Long-Term Traveling with Teens. Kill me Now.

“I am not going, I don’t care, you can’t make me.” Sound familiar?

Is long-term traveling with teens a nightmare? Should you scrap the plan altogether?

I would not. Traveling with teens is amazing, doable and fun.

If you have seen your fair share of Hollywood drama, you may have been conditioned to think that slamming a door in your face is the expected teen behavior. By the way, it is not and is not tolerated in this traveling family, where there are few doors to slam anyway.

I slammed doors as a teen, and I am taking this opportunity to apologize to my parents.

Let me share how and why you should travel with your teens (and tweens, who can be harder to reason with, actually). It is doable, and the benefits far outweigh the risks.

In this post, I am focusing on long-term traveling with teens (a year and beyond). You do need at least a year, if you are transitioning from public schools to homeschooling/world-schooling.

Vacations are lots of fun for a little while.

Long-term travel is lots of fun for a long time. Naturally, vacations would not suffice.

Why on Earth would you be traveling with teens, long-term?

If you are reading this, then traveling must be on your mind, or you may already be roughly planning the trip of your dreams. Traveling itself is not what keeps you up at night – you already know that you want to do it.

Why on Earth, would you want to drag your moody teen along! It would be much easier to leave them behind with a relative, they are old enough, after all. And it will be cheaper.

Don’t!

Well, unless you are planning a romantic getaway, but you wouldn’t be reading this, if you were.

Take your teens on the road, or on the water. They are your family! That was enough of a reason for us. But here are a few more:

• Long-term traveling will create problems (teens need to face and solve problems)
• Your teens will have lots of opportunities to feel useful.
• It will help you stop helicopter-parenting
• Your teen will start having meaningful conversations with adults and younger children and enjoy it!
• World-schooling is better than public school (and we have experienced both).
• There will be risks and dangers, and you will have to let go and have faith.
• The teens will learn to share their personal space, and so will you.
• They will discover that life exists beyond the Wi-Fi.
• Learning to speak a different language, or two, is much easier, while in that country.

For many teens today, traveling does more than open their eyes – it helps them wake up! It helps us wake up too, and different countries have amazing different coffee drinks to aid in the process.

Easy for me to say – I homeschool!

We only started homeschooling, because we moved on a boat. It had always been on my mind, but I never had the courage to give it a try. The schools in my suburbia neighborhood were amazing, and the kids loved them!

I did not feel the need to try anything different. We thought public schools were the perfect place for them to be, and for me to keep receiving report cards and be asked to join that PTA, to help raise money (I went to one meeting, it was a complete waste of time).

So, no, we did not homeschool, and it did make it difficult to start full-time traveling after full-time public schooling. But for what it’s worth – it helped me wake up. Especially once we arrived in the Middle School world… where children entered confused, only to be further confused.

Our full-time travel started as a full-time sailing adventure, on a tiny boat, in the freezing Chesapeake Bay, in November – nothing like those sunny palm beaches and crystal-clear waters. It took us around 5 months to find joy in the adventure, and another five or six, to figure out school.

What we do, you can do too!

What’s in it for the teens?

Teenagers will be awed by the same breathtaking views as you. They will marvel at wild life, complain when it’s too hot, or too cold, just like you. Teenagers will be pushed out of their “comfort” zone, which, sadly, is the same one adults sink into, in a conventional traffic-work-home environment.

A unique chance to shine.

You probably remember just how majorly vital it was to be at least somewhat cool, back in school. Or at the party, or in your own teen group. Teens do crave attention. The introverts do, the extroverts do, the nerds do too.

Long-term traveling will take teens on the road (or on the water), where things happen. Many stories of adventures have become beloved tales for both teens and adults. Your teen will be a character in an adventure story – beats school popularity any day!

Our children rarely face awkward silence. As soon as the share they live on a sailboat and travel the world, they become the center of attention. It has never been our goal to turn them into any kind of celebrities. In fact, I strongly discourage such ambitions.

Being the center of attention forces the teens to communicate and, more frequently, their audience consists of adults. Our children have learned to have meaningful conversations with people of all ages – something I rarely observe these days.

A ton of outdoors!

