Epic Education Radio: Family Travel Podcast

Have you ever thought about living abroad with kids? Or are you living abroad with kids already? If you can answer "yes" to either of those questions, then you should meet Liisa. Like me, Liisa loves hearing the stories of people who have left their conventional lives behind to try living abroad as a family. She's done the same before herself, moving the family to Costa Rica for six months, and then again late for two years. along with other family travel experiences in Mexico, Europe and other destinations. In order to have the lifestyle she wanted, she created an online career for herself, assessing her skills and previous experiences working in hospitals and crafting a new job that would be portable. In this Epic Education Radio interview, I talk to her about that process. Listen in as we discuss work, Costa Rica, living abroad with kids and much more.

Most people don't consider long-term travel with a baby, but Andrew and Tanya Davis are not most people. In this conversation, Andrew tells me why he thinks traveling with infants and toddlers can actually be easier than with older children. This notion may seem counter-intuitive, but he is not alone: I have talked with a number of families who feel the same way. Andrew and Tanya were long-term travelers before their daughter- Zoe was born, and once this duo became a trio, they saw no reason to stop. In this conversation, you'll hear:

Have you ever wondered what expat life in Italy would be like? Virginie Auguste-Dormeuil could tell you about it. Virginie is the mother of a French family of five living in Rome since 2012. She is also a travel blogger in both French and English, and has taken her kids all over the globe during their school breaks — and keep in mind that French schools have 16 weeks a year of holidays! In this podcast interview, we discuss travel gear, expat life in Italy, and other family travel-relates topics such as:

Building a business in North America can be tough — building a business in Costa Rica with children (and limited funds) is on a completely different level of difficulty. That didn't stop Bobby and Shelley Workman, though. This American couple from North Carolina quit their jobs, moved their three daughters to Central America and built a set of villas in Costa Rica, doing much of the work themselves in order to to cut costs. Now nestled into a verdant cove on the Pacific side of the country, the Workman's live their lives on their own terms, managing a place they designed themselves, and establishing schooling programs for their girls and other children in the area. In addition to discussing  how they built their business, we talk about:

Greetings from Spain! For this episode, I've gone back through the last handful of shows and gleaned a few important lessons to share with my fellow family travelers. In this episode, I've pulled one of two useful family travel tips from the past 13 shows to share with you here.

Each family I interview is unique, and I learn from each guest I talk to. You can too. Listen in as I share some important lessons I've learned from other families traveling with children. In addition to my lessons learned, I also highlight several running themes, patterns and routines that I find many happy and successful traveling families share.

Whether you're a seasoned traveler or still planning your big family trip, I'm sure that you can find some useful family travel tips in this episode. You can listen to it above, or go straight to the source and listen to the full interviews by following the links below. Or find me on iTunes, where you can subscribe and have the episodes zapped to your device automatically.

Family travel is a perennial topic of websites and magazines, but LGBT family travel has only just begun to receive the coverage it deserves. We first met Darcy and Katie in Penang, Malaysia back in 2013. Their twin boys, Max and Sebastian were rather shy and reserved then, thrust into a group of loud and gregarious traveling families with older kids, all talking at the same time as we got to know each other. Now fast forward two years, and we meet again in southern Spain, where they have settled for a year, and the boys are shouting excitedly about the "treasure" and "fossils" they've found on the beach. It was great to meet up again. A few weeks before we met face to face, Darcy and I settled into a skype call where we talked about their travels and their journey from New York City to South East Asia to Florida and now to Spain. Listen in as we discuss money, gear, Spanish Resident Visas, LGBT family travel and more.

If you're interested in long-term family travel planning and don't know Erik Hemingway yet, then it is my honor to introduce him to you. As the creator of the Family Adventure Podcast, Erik has interviewed dozens and dozens of family travelers (86 episodes available on iTunes at the time of writing), and I credit his work as a huge influence on me and my desire to start a podcast of my own. Like the Denning Family, Erik has six (SIX!) children, but that didn't deter him from buying a boat and sailing the world for years — learning to sail as they went. Now based on the east coast of the US, Erik and his podcast inspire thousands of families to take the leap. Listen in as we discuss money, homeschooling, family travel planning and much, much more.

Meet Krystal Loverin, and veteran and mother of three. After tours in both Kuwait and Iraq, Krystal decided to live life with purpose. She wanted to see more of the world, and she didn't want to wait any longer. She drove all over Mexico, and then, after careful planning with her husband, José, she transplanted her family to Salamanca, Spain for a year. Their two daughters attend local Spanish schools while she gets her ESL certification at a fraction of the price it would cost in the United States. Listen in as we discuss gear, the GI Bill, education, budgeting, adjusting to Spanish culture and other aspects of her family moving to Spain.

If you're in need to large family travel tips, look no further than Greg and Rachel Denning. It's not every day that you come across a family of eight — EIGHT!— who are completely location independent, but team Denning isn't just any family. Living abroad since 2007, Greg and Rachel have lived, worked and homeschooled their six children in Alaska, Costa Rica, India and many places in between. I spoke with them from Morocco, where they are currently based. Listen in as we discuss travel gear, worldschooling across multiple ages, parenting in foreign lands, the value of real books versus electronic ones, and lots of other large family travel tips.

Doing any long-term travel planning. Karen King knows how you feel. She and her husband Cameron plan to take their kids on an indefinite adventure starting in January 2016. Karen and company have traveled before, but this will be their first stint of long-term travel, and their plans aren't like any other family I've interviewed so far. You see, Cameron plans to keep his job in Australia, and when I say "keep his job," I don't mean remote working.  No, he plans to return to Australia every two weeks! An unusual plan to be sure, but it could very likely fall into the "so crazy it just might work" category. Here I talk with Karen about her previous travels, what she plans to carry with her, and many other details on her mind related to family travel planning.