FAQ

As expected when you do something out of the ordinary, we get a lot of questions about our trip from family, friends, and strangers. Some are harder to answer than others, but here are some of our most frequently asked questions, and my attempt at summarizing our answers:

Was it amazing?  Um, yes. Amazing, fabulous, spectacular, intense, exhausting.  Give me an adjective (positive, negative, neutral) and I can pretty much use it to describe pieces of our trip. 

Would you do it again?  In a heartbeat. If given the chance, I wouldn't even think twice. I might change up our route a bit (see further down), but there is nothing that we missed out on that I wouldn't gladly miss out on again to take another journey like ours.

How much did it cost?  While I won't go into specifics here, I'm happy to talk about those specifics with people who are genuinely interested because they are considering something similar. In a nutshell, probably less than you assume.  We went in with a budget, and stuck to it. We tried to save on certain days so we could splurge on unique experiences in others, but also kept in mind that we weren't trying to check off a bunch of "I did this" boxes - but trying to experience the cultures and meet the people. This usually costs a lot less than just visiting the typical spots filled with other tourists (although we did some of that, too, of course!).   Brian kept a (somewhat painfully) detailed spreadsheet of pretty much every dollar, yen, rupee, euro, etc that we spent. Want to know how much we spent on lunch on January 5? Brian can tell you.

How did you afford it? Did you win the lottery?  Nope, no lottery winnings were used to fund our grand adventure.   We mostly used savings is the main answer to this.  And like the question above, I'm happy to give more specifics on a personal level.  But we know/met people who are doing this who sold houses, cars, etc to finance their own round-the-world adventure.  It is just about deciding what is important to each family. Living abroad (depending where of course) can be significantly cheaper than living in the US (especially the Bay Area!), so we know of families who gave up a bigger house, or nicer cars, or private schools to fund trips like ours.   I will say, however, that this would have been WAY easier with two kids. Nothing is built for families of 5. If you ask our kids what the "motto" of our trip was, they'll tell you.... "Its Cheaper with Four." We kept threatening to sell one to pay for the rest of our trip.

What was the best/worst part about traveling?  The answer to both of these questions is the same: 24/7 with all five of us in really close quarters. We were rarely, if ever, apart. I'd say we learned to finish each other's sentences, but we are totally interrupters and none of us EVER got to finish a sentence anyways.  But we did get to know each other in a way that we would not have otherwise, and we are much closer as a result. The kids learned quickly that we weren't going to have a lot of time with other kids, so they got along much better than expected. 

What was your favorite place?  Probably the most frequently asked question (and the one I would totally ask before I took my own trip), but we try not to answer this question for a number of reasons. The first is that the kids would totally answer BALI every time. Because this is where we stayed for one of our two weeks in Bali, complete with two housekeepers/cooks, security, and a "maintenance guy" for less than the price of a teeny-tiny room in Tokyo. We did make it into the town of Lovina (northern Bali, not the cheesy, over commercialized southern region that is becoming way too overrun and not traditional Balinese AT ALL), but mostly hung out by this pool for one of our few "do very little but read books and swim" weeks.

But the main reason we try not to answer it is because there isn't an answer that makes sense in the context of the trip.  Our friends Alex and Cindy (who we met in Barcelona when our paths crossed as they were doing their RTW trip with their kids, Olivia and Elias) came over when they got back a month or so after us, and we joked that it is like asking, "what was your favorite color on the trip?" Narrowing it down to just one place almost feels like cheating on the rest of the trip. Sounds strange, but that is why I have no good answer when asked! 

What was your LEAST favorite place?  Disregarding my rationale above, this is a totally easy question for all 5 of us. Athens. Blech. Graffiti everywhere, grumpy people in general. Just not a great place to spend a few days for us. Oh, and Google Maps SUCKS there and got us totally lost there on more than one occasion.  Which maybe added to our general Athens crankiness.  In Athens' defense, the food was delicious and we saw lots of amazing sites - but the city itself just felt dour.

What would you do differently?  If I had my druthers, we would have skipped most of Europe and headed to South America instead. But I was outvoted 4-1 on that decision. I don't regret going to Europe, but I still wish we had mostly focused on Asia and South America for the purposes of this trip, which was about living a different life, not taking an extended vacation. It is hard to go to Europe and not feel like doing "vacation-y" things. In Asia (and I think South America would be similar), the culture itself was often the experience.

How was homeschooling? See answer to Athens above. Again, blech.  Totally worth it so that we could do this trip, but really not fun to teach the kids. We did a lot of math, some blog writing, lots of reading, and of course social studies as we went. We tried to spend each morning doing "school" and then heading out in the afternoons. As far as we can tell so far, their academics didn't really suffer - and those areas that did, they are young enough to catch up.  In my opinion, whatever they missed, they can learn. But they won't unlearn what we did and saw. So the suffering through it was worth it. Another bonus - now they think all their teachers are the nicest ever, because they have already lived through being taught by the world's meanest teacher! :)

Did you book it all beforehand? No, we only booked some one-way airplane tickets ahead of time, some of which we ended up changing. We did most of it on the fly, and sometimes wouldn't know where we were staying until a day or two before we got there. Scary at first, but it becomes totally normal. 

Did you ever feel unsafe?  Yes and no. The only time we were worried about our physical safety was in Barcelona (story here), and the only time I was on edge enough that I made sure one of us had a firm grip on Maggie's hand was in Fez, Morocco.  Other than that, nope. Totally safe. People all over the world were friendly, kind, helpful.  I can't recall any anti-American feelings anywhere.  Throughout Asia, where we clearly stood out more, locals were especially welcoming.  The world isn't nearly as scary as people think, and I'm glad my kids experienced that feeling.

What about being Jewish? Was that ever an issue?  We didn't advertise being Jewish, and our last name certainly isn't Jewish, so it never really was an issue. Of course, the conflicts in Gaza and all over the Middle East this summer have certainly made us somewhat relieved that we traveled last year.  The only real moment that makes me pause is when I think back to our time in Turkey.  When we were staying in Goreme, Cappadocia (central Turkey), we had a Skype tutoring session with the boys' Hebrew tutor.  The only area of our cave hotel that had WiFi was in the main room, so I think there were other people in the room when the boys were Skyping with Patti.  Given the Turkey/Israel relations now, I think we would have chosen to postpone that lesson if it were taking place this year.

Are you going to write a book?  Maybe. Not a travelogue, because nobody wants to read a first-hand account of our trip (even my book-loving mother doesn't want to read that!), but potentially a "how to do this" type of book. Since I'm still working on processing the trip myself, it might be a good exercise. 

How did the trip change you and the kids? Honestly, we aren't sure, and I'm not sure we will ever be able to quantify it, really. I think the kids are more confident, independent and aware than they were before we left, but this could just be getting a year older. I'd say we are closer as a family, we have shared experiences that are just "between us", and we've successfully instilled a sense of wanderlust in the kids that will hopefully continue to grow. 

Are you totally done with traveling?  NOOOOOOOOO. Never. One thing we learned for sure: traveling does not cure wanderlust.  We don't consider our adventure to be "the trip of a lifetime".  Brian and I will do it again when our kids are out of the house. I hope the kids will do trips like these before, and after, they have kids. 

Not a question, but for those who say, "I'm so jealous...I wish we could do that."  You can. You would be surprised how many families do this type of trip. Come talk to me about it - I'm more than happy to help you figure out how you can do it, too (or something similar that seems impossible - full-time travel isn't everyone's thing!).