EER029: An Epic Family Travel Around The World

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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.