More American Familes Taking Year-Long Global Trips

Well-traveled children often turn out to be more empathetic, open-minded and creative adults. We’ve written about how parents are increasingly taking their infants and toddlers on trips abroad and how parents are lighting a spark of wanderlust through imaginative travel books. Now more families are taking a year off work, school and soccer practice to travel the globe and learn about new cultures firsthand, writes Caren Osten Gerszberg in The New York Times.

For a family that traveled around the world, passing through India, China and Zimbabwe, among other places, “The result is that all these places matter to us now,” parent Peter Feuerstein told Gerszberg. “The trip was a watershed experience for all of us.”

Parents interviewed for the story said they rented out their homes, took out travel insurance, used guidebooks for food and hotel offerings, and either home-schooled their kids or let the experience itself educate the children.

Many of the children taking family trips around the world are between the ages of 9 and 12—an age where they’re old enough to appreciate the experience and young enough to still be attached to their families.

And the experience can bring them even closer together. Said Claire Tuttle of Winston-Salem, N.C., whose family is traveling the world together: “My kids are kinder to each other. Without the distraction of sports and school, we’ve become more of a team.”

©2026 World Hum, All Rights Reserved