable-development

US RV Travel

Boondockers Welcome
For an annual membership fee, travelers can find places for overnight camping without utility hookups (boondocking) on private property.
https://boondockerswelcome.com

Boondocking.org
An online site to find dispersed free camping sites in the US, outside developed campgrounds. Travelers can leave reviews and add new sites.
https://boondocking.org

Harvest Hosts
A membership program that invites RV travelers to camp at wineries, breweries, farms, and attractions within an expanding network.
https://harvesthosts.com

Recreation.gov
A partnership of several US federal agencies including the National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Smithsonian. Lists over 100,000 reservable outdoor sites in the US.
https://recreation.gov

RV Communities
Online communities of RV and van travelers, including:

• PanAmerican Travelers Association: https://facebook.com/groups/panamtravelers/
• Vanlife: https://facebook.com/groups/1218937564804262
• RV Life with Kids: https://facebook.com/groups/403708457666927

RV Trip Planner Apps
There are many RV trip planner apps and websites, typically with a fee, offering navigation, campground search, road conditions, and points of interest. Some to check out include:

• The Dyrt PRO: https://thedyrt.com/pro
• RV Life Trip Wizard: https://tripwizard.rvlife.com
• Roadtrippers: https://roadtrippers.com

US Travel Documentation

AAA | American Automobile Association
A membership organization that supports travelers with roadside assistance, information resources, and 24‑7 mobile and online support. The website provides an online application form for an International Driving Permit (IDP).
https://aaa.com/vacation/idpf.html

REAL ID – US Department of Homeland Security
Provides information for domestic travelers 18+ who, as of May 2025, need a REAL ID card to board domestic flights and get into certain federal facilities.
https://dhs.gov/real-id

Smart Traveler Enrollment Program – US Department of State
Allows travelers to register with their nearest US embassy and receive important safety information. Enrollment also makes it easier for family and friends to locate travelers in emergencies.
https://step.state.gov

Trusted Traveler Programs – US Department of Homeland Security
Provides information about TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and other programs that can speed up airport and border crossing procedures.
https://ttp.dhs.gov/

United States Postal Service (USPS)
Provides information and services for obtaining and renewing passports, including scheduling appointments, downloading applications, and expediting requests. Also covers mail holds, address changes, and PO boxes.
https://usps.com/international/passports.htm

Travel Points and Miles

Miles Momma
A one-stop shop for traveler information about miles, points, hotel rewards, banking, and more to help family travelers stretch their dollars. Also provides travel tips and location-specific information.
https://milesmomma.com

The Points Guy
Offers news, tips, deals, and credit card reviews to help travelers maximize reward travel.
https://thepointsguy.com

Volunteer Travel

A Beginner’s Guide to Voluntourism
Helps potential volunteers ensure the work they engage in is helpful, respectful, and beneficial to the local community.
https://nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/a-beginners-guide-to-voluntourism

GoAbroad
An online search engine with information about international travel programs to review and compare options.
https://goabroad.com

Go Overseas
A community site providing reviews, photos, and information about thousands of overseas programs, trips, and jobs including volunteering.
https://gooverseas.com

Grassroots Volunteering
Helps travelers connect to communities in the places they’re visiting. Maintains a global database of organizations.
https://grassrootsvolunteering.org

Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
Links visitors with organic farms around the world. Hosts get help on the farm while visitors gain education, cultural immersion, and typically room and board.
https://wwoof.net

Worldschooling

Citizen Science
A US government website that uses crowdsourcing and publicizes opportunities for people to participate in scientific research across the US.
https://citizenscience.gov

Common Sense Media
Provides reviews and advice about apps and websites for learning. Also offers free lessons and resources on topics like digital citizenship.
https://commonsense.org/education/selections-for-learning

Junior Ranger – NPS
A free, activity‑based program run by the US National Park Service encouraging children to learn about parks and share their “ranger story” with others. Available at almost all national and many state parks in the US.
https://nps.gov/kids/become-a-junior-ranger.htm

PBS Learning Media
An online collection of educational resources designed to support digital learning from pre-K through grade 12.
https://rmpbs.pbslearningmedia.org

