A Break from Fulltime Traveling

Having traveled just over 3 months on the road as a fulltime traveling family, with the first two months of being intensive turbo tourists in 4 different countries in Southeast Asia… Honestly, it has been a mouthful when looking back on those months now, but read on, and find out what we did to gear down a bit.

A Challenge

Travelling fulltime as a family for a long period of time, means that there are people we miss and things we miss out on back home. No doubt, that all the experiences we get while traveling fulltime for a long period of time outweighs the difficult emotions of missing friends and family, otherwise we wouldn’t be traveling fulltime. But it doesn’t change the fact that we miss them and it doesn’t make it easier.

A Solution

Luckily, there is a solution to the challenge of missing our family partly, which is to have them come visit you out in the world… and so we did, with some of the people we miss. We were very fortunate that Martin’s parents were up for a long trip, and eager to see and spend time with the grandchildren, so they came all the way from Denmark to Thailand to spend a week with us.

A Break

When this was planned and even as we were heading to Thailand to all meet up in a resort near Krabi, we hadn’t realized just how much we needed a break. A break from being tourists, a break from the constant exploring, a break from new impression every time we leave our accommodation, and a break from constant planning what to see, where to go and what to do.

A Gift

One wonderful week, where the kids stayed in a room with their grandparents, which meant that Martin and I got our own room - a week to ourselves and some much-needed couple time. When we travel with our kids fulltime, we all stay in one room most of the time, and obviously there is not much time to ourselves as a couple. We wouldn’t want it any other way, as one of the reasons for traveling as a family fulltime was to spend more time together as a family. But having said that, all parents know that there are things that are nice to talk over without the “long ears” of the children right next to you, and to be able to have our own room for a week was such a gift for all of us.

A Happy Family

The kids also couldn’t have been happier to get a break from mom and dad. We did spend most of the time together during the day, but to be able to withdraw to our own room (which goes for our kids as well as us parents), was a gift. Finally, the grandparents were also pretty happy with this solution, to say the least, so we had a true triple win-win-win situation.

A Holiday

Not only were we all happy to get spend one week of resort holiday together, on the beach, in the ocean, by the pool, doing cooking classes together, and just having family fun with the grandparents. It also gave us a little holiday from the wonderful traveling and exploring that we are doing. We all benefitted from this week together – all 3 generations – in so many ways.

And Finally... A Recommendation

This will be our top recommendation for today – convince your family or some friends to come visit while you a traveling. Not only do you get to spend time together, you also get to spend time apart – together.