Author of 'On the Road ... With Kids' and experienced family traveller, Australian writer John Ahern talks about the importance of travelling with your children and the best way to do it.
When the author John Ahern and his wife's children were aged two and four, the pair decided to take a break from corporate life and set out on a year-long trip as a family. Since then he has had the tales of these family travels published in the novel 'On the Road ... With Kids', as well as going on to have more family adventures.
Whether you set out on a long journey or a shorter trip, travelling as a family can prove invaluable. The author and experienced family traveller tells us why.
Which countries did you decide to travel to as a family?
Well, on the year-long trip, we started by flying into Amsterdam, then went north to the Arctic Circle, through all of those Scandinavian countries. We went through Denmark, Norway and Sweden, then back down through Finland. We crossed the Baltic to eastern Europe through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, right down through Romania to Croatia. Then, we took the ferry over to Italy, carved across central Europe and ended up in Spain and Portugal.
After that, we headed back over to England for a while, then travelled through Morocco for about six weeks, before driving right across Italy to Greece and Turkey. Finally, we drove back up to Germany and France, before returning to Australia. I think we'd actually covered 32 countries by the end of it.
Last christmas we decided we hadn't been away together for too long, and I'd always wanted to go to Vietnam, so we took a month off with the kids to travel around there.
The stunning scenery of Arctic Norway.
Did you choose the destinations based on the fact you were travelling with kids?
No, not at all. On the year trip, we just went wherever we wanted to at that time. The only place we did go for that reason was Lapland, when we headed all the way up to the Arctic Circle. We thought it would be really cool to take the kids to see Santa Claus.
What was the most rewarding destination on the big trip for the whole family?
Initially, going right up into Scandinavia was just about slowing down, as we'd just left the whole work scene. Spending time with my wife Mandy and the kids was fantastic. As you drive through Norway, the highway system is a mixture of tunnels, roads and ferries that wind through the fjords, so there it was all about the scenery and sitting around campfires together. The one that had the biggest impact though was Morocco because it was the most foreign place for us to travel through.
And from your recent trip to Vietnam, would you recommend other families to go, too?
Yes, it's great for that. There's so much to do, with nice hotels and lovely restaurants. On that trip, the kids were twelve and fourteen, so they loved going to a Vietnamese cooking school, and they thought catching an overnight train into the mountains of northern Vietnam was exciting. We also did three nights in Halong Bay. It's a destination where you can do things as a whole family.
Halong Bay in Vietnam.
Do you think you've instilled the adventurous spirit you have, in your children, by t