Handbook: Traveling Families

So you’ve got the babies.
Surely, any chance for travel must immediately be abandoned in exchange for a high end changing table and a child who’s face is never covered in soot.
Then again, maybe you’ve got a little experience with these aliens we call “Sushine” and realize that things are going to be messy anyway. Why not show the little tike the world while he learns his every next move.
Some people even think it’s the right thing to do. A well rounded kid who gets to see people of all colors and customs, learn how to say “Now!” in multiple languages, or just gets a new back yard every now and then to explore.
If you’ve got rug rats in tow, we’ve got a story or two to tell you the next time we bump into one another…
Roadschooling 101

A thorough rundown of road schooling from a family of six who’ve done it for years and years now, from pre-school aged children through high schoolers. Resources, testimony and advice.
Hiking with Kids

Thorough explanation of how to turn hiking with kids into a success. Covers what to bring, and not bring, and hiking with kids by age.
Having Sex in RVs

The lost art of copulation while living in small spaces with children around. How can you have sex if you’re a full-time traveler with young kids around? Tie them up outside? Blindfolds and earplugs? Hmm…
Roadschooling for Elementary-Aged Children

Actual lessons and curriculum, ideas and more for how to teach young children while traveling full-time or otherwise.
Full-time Traveling & Vanlife with Newborns

Discussing harder than you think to find items on the road, what it’s like in general having a baby in tow in different camping situations, and plenty of great gear–from breast pumps to the best car seat ever.
Raising Newborns on the Road: Is it a Good Idea?

Hells yes it is. Here’s our ample years of proof and experience. With pictures.
Interviews with Traveling Families!
Family Without Borders

Meet Thomas and Anna, their two daughters conceived and reared as they travel the world. Our best interview yet, and it was easy; this family is as genuine as leather and as beautiful as silk.
The Roaming Nomads: From Germany to the US & Back and Forth Again…

A family of three from Germany immigrates to the United States, adds another little one on the way, can’t figure out where to settle down so just travels the world instead.
Salty Kisses on a Sailboat

Carl and Carly met on a boat, so that their life would lead full circle to a life lived on the ocean-with their three kids-was perhaps simply fate.
Vandwelling in Europe: Interview with Here Today Vanagon Tomorrow

The exploits of a Canadian family who shipped their Vanagon Stormie to Europe to travel, find themselves and live a closer life.
Full-time Travel by Bicycle

Extensive, in-depth interviews with a family who rode bicycles from the top of Alaska to the tip of Argentina and a man who is currently riding solo around the world.
The Bodeswell VW Family Travels the World in Their 1971 Volkswagen Bus

This family of three has traveled from Alaska to Argentina, coast to coast in the US, and who knows where to next!
RV Wanderlust: Raising Teens, Toddlers and Driving Around the World

A family with children of vastly differing ages, some already off to adulthood at this point, begins anew with a toddler while traveling the US in an RV and the world in a Jeep.
Exploring the Local Life

Jessica and Robert, along with their two children, two cats and dog, travel the Southeastern US in their travel trailer as Robert works as an airline dispatcher.
Travel the World with the Luxpats

A family traveling the world, having visited 20 countries, lived in six, and all with a young son in tow.
Mali Mish Airstream

An interview with a family of five who travels the United States in their Airstream travel trailer.
Roadschooling with The Bare Naked Family

The story of a family who broke the mold, sold their stuff, bought an RV and hit the road full-time, teaching their kids the meaning of life all along the way.
RVHS: A Roadschooling Community

A mobile community for full-time RVers who homeschool their children.
Drivin’ & Vibin’: Airstream Life with a Newborn

Kyle and Olivia Brady have been on the road out of a travel trailer since 2015. In 2019, they discovered they’d be having a baby. Did this change their minds about life on the road?
Blog Posts About Full-time Family Travel
Tour Guides, Free Beer and COVID on Cát Bà Island, Vietnam

Deleuze and his family revel in a volunteer tourism position – until COVID strikes their little paradise.
A Brief Recollection of a Year in Mexico, or Four Seasons with Five People in a VW Bus

