How did we decide where to go?
I love to travel and there are many places on my bucket list that I wanted to see. I also travel all the time for work, so constantly being on the move, sleeping on planes, trains and automobiles and waking up in weird time zones doesn’t particularly phase me.
Megan loves seeing new places, but it would be quite a stretch to say that she enjoys traveling. She has a fear of flying and I would not be surprised to find out that her finger prints are permanently pressed into the armrest of some of the flights we have been on where there was turbulence. Meanwhile, the mental toll of wrangling the family onto the plane or getting packed to leave the hotel and go, fall largely to her. As a result, getting there is about 0% of the fun for her.
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So we had to balance these two mindsets. And the best way to do this was informed to some degree by another trip we took 6 years earlier. My job allowed employees to take a month-long sabbatical every 5 years, so we spent 4 weeks traveling through Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and then a week-long Alaska cruise. I think that we stayed in 10 different places, moving on average every 3 days. The constant packing and unpacking was no problem for me, as I would routinely visit 6 cities across 5 countries in 5 days for my job. But the rest of the family wasn’t in quite the same traveling shape. Elenna was 6, and although my kids at that point were amazing travelers, it took a toll.
As a result, with this trip, Megan put her foot down, and decided that this can’t be the non-stop tour of the most famous places in the world (as I certainly would have planned it if I was in charge). We would have to spend about a month in each country - 2 weeks to do the Kevin tour of the most famous sites, but 2 weeks to just stay in one place and get a little sense of what its like to live in the country.
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The need for this set up was further bolstered by the logistics of schooling. Keira had already gotten into college and was able to defer for a year, while Liam was 5, so schooling was less important. However, Lily was entering her sophomore year and Elenna was entering 7th grade. Both kids wanted to stay with their classes, so would have to take on-line classes and would need time to be in one place to get their work done.
The decision process on what countries to visit was half about where Megan and I wanted to visit and where might be interesting to our kids. The main problem was that Megan and I have traveled a lot and so we were also trying to minimize the amount of overlap with previous trips. Another problem was that if you ask our kids where they want to travel, they will inevitably say to some sort of Disney property (the aforementioned 4 week trip to Asia included a trip to Disneyland Shanghai, Disneyland Hong Kong and the Alaskan Cruise we took was, you guessed it, a Disney Cruise). We asked the kids where they wanted to go, excluding Disneylands they had already visited, and there were immediately a few obvious answers: Italy, Greece and Japan. Below is a list of places we plan to go, listed in the order we plan to visit them. But since as of the timing of this post we haven't finished planning the trip, this is subject to change.
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Italy
Italy was Lily’s choice, and since she is the one who was least excited about the trip, we were eager to accommodate her. Specifically, she wanted to see Venice, so that was going to be a key part of the trip from Day 1 of planning. From there, Megan and I have traveled to Italy before, so although we have been to Rome and Pisa, we included those on the trip. But we skipped Bologna and Florence this time (I still maintain that I had the best meal of my life in Florence, but I can’t remember the restaurant name, and if I had, maybe this itinerary would have been different - hence a blog). But we are doing more of southern Italy, including Pompei, which was one of my key places to visit, since, well, I’ve heard of it.
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From there, the question was “where should we spend two weeks?” And this is where Megan and I are a great compliment to each other. Similar to my view that, “if it costs more, its probably better”, when it comes to traveling, my view is that “if its famous, then its probably worth seeing.” We recently had taken a trip to Croatia, and when I suggested Croatia as the destination, Megan asked. “Why?”
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Over the prior few years, a number of people had been to Croatia or said that they heard great things about Croatia, so I told her, “I’ve heard great things about Croatia.” But Megan, as a researcher at heart asked “What kind of things?” And my answer, with only a vague sense of good beaches, said “Great ones?” She took that vague answer and turned into an amazing trip, and I left Croatia viewing those 10 days as probably my favorite trip ever.
