Gap Year Travel Tips

Taking a “gap year”—a year between the end of one’s formal education and beginning a career, often dedicated to travel—has become so common that it’s spawned a cottage industry. Already well into your career with a spouse, children and a chain link fence? Does this mean that you’ll sit on the couch, comatose, in front of the TV late at night, longing for the days when you were free and adventurous?

No way! Taking a gap year with your children is not only possible, it’s way more fun than reruns of Gilligan’s Island. Your options are only as limited as your imagination. Our family of four returned from a 52-week, around-the-world trip, and not only did we experience the wonders of the world, from the stunning Angkor Wat in Cambodia to the amazing Amazon rain forest, we discovered sites and had adventures that we never would have dreamed of if we didn’t have children in tow.

Did you know the United Arab Emirates has the galaxy’s best water park? Or that Carnaval in Latin America is much more family-oriented than you might expect after watching Blame It On Rio? Can anything compare to seeing children of different cultures enthusiastically hunting chameleons together in the mountains of East Africa?

Why Take a Gap Year?

Before we had children, my wife, September, and I discovered how traveling can shape one’s thinking. We wanted to give this experience to our children. From that early concept, the idea of a year-long around-the-world trip with our children emerged. Jordan, our youngest, was just learning to talk when he heard of the adventure. When referring to it, the words “world-the-round trip” came tumbling out of his mouth; the name stuck. Katrina, three years older than Jordan, hadn’t yet been to kindergarten when she cycled down the Pacific Coast highway on the back of a tandem bicycle.

As the children grew older, we backpacked and camped in far-flung corners of the world to learn what worked and what to expect. Saving and planning became family activities. To unite us in our goal, we considered even modest expenditures as a family and asked, “Do we really need this, or would we rather save the money for our world-the-round trip?”  

 

• Jordan explores the Landmine Museum in Cambodia.

John Higham

Finally, after more than a decade of planning, we left behind everything we knew and got on a plane expecting not to return home for 52 weeks. Now that we’ve been back for some time, I can confidently say the most difficult part of the trip was stepping on that first airplane, full of anticipation and anxiety.

If you’ve read this far you may be thinking, “I could see myself doing that. Now what?”

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