We are starting with two weeks of Spanish lessons for the entire family in Costa Rica at:
Then we have a Gap Adventures family tour booked for Peru & Ecuador (the Galapagos Islands):
http://www.gapadventures.com/tour/PF07F
For Australia we Have a camper van booked for six weeks starting in Sydney and finishing in Brisbane. We have no idea of a route and are still toying with the possibility of a super long (and straight & boring) drive to iconic Ayers Rock. Any suggestions or comments of worthwhile sights in Australia are heartily welcomed. Please send any comments to: travel (at) noe.ca The Toyota van we are renting is from:
http://www.britz.com.au/campervan-hire-australia
After that we have no major tours or “equipment” bookings. We’d like to have one through Egypt & Jordan but no tour companies that we have found on the net are interested in taking bookings from families this far in advance for the time frame we will be there. Other than that we’ll probably rent a small car from Rome through Europe until Paris. We’re still looking into the possibility of some helpX or woofing farm stays depending upon how our money is holding out by the time we get to Europe. After the grand old Chunnel ride we’ll rent another small car in the UK to tour around there until we hit Dublin and then fly back to Halifax in Canada.
There are an abundance of travel reference websites (commercial & private) which Claudette & I have devoured. The most recent one I stumbled upon is from a family that most closely seems to resemble ours & our situation & goals than most others that we have encountered. They traveled for ten months back in 2001 & 2002. The main difference is that they schooled their three kids for the duration and with their comments it strongly solidified our feelings of not wanting to bother with “official” curriculum while we’re traveling. Too funny that the wife/mother’s maiden name is also James…