Worldschooling Communities

• Worldschoolers
  https://facebook.com/groups/worldschoolers
• We are Worldschoolers
  https://facebook.com/groups/weareworldschoolers
• Worldschoolers Explore the USA
  https://facebook.com/groups/1842724762611474
• Worldschoolers – Single Parents
  https://facebook.com/groups/WorldschoolersSoloParents
• Worldschoolers – POC
  https://facebook.com/groups/WorldschoolersPOC
• Worldschooling Central – A Family Travel Community – Education with Travel
  https://facebook.com/groups/worldschoolingcentral
• Roadschooling – Families Homeschooling on the Road
  https://facebook.com/groups/roadschooling
• Roadschooling Europe
  https://facebook.com/groups/1305020486300270
• RoadschoolingUSA
  https://facebook.com/groups/RoadschoolingUSA

The post Family Travel and Worldschooling: A Resources List appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Risk Tolerance

We all live somewhere on the risk-aversion to risk-seeking continuum, and traveling to new places may change your perception of, and relationship to, risk. Are you okay not knowing where you are going to sleep? Not knowing where you will find food? Not knowing if you have to go left or right when it’s getting dark and there are alligators, hyenas, and hill bandits out there? What if you are running out of gas or someone needs to go to the bathroom?

Risk tolerance is simply how much exposure to risk you are willing to handle in terms of where you venture, who you’re with, what you do, and who’s in charge, as well as physical activities and abilities. While you are traveling, you will need to make decisions, sometimes in the moment, that work for your whole team. You will need to sort out where you stand with your partner and family. If you are with friends or acquaintances, there will be more viewpoints to work through.

We invite you to test your risk tolerance, keeping in mind it’s probably not the same profile as that of everyone else you are with. Let’s drill down a bit to illustrate the concept. Say you meet a couple of families at a worldschooling summit and you get along well, so you plan to meet up again in the Philippines. One of the moms, a professional rock climber, organizes a canyoneering trip in the Kawasan Falls that will have you navigating water, cliffs, slots, ledges, and waterfalls. On your way from point A to point B, your adventure requires that you launch yourself off a cliff into a pool of water twenty feet below. Does your kid want to jump? Will you let them?

Matters of risk, coupled with cultural differences, can get even trickier. Here are two hypothetical scenarios to test your tolerance:

Scenario 1:

Your kids want to run down the street to a busy city market. There are a lot of people around. It’s 8:00 p.m. and dark outside. You want to give them some freedom, and trust they can get there and back safely.

Do you:

* Say yes and give them some extra cash with a request to bring you a chocolate bar?

* Say yes but watch them out the window the entire time?

* Say yes but sneakily follow forty feet behind?

* Say no, but your partner says yes?

Scenario 2:

You’ve arranged to rent motor scooters to travel around a small island in the Caribbean. You pay for your scooters, and then you walk to the shed to get them. No helmets!

Do you:

* Hop on and rev the engine?

* Politely ask the operator for helmets. They bring you a helmet, but the straps are all cut. Do you then:

     * Encourage your kid to hop on and tell them to do two thumbs-up so you can snap a photo?

     * Hop on with a frown?

     * Politely ask for your money back?

     * Emphatically ask for your money back?

While you don’t want to be the person who offends the locals and keeps the family from doing something fun, you also don’t want to expose your family to potential harm. We give you permission to be the adult in the room when you know it’s the right thing to do. When locals dismiss, laugh at, or are angered by your ways, here, too, you can hold your line.

Once you feel comfortable identifying and articulating your own feelings about risk, then it’s time to communicate within the family. Maybe you’ll decide to identify the lowest common threshold, meaning the place where you all feel safe, and that becomes your plan. Or you decide to do more research and education to work through fears and arrive at a compromise. Some families divide and conquer—those who want to do something adventurous can, and those who aren’t comfortable choose something different. Be sure to empower your children to speak up, especially if they are feeling scared or uncertain. The practice of honoring, supporting, and working through this exchange with your family can build individual confidence and lifelong family values.

If you are traveling with other families, good communication around risk can avoid awkward moments, discomfort, strained relationships, unsafe situations, or changes of plan. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt: understand what you are exposing you and your family to, and communicate these personal considerations before the point of no return. And when you decide to jump, be sure to make a big splash!

Travel Cadence

Travel cadence is the rhythm and speed of your journey. Some families aim to visit as many countries, states, or destinations as quickly as possible. Peripatetic parents, we salute you! Their beat matches their curiosity, and they would dance their way to the moon and back if they could. Others opt for depth over breadth as they settle in for weeks or months at a time.