Between school and their phones, teenagers hardly chase each other outside any more. Hardly roam the streets with friends until dark. And for us, parents, keeping them inside provides a sense of security – they are not out there, so I don’t need to worry about something happening.

Just like in Nemo’s world – nothing ever happens to our kids.

Correction – too much happens, but it is behind their screens, so by the time we notice and become worried, we have a lot more to worry about than anticipated.

Long-terms traveling means spending a lot of time outside – walking, hiking, exploring, swimming, sailing… You will not be wondering what to do tomorrow.

You might find yourself wondering how to not do anything tomorrow!

A long adventure!

“I don’t want any adventures.” That’s fine, we are still going.

Allow your kids to disagree and throw a fit, don’t rescue them. I feel that we try too hard to always support and please our children in whatever they choose to do. Confusion is a part of teenagerhood. It is not my job to support it, their peers offer plenty of that.

It is my job to guide. It is also my responsibility. It comes with being a parent.

What’s in it for our teens? Similar to the benefits for us – a chance to abandon comfort and conveniences and find adventure. Believe me, teens are quick to discover their adventure drive, I rarely have to drag them into fun things to do.

A chance to feel useful!

I often find myself playing catch up, with our teens pushing me out of my own comfort zone!

Traveling with teens offers the freedom, which our teens crave, but look for in the wrong places. The internet and social media are not the “real world”. They tailor our teens’ freedom to fit algorithms, designed to drive traffic and sales.

You do want to help build strong leaders, then allow them to lead and feel empowered and inspired. Gathering lots of “likes” is not empowerment.

What will make them feel empowered is climbing a peak; taking a shift at the helm, at night; finding their way back to your meeting spot, without a cell phone; figuring out how to ski down that wrong slope they just entered.

Telling their mom to calm down, when she is freaking out is also quite useful.

A chance to help.

There are many service projects, which allow teens to serve others and take a second look at their own more fortunate circumstances. Traveling the world is a requirement, in order to help others.

What traveling offers your teens is a look at those communities and villages, which we read about when asked to make a donation. It is uncomfortable to be looked at with hope and jealousy. It is also unsettling to see families living in makeshift sheds.

It is eye-opening to watch kids chasing and playing in the dirty streets, climbing all kinds of dangerous sites, jumping off of bridges, screaming, yelling, swearing – having an unsheltered and unsupervised childhood.

Have you heard of Project Mexico? Our kids are a bit too young for it, but here is the blog of one of our friends, who is spending his summer in a much better way, than getting drunk at the beach. It does not even require long-term travel!

Check out his blog, be inspired!

Many of the places we visit have Facebook pages, which list various projects the entire family can participate in. There are plenty of opportunities to help.

A taste of the different!

One of my personal favorites – expose your kids to different cultures, customs, traditions and food!

Hotels and resorts are wonderful, but all-inclusive’s and guided tours steer you in a bit more tailored-trip direction.

Long-term traveling offers your teens a fuller experience of the places you visit. It is quite common for traveling families to spend weeks, months, sometimes a year or more in the same country.

Doing so will allow everyone, not just the kids to immerse themselves into the foreign culture and even adopt some of it as their own.

Our children learned to live with the loud music of the Dominican Republic, the paralyzing fear of colds in Bulgaria, the constant smell of pot of St. Thomas, the amazing empanadas of Puerto Rico…

If your kids enjoy trying different foods, they will embrace the adventure even faster. If they do not, they will learn how to get out of that comfort zone fairly quickly!

What’s in it for the parents?

Long-term traveling with teens and tweens promotes active parenting, as much as it promotes independence. If you are looking for a chance to work on your own parenting skills, your teens are there to help, all the time!

Below are just a few of the reasons traveling with teens is quite a fulfilling endeavor.

Figure out what kind of parent you are.

Our modern, advanced and developed society has become quite dismembered. Parents are usually busy, children are busier. TV sets grow larger, while conversations around the dinner table disappear.

I think, at some point, I felt more like a secretary, than a mother – scheduling and rescheduling events and activities. By necessity, being in control and organized becomes a valued parenting skill.

