World Trip Family

What is it like to come home after a family sabbatical?

I wrote this one month after returning from our one-year family sabbatical around the world. In our first weeks home we were asked often, “What is it like to be back home?” It is a difficult question. What do you do after you have just completed the best year of your life? The first two weeks were my “grumpy weeks”. I had no reason to be depressed after a year traveling the world, a unique…

Lessons (Month Twelve): We Became Stronger As a Family During our Sabbatical

During our last week on the trip I wrote this on a JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco, almost three weeks ago. I had less than an hour before touchdown and I felt compelled to pen our feelings about returning home after our year-long sabbatical before they were clouded by reality. I am sure we will revisit the question, “Was it all worthwhile?” often during the coming year, but…

Our Thirteen Best Free Experiences in The Galapagos Islands

Traveling to The Galapagos Islands doesn’t have to be expensive. Hostal and hotel rooms are no more expensive than anywhere else. You can get a bed from $10 a night per person and a three-course meal from $4 per person. The islands are friendly, safe and laid-back and teaming with wildlife. You can visit the islands entirely on your own. Full disclosure: we combined these free experiences with a…

Fourteen Things I Wish I Had Known About Budget Travel To The Galapagos

Between my husband and I we must have spent eighty hours or more researching our final trip destination, The Galapagos Islands. Still, there are many things I wish we had known before going there. Here they are in no particular order, for the benefit of future travelers: Getting there and around 1. Santa Cruz’s Baltra airport is the most popular, but San Cristobal also has an international…

Facts Of Life In The Galapagos Islands

We traveled to the Galapagos in search of paradise. We were not prepared to find death and suffering. Shortly after we set foot on Espanola island, we spotted a baby sea lion. “He will make it another day or two,” the guide remarked dryly. We could count its ribs and the flappy skin lay in folds around its tiny body. The sea lion cub was abandoned by its mother and could not survive on its own.…

The Best Day Trip in the Galapagos Islands

We took a day trip in The Galapagos Islands to Los Tuneles near Isabela Island. It was our last day trip and also our best. By comparison, we also went on a day trip to in Kicker Rock (San Cristobal), and also snorkeled at Punta Pitt (San Cristobal), Playa Mann (San Cristobal), Playa Tortugas (Santa Cruz), Concha Y Perla (Isabela), Santa Fe and Gardner Bay (Espanola). Heading to the pier in…

Sabbatical Lessons Month Twelve: How Do You Spend Your Time?

We were not the only family to choose The Galapagos Islands as the final destination of a world trip. During our year, we met only one other family traveling the world (in Thailand). In Puerto Ayoro, the main town on the Galapagos, we met two more, both in their last week(s). The Mitchell family hailed from Southern California (originally from Scotland) and had quit one job (and kept on another…

Sabbatical Lesson Month Eleven: Opening The Travel Door

During our family sabbatical, we alternated longer stays abroad with travel. Our first two months were in The Netherlands, using my ancestral home as a base. Then we traveled for four months in Asia and Australia, followed by four months in my husband’s home country Israel. After Israel, we became gypsies again, first in Greece and Germany; then in Brazil and Ecuador. The longer stays gave the…

Life Itself is Dangerous

I wrote about our visit to my uncle Joannes’ coffee farm in Braganca Paulista. My uncle comes from a family with ten children. He is a brother of my mom. All siblings and many cousins visited my uncle in Brazil. All, but my mother, because my dad insists that Brazil is too dangerous. My cousin, her husband and kids playing cards “God was a Brazilian, so we’ll be alright”. Fueled by commodity…

Start a New Adventure At Any Point in Life

Meeting inspiring retirees was a recurring theme during our trip. I traveled extensively as a student, thinking it was my last opportunity before starting a career and a family. I embarked on this family world trip thinking it was a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity. Our encounters around the world demonstrated that you can embark on a new adventure at any stage of your life, and it doesn’t always…

“Letting Go” Exam on a Boat in Paraty, Brazil

When I studied Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University, I learnt how to conduct focus groups. You had to conduct as many interviews as needed to start hearing the same answers, or at least themes, over and over. Typically this happens after about twenty interviews. Perhaps there is a similar rule of thumb for travel. After you have traveled for a certain amount of time, the lessons…

We arrived in Rio de Janeiro at four o’clock in the morning. It was dark. We took the shuttle to the rental car agency, so we could start our four-hour drive to Itamambuca Beach as soon as possible. “Wait until it gets light,” the Budget agent recommended. In the twenty-seven years since I last visited Brazil, the country has become significantly more violent, so we decided to heed his advice.…

I paid my way through college as a journalist, writing for “De Delftse Courant”, a local newspaper, and the university paper “Delta”. What I liked most about these jobs was the excuse to interview others about their lives. Similarly, when we travel, we meet new and old friends and get a peek into their lives. Why reinvent how to be happy, if you can borrow ideas from others? Living in a Postcard…

When Things Don’t Go As Planned

Packing and leaving are not our favorite activities. We travel with four carry-on suitcases and one medium-sized suitcase. On departure day, we push and shove, curse, sit or stand on the suitcases, and sigh in relief when all are closed. The family hostel in Athens didn’t have an elevator. After the packing grumble, my husband and I dragged our five pieces down the stairs, from three floors high.…

A little out of order; but for my writing class, I had to write a travel guide in 700 words or less. I chose to share some information about our weekend trips to the Israeli Negev desert: The Negev desert in Israel covers more than half the country’s land area and is my favorite destination in the country. During a recent, four months stay, we spent several weekends in the desert and received…

Ten Reasons to Travel to (Mainland) Greece (With Kids)

We found Greeks very friendly and the country is much more diverse than we had expected. We visited Santorini, and then took a road trip on the mainland, taking us from Athens, to Delphi, Meteora, Ionnina, Vitsa (Zagori), Parga and back via the Peloponnese, Ancient Corinth, the Corinth canal to Athens. We highly recommend this route and Greece in general. If the number of blogs I wrote is any…

How A Greek Strike Was A Blessing …

Greece is handling a large influx of refugees from Syria, while also dealing with a bankrupt economy. Twenty-five percent of Greek are unemployed, and those who have jobs, have seen their salary reduced by about a third in the past year. While we were in Athens, we witnessed a large march and strike to protest the latest round of austerity measures. The measures still passed, because they are the…