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Thirty-six countries in eleven months. That’s what Tom Fassbender and his family just did, an epic family travel around the world. For Tom and his wife Samantha, life was just getting too busy in Los Angeles, so they decided to sell their stuff, move out of their house, take their daughters out of school for a year and see a bit of the world before time got away from them.An Epic Family Travel Around The World
And boy-o-boy, that’s exactly what they did: from Europe and India to Japan and New Zealand, the Fassbender clan covered some serious ground. Join us as Tom and I discuss travel gear, learning on the road, Easter Island and other amazing anecdotes from an exceptional family round-the-world trip.
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EPIC INTRO
- Names: Tom Fassbender, his wife Samantha, and their daughters Francesca and Jacquelyn (now 12 and 9 at the time of writing)
- Hold passports from: USA (Los Angeles)
- Type of travel: 1-year, family round-the-world trip
- A few places they’ve been: 36 countries in 333 days
Find Them On:
- Tom: Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Flickr | Google+ | Medium | Boing Boing | Fords Basement |
- Taking On the World: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
EPIC ORIGINS
- The Fassbender’s lives were just too busy
- Tom ran some numbers, and then with a single text, the decision was made (details in the podcast)
- “We were saving for a bigger house, but our old house was big enough”
EPIC RULES & ROUTINES
- Always planning where they’d go next
- Get the kids involved in the planning (reasons & details in the podcast)
- If available, they always took the Sandemans Tours when they first arrived in cities that had them
- “Move in” whenever possible: unpack and put your stuff in drawers
EPIC ECONOMICS
- Used mostly their nest egg that was reserved to buy bigger house
- Made some income from his blog & freelance writing
- Arranged a few sponsors: BackCountry.com & Goal Zero
- Used the Chase Sapphire Card (double points for food & travel, and triple points on set days of the month)
- Set a budget of USD $200 a day for the whole family. At year-end, they came in close at $220/day (not including airfare)
- Used the McDonald’s menu as a standard of living gauge (details in the podcast)
EPIC ESSENTIALS
- 2 Eagle Creek Gear Warrior (32L)
- 1 Patagonia Black Hole Dufflebag
- 1 Patagonia Black Hole Backpack
- 1 Deuter Futura
- 1 Deuter Junior
- 1 REI Lookout
- 2 Macbook Airs
- 1 iPad
- 1 iPhone 5c
- 1 Moto X Android phone
- 2 old phones (old iPhone and old Android) for backup and entertainment for the kids
- 4 Kindles (get a family sharing plan)
- eBags packing cubes
- ExOfficio travel underwear
- Re: phone & data plans, they switched from AT&T to T-Mobile Simple Choice (Tom’s reasons in the podcast)
EPIC INSIGHT
- Kids wrote and edited their work in a journal. Returned to LA and the same school after 1 year away.
EPIC RESOURCES
- Minecraft
- Blockheads
- Netflix
- Khan Academy
- Books (kids): The Lemony Snicket and Sisters Grimm series
- Books (parents): : Monkeys are Made of Chocolate, Bali Daze, Tales of the Alhambra
- Games: Tenzi, Zombie Dice & Cribbage
- AirBnB
- Booking.com
- Trip Advisor
- Google Maps (except in South Korea)
- Tripit Pro
- Findery
- Field Trip
- XE Currency
- VPN: Private Internet Access (PIA) & Anonymizer
EPIC ADVICE
- If someone offers you a meal or a place to stay, say yes.
- “Get comfortable being uncomfortable” (more details in the podcast)
EPIC DESTINATIONS
- Easter Island
- Japan
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Granada, Spain
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means, at no extra cost to you, we might receive a small commission if you make a purchase or book using those links. My opinions are my own and I only recommend places/services that I believe will genuinely help your travel.
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