There are definitely some challenges to taking an RTW trip with kids. How will the kids cope without a home base and all their familiar friends? What about all the gear that kids need: diapers, clothes…not to mention their favorite toys? And how far behind will they fall in school if they take several months or a year off?

But for every challenge there is a solution, and for every reason why it’s too hard or too dangerous, there are even more reasons to travel around the world with kids. Children are far more resilient than we often think and they need far fewer possessions than advertisers want us to believe. Many families travel around the world with one backpack per person – and do it easily and happily.

While some kids may balk at the idea of a year with no permanent home, others would jump at the chance to walk on the Great Wall of Chine, ride a Camel in Morocco or see lions on safari in South Africa.  Preparing children for long term travel is all about managing expectations and focusing on the amazing adventures they’ll have, rather than what they will miss at home. Every family is different, but if you’re considering an RTW trip with your kids, you’ll never know if it can work for you until you try. Taking your family on the road can be one of the greatest adventures of your lives, challenging you to learn and grow, and bringing your closer together along the way.

Photo by naezmi

Hmmm, well alrighty, then!

It was worse than the blind leading the blind – I was clueless and had no one leading me, either.  At least I had enough sense to know, even back in the mellower online world of 2006, that it would be better to write about a niche travel topic rather than try to break in as a general travel writer.  I chose family travel simply because I’d done it all over the world thanks to Navy assignments and could speak to the issues, not because I’m wildly maternal (as my kids will attest.)

My first post was the standard welcome to this new blog greeting, then the second was a fairly pointless one about American Express traveler’s checks. I finally said something useful when I wrote about Mini-Europe in Brussels, Belgium, and from there it was off and running.  I blogged to fill my spare time and to build an online presence in between print writing assignments, but instead found myself on the cusp of a publishing revolution.

I had no idea that blogging would become the impetus for covering motorsports like NHRA drag racing, meeting bloggers and startups in China, doing a lot of social media workshops and speaking plus launching an online course in social media marketing for tourism (all of which is about to lead to a book on tech-based entrepreneurship for people over 40.)

While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing for and representing my host the BootsnAll Travel Network, my daughter Nancy started college this fall;  even though my son is still at home, it seems like a good time to turn this blog over to another parent who wants to tackle the joys of Walt Disney World, or safe flying with kids or top tips for kids in Tokyo.

As far as I know, Boots hasn’t selected a replacement for me yet, so if you’re interested (yes, it is a paid position) then I suggest you check the BootsnAll Travel Writer Platform page.

There is, of course, unfinished business.  I wasn’t able to complete the 50 States Series (got stuck on Mississippi for some reason) so I may try to pick that back up and continue it in some form elsewhere. There is a video or two that I never got around to editing, and a notebook with post ideas that I haven’t tackled yet.

Not to worry – I still write for the Perceptive Travel blog, do guest posts for other blogs and also plan to make Fridays a travel post day on my personal blog, Sheila’s Guide to the Good Stuff.

Thank you so much to all of the faithful readers who have been here since the beginning, and those who may have found Family Travel more recently.  I’ll never forget meeting some of my readers for the first time in person, at the BlogHer conference in 2007. It is the most wondrous feeling to have someone walk up and say, “Hi, I read your blog….”

I’m so grateful that you’ve all been along for the ride.  Let’s stay in touch, shall we?

So what’s with the “build a village” thing? How can the power of travel make a difference in the world?

From the rocking PwP travel bloggers themselves, about their 2010 beneficiary, LAFTI:

“….Land for Tillers’ Freedom (LAFTI) [is] a non-profit organization that is focused on changing the conditions of the Dalit caste or India’s ‘untouchables.’ ….Passports with Purpose’s goal is to raise $50,000 to build a village in India through the Friends of LAFTI Foundation.

With its home office in the village of Kuthur (Tamil Nadu), LAFTI’s mission is to liberate Dalit women and their families through projects such as land distribution and cultivation, housing construction, adult training and youth housing and education. LAFTI works with the government and financial institutions to purchase land for Dalit families. Each house costs approximately $2,000 to build.”

Wow, seems like a lot, right? US$50,000 to make this happen.

Well, as of this posting, they’re already at US$37,000+ and movin’ on up.

Here’s the deal: you bid on generously donated travel related items and if your bid wins, you get the item AND the satisfaction of donating to a worthy cause. If you don’t win the bid, well, you’ve STILL donated to a worthy cause.

