Curious plan – Our first 200 days on the road

Goodness me - Curious Plan is 200 days already! In one way it feels like we set off yesterday and in another like we've been doing this for absolutely ages. It also felt like an appropriate milestone to stop and look back over our trip. Here's our top ten reflections on the ups, downs, highs, lows and lessons learnt so far.

The Perhenthian Islands has to be one of our favourite spots in the world. A little slice of paradise just off the North East coast of Malaysia. Coral fringed white beaches, azure blue waters with a stunning backdrop off lush, green jungle and absolutely nothing to do but swim, snorkel, kayak or dive.....

Totally away from it all the island has experienced very little development - no internet, no roads, no traffic and no distractions. And the best bit - no shoes. We took our flip flops off when we arrived at our chalet door, we picked them up a week later.


Where do we start? We have sent over 25Kgs of luggage home since starting this trip! We had so many ridiculous "just in case" items including jackets and jeans - for travelling in Asia where temperatures are consistently tropical - no idea what we were thinking! Our biggest learn is travel light, do laundry frequently and you can buy virtually everything you need on the way.

The rewards of travelling with kids are huge. Some days it's frustrating, tiring, challenging and bloomin hard work; but the adventures we're sharing together more than make up for it. We have freedom and are lucky enough to choose every day how we want to spend our time together. We live in each other pockets and are learning together that home is not a place but a feeling. We sometimes drive each other slightly bonkers but are closer than we have ever been and are making memories to last a lifetime.

Without a doubt it's the missed moments in the lives of the people we love so much. It's actually not just the big milestone events - weddings, 40th's and babies - although there have been plenty of those we would have given an arm and a leg to be there for. What we miss most is the ordinary day to day mundanity of being in and out of the lives of our nearest and dearest. Jessica breaks my heart a little when she pleads for playdates with her friends and we miss the spontaneous catch ups, the chats over cups of tea (and wine..) and the nights out. If only we could all be teleported home for regular catch up's then this life would be perfect!


The only way to travel long term with small children is slowly. Packing up and moving around drains a lot of time and energy and cranky, overtired children mean stress for everyone.

We find the best combo is to be on the move for a maximum of a three weeks before basing ourselves in one place for a longer period of time. Having somewhere to settle also means we get an apartment rather than hotel rooms. More cost effective and everyone benefits from room to spread out, routine and the opportunity for some home-cooked meals.

One of the biggest myths is that we secretly won the lottery - unfortunately not! We have both always loved travelling and the idea of taking our young children on a big adventure in their pre-school years was a dream for years. We planned, worked hard and saved to make it a reality. Our main source of income is from the rental of our house back in London; a property we worked hard to save for and lovingly refurbished from top to bottom before we left.

I also became an absolute demon e-bayer and sold an extraordinary amount of random stuff; raising some additional funding for our travels. We sustain our adventures by living within a daily budget which allows us to live very comfortably but no blow out 5 star luxury!

Just do it - travelling with our kids is the scariest, maddest, greatest decision we ever made. There is no doubt that packing up your home, quitting your jobs and leaving everything behind is a big decision. It is perfectly normal to feel daunted at times yet once we'd packed our bags and boarded that flight it felt like the most obvious decision we ever made. We've come across lots of families along the way, travelling with kids in tow, and I haven't yet met anyone who wasn't happy with their decision. Just find the courage to take the leap - you won't regret it.