Countdown: 3 weeks

Welcome to our blog! Our round the world adventure begins in 3 weeks. It has taken a lot of time and preparation to get to this -3 week point, and we are all excited, nervous, and giddy to be in the home stretch. We feel incredibly lucky that the stars aligned, allowing us to be able to lead a somewhat nomadic year free of pretty much everything we are used to. There are, of course, some nerves. We are taking our kids out of their routines, cribs, and comfort zones, and will be subjecting them to long travel days and time away from grandparents and friends. But we hope to instill in them the gift of wanderlust and the knowledge that there’s a big wonderful world out there. We hope they reward us with unending patience, adventurous palettes, and few tantrums.

We created this blog for us as a way to preserve our travels, and for you to follow along and (hopefully) be inspired to travel widely and meaningfully – with kids. This post is to share the Who and the Why and the How and the Where. The What (as in what we are packing) will be shared in our next couple posts.

The Who

We are Leemore and Robby.

We have three kids:

The Why

In four words: because we want to. Turning 40+ might also have something to do with it. And with our demanding jobs, it has been hard over the years to take a really meaningful trip where we can unplug and unwind.  

We are most looking forward to immersing ourselves in different cultures, exploring local markets, eating good food and learning how to cook it, and generally enjoying the beauty and unpredictability that comes with meeting new people and traveling from place to place. We also have personal goals that include, in no particular order and attributed to no particular person: write a children’s book, learn to draw, solve a Rubik’s cube, relax, and learn to speak Spanish more fluently.

The How

Budget: We are using a pretty huge chunk of our savings. But we are also traveling on a daily budget that is less than we usually spend for one night in a hotel (to give you a sense, our accommodation budget is $50 per night). We are sticking to budget friendly countries, we will be mainly using Airbnb or booking.com for accommodations, we will be traveling slow, and we will be enjoying the free (or mostly free) activities each city has to offer, with some splurges every now and then.

Remote work: We have both worked remotely in the past, and if sporadic work comes our way, we welcome it. 

House/cars: Logistically, our biggest hurdles were renting our house and getting rid of our cars. But those details fell into place with a fantastic real estate agent and Swap-A-Lease.

Health insurance: We will be insured through Wanderwell’s GeoBlue Travel Medical Insurance policy.

Banking/money: We have the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, which is made for travel – it has great travel perks, a low annual fee, and no foreign transaction fee. For ATM/cash, we transferred all of our banking to a bank that has no ATM fee.

Cell service: We happily switched from AT&T to T-Mobile One Plus because it has a great international plan that includes unlimited data/roaming in most international countries and unlimited international texts (so friends – feel free to text anytime). Best part is that we do not have to deal with getting a SIM card in every country; we just get off the plane, turn on our phones, and service is available.

School: We only have one kid to home school – Reed.  His math curriculum will be online through Thinkwell.com, I will teach him grammar and writing using various resources (EngageNY, Newsela, etc.), Robby will tackle science and astronomy, he will use Duolingo for language, and for social studies, we’ll just head outdoors and learn about the history, theology, geography, and customs of each place.

The Where

First stop is China, and next is Vietnam. We hope to spend time in Southeast Asia, Africa (Namibia and Morocco), Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central America. We have the first six weeks planned and from there, we have an idea of where we want to go and how long we want to stay, but we are going to take the time to see how the kids do and whether they need more (or less) time in a place, and determine the best modes of transportation. The world map with our itinerary (so far) and destination wish list is here (or click Map/Itinerary above to keep tabs). 

If you are interested in following our travels, subscribe below and follow us on Instagram @we.wanderwell. Feel free to reach out here with any questions or comments.

I am humbled that you took the time to read this, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for following along.

xo, Leemore