Your cadence can be intentionally set by your trip itinerary, or it can modulate in response to your family’s energy levels, budget considerations, or new opportunities you may hear about en route. For some traveling families, it works great to have off days for moving about freely, and on days to do school. If you have a bucket list of destinations, your cadence may be zippier with shorter stays in each place. If there are countries you want to visit that are more expensive, you may choose to have a shorter stay in those places.

Some families get tired and want to slow down; they may need or want to work or enroll their children in a local school. Others simply find themselves in a place they love and want to stay for a while. In doing so, you can minimize your footprint, commit to volunteer work, reduce expenses, or participate in community service or cultural exchange. You can belong to a place.

Local Culture and Customs

Visiting new places may require some study and preparation. Families can learn together about a new country, state, or region—its Indigenous peoples, geography, inventions, art, food, and language. You can practice local greetings, customs, and courtesies. Your research can equip you with practical knowledge about a place while deepening your respect for local customs and beliefs; it can also serve as a great worldschool lesson.

For example, in many cultures elders are treated with reverence—they speak first, and they are served their food first. In some places pointing is rude, or looking someone in the eye is considered offensive. On the other hand, in some cultures, people are more direct in their communication, and you may hear things you might not at home. Annika was told outright she could not be the mother of her daughter Lucy because they are not the same race. People might openly comment on your appearance in ways you’re not used to hearing. It’s all part of noticing our cultural lens. Our friend Monica’s son, Ty, reflected, “The other ways people do things aren’t weird; they’re just different.”

Be prepared to have sensitive conversations with your children as they experience things that are new to them. Some families look for opportunities to examine racial and social dynamics wherever they visit because they want their children to have a deeper perspective of places, not just see the sites. Getting out there, meeting new people, and having conversations can be profoundly enriching for everyone.

Privilege

Resource disparity and injustice exist everywhere. Many kids have a heightened sense of fairness and tend to notice the inequities around them. Traveling brings these realities to light and provides an opportunity for families to grapple with them in real time. How ready are you to talk about power and privilege? Revisit the ideas in “A Conversation on Inclusivity” in this blog 1 to weave these topics into your family’s ongoing dialogue.

Worldschooling, by definition, is going into the world to learn and connect. Some worldschoolers have been criticized for the privilege of being able to move relatively freely while others cannot. They are aware of the tension between using, but not exploiting, that privilege to better understand their place in the world. They also recognize that it might be easier to stay at home and leave the harder questions unexamined. Instead, worldschoolers make the choice to travel, learn about complex issues, engage in meaningful relationships, and build creative solutions.

Toward the end of her year, one worldschooling parent said, “Traveling gave my kids an understanding that the existing power structure treats so many people unfairly, and it has motivated them to make a difference. And for me, interacting directly with other cultures throughout the year exposed my own biases. If these are the things we come to understand over the course of the year, we can consider it our most important lesson learned.”

Giving and Receiving

At its best, travel is an exchange—of ideas, culture, language, and work—and there’s a place for both giving and receiving. We hear from some traveling parents that they feel they are taking and consuming more than they are contributing or connecting, and they feel a need to recalibrate their priorities.

Maybe your Wonder Year can be a time to examine your impact, participate locally, or spend time in places that are not just tourist destinations. You could look for opportunities to apply your professional or vocational skills in the service of communities you visit. Perhaps you could support a school by tutoring English or math or donating sporting equipment.

In some cultures, the actual exchange of gifts is a significant gesture and a thoughtful way to show your gratitude in a culturally fitting manner. Many families carry with them small thank-you gifts or handmade cards to share with hosts and new friends. Among our families, we brought inflatable globes and beach balls, deflated soccer balls with a small air pump, handwritten thank-you cards, notebooks, and art supplies to leave as gifts.

It takes composure and grace to receive. Maybe you’ll be invited for a meal in a local family’s home. Or, on a hot day with a tired kid, passersby might offer a cold beverage and a shaded bench. The more open and attentive we can be, the more we can find contentment in each moment. Savor these encounters. Let yourself give and receive gifts of the road.

Celebrations and Milestones

Speaking of gift giving and local traditions, you’ll likely want to hold on to some customs from home, too. Family traditions and celebrations can provide grounding during a year that may otherwise feel uprooted. These celebrations can take on a new and elevated significance when honored from afar. Do not underestimate how much your kids will love having the tooth fairy visit them in Zambia! No joke.

