Our family of three (me, my husband and ten year old daughter) love to travel-- especially in Europe. In the 11-1/2 years we've been married, we've been to Europe seven times with trip number 8 coming up this Christmas/New Years. Over the years, our short vacations only leave us wanting more and retirement for me is still 10+ years away.

So... with wise counsel from others on this website and a strong sense of adventure, we recently decided to pursue our dream. We're going to spend a year (14 months actually) in Europe, beginning in June 2004. My husband is self-employed and can set his work aside for this time. I recently came into some financial resources (former company went public!). For that and other reasons, this is a good time for me to transition from my corporate career and consider what I want to do next.

We will homeschool our daughter for her sixth grade year. I lived in Australia with my family from ages 8 till almost 13, so I know how life-changing living abroad can be and the perspective it offers. One reason we want to do this now is that we want to share the adventure with our daughter. We know as she moves toward her teen years, it will be harder to pull her away for a year.

Our daughter's private school has been very supportive. A local realtor is very confident she can rent our house-- hopefully furnished! (We could use a few prayers on this!) We have been busy working on our house and carting years of accumulated possessions to Goodwill. (Why we bought and kept all this is truly amazing.) Everything seems to be coming together.

Part of this time we will travel-- staying anywhere from a week to four weeks in self-catering accommodations in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. In the late summer 2004, we are also going to do a long-distance walk (190 miles!) across the northern part of England (the Coast-to-Coast walk). This will be our third walk in Europe... we've done one-week walks in the Cotswolds and Alsace, France. At this point, I've made all our arrangements from early June until the first week of October.... England, Scotland, and France. Then, we have rented a farmhouse in Provence (between Bonnieux and Lacoste) for six and a half months. We really wanted to experience "living" in this beautiful place we enjoyed so much on vacation, recognizing that winter will be very different than our one-week stay this past June. Next spring I will start working on more detailed plans for mid-April 2005 till we have to come home at the end of July 2005.

I would welcome any suggestions or thoughts anyone has about any aspect of our trip. How can we make the most of this unique opportunity? Any thoughts about our daughter and how to best support (and homeschool!) her? What are any practicalities we should be sure to think about? Finally (related to the last unplanned part of our trip), if you had three-and-a-half months (mid-April through July) to spend in Switzerland, Germany and Italy, where would you go-- how would you spend this time? We are very familiar with Munich and the Bavarian Alps, but have only been to Lucerne in Switzerland and a day trip from there down to Como.

Kaydee,
It seems to me from reading your plans, that what is missing is the Mediterranean experience. Why not plan to head to far south for April and May to get the chill out of your bones. When the weather warmed up, you could head to Switzerland and Germany for June and July.
In Southern Italy you could base yourself south of Naples, perhaps in Sicily, for the month of April. And perhaps take a short side trip from there to Greece. In May you could work you way north toward Rome or even Florence with a series of week long vacation rentals.

Deborah Horn

In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I'd like to do a past life regression and stay there.
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www.petsburg.com

Hi Kaydee,

You've already rehearsed much of what you're going to be doing (travelling, living in self-catering rentals, going for a long walk, etc.), so you've developed many of the necessary skills. But a year away from home obviously is more ambitious than anything you've done before, so the demands on you will be multiplied.

I haven't done what you're planning to do, but I've experienced some elements of it. When I was a young kid, we lived on a remote farm, and my mom home schooled me through grades one and two. Also, my husband and I took our sons on two consecutive expat assignments (18 months in Houston and 2-1/2 years in Melbourne).

You're right, I believe, to be embarking on your year-long stint of travel now, before your daughter is a teenager.

For many people who do it, the most difficult aspect of a period abroad is the re-entry. You come back, and your aunt wants to talk about her dog that died, your neighbour wants to talk about the traffic light that has been installed at the intersection of Third Avenue and Fourth Street, and your daughter's friend wants to talk about the basketball team try outs. Meantime you want to talk about the Grand Canal and the Acropolis.

It helps your re-entry, and is good for other reasons too, if you stay in touch with people back home while you're away. E-mail contact was a wonderful tool for all of us, and a life saver for our kids. Something that also helped our kids was taking photos of their friends and using them to make scrapbooks that they took with them to the next expat assignment.