Want some examples of prizes? Here’s the Passports with Purpose prize list and donation page, which includes goodies like:

***  A guided tour of your choice of Nuremberg, Bamberg or Munich from Wandering Family.

***  A Timbuk2 Travel Gear Bundle from Pit Stops for Kids.

***  Two adult and two child 3-day Go Cards from Mother of All Trips.

***  Two weekend nights stay at any Omni Hotel & Resort from The Q Family Adventures.

***  An Xbox 360 AND a Kinect from Chris Around the World.

….and the list goes on and on with tempting items like that.

Only US$10 per bid.

Do it! Do it!  :)

Cheap Flights

Nancy (courtesy her own Facebook photo that I cropped)

It is finally here; her 18th birthday!

This is my daughter Nancy.

I’ve never really given her name before here (my own personal line in the sand as a parenting blogger – we’re all different about that which is fine) but she’s now “of age.”

She is wonderful, of course.

Smart, funny, a good friend, an intrepid traveler and now a college freshman.

Yes, I love the Sinatra song “Nancy With the Laughing Face.”

I’m so proud of her.

Whenever it’s time to plan one, there are a few guidebooks that I turn to again and again, because they are well-edited, accurate and it’s easier to skim through them than it is to plow through a jillion websites of dubious vintage.

You’ll notice that none of them are kid-specific;  I like the unusual, unknown and offbeat, and my children usually do, too. Plus, hey, I’m driving, so I get to pick.

Other than my other favorite tips (see my earlier post on how to plan a tailpipe-kicking road trip) here are my favorite references….

***  Road Trip USA – This is a top reference for me because Jamie Jensen’s Road Trip USA finds the most wonderfully obscure stuff. The book covers 6 major routes, and if my trip area isn’t included it doesn’t do me much good, but I always check it first (and the Road Trip USA blog, of course.) The series now has books for certain routes, like the Pacific Coast Highway.

***  Off the Beaten Path travel guide by Reader’s Digest – Yes, the old fogies at Reader’s Digest have one of my favorite guidebooks. Off the Beaten Path is packed with useful information about unusual sights that I don’t find anywhere else; I always check it for each state that I’ll visit.  Worth tracking down a copy, along with Most Scenic Drives in America and See the USA the Easy Way (great loop tours.)

***  Insiders’ Guide: Off the Beaten Path – from Globe Pequot Press, these are easy to find in the travel section of any bookstore. Super-detailed and usually written by locals, the Missouri and Kansas versions were invaluable to me when I drove from Texas to Chicago and back for BlogHer a few years ago, exploring the “Square States.”

***  1,000 Places to See Before You Die – Overly dramatic title, but I do find good things here, arranged by state.

***  Anything Frommer’s – my favorite general guidebook. I always have the current edition for wherever I’m living (currently Texas.)

***  RoadFood by Jane and Michael Stern – because, well, food. Must have. Preferably not from yet another Chili’s, although they’re fine in a pinch.

***  For any particular city where I’ll spend significant time, I look for the TimeOut guides. Very British, very detailed, very thorough. Can read them over and over during subway rides and never be bored.

My biggest guidebook surprise over the last decade?

The quirky and detailed Lonely Planet Guide to Louisiana and the Deep South, used to death during our Great American South road trip from Florida to Arkansas and back. At the TBEX travel blogger’s conference recently, I had the pleasure of telling the US Lonely Planet editor, Robert Reid, how much I used and adored this guidebook.

What are your road trip planning favorites? Please let us know in the comments.

We can wear what we want (no one’s shoes will blow up our vehicle….other than via foul sneaker odors.)

We can take GIANT containers of liquid.

We can adjust the temperature so we don’t freeze or boil, and if we do get cold, we don’t pay for crappy polyester blankets.

I’ll leave my phone on as long as I want to (did you ever wonder why you have to turn off  ”electronic devices” as soon as the plane cabin door shuts before you depart, but you can turn devices back on the minute wheels touch down on the tarmac upon arrival?)

With some advance planning, the food will come when we’re ready, and it won’t be overpriced garbage.

We will take a huge pair of scissors, maybe even a machete, and we’ll say the word “bomb” a lot, because we’re anarchists.

We can take whatever suitcase we want, because we won’t pay extra to do so and anything goes as long as it fits in the van.

And people won’t jump up and stand in the aisle and look stupid as soon as the van stops, or I’ll yell at them for being knuckleheads.

Ah, freedom and civility in travel….

I first heard about BootsnAll from Stephanie Elizondo Griest on a travel writer’s panel at the stupendously great annual Texas Book Festival in Austin.