It can be disappointing to miss celebrations back home, but there are many things you can do to acknowledge special moments and create new rituals. For example, you might pack some birthday candles for the RV or an Elf on the Shelf for your Vrbo rental. If you celebrate Christmas, you might find a fabric store and sew your own stockings with felt. We all learned how to host virtual meetings during the pandemic, so virtual birthday parties with games and laughter can be a fun option. You could Zoom into your cousin’s b-mitzvah or create a video or audio recording to be shared with the folks back home. Think small luggage space and big impact, and be spontaneous on the road.

One worldschooling family spent Halloween night at an airport hotel with adjoining rooms in Guangzhou, China. The kids were devastated to miss out on their favorite holiday. So, their parents bought bags of cool Chinese candies, and the kids had to create as many costumes as possible from what was in their combined luggage. After each outfit change, the kids would stand on one side of the connecting hotel-room door, knock, and yell “Trick or treat!” Their parents would open the door and give them their candy.

Academic or extracurricular milestones can also be cleverly celebrated. A visa photo or a US Junior Ranger headshot can stand in for school pictures. Completion of third-grade math or their last day of schoolwork could culminate with a meal of the kid’s choosing or a splurge event. With a little forward planning and on-the-go creativity, you’ll have a new collection of meaningful and travel-inspired festivities.

Roadblocks and Detours

No matter how much planning, communicating, and going with the flow you muster, extended travel may not go well for everyone all the time. The mental, emotional, and physical transitions take time, and you may need to get past early jitters and a rocky start. People may adjust at different rates, too. We’ll briefly share some remedies and strategies for coping, and we encourage you to hang in there. It can be challenging as you confront homesickness, burnout, or just not finding your groove.

Homesickness

We are all likely to miss people dear to us, favorite places, beloved activities, and the familiarity of the lives we left. Kids are sensitive, and homesickness can show up as sadness or in unexpected ways such as disrupted moods and sleep, unusual behavior, or even physical ailments. It will typically pass, but know that a tummy ache might not be caused by something they ate.

Redirecting attention to a favorite book or card game, taking part in physical activity, and providing tenderness can ordinarily remedy a bout of homesickness. Accentuating the positives of your time away can also help bring a new perspective. Perhaps the most effective remedies to homesickness are time, connecting with loved ones back home virtually or in person, and making new friends as you travel.

Burnout

Another bump in the road might be burnout. Yup, sometimes you need a vacation from your Wonder Year. Many traveling families hit a wall of exhaustion, loss of inventiveness, or just get sick of all the togetherness. Like any endurance event, there are peaks and valleys both physically and mentally.

Practice self-care especially through these times. Take a week or two off of planning and moving about, and make some time to chill. Or hunker down in a place you love and rent an Airbnb for a month or more. Establish simple routines. Spend some time with your hobbies or look for short-term employment or volunteer opportunities. Most likely you’ll get a second wind if you can hang in there.

When You Just Can’t Find Your Groove

But what if that second wind never comes? Sometimes family dynamics are too rough to navigate, stress goes up, or parents know their kids aren’t thriving. Sometimes there are real budget shortfalls or medical problems. The visit from Grandma did not help; your week at the beach did not help.

If the stress on the family is too intense, it’s okay to explore other options, including cutting your trip short and returning home. It happens, and we know families who wrapped up early. And who’s to say that a six-month Wonder Year is any less valuable than a sixteen-month one? The contingency plan you put in place before you left exists for these reasons. 

There, we said it and you read it. So, tuck this conversation away in the bottom of a duffel bag, but know it’s there if you need it. If the flip-flop were on the other sandy foot, we would have wanted you to give us a heads-up, too.

The post Out in the World: Family Life on the Road appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Full-time travel necessitates a shift in priorities and spending habits. Many families are surprised to find that, although they are bringing in only a fraction of their usual income, they are able to make it work because expenses are lower and their spending habits are relatively simple to change. They naturally buy less when both luggage and living space are limited. They also realize that although sacrifices are sometimes necessary, the benefits gained are worth it.

That said, travel expenses shouldn’t be underestimated. Here we review the types of costs you might encounter along the way.