We thought we’d go to Baja for a couple of months. A year later, we’re in Quintana Roo. Where to next?
Young Men on the Road
Tristan is flying internationally by himself for the first time. He’s 15 and couldn’t be more excited for his arrival in Pittsburgh, PA, just before Thanksgiving. Snow and all, there is absolutely nowhere he’d rather be come tomorrow night. He packs his bag full of clothes made for a long year in the eternal summer […]
Our Family’s Traveling Timeline
What in the brick and mortar is a full-time traveler anyway?
Leaving Civilization to Find Family

How leaving civilization behind has brought our family closer.
Raising Babies on the Road

The youngest sleeps soundly in his Pack n’ Play. At recently 2 years old he’s crossed the nation and back, calling two vans, a Volkswagen Bus, various vacation houses, cabins and hotels home here and there, on and off. Born in the Smokey Mountains, he’ll have no recollection of his hometown other than what future […]
Back in the Bus

We’re living out of our Volkswagen Bus again. :)
Telling Your Friends & Family You’ll be Leaving for a Life of Full-time Travel

The best advice we can give you on how to break the news to friends and family that you’ll be leaving for a life on the road.
Traveling Children and Making Friends

Quick thoughts on children growing up on the road, making friendships, and keeping them.
Eat Your Young

Most animals are set in their ways, particularly when it comes to child rearing. For some, the father leaves the mother after mating, long before the babies ever arrive. For many, the father would kill his own children out of fear they may one day rise up and replace him. In other cases, dad sticks […]
A Typical Day in this Traveling Life
Morning doesn’t come with an alarm clock. 7am or so typically finds itself ringing in via the sounds of my boisterous youngest son, Wylder. He’s a morning smiler and eager to crawl into our bed, a handmade contraption built by my dad in the back of our Ford van. A master bedroom if you will. […]
Raising a Family on the Road, Tips, Tricks and Truths
When I first began roadtripping, back in the days when I’d save my three weeks of vacation up for one long go around the country or jaunt to Europe, traveling was something altogether different from what it has become. Back then, “accommodations” meant the back of a car or a tent or maybe a $15 […]
Interview with Sara Janssen

We talk with Sara Janssen about making a living on the road, stopping to make babies and settling down in Longmont, Colorado.
Campsite Bingo!

A fun, long term game to play with your particular family on the road!
Families on the Road

When I was but a wee young budding parent, the joy that my little man Tristan brought into my days was rivaled only by the reality slowly seeping into my brain that my days of traveling had ended before they’d even really begun. I went on that way for a few years before one day, […]
Riding in Buses with Family

Tristan, on the road, was at his best in the Bus. Keep it moving and he was as happy as a clam tented up in the back with his Gameboy 4000 and the endless miles. Deputy, too, was at his best (and nearly only good) in the traveling confines of her belly. I (and my […]
What is it Like Living in an RV?
A little bit about what it’s like to live in such a small home, from finding space for ourselves to keeping it clean to finding time for the adulting.
Riding American Rails, Part 4: Of A Homeward Persuasion
The season of mashed potato sandwich leftovers and reminiscing over family dinners is two hours away from being past tense. Only moments ago we finished quite the dinner with the Zabielski’s, Tristans favorite grandparents with a Pittsburgh address. The Church Brew Works, an historic landmark and former Catholic church turned brewery/eatery, was kind enough to […]
Riding American Rails, Part 2: Into the Texan Dark
Our time in Austin was often spent with friends quick to remind us that the liberally progressive city was an oasis in the great conservative state of Texas. Now that we share our dinner tables and the sightseeing lounge with those from all over this state I can much more clearly see the Republican colors […]
Riding American Rails, Part 1: Off to a Start
It was a 7am wakeup call which lead us into the Austin morning. A final breakfast shared as a whole family before the boys would leave their sweet woman to embark on a crossing of countries, a ride aboard a double decker Amtrak car which would carry them into the frigid northlands of Chicago and […]