My recent conversation with Ian Pilbeam, husband, father, and the author of “Are we there yet?”: The year-long adventure that kept giving” renewed my faith in what l always say. You can make travel work, even with your family in tow. Ian and his family’s adventures are further proof.
Gap Year Travel With Family In Tow:
Ian grew up in Boston ( the original one, as in the U.K) and loved the idea of traveling to different places in the world. His very first flight out of the U.K actually landed him in Valencia, and that fired up his desire even more.
Meeting his wife, another avid traveler, they started traveling together. As is often the story for loads of people, it took a personal tragedy for them to realize that life is indeed too short, and they should have some fun and do what they really desired, which was to take a gap year travel trip around the world.
Some of the highlights of the gap year travel with family podcast include:
- Meeting his wife and traveling together.
- Having to take care of sick relatives.
- How the lockdown eventually gave him the push to write the book after stalling on it. The fact that it has helped others travel vicariously through them at a time when it wasn’t feasible to do so, has been gratifying for him.
- Leaving his job in 2007, just before the worldwide depression.
- Deciding on their world trip and asking the kids for their input, and one odd choice of a destination they came up with after requesting a day to think things over.
- Seeing colonial times being played out in real life.
- Homeschooling, or rather world schooling the children during their travels.
- The favorite places visited, including his lifelong dream of visiting Peru (and if it was as good as he had imagined?).
- How they fared with their budget.
- Coming back home and how the kids were able to adjust to being with their friends and regular schooling.
- How travel actually gave him the confidence to go into business for himself. Thinking on the fly when things don’t go as planned, handling language problems, travel logistics, and of course keeping track of the budget showed him the strength he hadn’t envisioned.
- The kids thriving post-travel experiences. His son now lives in Mexico with his wife while his daughter did a mission trip to Ghana as just one of her accomplishments.
- Thoughts on the future of travel and what it means for the world.
Once again, this was another very interesting interview. One that l enjoyed a lot. I think it’s feasible for most people to be able to travel and discover new things. Perhaps not year-long, but maybe meaningful getaways that recharge the batteries.
The world as a whole has all been so cooped up for so long, we are ready to get going. I urge you to check out his book which is available on Amazon for inspiration. If they can do it, so can you!
Find the book here on Amazon:
Listen to the “are we there yet podcast” here:
Or watch the interview here:
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
You can keep up with Ian and his family adventures here:
Familytrippers website
Other podcasts of interest:
Expat life is not always peachy
What trips are you gearing up for at this point? My mind is exploding with so many places l ant to visit or revisit. Bring on the vaccination!.
I really admire their determination. Travelling for a year with children and home schooling/ world schooling must be tough. Although I think travelling is probably the best experience for the kids and they would have learned so many things and new skills. Great post 😀
You can not get better schooling than seeing it play out in real life. It must have been an awesome experience for them and l love the fact that the love for adventure stayed with the kids. They rose to the challenge and the rewards have been very good.