Types of Worldschooling Expenses

Every family’s expenses will be different, but at a minimum, you’ll want to consider and plan for these categories:

• Expenses back at home (dwelling, storage, insurance, pets, etc.)
• Transportation
• Travel-related matters (immunizations, visas, and the like)
• Accommodations
• Food
• Medical (prescriptions, supplies, emergencies)
• Educational programs and activities

Some good news: A lot of expenses you are accustomed to at home may go away while you are traveling, including utilities, water use, vehicle maintenance, summer camps, sports programs, babysitters, music lessons, gym memberships, other recurring fees (like monthly subscriptions), and the ubiquitous costs of convenience.

Here are some tips for reducing costs on the road, several of which are discussed further in Wonder Year:

• Be flexible with your transportation plans—sometimes you can find significant savings just by adjusting things by a few days, taking an earlier departure, or adding a connection.
• Look for less expensive accommodations. There are many, many options for places to rest your heads, including campsites, free land, long-term rentals, house sitting, hostels, couchsurfing, and more (see the resources section for more details). Visit those far-flung family and friends you’ve been missing.
• As you prepare for your trip, you’ll read it again and again: pack light. In some countries, the cost of checking a bag can be nearly as much as the price of your plane ticket. Paring things down can save money.
• Similarly, don’t purchase too many items for your travels. Many families find that they overprepare and bring things they simply don’t need once they are on the ground.
• Cook at “home”; this can yield big savings. Kids’ finicky appetites can make restaurants a low return on investment, and eating out can quickly put a big dent in your budget. You can often enjoy local cuisine by visiting markets and preparing food on your own. Similarly, pack meals for full-day outings.
• If you’re traveling internationally, consider buying a local SIM card for your phone and paying as you go. In many cases, this will lower your costs quite a bit. If you need cellular coverage, using your plan from home can quickly rack up significant charges.
• Be aware of what you are paying to manage your assets. Are you paying market rates for your property manager? Can you prepare your own taxes using software?
• If you are working while traveling, note anything you are using for business purposes that you can claim as a tax write-off (cell phone, Wi-Fi, etc.).
• If you took out loans for travel or any other reason, check into adjusting your payment schedule based on income.
• Take public transportation. Not only can you save some coin, but you’ll also meet more locals.
• Be aware of tour and activity costs. There are excursions—snorkeling/scuba-diving trips, delicate ecological sites like glaciers or animal sanctuaries—you should only visit with a guide. For most other places, you’ll be able to put together your own itinerary for significantly lower cost. Perhaps your children can do research online and be your guides. Choose activities that don’t charge fees, like hiking, browsing farmers markets, visiting natural sites, or exploring a city on foot. Museums often have free admission days, and hotels might offer complimentary kids’ camps; you can also find online travel guides that provide self-directed tours.
• Track your expenses. It’s easier to understand what you measure, and recording your expenses can help keep costs down. A working budget is also a great teaching tool for kids.

As full-timers, you can travel during the off-season when transportation bookings and accommodations cost notably less. It’s possible to be a lot more flexible with dates given that you aren’t scheduling as tightly around work or school commitments, so you can shop around for transportation and lodging deals (this also makes things less stressful, as you aren’t fighting the crowds). In addition, you won’t need to budget for vacations!

Contingency Planning

In addition to your Plan A, we encourage you to have contingency plans in case the world deals you an unexpected blow. Doing a bit of scenario planning in advance and having a backup plan can provide peace of mind up front, and potentially welcome relief if it’s ever needed.

Lee Strongwater, a financial advisor and partner at Colorado Capital Management, provides a few specific pieces of advice for long-term travelers:

* Build a medical safety net fund, with consideration for what your insurance will and won’t cover. Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but it’s smart to be ready for the worst-case scenario.

* Budget for living expenses after you return, to cover the time you may need to spend looking for employment, a new home, or other essentials.

* Things most likely will cost more than you think. Pad your budget accordingly.

Some Words of Encouragement

Remember, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If you can’t travel full time (yet!), take shorter trips, read about far-off places, save your “someday” ideas as inspiration, host exchange students, and incorporate a worldview into your education plan. And, although easier said than done, we encourage you to do your best not to compare your experience with that of other families. Every experience is unique, and any type of worldschooling can be amazing. Keep your values in mind, and make the most of your version.