Once you start traveling, most schedules are gone. You must sit down next to your child to figure out a math problem together, you will be able to see just how much (or little) patience you have.

I remember a time, when I was so frustrated and angry with one of my children, I kind of lost my cool. My child almost cried. Then I went to the bathroom and made that exact same face I had made a minute earlier… it was ugly. It was not the face of the mother I wanted to be.

By the grace of God, I was able to slowly let go, relax and allow the creative chaos around me to take over.

Figure out what kind of a family you are.

While on a short vacation, it is easy to keep your cool, shut your mouth and not allow disagreements and arguments to ruin your quality fun.

Long-term traveling packs you all tight together and ships you off into a different dimension. Good luck with, “you can be the person you have always wanted to be and let your personality shine through…”

Your children will see everything; they will hear everything; they will know everything. It is enough to cause a pause.

Your teens become the relationship mirror for your family. Do you want them to like what they see?

Talk more

When there is nothing else to occupy your eyes and thumbs – you will talk. You will talk at breakfast, you will talk during hikes, during drives or ocean passages.

Everyone still needs a private and personal space, and having four cabins at our boat, does help. But long-term traveling is not conducive to establishing and following too many routines.

Beyond brushing your teeth at least twice per day, few constants will occupy your family space. At the same time, embracing change and adapting will become your new routine of sorts.

With time, you will find this refreshing, rather than frustrating.

We all have our electronic devices, and we like them. Limits must be set, even during long-term travels, but when we find Wi-Fi, we take advantage. Allow your teen to have the privacy and freedom to chat with friends.

Listen even more

Teens are not talkative. They know everything and you know close to nothing. Once this has been established, it is best for you to listen.

Teens are rebels and they need to be able to rebel against their parents’ ways, until they become parents and wonder how to handle their own kids.

Long-term traveling might give the false feeling that you must agree with your teen about so much more, because they do not have many friends around. I disagree.

While, we have become much closer and I absolutely love being with our kids, we still disagree on plenty of issues.

We take away laptops and ground teens when needed.

We also share so much of our time with our teens. They experience the travels and adventures in their own way. It is so cool to hear their stories, reflections and complaints.

While we actively listen, we do correct them for grammar, “Try this without ‘like’ and ‘stuff’.” It is just what we do…

Play together

Full-time traveling feels like exploring various playgrounds, much of the time. You visit different places, snorkel together, hike together, find random treasures after all the tourists have left the beach – those kinds of things.

Many towns offer treasure-hunt tours, or you can design your own and learn a few new words along the way. Even grocery shops are an adventure, as we try to figure out what we are buying.

Boardgame nights are just as important while on the road, as they are at our land homes.

While visiting more touristy destinations, we love Geocaching. We have found all kinds of cool useless things in those geocaching boxes!

Learn about your teens

Watch as each different trip brings out something new in your kids.

Once on the road and on the water, children’s personalities develop without peer pressure and the need to constantly compare to those around them. Your traveling teens will realize who they are and where they are headed in life, faster than their friends in more conventional lives.

It has nothing to do with how smart or sensitive they are. It is just a given in long-term traveling, because they constantly observe and compare different lifestyles, customs and traditions.

As they grow and change at such a rapid pace in the teenage years, you will have a front row seat! In the meantime, they will have a front row seat in your next adventure. I would not trade it.

Learn to count on them

While sailing the boat, or doing a boat chore, we work as a team.

At this point, I am physically the weakest out of everyone in the family.

Sophie is in charge of hoisting her dad up the mast for more complicated repairs. His life is in her hands!

Joey has no fear of heights, so he readily climbs up to help with simple repairs.

Bobby will share a night shift with me and point at all the amazing constellations and stars, taking my mind off of my fear of night-time passages.

Exercise more

Exercising is a benefit for everyone. If you have an established exercise routine at home, you can easily transfer it to a hotel room, and Airbnb, or even aboard a boat!

Walking, hiking, swimming, skiing – depending on the place you visit, you must take advantage of everything it has to offer, because you never know when, and if, you might be able to return.

Get away from your screen

Once I started blogging and making YouTube episodes, I started to participate only in every other adventure. I call this work, even though it does not pay (yet!).

