Why I love travelling with my family.

I love travelling with my family. It's a great joy to share these experiences with them and a great satisfaction to know that my 3-year-old daughter understands more about the natural world than most of adults.

Most parents choose to have easy, trouble-free holidays to overcrowded and uninspiring holiday resorts where their children probably aren't even aware that they are in a country vastly different from home. And that is a real shame, indeed. Kids learn so much by travelling 'properly', it improves their knowledge of the world, gives them confidence and teaches them to be sensible and careful.
The first time we took our daughter to another country was when she was just under 2 months old and we took her to Latvia for Christmas markets. It was -10 degrees Celsius outside, covered in piles of snow and absolutely magical. Now I have memories and photos from that time to treasure forever.
The first time we took her to another continent was when she was 1 year and 1 month old. It was on a two-week trip to South Africa, where we hired an RV and drove from Cape Town to Addo National Park and back. She even got a chance to sit on an ostrich!
For me, there is nothing more wonderful then when my 3-year-old daughter's eyes light up as she watches a geyser erupting in the low afternoon sun in Iceland, or keeps asking about volcanoes due to her time there. Or when she recognises the shadows and even skeletons of the major African animals after a trip to Kruger National Park in South Africa. Or is upset for a poached rhino and tells everyone about the bad people who hurt it after we saw tiny bit of the devastation caused by poachers in the same Kruger National Park.
I hope that these, and other, experiences will encourage her to grow up into an independent, strong, intelligent woman who cares deeply about the world we live in and wants to make a difference in it no matter how big or small.

So, dear parents, don't be afraid to take your children on experiences where you'll love every second spent on theses journeys. That might not always be the easiest way to travel (or the cheapest, for that matter) but it's certainly the most rewarding. And so worth it!