Why we started Kids Who Travel really comes down to one thing: we wanted more honest conversations about family travel.
When Carly and I first met in Türkiye, we quickly realised we had a lot in common. We were both Australian mums living overseas, raising our daughters while travelling, and figuring out family life in places far from home.
We also realised there was something we both struggled to find when we first started travelling with kids: honest information about what family travel actually looks like.
There was plenty of content showing beautiful destinations, hotels and perfectly packed suitcases, but we wanted the conversations happening behind those photos too.
What happens when your toddler loses it on a long-haul flight? What do you do when somebody gets sick overseas? How do you find somewhere to live for a few months, manage visas, homeschool, deal with cancelled plans or simply get everyone through a travel day when nobody has slept?
Those were the things we wanted to know when we started, and eventually we realised we had accumulated quite a few answers of our own.
That’s where Kids Who Travel came from.
We Wanted to Talk About the Real Side of Family Travel
Between our two families, we’ve travelled through multiple countries, taken more flights than we could comfortably count and spent years living abroad with our kids.
We’ve travelled with babies, toddlers and young children, navigated schooling overseas, found homes in foreign countries, dealt with sickness, changing visa rules, cancelled flights, travel days that went completely off the rails and plenty of situations we definitely weren’t prepared for.
We’ve also had some of the best experiences of our lives.
That combination is important to us because we don’t want Kids Who Travel to become another place that makes travelling with children look effortless. Because it’s not.
Sometimes it’s exhausting, the plans fall apart, and you find yourself wondering why you thought taking a small child halfway around the world was a good idea. Then you have one of those moments that reminds you exactly why you did it.
Maybe your child makes a friend despite not sharing a language, tries something completely new or becomes comfortable somewhere that once felt completely unfamiliar. Maybe you find a place you love and stay much longer than you planned.
Travel isn’t perfect, and neither are we. We don’t want to present a polished version of our lives because that isn’t what travelling with kids actually looks like.
We Want Travelling With Kids to Feel Achievable
One conversation that really stuck with Renee was with a friend who had cancelled a family trip to England because the thought of taking their three-year-old on the flight felt too overwhelming.
They wanted to go. The flight was what stopped them.
Flying with kids was one of the first topics we wanted to tackle because it’s one of the biggest things stopping families from travelling
We know they aren’t the only parents who have felt that way.
There are so many things to worry about once kids are involved. Will they sleep? What if they cry? What if they refuse to eat anything? What if everyone on the plane gets annoyed? What if we get there and it’s all too hard?
We’ve worried about plenty of those things ourselves, but experience has taught us that kids are often far more adaptable than we expect, and parents usually are too.
Your child might cry on the plane. A flight might be delayed. You might book the wrong accommodation or have a travel day where everyone is completely over it.
That doesn’t mean the trip wasn’t worth taking.
Parents can spend so much time worrying about what everyone else thinks that it stops them focusing on their own family and enjoying the experience.
We want to help take some of that fear away.
We’re Sharing What We’ve Learnt, Not Telling You How to Travel
Our families don’t always travel the same way, and we actually think that makes the podcast more useful.
Our kids are different, our routines are different and sometimes Carly and I have completely different answers to the same question.
We’re not travel agents or parenting experts, and we certainly don’t have everything figured out. We’re two mums who have travelled a lot, made plenty of mistakes and learnt a lot along the way.
Kids Who Travel is our place to share those experiences honestly.
We talk about flying, accommodation, visas, schooling, transport, health, money, burnout and all the everyday realities of travelling and living overseas with children.
Some episodes are practical, some are personal and some will inevitably wander slightly off topic because one of us has remembered a story halfway through.
That’s part of it too.
If One Thing We Share Helps Another Family, It’s Worth It
This is probably the simplest explanation of why we started Kids Who Travel.
If one tip makes another family’s flight easier, if one story saves somebody from making the same mistake we did, or if something we talk about gives a parent enough confidence to finally book the trip they’ve been thinking about, then the podcast is doing exactly what we hoped it would.
We’re not here to tell families there is one right way to travel. We want to share what we’ve learnt so you can work out what makes sense for your own family.
Life is short, and for us some of the best parts of it have happened when we’ve stepped outside what felt comfortable and familiar.
That doesn’t mean everyone needs to sell everything and travel full-time.
Adventure looks different for every family.
Maybe yours is moving overseas. Maybe it’s travelling for a month. Maybe it’s simply taking your baby on their first international flight.
Whatever it looks like, we want to help make taking that next step feel a little less daunting.
Welcome to Kids Who Travel. We’re really glad you’re here.
Listen to the Kids Who Travel Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, watch us on YouTube, or come and say hello on Instagram at @kidswhotravelpodcast.
With love and a side of travel chaos,
Carly & Renee