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So when, the question came up about where to spend two weeks, I confidently said Sicily, but with only half formed views around why Sicily was the place to go (vague ideas of it as an island off the coast of Italy, so it feels somewhat exotic/harder to get to, part of “The Godfather” took place there, its my favorite type of pizza, Palermo has good cheese, etc). So Megan, once again, asked a followup question, that I wasn’t quite prepared for: “Why?” My answer, “The Mafia is there?”
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That was hardly satisfactory, but once again, my view of “If I’ve heard of it, its probably worth visiting” paid off. Megan read a number of reviews and started to come around and it didn’t hurt that the second season of “White Lotus” took place there, likely sealing the deal.
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Türkiye (Istanbul)
One of the things that you learn when you create a trip around the world is that there is often not a direct flight from one place on your list to the next. For example, it might surprise you to find out that there are no direct flights from Venice to Nairobi. The most direct flight (at least on a Star Alliance airline) was through Istanbul. Growing up, one of my favorite songs was the They Might Be Giants cover of “Istanbul (not Constantinople)”, so as soon as I saw Istanbul was a possible layover, I was in. Plus, it was another city I’ve heard good things about (East meets West). Once again, after some initial skepticism, Megan did some research and agreed that a couple day layover there on the way to Kenya could be fun.
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Kenya
We definitely wanted to go on a safari on our trip, and Kenya is known as one of the best places to do it. Once we did a little research and heard about Giraffe Manor, the deal was sealed.
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Tanzania
Tanzania is actually not at all a country that was on our to do list. However, once Madagascar fell out of the running (pirates, and not the Captain Morgan kind), Zanzibar came into focus. It actually is a place that came up in “We Came, We Saw, We Left” a book about a family that did something similar to what we are doing, and the description of the location was enough to move it to the top of my list and help get Megan on board. Plus, if given the chance, wouldn't you want to spend two weeks in Zanzibar? The name itself almost makes it a prerequisite stop on any trip around the world (Don't get me started on why we aren't going to Kathmandu).
United Arab Emirates
Going to the Middle East seemed like a no brainer on any around the world trip. The U.A.E seemed like a good place to go - a desert experience, amazing high rises, almost like a Vegas on steroids, but without the vice, so maybe more kid friendly. It also seemed relatively insulated from some of the instability that was going on in Israel/Palestine at the time. Did I also mention that it has a healthy amount of theme parks that could be a nice change of pace for 4 kids on the road for 10 months?
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Oman
This was largely an audible after Petra became potentially too volatile. It came up on one of Megans’ travel boards and it appealed to me because it was one more country to check off our list. Plus, it has nice beaches.
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​​Thailand/Cambodia
Thailand has a similar allure as India - fantastic beaches and the allure of history that goes back well beyond what you can find in the US. Meanwhile, the 80s song “One Night in Bangkok” made it a must visit for me, even if no one else in my family knew it or thought it was good. Cambodia and Vietnam were also interesting in how different they could potentially be from our normal experience. As we talked to people though, one place kept coming up - Angkor Wat. As we came to realize that we could only do two countries in that month, Cambodia eventually won out over Vietnam.
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Australia
Its probably unreasonable to expect 4 kids to remain happy moving from country to country where no one but their family speaks English for 10 straight months. Megan and I spent a month in Australia as part of our 3 month honeymoon. There are a few must-visit places in Australia such as the Sydney Opera House (another stop on the “Soarin’ “ ride- did I mention our family likes Disney?) and Uluru (going to middle of the Outback and staring at the Southern Hemisphere stars was a memory I’ll never forget from our honeymoon trip).
Australia is huge, so although we spent a month there on our Honeymoon we only did the Southeast quadrant, so we wanted to spend some time seeing more of the country. We read Bill Bryson’s book “In a Sundburned Country” prior to going to Australia and 20 years later I still had a vivid desire to visit Perth and Broome. Once again, given time constraints (and in this case a jellyfish swarm), we were forced to narrow it down and Perth made the cut.
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Tasmania
Yes, Tasmania is part of Australia and doesn't technically deserve its own space here. However, I grew up watching Warner Brothers cartoons (well I grew up watching A LOT of TV, so I got a healthy dose of most cartoons). But I doubt anyone who watched days worth of “The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show” could resist the allure of seeing where the Tasmanian Devil grew up.
