Kid Bucket List is always looking for travel adventures to add to our growing list.
Travelling with kids is our passion so let us know what you would like to see added to our bucket list at anytime and we will see what we can do.
Travelling with Kids – Adventure isn't just about the plane trips!
Hi Leah,
I am sure you would have been asked this question many times “How do guys afford to Travel permanently”? I mean I have seen a lot of travel bloggers who travel with kids and I just cannot come to terms that all of them have either rich parents who are happily paying for their travel or they have lots of debt.
I really want to travel and please don’t get me wrong I am not judging you guys and even if I do I am the one who is losing out but let’s face it travelling costs money. Like I live in Brisbane, Australia and for me to go and visit a place in Europe with my Wife and a kid would easily cost us more than $15,000 including flight, accommodation etc. for about a 4 week trip as I only get 4 weeks off in a year and would want to see as many places as possible. I am sure you would agree that’s a lot of money and believe me if I could easily spend that much I definitely would as I am not one of those kinds who wants to have millions in his bank account. We live quite modestly and don’t have crazy materialistic demands.
Like I saw another Family Travel blogger who has been travelling for the last 3 years who said in her travel blog that they left 3 years ago from Australia with just $16,000. It is a family of 4 including 2 kids aged 6years and 4years respectively. Now I fail to understand that how can $16,000 last for a family for 3plus years and they stay in really nice, expensive hotels on top of that. They have travelled throughout Europe, America and they do all the expensive things such as eating as fancy restaurants and all. Honestly isn’t that a very hypocritical attitude when on your blog you say ” We want to encourage everyone to travel cheaply” whereas in reality you are doing all this.
Frankly I really want to travel which I am sure you could make out by my email but honestly I am quite defeated by looking at all the travel blogs there are on the net because nobody is showing me how I can do it with my Family too. So many times I have suggested to my Wife like lets travel Wendy for just one year, can’t we take 1 year off our entire lifetimes to look around straight away she asks how are we going to pay for it. We have a mortgage now, she is not working now and we are surviving on my salary as an Accountant only which to be honest is not a lot.
Like I said earlier I am not judging you and hope that you guys will be very honest with me as you guys look good people.
Hi Anu
I’ve never been asked much about how we travel before so I’m glad you’ve asked as I think it raises some interesting points for discussion.
Firstly, I don’t travel permanently. Like you I work full time. I am fortunate enough to be an educator which means that every 10-11 weeks I have at least two weeks off. The downside to this is that it always peak season (every child in Australia is on holidays) and can cost more. We also have a mortgage and all the accompanying bills.
Everything I have done on the Kid Bucket List is self funded. We haven’t travelled overseas as regularly as you think but we do travel around Australia a little more often. Some travel bloggers work for magazines or have sponsorship deals that provides a little relief from the associated costs such as food, accommodation and transport. We’re not in that category yet.
To make travel affordable we budget really carefully. Each year we create a destination Bucketlist and clearly set out the dates we can travel. From here we manually monitor the airlines across those destinations really closely so we can jump on the cheapest airfares. We still haven’t made it to Broome as we can never find tickets for under a few thousand dollars for a family of four.
T doesn’t like caravans so we stay in hotels and apartments on our stay. We utilise Expedia, Stayz and Airbnb to find within budget accommodation. Sometimes we need to share a twin room. Other times we’ve been blessed with a few rooms.
Europe is a lot different. Whilst the flights are expensive over all (I’m budgeting $10,000 for our trip there) accommodation can be quite cheap – much better than here. We stayed in a 5 star hotel in Venice for under $150!
So how do we afford to travel? To start off, travel is our entertainment and one of priorities. It’s something I work quite hard towards all the time. I have a 52 week savings plan for spending on our Dec/Jan trip (this is when we always do our big trip). I haven’t upgraded our car for at least 5 years as I would rather spend the money on travel. We also don’t drink or smoke which is an instant windfall. Both of us work too. By reducing some of our living costs we can afford to spend our weekends on adventures. Sometimes we may blow out the budget which means the next weekend is spent visiting a free park or geocaching.
If you are keen to travel start small. Look to places you can go nearby (from Brisbane you could take a trip to Bundaberg or down to Coffs Harbour) or try a short overseas trip first to NZ or Fiji which often have awesome deals. Another option is a cruise where everything is included. You may find $2000 covers 5 days away with all activities and food included.
