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Home » Travel Tales » You’re doing what?! Yes, we’re going around the world with a toddler…

We did it, and here’s how it went…

My initial post, written last year, was based on ‘You’re doing what?!’ as it was said to me a fair few times. In short, if you’re catching up, I went around the world with a toddler. I sold my house and went around the world for six months with my then three-year-old. I’m attempting to reply to the initial post, now that we’ve been and done it, so you can see if the expectations were met. I’ve left the original post as it was, but added a response at the end of each section.

We’re off!

So, we’re off on our six month round the world trip soon. I’ve been asked all sorts of questions about it (you’re doing what?!!), especially as I’m taking my three-year-old with me. I thought I’d try and answer some of the questions I’ve been asked, for those who have yet to ask…

How will you afford it?

I’m not rich and I haven’t won the lottery. I already had the house up for sale before I decided to do this and are very lucky to be able to use some money from the sale to fund part of the trip. While waiting for the house to sell, the flights – the biggest initial cost – have been put on a 0% purchase interest credit card. Click here for our RTW flight booking experience. I’ve been paying in advance for as much accommodation and car rental as I can, while I am earning, and so by the time we go, I should only have to pay for food and attractions.

I work online anyway, so can continue to work while we’re away. Carboots and eBay have also become my friends. Selling the house after 15 years has shown just how much junk I’ve collected. It’s mostly all being sold and will be carbooting all summer. My goodness, how great it is to be having a massive clearout too. Fully recommended to everyone!

Post-trip reply:

The house sold before we went away, so had money to fall back on. If I’d just had to spend on credit cards (it was a possibility if the house hadn’t sold) and used the meagre savings, I would have been super stressed and wouldn’t have done half the things we did. I still did worry slightly about the cost of it all (I’m not a millionaire!), but I knew the house money was there, so it took an immense amount of pressure off.

I did spend more than budgeted. In small part due to the value of the pound dropping, but mostly due to partaking in a lot more activities and sightseeing than we original thought we’d do. I decided not to scrimp and not doing things, just in case we’re never in those places again. One example was the flight over the Barrier Reef. Not budgeted for at all, and cost us £360. Was it worth it? YES! Another example was Alcatraz. We didn’t book in time and couldn’t get on the normal tour. Cue us having to buy a full package bus tour with Alcatraz included for an extra $200. Was fantastic though.

I also didn’t sell as much as I wanted to before we left, so the ‘spare funds’ pot wasn’t as big as I thought it’d be. In fact, I sold hardly anything compared to what I thought I’d sell. Carboots were washed out, people mess you about on free-to-list sites and eBay just isn’t the same as it used to be (but don’t get me started on that!).

As for working while we were away. It pretty much didn’t happen, so there were no funds coming in while we were away either. I seriously underestimated the time it took to set up a brand new website, move around every few days, sightsee and look after a toddler. By the time we got in and settled most days, it was 9pm. I decided pretty early on I wasn’t going to ruin the trip by working past midnight for yet another day – we were on holiday damn it! – so I turned the laptop off and put it away, just writing in our diaries instead. So, there’s LOTS of pics and stories to inspire you to do your own jetsetting still to come! 🙂

My Advice:

• We know we were lucky to have the house to sell. Next time we’ll have to save up in the traditional way, and would advise you to do that too. Don’t travel solely relying on credit card funds, as you’ll be in massive debt when you come home.
• You will most probably go over budget. Accept it and enjoy yourself. Make sure you have some back-up money somewhere for such an occasion.
• If you are adding to your funds by selling your things, don’t underestimate the time it will take you to sell it all. 
• If you are online savvy and think blogging is how you’re going to make your money while you’re away, think again. Don’t expect to get a huge amount done if you’re planning on moving around every few days like we did. Would you rather be looking at your kids’ faces or the computer screen? Not much point in the trip of a lifetime if the little ones see you sat on the computer the whole time, is there?
• If you’re visiting Alcatraz, book waaaay in advance! 😉

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Missing Family…

Many other questions have revolved around us missing our family. Not saying it’ll be easy for us being so far away, but they love us, we love them, and wherever we are in the world, we’re still only roughly about a day away. Modern technology makes keeping in touch easier too, so there’ll be regular Skype sessions. We’ll just have to give little man extra cuddles from everyone every day. We’re especially unsure as to how going around the world with a toddler will be, emotionally, for all of us.

Post-trip reply:

It goes without saying that we missed everybody, but managed to stay in touch on Viber. We didn’t use Skype as we couldn’t get a good connection at all, ever, over any of our devices. There is free internet in most places – some better than others – so we could video call for free most weeks. (EDIT: We now just use WhatsApp video calls whenever we’re away).

There was one mahooosive meltdown from little man on the second day we were away. He saw a picture of his grangran on my phone, and just became hysterical. He wanted to go home, missed everyone and cried and cried and CRIED. That night, I wondered what on earth we had done to my poor little boy and how I could be so bloody stupid and selfish to drag him around the world at his age.