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New Zealand
Similar thought process to Australia - it would be good for the kids to go some place that spoke English for a while. Megan and I spent 2 weeks in New Zealand on our Honeymoon and afterwards we both agreed that maybe reversing it (spending 1 month in New Zealand and 2 weeks in Australia) might have been the better move. So it seemed like a logical place to follow up on this trip. The main problem was going to be getting enough time for my kids to watch all 243 hours of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit before we got there.
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Maldives
The Maldives appealed to me because I had read a list of the top resorts in the world and something like 4 of the top 10 were there. Unfortunately, we won’t be going to any of those, as they didn’t quite fit the budget parameters, but the allure still holds given the beautiful beaches and water.
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India
The Taj Mahal is a bucket list place for me, with the added benefit of being one of the places that you visit on the “Soarin’” ride at Disney World (did I mention that my family is obsessed with Disney?). I am a huge fan of ancient cultures, and I can already see the fight between me and my family as I find the 10th ancient temple just as interesting as the first, while they point out that we have been walking for 8 hours with no food or water and should probably take a break. It also has the potential to be one of the most different from our everyday experience, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what it has to offer.
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South Korea
South Korea was a relatively late addition to the trip schedule. Elenna has been generally supportive of the trip but hadn’t recommended any places to visit. So when I pushed her again as we drew close to starting the trip, she said South Korea, in large part because her friends were into K-Pop. In hearing that, her sisters immediately jumped on it, given some of "All the Boys I Loved Before Part 3" and "XO, Kitty" took place there. It was a huge tactical error on my part to ask so late in the planning process, and now have to deal with adding another country into the plans, but it was important to make sure that everyone had a say. Plus, it was a destination that I was starting to get intrigued about as I had heard some good things about it (I will accept no follow up questions on what those things were).
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Japan
Japan was one of the places that was on everyone’s list. The main reason is that Disneyland Japan is the one Disneyland that our family had not been to. For a family that travels to a lot of places, we also go to Disney a disproportionate amount of time. Liam, has spent 3.9% of his life at a Disney property, which is an incredible (and 100% true) stat, particularly in light of the fact that for about a third of his life, we didn’t travel anywhere due to COVID. So to say that this was the place that most of our kids were looking forward to most is the understatement of the year. I also love seeing ancient sites and architecture (anything that has been around for hundreds of years boggles my mind), so it checks a bunch of my boxes. Finally, despite being a family of picky eaters, Japan might be one of the places where we can all agree on the food.
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Peru
Going on an around the world trip, and not visiting South America seems like a non-starter, so the questions really was only, “Where in South America should we go?” Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for a long time (ancient ruins!), and I’ve only heard good things from people who have been there (please no follow up questions). Throw in the fact that I have four kids, and as a result, I am too well versed in the “Elmo the Musical” episode of the “Queen of Nacho Picchu” and it was almost a forgone conclusion (assuming its safe to go there).
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Ecuador
I spent a Summer in Ecuador when I was in college, studying Spanish and at the end of the trip, a group of us went to the Galapagos Islands. Absolutely amazing nature/wildlife, and although I had been there before, when Megan said it was on her list of places to go, I certainly didn’t object.
At this point, you might be asking? Wait, you studied abroad, does that mean that you can speak spanish? The answer? I guess we’ll have to sí.
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Greece
Greece was the main choice of Keira, who potentially in a bad parenting move, was allowed to watch the movie Mama Mia!, at the age of 6 because we thought she would like the music. Well, it worked and it remains her favorite move 12 years later, so Greece was a no brainer. It also checked off a number of key things for me - places I’ve heard of: the Parthenon, Acropolis, etc. And it also has great beaches - Santorini/Mykonos, etc. The rest of the family was on board because you can’t live in our house without having seen Mama Mia! at least a dozen times, and enough of the Percy Jackson series took place there that the kids have also heard of most of the places I wanted to see too.