The post Worldschooling Costs: Types of Expenses and How to Save appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

• You are responsible for paying federal taxes each year, no matter where you are in the world and how your income is earned; taxes are based on worldwide income.
• This is true even if you don’t live in a fixed place and are traveling full-time.
• Tax and filing rules are usually the same, whether you are physically in the US or abroad.
• State taxes are more complicated, and you are generally required to pay state taxes for your state of residence. Many states require you to file a nonresident income tax return, even if you are overseas or traveling full-time; be sure to check the rules for your home state.
• If you plan to reside in a single other country for most of your Wonder Year, be sure to research the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion law, primarily aimed at US expats.
• If you are staying in the US and traveling to multiple states, review the laws for each state where you earned income, as requirements may vary.
• If you have a family business, own an LLC, or operate under another framework while working on the road, keep track of your expenses; some may be tax deductible.
• Some expenses associated with volunteer work, such as food and lodging costs, may be deductible as well; keep track and consult your tax advisor.

Given the unique circumstances of each family’s worldschooling travels, we recommend looking closely at the potential tax consequences of your trip or consulting with a tax accountant before you go to review your needs and plans. Getting clear on the details up front can help you avoid surprises and stay focused on the journey ahead.

The post Worldschooling, Family Travel, and Taxes appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Passports

To travel internationally, you must bring the right documents, including up-to-date passports. Without them, you could be denied boarding, or even worse, entry into the country you’re intending to visit. Make sure you allow plenty of time in your planning phase to get all family members a valid passport.

Passport rules vary by country and change often, so research them thoroughly for each destination you plan to visit—before you leave home. Some countries require that your passport be valid for six months after your departure date. For US residents, passport initial application and renewal instructions can be found on the USPS website.

Some additional tips:

• If you or a family member needs a passport, you should start the application process at least three to four months before your initial departure.
• If you need a passport sooner than the lead times quoted by your passport service office, you can pay additional fees for an expedited passport.
• If you need a renewal while abroad, you can visit the local embassy. It may be able to offer a faster turnaround time. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to cross any borders until you receive your renewed passport.
• There are many third-party companies that will help you navigate the passport application process and obtain any visas you require (for a fee).
• Make sure the names you use to book travel match exactly the names on your passports. If you’ve recently gotten married or divorced or changed your name for any other reason, ensure the name on your passport is how it appears on your travel documents.
• Travelers can select male (M), female (F), or another gender identity (X) as their gender marker on passports; this identifier does not need to match the gender shown on supporting documentation like birth certificates, state IDs, or previous passports. No medical documentation is required to change the gender marker on passports.
• Put a unique sticker on the cover of each family member’s passport—this is a great way to identify quickly whom each passport belongs to, without having to flip through to find the ID page.
• Make a photocopy of each family member’s passport and other key documents to keep in a separate place while traveling in case the original is lost, stolen, or damaged. Put a scanned digital copy on your laptop or in cloud storage. While these can’t be used in place of the original, copies can give you a head start in replacing a passport.

In addition to passports, a limited number of countries require that parents present an unabridged birth certificate for each of their children up to age eighteen to gain entry or secure a visa. Concerns about child abductions have made government officials around the world wary when only one parent is traveling with a child, and sometimes even when both parents are present. If traveling as a single parent, in addition to your passports and your child’s birth certificate, you should bring written, notarized consent for travel signed by all living parents or legal guardians. Check destination-country rules online. Customs and border agents take these rules very seriously, and we’ve personally witnessed families getting turned away at international borders.

Visas

You’ll be able to enter some countries without a visa or obtain one upon arrival. For others, you’ll need to obtain a visa ahead of time so that you have it in hand when you arrive. Embassies and consulates will have the most current information for each country; for US-issued passport holders, this information can be found at the Department of State’s website. A couple of other recommendations:

• Make sure you bring additional passport-sized photos with you. Many countries require one or two for entry visas and/or trekking permits. Trust us, you don’t want to get stuck using the grossly overpriced (and often painfully slow) airport photo booths, or worse, be turned around at a border due to not having a photo.
• For each country in your itinerary, research visa and immigration “insider tips” online before you go. These will often provide info about how to navigate the process, whether you need to pay in cash (and whether they prefer US dollars or local currency), and how to avoid scams at the border.

Visa applications typically require information on your planned length of stay and departure date, and they often require documentation showing your plan for exiting the country (such as proof of a purchased plane or train ticket for onward travel). If you plan to stay in a country for an extended period, a tourist visa might not be possible. You should always check visa rules if you’ll be spending more than three months in one location.

