Hello, everyone!
Here’s another episode of #FamiliesOutside and today we are interviewing Rob and Chris from 2 Travel Dads.
Rob and Chris are gay dads who have been together for more than 10 years now — and they were legally married in 2013. They have 2 boys whom they refer to as Koala (3yo) and Panda (less than 1) who also helps out Rob, the stay-at-home dad in taking care of the garden and the chickens. Read more of their adventures below…
1. Give us a short background of your family.
We are two dads and two sons, living just outside of Seattle in the USA. We love camping, hiking, swimming and traveling with our kids. We’ve been together for 10+ years and have lived up and down the West Coast.
2. Do you travel full time or part time? When did you start and why?
We travel part time, with 4 or 5 big trips each year and then maximizing our weekends together. We were always big travelers, and then when we had kids we saw how important it was to keep this up. Traveling as a family helps to keep us sane while giving the kids a more broad view of the world.
3. How do you afford to travel as a family? Do you also work on the road?
We afford our travel through basic saving, as well as tacking on days to work trips. Example: Paris for work, add a week of vacation time since the company has already paid for the flight.
4. How do you plan out your trips (and for full time travelers, are you always out or do you have days where you just stay in)? Do you particularly choose those “family-friendly” or “kid-friendly” destinations or are you flexible and just simply adapt to the place?
We plan our trips based on what we haven’t seen in the world. We do have our tried and true favorites (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico or Yellowstone National Park, USA) but we love exploring new places together. It’s rare to find a destination that’s not kid-friendly…except maybe Ibiza.
5. What is that one item you can never travel without when you are with kids?
We always have some sort of sound machine. We either bring an actual device or use an app on our iPad or phone. It’s very important that kids sleep well when traveling and being in a new place every time they sleep could spell disaster, but this saves us!
6. There are varied opinions when it comes to learning while traveling VS. formal schooling. What is your stand on this? Does travelling really give an advantage to your kid’s education, based on experience?
If a parent is able to teach their kids effectively, travel schooling can work out well. Traveling absolutely impacts a child’s view of the world, including the notions they preconceive of those they meet. Exposing kids to a variety of people and histories is an amazing tool. Travel is the best classroom and a child who’s seen more than their own town will better understand life and the different people they’ll meet. We won’t be travel schooling our kids because we have a solid home-base where we must reside, but if somebody else can do it, fantastic!
7. What advice would you give to families who want to start out a travelling lifestyle?
Just start. You cannot perfect your traveling style and know how to do it well just by reading other peoples’ blogs. You have to pack up the kids and go. Catch a plane. Jump on a boat. Hit the road. There is no better teacher than experience.
8. Where else can we guys read about your family adventures?
Our blog site stays updated with where we’ve just been and what we’re working on for the future. We also keep an active Instagram account and Twitter, all titles as 2TravelDads.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Happy Travels!
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#FamiliesOutside is an interview series to help encourage families to go out and explore places, near or far. Bi-monthly Weekly, we feature families who love travelling – full-time or part-time – or who simply love including the outdoors in their daily activities.
That sounds amazing! But I would imagine it would also be exhausting. Travelling with kids can be a huge challenge so I admire their ability to do it happily.
Nice! Another inspiring one for a lazy-to-go-out mom like me. LOL