The very first post on February 10, 2006 said hello to everyone, the second was some random screed about traveler’s checks, but hey, I started a blog and wrote something, then kept at it, and boy am I grateful.

4 years is something of a lifetime in Internet terms, but I am proud of every gray hair I’ve earned, both on my head and on my blog.

I cannot tell you how often I’ve thought to myself, “Wow, if I wasn’t a blogger and Web geek, I wouldn’t have a clue about what’s going on right now in journalism….or travel….or business….or communications….”

I wouldn’t have a tourism-focused consulting and training business, either, and I wouldn’t have delivered a keynote presentation at a state tourism conference or spoken at SXSWi (the South by Southwest Interactive tech conference.)

Props (as always) to the old friend from high school who said to me back in late 2005, “If you’re gonna be a writer, you’ve gotta have a blog.” I’m talking about the Interactive Journalism Editor at the Houston Chronicle, Dwight Silverman. When I started this journey, the only blog I read was his TechBlog, and I usually couldn’t make heads or tails out of half of what he wrote.

Here’s the secret, though….I knew that whatever gobbledygook he was saying about the Web and social media and technology was important, and I’d better figure it out. So I did.

And along the way, what a priceless community of travelers and readers have joined me. Thank you so much to all of you, and also to my husband and two kids, who still roll their eyes when they hear me say, “Oh! That’s a blog post!” or “That’s a tweet!”

Blessings to all of you, and thanks for your support of Family Travel.

(If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because when I read last year’s 3rd blog birthday post, I liked it enough to decide that I’ll simply revise/update it every year. I’ve learned a little about not reinventing wheels.)

Not for me (I’ll jump onto a plane or into a car anytime by my own crotchety self) but the idea of a family trip these days makes me want to lay down and take a nap.

Squabbling siblings in the back seat.

One kid who tends to carsickness.

Flat wallet and no lottery wins in sight.

Living in a huge state (Texas) that takes 3-4 hours to get OUT of by car.

General post-holidays lassitude.

Bleh.

So, here’s my plan for getting some travel-ish action going with minimal mental effort on my part….I’m going to look at our Austin Big Weekend Calendar, pick one new place or event every month that’s close to home, and drag the family to it, arguing and barfing the whole way.

January’s almost finished, but for the next 30 days I’ve targeted the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (free admission in January) and either a Texas Roller Girls Roller Derby bout or a Texas Stars ice hockey game.

The wildflowers aren’t up yet (so at least one kid will say, “Why are we here looking at dead plants?”) and we’ve never gone to either a roller derby or ice hockey game (so at least one kid will say, “Why are we here watching a) women slam into each other or b) men slam into each other?”) but I don’t care.

That’s the plan to overcome travel ennui.

How about you?

(Update:  My teen said this morning that since she and a friend saw the derby-based movie Whip It (set in Austin) she actually WANTS to see live roller derby.  Who knew?!)

Right now, they have little in common.

When I get all excited with the maps and ready to plan excursions, my teen daughter is less than interested in my favorite ideas for long-haul road trips with her brother in the van.

“Less than interested” meaning “violently objects to.”

Here’s the thing: she now has a life outside of her immediate family. Friends. Buddies. Other plans. A driver’s license.

So, when it’s time for Thanksgiving break or the December holiday break or Spring Break, she wants to see her best girl pal coming home from a grueling stint at West Point, or hang out with other friends, not drive with us to West Texas for a visit to Fort Davis and a McDonald Observatory star party (the latest road trip on my wish list.)

We’ll still drag her out periodically, and she loves to travel given the right circumstances, but the tail-wagging days of enthusiasm are over (until a few more years pass, and then suddenly the Parental Units are cool again – you know how that is.)

Moral of the story:  travel a ton when they’re younger, before they decide that their own peer group is infinitely more appealing than long trips with squawky brothers and parents in a minivan.

I have rather strong opinions about bloggers who get freebies, including free travel, and then don’t disclose to their readers when content is based on those nice opportunities.

For myself, I think there are rules about that sort of thing, so I’ve posted my thoughts in a new permanent Page: the Blog Disclosure Policy for the Family Travel Guide.

You can see the link in the upper right corner of the blog Home page, under Family & Travel Resources.

In sum, I say that if I get free stuff to write about, you’ll know it because I’ll disclose it.

I prefer to pay for my own stuff, though, so I can be truly mouthy about it.  But you kind of expected that from me, right?

For more detailed thoughts on the new FTC rules, you may wish to bounce over to one of my other blogs and read: What do new FTC blogging rules mean for press trips and fam tours?

Keeping it real, so you know what you’re getting….