They were trying to figure out the best way to use the money they had saved. They thought about buying another house or adding an extension to their current home, but while spending time with their children in quarantine, they realized that what they needed more than anything was time.
“We thought: how can we save time?” Claire, 40, told Business Insider. “The answer we found was to get off the hamster wheel and the daily grind.”
So, Matt left his job of 11 years at an architecture and engineering firm and they left in June 2022 to travel the world for a year with their children then aged 13, 10 and 7 to bond and broaden their view of the world. , and show children “that there are many different ways to live, work and be happy,” said Claire, a stay-at-home mom.
From surfing in Sri Lanka to camel riding in the Sahara, they have traveled to six continents and 26 countries. They rented their home in the Bay Area, did a lot of cooking while traveling, and meticulously budgeted for each country, estimating that they spent just under $100,000 to live abroad for a year, without count theft, insurance and return costs home as a storage unit.
Family gap years like this are an opportunity for white-collar parents in their 30s and 40s who have enough money to quit their jobs and show their children a different way of life. It’s a sabbatical with a twist: the children are with us and they are also leaving their schools. Parents said they typically mix homeschooling on the road with schooling abroad, which prioritizes immersive travel as well as education.
For a certain group, making a non-traditional move, like leaving everything behind to take your children around the world, became even more appealing when the pandemic forced us to rethink life’s possibilities.
This persists as the world normalizes somewhat; Reddit is full of threads looking for advice on family gap years, which posters can easily find on various blogs. Immediate family travel is the top travel trend for 2024, according to the Virtuoso travel network’s Luxury report. Parents said that while traveling for a year makes it difficult to spend time alone and planning trips is tiring, time with family is priceless and can provide an escape from the stress of the U.S. economy modern.
“We wanted to enjoy our children while we were still their favorite people”
The economic landscape of the 2020s has caused some families to pack their bags. More than 50 million Americans left their jobs in 2022 as burnout and workplace stress skyrocketed. Inflation has reached a 40-year high, leading the Federal Reserve to attempt to respond by raising interest rates.
At the same time, those who owned real estate and stocks saw their wealth increase significantly, and those who worked from home discovered increased flexibility, opening up new lifestyle possibilities.
Jennifer Spatz, founder of Global Family Travels, said she began receiving requests two and a half years ago, in a newly vaccinated world, from families wanting to travel and educate their children for a year. She now offers a family gap year and an extensive travel planning service for $80 to $100 an hour. Once itineraries are approved, she works with travel partners to collect commissions on hotels and experiences.
“This could become a big business,” she said, adding that her gap year family clients typically have disposable income and children between 8 and 11 years old. Parents agreed that the pre-high school years are prime time, while children are young enough to still appreciate family time and old enough to absorb new experiences.
“We wanted to enjoy our children while we were still their favorite people,” said Amy Chang, 44. “If we took time off when they got to high school or college, it doesn’t do us any good in building relationships with them because they’ll have their own lives by then.”
Chang and her husband Allen were among the 63% of doctors burned out after working during COVID-19. She said their jobs put them in a prime position to save money, as did having few student loans, living in a house they could afford on one salary and driving the same car for 12 years. With a solid financial cushion to cover a year’s mortgage and travel, they left central Massachusetts with their children, then ages 9 and 7, in August 2022 for a road trip across the United States to visiting national parks before heading to Asia and Europe.
Amy Chang and her family in Venice, Italy, in June 2023. She said she and her husband felt like their children’s childhoods were slipping away and they weren’t taking as much of a part in it. important as they would like. Amy Chang
They rented an RV from a local family, cooked on the go, and stayed in Airbnb. They fell short of their budget, which included their savings and an emergency fund after returning home.
“Even though it was a huge expense, it was worth it…even if it means working a little longer at the end of your career,” she said.
World courses, no classroom required
No family gap year is complete without immersive travel. The parents said they had read “The Iliad” during his time in Greece, attended services of different religions and taught his children how to navigate a foreign city – all part of their desire to provide their children with an education in the world real.
They generally value regenerative tourism, which is about giving back to the community and making a positive impact on places during your trip. They want the local experience rather than a cruise or all-inclusive resort, Spatz said. She often plans trips that involve work and study aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, like gender equality or access to clean water. For example, one of her families will complete their gap year in July in a remote village in Nepal, working with a woman who has opened a school.
“It’s about learning about different cultures and history, but getting kids out of that traditional classroom,” she said.
Claire wanted to “go beyond the surface” by taking part in Workaway, where they stayed with local families in exchange for help around the house. In Sydney, Australia, they helped a family clean chicken coops on a 300-acre cattle farm. In Santiago, Chile, they helped care for baby quails on a poultry farm. This allowed them to save money and live side by side with locals, she said.
Marisa Vitale, 47, has discovered different ways of living around the world, often choosing non-touristy areas to understand how the neighborhood works. She and her family lived with a Spanish-heavy host family in Guatemala, with an indigenous Hmong family in Vietnam, and on an Argentinian estancia learning how gauchos work the land.
For her 11-year-old twins, she said it was “a masterclass in history and anthropology,” adding that her children wrote reports and created art projects for each country they visited.
“As they are about to become young adults, what better way to understand who they are and how they feel about themselves than to guide them through a wide variety of ways of living,” he said. she writes by email from “deep in the desert” of Jordan, where they were staying in a Bedouin cave. “Empathy, kindness and patience are the main things I took away from the trip. We wanted our children to see them in so many different faces and in so many places around the world.”
From hiking through the foggy forests of the Kumano Kodo to learning about dinosaur bones in Patagonia, Marisa Vitale said it “has been a year of wonder.” Marisa Vitale
His family plans to return to their Los Angeles home, which they rented, next July. She stopped working as a freelance photographer and her husband is on a year-long sabbatical after 15 years of government work. Although their monthly budget changes depending on where they travel, she estimates they spend about $10,000 a month between lodging and overhead, with a little wiggle room to splurge on an experience .
One year later
A gap year is also educational for parents. This helped Chang and her husband recalibrate their professional lives. She now works shifts as an OB-GYN hospitalist — a better work-life balance than her previous job in private practice — and her husband is participating in a research fellowship to understand how doctors can use AI.
“He wouldn’t have been able to research it or think about it if he didn’t have some free time,” she said.
Reintegration was a little more difficult for Claire, despite Matt returning to his old job. She said traveling costs them an average of $261 per day, less per day than their daily life in California. This included food and drink, accommodation, entertainment and experiences, ground transportation and fuel, and various living expenses like medicine or SIM cards.
“When you take away your mortgage, your gas, your insurance, there are so many little things that disappear when you’re on the road,” she said.
Right now, they’ve been living in Salt Lake City for two years as they figure out what’s next and prepare to launch a podcast about their travels. She hopes to continue the adventure.
“Our time abroad didn’t feel overwhelmed by consumerism,” she said. “In the United States, everything from highways to stores to grocery stores is really big and noisy. A lot of our gap year was really quiet and authentic and simple.”
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