Please feel free to ask me anything else
Leah
Well asked and a great reply Leah. We are the average Aussie family, Mum, Dad, three kids. We love to travel to show the kids different things and yes it sometimes is a huge cost. We sign up to airline and hotel email or rewards programs and sometimes its the offer that determines where we go. We are off to Japan in 6 weeks purely because it was buy one ticket get one free on Jetstar.
We also like 2-3 long weekend trips in Aus each year and we decided to sustain this we should buy a camper trailer, it was a few thousand dollars however we save so much staying at holiday parks and these days you get your own ‘ensuite’ sites which is great when you have kids then the park has all the entertainment you need!
I would like to Anu that travelling should be fun so spend only what you can afford or the stress of bills will dampen the holiday. A trip to a close and cheap town will be more fun for your children than a big holiday where Mum and Dad say No to everything due to over spending on getting there.
Great to hear Leah I’m not the only one who plans big trips well ahead and has a growing wish list of places we would like to visit (Australia and overseas).
We are a family of 5, kids aged 12,11 and 9. We spend our weekends mostly exploring areas within 3 to 4 hours drive time… see lots but only pay for one nights accommodation. We spend many nights in a caravan with kids sleeping beside us in bunks and most vans cost us between $80-$120 a night.
Exploring and seeing things, experiencing nature and our beautiful country does not have to cost a lot but if you put a bit away each week it’s surprising how quickly it builds up. We work to travel as it is what we like best…. even if it is a farm stay only a couple of hours away – family time and making great memories is what it is all about for me.
We have done two big overseas trips (both took 3 years to plan and save for) and we are currently planning another. We were away for 9 weeks with our first trip and 8 weeks for the second. 4 weeks long service leave was used combined with annual leave when we travelled in 2014 and I actually saved enough to take leave without pay when we went os the first time.
Both times os we hired an RV and drove ourselves around the USA…. we mostly lived on the same budget for shopping we have here at home. Of course some things like Disneyland blew the budget but all in all you can travel with kids and not have it break the bank by making sandwiches or taking snacks.
We also have had some amazing camping adventures…. invest in a tent as there are some great free places to camp.
My advice is set a budget and open separate bank accounts to save, one account for local travel and one for big trip……. if it only allows you to get away one weekend a month or every 6 weeks while you save for that dream holiday os, at least you are getting out there and for my family planning the adventures can be half the fun. Regardless of how far you go or how long you stay just start by getting out and enjoying your family and our beautiful country.
I read your installments about the travel to the Car Sites in California and Las Vegas. I was wondering were you able to see Foose and The Count? My wife loves Danny “The Count”. I like Roli on the show. I have Met Foose at 2 car shows in Pennsylvania USA. He designs and gives away a Mustang every year at the American Muscle car show. We have a 96 SVT Cobra Mustang so we attend this show.
Btw who is T? Is that your Husband?
Thank you,
Dave from Reading, PA, USA
Hi Dave,
We went both places but didn’t meet the stars of either of those shows. I’ve been really slow updating those visits. I’ll try to do that within the next two weeks. Yes, T is my husband.
Hi Leah and Miss N!
Miss P here! After hearing Miss N’s wonderful news in class today (and finding out about this wonderful blog), I just had to check it out!! What a fabulous way to share your memories! Congratulations!
Some great comments here! I was able to budget two trips to Europe when my twins were three and four and kept the cost to around 6k for each trip. I was very fortunate to have friends and family I could stay with so that kept costs really low, also because I was flexible with dates I could choose the cheapest dates to travel. I suspect it’s going to cost a lot more now they are in school! I would say if a family wants to do a cheap trip abroad somewhere like Thailand or Vietnam is very economical. When we were in Paris I booked a week in an air bnb studio for 220 euros. It was a bit further out but not a bad commute and we took advantage of mini priced Paris disney tickets which cost around 120 euros for the three of us. I prebought mini mouse balloons for $2 at a discount shop in sydney and packed our lunch. We trained across Europe and got some great prices from deutsch bahn, the kids sleeper tickets were crazy cheap, I think 20 euros for their sleeper? There are definitely some travel hacks out there you just need to research them!
I like home and away
It’s a great TV show