#FamiliesOutside: An Interview with Kids Are A Trip

Hello, everyone!

Here’s another episode of #FamiliesOutside and today we are interviewing Kirsten from Kids Are A Trip.

This amazing family, with an elementary school teacher for a mom, lives in Chicago but has been to 25 different countries all over the world (and counting!), many of them were actually gotten through mileage programs. If you want to know more about this great family, read on below!

1. Give us a short background of your family.

We live in the Chicago suburbs with our three boys who keep us very busy. When I am not working for our business, I work as a substitute elementary school teacher.

2. Do you travel full time or part time? When did you start and why?

We travel as a family as our schedule allows. My husband travels quite a bit for work, and our summer revolves around baseball, so we often find ourselves traveling in the off season. On our honeymoon we visited 13 cities in 28 days and swore that we wouldn’t stop traveling once we had kids. We have kept that promise to one another.

3. How do you afford to travel as a family? Do you also work on the road?

We use mileage programs to pay for a lot of our travel experiences. We have flown all 5 of us round trip to Europe for free at least five times. We also have a vacation fund where we save a little bit from each paycheck. It all adds up.

I do work on the road now that I have Kids Are A Trip, but I try to schedule posts ahead of time, so I don’t have to take away from my vacation time.

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 discuss destinations on our “family bucket list” and start narrowing down which ones might actually work for the time frame and budget we are thinking about. We don’t lean toward “kid friendly” destinations, but will find kid friendly activities wherever we go.

5. What is that one item you can never travel without when you are with kids?

One thing we can never leave home without: allergy medication. Our youngest has a peanut/tree nut allergy and needs his medication with him at all times.

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?

I am a firm believer that my kids learn more through travel and hands on experience than they do in a classroom. But then again, their mom is a school teacher so travel with me is like traveling in a classroom.

7. What advice would you give to families who want to start out a travelling lifestyle?

If you want to start a traveling lifestyle make sure you know all of the costs involved. It is not free, but the experiences you give your children are priceless.

8. Where else can we guys read about your family adventures?

You can find more on Kids Are A Trip.com and Traveling Mom.

Follow Kirsten and her family at:

Happy Travels!

#FamiliesOutside is an interview series to help encourage families to go out and explore places, near or far. Bi-monthly, we feature families who love travelling – full-time or part-time – or who simply love including the outdoors in their daily activities.