So we knew we wanted to do this but where should we go? And how do we get the kids’ buy in? After our two week trip to Borneo and Singapore last year we realised that we really had to plan this trip around them and include extra time for rest days.

We decided to get a cork board for everyone to put up their ideas. Each family member had their own coloured post it notes to contribute. And you could vote on someone else’s ideas too. You will notice a few random (thinner style) notes in there which are from visitors:

So this was our starting point but trying to get that into any sort of itinerary was tricky. Plus we didn’t want to be to cold/hot/humid. (The notable exception being Harbin.) So we made a calendar and wrote in for each month which destinations would be good to visit (extra notes for Chinese New Year, Golden Week, etc).

From there this gave us a rough idea of Asia -> Europe -> Africa and back through Asia to home. (Note we are not going to the Americas on this trip.)

And there’s the question of how much ground can we cover? We want to move slowly to enjoy it and save money but also there’s so much to see! Previously M & I had backpacked for six weeks before needing to stop for a week. Friends who traveled with a four year old in 2019 only did activities every second day (except in expensive countries where they pushed that a bit).

My working theory is that we will have three types of days:

• travel days, and
• adventure days,
• rest days (no requirement to leave the accommodation).

The big question is: what will a reasonable ratio be for us?

Until we start and settle into the travel life we really won’t know. Also, it will depend on how the kids handle crowds (& the inevitable attention they will draw in some places like Asia). So that all makes actual planning hard as we will need to be able to be flexible if we really love/hate a place or just need a break from traveling.