After meeting in law school, B and C—who choose not to share their identities, even though they have nearly 60,000 followers on Instagram—veered off the traditional path. Instead of heading off to clerkships or big law firms, they traveled around the world for 14 months.
They haven’t exactly stopped in the dozen years since, but now their adventures include three kids. They’ve traveled to over 60 countries, including 15 with their children, and document their experiences on the popular blog and IG account, Where the Kids Roam. Originally from California, they currently live in Spain, where they work as lawyers.
“I first started a blog roughly 13 years ago when my wife and I traveled around the world,” said the family’s dad, B. “I stopped blogging for 11 of those past 13 years because I thought blogging was a silly medium that was going nowhere. I was wrong. “
About five years ago, B signed up for an Instagram account, which is known (happily) for not taking itself too seriously. He only started posting “because I had almost 100,000 photos that I felt the world immediately and desperately needed to see in square format with bad filters and with purposely obnoxious captions. I was wrong again, but only sort of this time.”
They shared their favorite flight-booking tool, the (surprising) best country to travel with kids, and the midnight hike they took in rain and hail—and loved.
In three words, our travel style is…
Sprinting, chaos, and pandemonium. Actually, let’s go with shitshow, shitshow, and shitshow. Honestly, as much as we’ve done this, we’re still usually a mess.
What made us fall in love with traveling is…
Meeting people. Experiencing other cultures. Yes and yes. People are wonderful around the world. Whatever problem you have—or think you have—with a government does not usually translate to the people who reside in that country. I feel like traveling confirms that people are, for the most part, genuinely good. Regardless of their circumstances. Also, growing up in the U.S., what culture do we really have? Pop culture? Pepsi, Levi’s, and Michael Jackson (I’m old)? It’s great to see things that people have been practicing for generations, nay, thousands of years.
If our kids could learn one thing from traveling, it would be…
Honestly, I just don’t want them to be entitled jerks. I hope that traveling makes them very much grateful for the circumstances they were born into. Also, I want them to respect nature, other cultures, and other people (especially those who do not look like them). In other words, I just want to raise good citizens of the world.
The way we decide where to travel is…
The less traveled, more exotic place the better. I usually want to go to all the places where people would never think to take kids. I want to take my kids up Kilimanjaro, across the Darien Gap, over the Gobi Desert, and down the Nile River. Because I want a challenge. But then my wife reminds me that taking the three kids to a grocery store is a challenge. So, I relent.
We’re definitely not experts on any region. We rarely repeat any one place, because there are so many other places to see. Having said that, we’ve been to Bangkok five times and that’s because it’s our first love. SE Asia is by far my favorite region.
Our favorite favorite family destination is…
Vietnam. Great food. Great people. Great climate. Safe when no wars are going on.
What spots at the top of our bucket list are…
Antarctica and Madagascar come to mind.
Our best family travel hack is…
Leaving the kids at home.
My favorite way to book flights is…
I usually book my flights, or at least search for my flights, on Google Flights or Skyscanner.
The first trip we took with our kids was…
We took our very young daughter, our firstborn, to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague in the dead of winter. On that trip, we learned to never take an umbrella stroller on cobblestone roads. We also learned that winter clothes in Southern California (where we’re from) are very much not comparable to the proper winter clothes you should own in Europe.
One piece of advice we’d give families looking to travel the way we do is…
Just know that you’ll forget how hard it really was. Only the good memories will remain.
Our favorite travel experience was…
Hiking to a downed U.S. military aircraft in Iceland at midnight. We were alone. There was some hail and quite a bit of rain. It was all so surreal, with very few people around. Also, it was a pretty long hike and we carried all three kids the entire way. There was something so rewarding about doing something so difficult.
You can learn more about us…
By following me on Instagram at @wherethekidsroam, reading my blog at www.wherethekidsroam.com, or coming to my city and buying me a fancy dinner with unlimited top-shelf libations.