When you return it's important to try really hard to listen to the news about the dog that died and to hold your tongue about the Grand Canal and the Acropolis. In my experience, the people who are interested in one's travels are people who have travelled extensively or who have been expats themselves. One needs to seek out those people, so that one has someone willing to listen to that side of one's life. That's one of the services an Internet discussion board provides.

If a child's former school has a very local focus, it may no longer suit the child after his/her return. Schools that often work well for returning expat kids are international schools. However, if a child's former school has a sprinkling of kids who have travelled extensively and/or a few foreign students, it may be fine.

My husband and I tried to imagine everything that could happen while we were on our expat assignments, and we tried to make provision for each eventuality. We created Plans B, C, and D, in case a family member died while we were overseas, my husband and/or I died, one of our kids died, etc. It may sound gruesome, but I think one needs to be realistic and realise that one of these scenarios could play out. It's always important to have one's legal and financial ducks in a row, but I think it's all the more essential if one is going to travel for an extended period. Fortunately we didn't have to implement any of our emergency plans.

If your daughter is on the road a lot, I think it will help her if you maintain a routine of sorts. The home schooling will provide some structure that you can build the rest of your adventure around.

Back to the subject of long distance communication, four different sets of Australian friends who have travelled abroad for as long as six months at a time have told us how happy they've been with Lonely Planet's communication services for travellers (e-mail, phone card, voice mail, etc.). You can check out the offerings at:

http://www.ekno.com

Hope some of this helps.

Livinwell and Judy-- thanks so much for your input... one related to our itinerary and the other more the practical/emotional aspects of such a long trip.

Judy, I was interested to hear about your expat assignment to Melbourne. I lived in Melbourne when my dad was on an expat assignment... from when I was eight till almost 13. I believe that experience is one of the reasons I have been so hungry for a meaningful time abroad at this time of our (and our daughter's) life. In thinking about it, I remember how difficult the return was for my mom (mid 30's at the time) and also for me as a teenager. I will share your message with my husband and we'll think about ways to keep in touch, provide structure, and also to ensure we don't become unbearable travel fanatics both now and after we return.

Related to our post-Provence itinerary, I was intrigued by Livinwell's thoughts about heading south to warmer climates. Greece really interests us, but I have no idea where to start. Southern Italy is also intriguing-- I have researched a bit on Campania-- but hadn't considered Sicily. If anyone has any thoughts or recommendations to build on the idea of several weeks (mid/late April and early May) in southern Italy and/or Greece, I hope you'll post!

Hi Kaydee,

As far as your Italy questions are concerned, it might help you to post them in the Italy section of Slow Talk, and explain the context, i.e., roughly how long you want to spend in Italy and that your time in Italy will be part of a larger project. The reason I say that is that there are some people who post there who are very knowledgeable about Italy, who I suspect have almost an exclusive interest in Italy and who I also suspect don't look at other parts of Slow Talk. If you want to tap the expertise on Italy that's out there, that's where I would recommend doing it.

What a great trip you have planned. I completely understand the traveler's itch. We solved it by moving to Europe 6 years ago. Your itinerary sounds great but I have one suggestion. Please think about including a tour through Central Europe. By Central, I mean Czech Rep., Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia etc. The last decade has been so volatile for this region and it would make for fascinating homeschooling for your daughter, but you would also learn something. Also, many of the countries in this region will be transitioning into the EU next May. It will be an exciting time! The other upsides are fewer tourists, more off the beaten track and a completely different culture than you will have experienced in Western Europe.

BTW, I live in Ljubljana, Slovenia now but we have also lived in Luzern, Switzerland (for 3 years) and Budapest, Hungary (for 3 years).

Cheers,
Jan

Jan, are you the only American ex-pats in Ljubljana? How did you go there? We would love to hear!

Your advice to Kaydee is spot-on! We loved the little time we spent in the east, and really look forward to going back. As my sister-in-law is from Budapest, and she and my brother intend to live there some day, I look forward to many visits there in my golden years!

Libbie,
We actually came over with an international consulting firm. My husband transferred jobs a few times, but we ended up staying in Europe. It has been a tremendous experience and really SLOW travel!

Don't miss the US yet...still having way too good of a time.

Ljubljana is a wonderful little city. Slovenia is termed "The Green Jewel of Europe" as it is 65% forest. It is also very clean and hospitable...a blend of Switzerland and Budapest without the negatives of either. We also have mountains, plains and seaside, truly a microcosm of Europe. I am happy to answer any questions about the area!

Cheers,
Jan