Hi, we are the Ferry family, a family of four from the Eastern United States who love hiking, camping, and traveling. When we got married, we started a travel bucket list that has grown to include all 50 states, the National Parks, and over 30 countries. We knocked a few off the list as a couple, and when our first child came along, we didn’t slow our travel plans down. We made our first flight as a family with a three-month-old, and we have continued to explore new places and visit old favorites each year. With nearly twenty years of experience adventuring abroad, we hope that the tips we have accumulated and the tales you find on this blog will inspire you to embark on your own family journeys.
Keep on reading to find out more about why we think traveling with our kids is worth the time, money, and effort that we put into it.
Why travel with kids?
We believe that extensive travel is not only possible with children but bigger and better. Our children’s perspective fills our adventures with a sense of curiosity, imagination, and energy. Traveling with them has been one of the most rewarding bonding experiences for our family. Our travels have also given our kids firsthand opportunities to learn about the world, experience diverse cultures and people, and see the beauty God has created.
“Our children's perspective fills our adventures
with a sense of curiosity, imagination, and energy.
Traveling with them has been one of the most
rewarding bonding experiences for our family.”
Is traveling with kids worth the money?
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Traveling is already expensive, and adding extra seats on the airplane, larger accommodations, and more mouths to feed is rough. But there are ways to cut costs (airline and hotel mileage and rewards programs, grocery shopping more than eating out, etc.–see more details to come in future posts). Yes, admittedly, even these efforts may not entirely negate the cost of bringing children with you on a cross-country or global flight, but any savings is better than none in our book. Ultimately, it comes down to the very personal decision of whether the value of the travel experience is greater than the money spent. Economically speaking, travel is a want (not a need), but if your goals are aimed at experiences over things, then you will find the benefits outweigh the expense.
Want to read more on how the challenges are worth the effort? Check out this post!