Follow Us Around The World: My Family's Upcoming Adventure

airbnb design airbnb travel ideas Mar 01, 2024

_{(above photo taken in Essaouira, Morocco April 2023)}

This September 3, 2024, my family and I will embark upon a year-long round-the-world trip. We live in Cambridge England, where my husband is a business professor at Cambridge University, and where for the last 5+ years we've been raising our two daughters.

Every 7 or so years, professors are typically given a year without their teaching load or admin responsibilities. Because of the ages of our children, (7 and 13 at the time of trip take-off) we figured this is our shot to do this crazy thing as a family of four all living under one roof: A round-the-world once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Beginning in September, we will head to Sweden, our first of approximately 16 locations, and start the process of home-schooling our girls, something all those Covid lockdowns have me very nervous about. But my husband isn’t worried, so I'll try to relax about that part.

So, where are we going and why?

_{(This is our list as of March 2024...all subject to change and shift as plans firm up.)}

We've chosen these locations mainly based on family + my husband's work connections, but also we're really striving to avoid winter weather as much as possible. We'll be spending most of the 'winter' months down in the southern hemisphere and that is very intentional. We love our lives in England and also, we hate the cold. So we're taking full advantage of the autonomy over our location for this year to chase the sun and visit some amazing beaches.

Fun fact: my husband is actually allergic to cold weather. In college, he developed cold urticaria, which causes him to break into hives when exposed to cold. I know, right? And for a while, we lived in Northwestern Canada. Can you imagine? Anyway, we survived that weather and although England is no tropical island, it's warmer than Alberta, Canada.

_{(Alberta Canada, with our first daughter in 2012)}

In each location we visit, we plan on volunteering with a local organization. We hope to expose our kids to a broader view of the world outside of the small British neighborhood where we walk, cycle, and generally live most of our lives. But if I’m honest it’s not just for our kids. My husband and I also want to get outside of our comfort zone, meet new friends, and contribute in more ways than just with our tourism dollars. We know that being able to travel like this is a massive privilege. It feels important to find beautiful and interesting ways to give back.

_{(Lake Bohin, Slovenia 2023)}

You may be wondering what we’re doing with our own home. Part of how we can afford this trip is by turning our Cambridge house into a short-term rental for the year. We're lucky to have a house walkable to the Cambridge city center, which is a desirable destination pretty much year-round.

We are planning to hire a local property management firm that will list our home on all of the OTAs (online travel agents) like Airbnb, VRBO, and Marriott Bonvoy. They'll manage the communications, turnovers, and all of the other nitty-gritty details necessary to run a rental!

Sometime soon, I’ll write another post about what we’re doing to prep our home for the year. Including adding more photos to the listing above. (It's very imperfect, I was just giving it a test spin. No judging.)

Spoiler alert for all my house prep, the keyword is going to be subtraction! (Packing away most of our personal stuff into locked storage.)

Would you like to host my family???

So, friends. Do you have a rental in any of our slated destinations? I would LOVE to stay in your place and if you're up for it, offer some design help or design consultation as needed.

^{(Amsterdam May 2023)}

Especially for those U.S. cities, like Washington D.C., Raleigh or Wake Forest North Carolina, and Chattanooga, Tennesse. We will be staying near our families in these places and I want nothing more than to be of service to local hosts for those parts of our stay.

Improving rental properties is my FAVORITE thing. If you think your rental could use a property glow-up, please reach out to me at [email protected].

_{(Slovenia, August 2023)}

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