It never happened again. I said to myself that if it did, we’d go home, but we didn’t need to. Within a week or so, little man never wanted to go home again, he was having too much fun. He maintained he didn’t want to go home until about 30 minutes before we landed in Manchester in February, and think that was just because he was excited to see everybody. He wants to go on another adventure, but longer this time. 😉

My Advice:

• There are loads of free video call apps and free call apps – WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook, FaceTime, to name a few – so there’s no excuse to miss the voices and faces of the ones you love.
• There’s free wifi virtually everywhere, some better than others. If all else fails, head to the nearest McDonalds.
• Kids are way more adaptable than we give them credit for. We were so, so proud of little man throughout the entire trip. He took it all in his stride and did so every day with a massive smile on his face. He had an absolute blast.
• Don’t worry about how the kids will manage, even for a second. They will manage. They’ll learn, they’ll adapt, they’ll flourish.

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Are you nervous?

Are we worried/scared/nervous? Yeah a bit, I’d be lying if I said various scenarios hadn’t popped through my head, and it’s a whole other ball game taking a three-year-old with us.

The only big difference from being at home, is that we won’t know the areas we’re going to. The internet is a big help these days though, as I was able to research areas before I booked. Didn’t have that when I went round the world when I was 18, and I did end up in some revolting areas and places!  Yes, we’ll have to stay a bit more vigilant, especially when we’re exhausted, and regardless, things can still happen – as they can at home, so good travel insurance is a ‘must’, just incase. We chose LV, as it provided the best cover for us.

Selling the house and heading off round the world may be the craziest thing I’ve come up with yet, but I think most people are behind us. There have been a few who think we’re totally irresponsible, but hey, you know what? We don’t mind if you think that, because we don’t, and it’s our little family that matters. I think the person who annoyed me the most was, of all people, a rather rude travel agent. Needless to say, they didn’t get our booking.

Post-trip reply:

We had a great trip, the only thing that went wrong was that two of our bags were absolutely trashed on the Air New Zealand flights from Los Angeles to Melbourne, via Auckland. I took pictures, filled out the damaged baggage forms directly from Air New Zealand, and had money towards two new bags within a month (gaffer tape had to do until then, until it got taken off me by security at Melbourne Airport, in case I tried to tie anybody up with it…). Thankfully, we didn’t have to go through our insurance at all on this occasion.

Our only illness/ injury was the occasional headache (likely dehydrated), and little man cut his foot in Thailand. But it was nice to know that we had good cover if anything really bad had happened.

As for feeling unsafe, the only place we ever felt unsafe was San Francisco, and in broad daylight, too. 

My Advice:

• TAKE OUT INSURANCE! I cannot stress this enough. Budget for it, and buy decent cover.
• If your bags are damaged by an airline, take pictures and email them asap. Our first email was ignored, so we hunted out every email address we could find for customer service for Air New Zealand, LAX and Melbourne and Auckland airports, and sent an email out en masse. It worked. It took a bit longer to get the money that we’d have liked, but we did get it, with relatively little ‘hoop jumping’. Our luggage cost was covered by Air New Zealand, but if it hadn’t been, we could have recovered the extra from our insurance company.
• Feel unsafe anywhere? Leave. Obviously that’s the super simple answer, but I will add a post about keeping safe while travelling very soon.

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What’s the point?!

Lastly, the most aggravating question to me is, ‘What’s the point? He (little man) won’t even remember it.’ This is when steam comes out of my ears! I’m writing a separate post about this, which I’ll link to here when it’s finished.

Post-trip reply:

He remembers the tiniest little details from our trip, on a daily basis. He comes out with things sometimes that we don’t even remember, and it takes us a few minutes to catch up! Not saying he remembers everything, but then neither do we. We all kept diaries on the road and took thousands of pictures so that we would remember things in the future.

My Advice:

• There is a point. Your kids will remember absolutely LOADS, and learn absolutely LOADS. Ignore the nay-sayers.

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What if things go wrong?

Whatever the subject of the question asked, the answer nearly always ends up winding along the same path… Yes, it’s costing a bit too much, it’s going to be very uncomfortable at times, we’ll argue, we’ll get cranky, no doubt things will go pear-shaped too occasionally, but regardless of all the niggling points, we know it will be an absolutely awesome experience for our family and we just can’t wait to get going. 🙂

Post-trip reply:

Yes, all of these things happened, but it was still AWESOME and I wouldn’t change any of it.

Advice:

• Just completely, totally and utterly ignore everyone who tries to put you off. Any bad parts will make the good parts even better. 🙂

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Sharing the trip…

We’re looking forward to sharing the pictures and stories of our travels, and hopefully we’ll encourage someone else to do this too. Hardly a week will go by without you seeing a social media meme along the lines of ‘Life is short’, and that’s because life IS short – please go out and enjoy it while you can, in whatever capacity you are able.

Post-trip reply: 

Goodness me, we didn’t stop, so were mostly waaaaaay too busy to be posting daily pictures! Keep coming back, there’s LOTS of pics, stories and inspiration for your own jetsetting still to come. If you want to  go around the world with a toddler, know that it can easily be done, and is worth every penny. 🙂

My Advice:

• Lastly, I’ll say it again… LIFE IS SHORT! Please go out and enjoy it while you can, in whatever capacity you are able.

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Adventures in Family Land work with affiliate advertising programs to provide a means for our site to earn an income. This article may contain affiliate links to products or websites. We are also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

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