Special note: The Schengen Area is a European zone of countries that have abolished internal borders, allowing its citizens to travel from one country to another within the region as if it is a single country. In general, the residents of non-Schengen countries need to obtain a visa to visit. Websites are available to help travelers track their lengths of stay and visa rules within the Schengen Area.

International Driving Permit

If you plan to drive in a foreign country, you’ll likely need an International Driving Permit (IDP), often and incorrectly referred to as an International Driver’s License. An IDP is a document you use along with your valid home driver’s license that allows you to legally operate a motor vehicle while abroad. You can get an IDP at most AAA offices, and it is typically valid for one year after issue.

Make sure you understand the local rules of the road for all countries you’ll be visiting. Also, research whether your credit card provider and/or insurance company covers car rentals overseas, particularly if you’ve made changes to your policy prior to travel. Annika’s auto insurance company wouldn’t cover a camper van in New Zealand, so her family had to buy local insurance for that portion of their trip.

Other Documents

There may be other documents from home you’ll need on the road. Depending on your circumstances, these might include a power of attorney, which is a written authorization that allows another person to act on your behalf, including giving them authority to conduct financial transactions, sign legal documents, or make health care decisions if you cannot do so. Some families find it helpful to identify a trusted helper in their home base who can help coordinate or execute needed duties and transactions on their behalf.

Notes on Currency

These days, it’s typically easiest to simply pull money from ATMs once you’ve arrived at a foreign destination. Watch out for foreign transaction fees, which are often imposed by both the ATM owner and your own bank. Check for debit cards that bypass some or all of the home-bank expenses, and do some homework to know the best places to retrieve money locally in the country you plan to visit. Load your bank info and credit cards into your digital wallet to make things even easier.

There will be times when you need funds and won’t have them. Your credit card won’t work, or a vendor will only take cash or digital-wallet transactions (and transaction vendors, such as Venmo in the US, vary widely by location). A good tip is to carry along a bit of US cash from home. A US\$20 bill goes a long way in many countries when local currency isn’t readily available.

Navigating Airport Security

If you are considering worldschooling, you may have already navigated through airport security with your kids. Here’s some good news: if your Wonder Year includes air travel, your kids will probably get very good at it. Here are a few ideas to help make the process easier on everyone:

• Practice your security-line process. Even young kids can know which items they’ll need to remove from bags and backpacks and how to pack them in a way that makes doing so quick and easy.
• Be prepared to encounter long lines or make last-minute security checks. Sometimes you’ll be selected for secondary screening when traveling with your children. Be sure to remain calm and polite throughout the process.
• Bring snacks, entertainment, and a plan for bathroom breaks. Your kids will appreciate it if you’ve considered these things ahead of time, especially on long-haul flights.
• Be patient. Security procedures can seem long and tedious, but with enough preparation, you and your kids will be able to handle them with ease.

While preparing travel documents may not be the most glamorous part of worldschooling, it’s an essential step in the process. Taking the time to ensure everything is ready can save your family time, stress, and even money along the way. Think of it as building a strong foundation beneath your travels: once it’s in place, you’re more free to explore the world with confidence.

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Then I walked around the yard and saw the cherry tree full of perfectly ripe cherries—for the first time since it was planted three years before—and realized that the pie must be made today. Time sows its constraints, and cherries will not wait long. The mental to-do list had started. I turned to Will, and he said, “Let’s go. Let’s just not unpack the car and just keep going.” We looked at each other and laughed. And cried. Holding hands outside of our house, next to the electricity and gas meters, we realized that we were choosing to land, choosing to find meaning in one fixed place on the planet and plant our roots like the cherry tree. At least for a year, we could give it a year.

The happiest part of coming home for me was putting things in drawers. It’s astounding how much pleasure that gave me: to open a drawer, arrange my things inside, run my hand along the folded clothes, and then close the drawer. No longer was I digging through duffels, fumbling with zippers, or finding that something had leaked. A close second-best thing was my friends: although Will and I grew as a couple and deeply enjoyed each other’s company, there were some topics better discussed with friends. When I would talk with him about the complex set of emotions in letting my hair grow gray, he tried in earnest to find the discussion meaningful for the twenty-seventh time. And would often ask, “Did I do okay?” And yes, he did, but there’s something so much better about that conversation with other women in their forties. There is just so much to talk about with gray hair. And it is so yummy to have female conversations in real time with my beloved friends.