You do not need to throw away your laptop, or cell phone, but there is so much to do, while traveling! It is a shame to miss it!

Remember those friends who post all kinds of cool views and places – you are now one of them!

Isn’t it easier to travel when the children are younger?

The easiest times to travel with kids are before they start walking, and once they can outrun you.

Younger children are easier to convince to travel. However, traveling with teens is much easier (and more enjoyable).

Older children walk a lot longer; pack their own backpacks and carry them (as well as mine sometimes). They do not throw fits in the middle of a busy city street. Teens remember all the places you visit and often connect the dots in history, geography and science in surprising ways and places!

It costs more to eat out with teens, but we have solved this problem by not eating out. While they do cost more to feed, they are old enough to prepare a meal for the family, leaving you more time to blog and make YouTube videos!

School, while traveling with teens

Parents on the road, and on the water, school in all kinds of ways – from private tutors aboard to unschooling, and everything in-between.

World-schooling is an amazing experience, regardless of what kind of curricula you choose to follow.

Schooling on the road and on the water is a bit different, and while doing both, we did have to adjust, which required creativity.

We have an entire post about world-schooling – curricula, subjects, cost – check it out, at the end of this post.

We are using a mixture of online and textbook curricula. While on land, we try to do more online studying, to compensate for the times we are sailing and have no access to internet. Rather than following a set schedule, we adjust the school to fit our lifestyle.

What about socializing the teens?

Socializing is all about finding your community and being active in searching for other families. We have found great friends both on land and on the water.

There are countless ways to connect with other traveling and homeschooling families, wherever you may be. It is also a lot of work. We have changed entire destinations just to be with other traveling families. It does make a difference.

Finding teens on the road and on the water is a bit hard. Tweens seem to be abundant, as well as younger kids. As much as world-schooled teens can care less about age differences, they do need friends of their own age. There is really no secret shortcut to share.

Become an active member on Facebook groups targeting your type of travels and seek the teens!

Discord is the social media our children used, while sailing. I am not familiar with it, but there are teens there!

What About Wifi?

I need Wi-Fi to work on the blog and upload videos. When we have internet, we do use it, all of us. There is no way around that.

The best way to truly disconnect and enjoy a simple travel, is to find a place, where there is no internet (which often means no cell signal either). Being in the dark is exciting and fun, but that kind of fun does not last too long.

Teens need to stay connected to their friends. Online classes might limit your ability to travel to the middle of nowhere. Set limits, just like on land.

“But we don’t have internet all the time!” And we do not need it all the time, stay strong – set limits (that includes you).

How long should you travel for?

Traveling with teens means your children have grown and are almost ready to be adults and on their own. Which is another reason why going on adventures together makes sense!

We did not ask our children if their wanted to start traveling full-time. They could not possibly see all the benefits at ages 8, 10 and 12. And we did not expect it to be any other way.

Four years later, our oldest teen loves travelling and I will not be surprised, if she ends up sailing on her own boat one day. Our middle teen, on the other hand, thrives in sports and prefers land life. Our youngest tween is undecided.

So, when do you stop traveling?

In our family, the journey pauses when someone is clearly ready to do so, after at least a year of traveling. We sold our first boat, because the kids wanted to continue sailing, but on a catamaran.

We sold our catamaran, because two people in the family were not on board with sailing across the Pacific. It was time for a different adventure.

From our teens to yours.

Below are a few links to posts and a video, related to traveling with teens and tweens. Our kids share thoughts about sailing, traveling, living on a boat and other curious details:

World-schooling – All Subjects Explained (Travel-Friendly, Parent-Friendly and Affordable)!

World-Schooling Curriculum – How to Homeschool, Travel and Relax!

World-schooling is Affordable (Which is why we do it)!

Kids’ Answers About our Adventurous Life (Edited for Grammar Only).

FAQ About Boat-life, a Teen’s Perspective – written by Sophie (15 at the time).

Socializing the Kids on the High Seas (by the Irresponsible Parents)

Here is a video we took, four months into our sailing adventure. The quality is a bit poor, but we think it’s useful.

Do you Like Living on a Boat – We asked the Kids.

In fact, while there – check out all of our cool videos!