We’re all fun of travel vlogs. They are not only helpful (being a great source of travel tips – dos and don’ts, packing hacks, what to do, etc.), watching these videos also give us the inspiration to explore the world and make lasting memories with our kids!
Traveling with their little ones is many parents’ dreams. But not everyone has enough resources and time to do so. Well, the thing is we don’t have to be rich nor do we have to wait until our kids get a little older, to start an epic journey to the best destinations in the world. That’s what exactly this family of four proved. From hiking in their own backyard to exploring different countries around the world, Mr. and Mrs. Campitelli left their life in Canada to travel with their two kids.
You’ve probably seen some of their fun adventures on YouTube, and beautiful travel photos on Instagram.
Surely, family travel has its twists and turns. And it isn’t all cheers and laughter, especially when you have kids.
But if there’s a will, there’s a way! It’s time to get some great tips and inspiration from one of our Family Tribe members, a full-time family traveler and how traveling strengthened their bond and relationship as a family.
The Campitelli family seeks to inspire families to create their own adventures by doing our own adventures. They’ve been to some of the most popular destinations in Europe, Asia, and Western Australia. On this interview, we asked the Campitellis to share their travel stories, and how they managed to explore the world with two little kids!
What made you decide to start traveling the world with your family? Do you travel full-time?
Traveling long term has been a dream of ours since University. After graduating we had a lot of student loan debt so we had to jump into our careers straight away. The dream never left us so we planned and saved for many years to be able to take the leap. We are from Canada so seeing far away places like SE Asia and Europe was so exciting for us!
We took six months off of regular life to travel full time. I had a leave of absence from work, Marco was recently laid off and the kids were pulled from their schools with the full support of their principals. The timing was right!
What was the first country you visited and what other countries have you visited so far with your families?
We kicked off our six-month journey by flying to London and taking the train directly to Paris. From their, we visited Italy, Croatia, and Greece. Next was Thailand, Western Australia, Bali, Malaysia, Japan, and Hawaii. We traveled from September 1st, 2018 to early March 2019. Prior to that, we had a two-week vacation in Costa Rica in Spring 2018.
How do you manage to keep the kids in check when you are on long flights and busy schedules? What about schooling/education for the kids?
Our kids are older (8 & 12) so they travel pretty well on long flights and train rides. We load up the iPads with movies and bring lots of snacks. Our strategy for flights has been overnight for the long haul so they can get some sleep and it makes the time go by faster.
For education, we used a variety of tactics. We had them submit learning videos on each country we visited. We followed the teacher blogs and had the kids submit essays about the subjects in the blogs. We had a Math and Language Arts books that they worked from and just world schooling being out and about experience new cultures, new places and different religions. They were required to do about 1-1.5 hours Mon-Friday but they often missed days depending on what we had planned. By the end, we stopped the structured learning and just let them experience the places day to day.
How was traveling with your family strengthened your relationship with one another?
Traveling with our family has definitely brought us closer but we really didn’t realize it until we got back home. There was a lot of battling traveling as we were with each other 24/7 and the education part didn’t go that smoothly with the kids as they weren’t keen on being taught by us. I think our family relates better now and we are much calmer.
What are the benefits of family travel for your kids?
There are many benefits to traveling with kids:
They learned about other cultures and how people live so differently in other countries than we do in Canada.
It made them more appreciative of what they have as we saw a lot of poverty in some of the countries. My son said he’d donate all his toys since traveling.
The kids deepened their social skills learning how to make new friends everywhere we went.
They experienced different types of food and even accommodations (e.g. a Japanese traditional home) broadening their minds.
World schooling is more interesting and they retain the information better. For example, our son’s class was learning about early democracy and the Acropolis at the same time we were there so he got to experience it first hand.
Currently, I am back at work full time and Marco is at home working on building our YouTube channel and Blog. Our long-term goal is to work towards a more flexible lifestyle where we are able to travel more often and create videos about our experiences.
Traveling as a family is not pure fun. It comes with challenges too. But it is certainly one of the best experiences ever. Hope ADVENTURE CAMPitelli has given you the inspiration to take that trip you’ve been dreaming about and, as what they say, to “blaze your own trail and find hidden gems off the beaten path”.