Back to the hum of the utility boxes and the urgency of the cherries, we grieved the loss of our family as a distinct unit. Our thirteen-year-old couldn’t wait to put the air in her tires before biking over to visit a friend. She literally rode off on a flat back tire as I stood in the driveway to watch her go, feeling enormous gratitude for our year and watching it end just like that. Poof. It’s healthy for kids to go their own way, and yet I would miss our shared time, our yearlong team build.

I feared that the best year of my life was waving at me from the rearview window. How could anything top the year of wonder, laughter, the expanse of time without hurry, and a year when family was the priority? Not like a kitchen-plaque motto or life-coaching exercise, but an in-your-face, 24-7 reality? This was my thought as I stood by the cherry tree: I will miss them.

In my first month, I started filling up my calendar in the way I used to. I quickly had three places to be in different parts of town at the same moment: a class picnic at one school, a class picnic at the other, and a Suzuki Strings group class three miles away from either one. My throat felt tight, my guilt at having to tell someone that I couldn’t do it all made me sweaty. But how was this possible? How could I be in three places at the same time? And the answer was: I couldn’t. The old me couldn’t see this impossibility. The new me said, Well, that’s unhealthy.

The new me also messed up my scheduling. A lot. I was like a pink Cadillac with loose shocks and a broken fuel injection trying to merge onto the Autobahn. To complicate matters, my phone somehow thought I was still in the time zone of the Aegean Islands (and mentally I probably was), but somehow I knew that we were probably not meeting with the tax adviser at 3:00 a.m., which left me always second-guessing the veracity of my schedule. I was simply out of practice in looking at my phone. As the muscle memory began to kick in, I tried to be mindful of when I truly needed to be accessible and when time and its dictates could be more mysterious and muffled. I vowed to not simply acclimatize to the way I used to be, to remember that my phone was not an appendage. I vowed to edit the family’s activities and not feel the guilt. I vowed to remember that time could be expansive and did not hold me captive.

The post Coming Home – Annika’s Family appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

It took me three weeks to muster the mustard to write a final blog post on juliafreedom: Travels with Charlie (and Johnny and Max) because I didn’t want our trip to end. I felt like I should have been able to wrap it all up with a pretty bow, share a few lessons learned, and embrace home sweet home. But I couldn’t wrap up the most amazing year of my life. Not with a bow, duct tape, a bungee cord, or words.

We looked and felt like travelers when we came home. I wore the same ratty jeans with holes in the knees and frays on the seams. I clipped key chains onto my belt loop, noticed each moon phase and sunrise, and called every vehicle a “rig.” We were all shocked by the number of forks in our fork drawer and the volume of shelves in the pantry.

And yet, while difficult, returning was not bitter. It was sweet. We eased back in, spending two nights as guests in a cottage at Chautauqua, a regional park nestled at the base of the Flatirons, on the western edge of Boulder. Charlie’s mother joined us for a summer wind-down in our beautiful hometown. We sat, talked, and came back to ourselves. The actual drive into our neighborhood wasn’t planned; we just pulled over at a friend’s house and turned off the engine. Johnny bounced on the trampoline and mowed their lawn. These friends and family were our cushion that made for a soft landing. Slowly we reconnected with others over a meal or a walk or at our old stomping grounds—Ideal Market, Vic’s coffee shop, Moe’s Broadway Bagel. After a couple of months, close friends hosted a gathering where we had the honor of sharing our slideshow with our community.

There had been a series of uncanny, undeniable signs that it was time to come home. My wallet, lost the week before we left for the trip, turned up at a local Boulder bank thirteen months later. Charlie’s phone, lost midtrip, was mailed back to his office. We tearfully and effortlessly sold the RV on Craigslist, leased a hybrid electric vehicle, and rejoiced in the juiciness of local Palisade peaches.

We were often asked, “So, where was your favorite place?” My answer: anywhere in Alaska; Fern Canyon in Redwood State Park; Canaan Valley, West Virginia; hundreds of magnificent places over thousands of miles; and not one day the same as any other. My favorite places, though, were not the destinations; they were the long stretches in between destinations, the unplanned space where we were simply travelers. And every day still, even after being home for a few years, we are enriched by the year of wonder, the memories and lessons, the colorful perspectives, complex relationships to home, and a familial closeness that will never, ever unravel. I would do it all over again and again. And again. It was the best year of my life.

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