Plan Your Own Family Gap Year
Thinking about taking your family travelling? You've come to the right place.
We're the Schulkins - a family of four from Brisbane who left in 2025 to travel the world slowly for a year. This page collects everything we've learned. Including the real costs, how we keep the kids learning, what to pack, where to go, and how to make the whole thing actually work.
Start wherever makes sense for you.
Can We Actually Do This?
This is the first question every family asks. The honest answer is: probably yes, with the right financial plan and realistic expectations.
You don't need to be wealthy. You don't need to have it all figured out. You need savings, a rough plan, and a family that's genuinely on board.
The families who make it work aren't extraordinary. They're just the ones who stopped waiting for the perfect moment.
What Does It Actually Cost?
The most common question, and the one with the most honest answer: it depends. But we share our real numbers.
We built a $10,000 AUD/month budget for a family of four. Some months we came in well under. Some months (hello, ski season in Austria) we went over. Here's the full breakdown.
What About School?
The second question everyone asks. And the one that worried us most before we left.
The short version: worldschooling works. It takes a few weeks to find your rhythm, but the combination of structured daily learning and real-world experience is genuinely powerful.
The longer version is here.
→ Read: Our Worldschooling Guide
→ Read: What Our Days Actually Look Like
→ Read: What Our Kids Really Think About Travelling the World
Where Should We Go?
This depends on your budget, your kids' ages, and what kind of travel suits your family. But here's what we've learned from travelling slowly through Australia, Vietnam, Austria, Italy, Morocco, Mexico and a quick stop in England.
Start somewhere affordable and family-friendly. Southeast Asia is the classic starting point for good reason. Give yourself more time in each place than feels comfortable. The magic of slow travel takes a few weeks to arrive.
What Should We Pack?
Less than you think. This is the lesson every long-term travel family learns the hard way.
We packed for four people across multiple seasons. Here's exactly what we brought, what we've ditched, and what we wish we'd left behind from day one.
How Do We Find Accommodation?
Short-term rentals (Airbnb, Vrbo, local equivalents) for most stays. Hotels for travel days or one or two nights only. The longer you stay somewhere, the cheaper and better your accommodation options become.
We aim for accommodation with a kitchen and an outdoor area wherever possible. It saves money when we can cook at home, the outdoor area gives the kids more space, and makes any place feel more like home.
We will also be using house sitting across the USA.
→ Read: Accommodation Guide - What We Look For
How Do We Keep Everyone Sane?
Long-term family travel is not a permanent holiday. It's real life lived in unusual places. Some days are extraordinary. Some are hard. Most are somewhere in between.
The families who thrive have a few things in common: they slow down, they build routine, and they're honest with each other about the hard parts.
→ Read: The Hardest Parts of Travelling the World as a Family
Ready to Go Deeper?
Our complete step-by-step planning guide covers everything above in detail. from getting aligned as a family, to the legal side of worldschooling, to managing the emotional reality of long-term travel.
