Europe has been our destination of choice for the last 10 years. We’ve spent time all over North America, where we live, and internationally speaking, have traveled a little to the far east (Japan, Korea for Betsy; Vietnam and Singapore for Dan). We very much plan to explore many destinations outside of the US and Europe, however, as a young family, Europe has so much to offer we’re not done exploring it yet!
A few reasons why European travel works for us:
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- Abundance and variety of art, history, language, food
- you’re almost always a ½ day train ride from an entirely different place)
- Abundance and variety of art, history, language, food
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- Safe travel and open borders
- Statistically much safer than many US cities but as always, do your homework, be smart, and do what’s best for your family
- Safe travel and open borders
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- Public transportation
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- No. Car seats. Needed. (in most places)
- Cheap, efficient, and who doesn’t love trains?
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- Public transportation
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- Culture
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- Similar western culture is less of culture shock
- many Americans are descended from Europeans and were taught that history in school (we likely know more about Roman Empire than Qing Dynasty for example)
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- Culture
- Economical
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- “Tolerable” flight costs (if there is such a thing) from US
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- Hostels to studio and flat rentals to hotels offer wide range of lodging options
- Decent exchange rate ($1.13 per euro at time of this writing though we’ve saw $1.40 in early 2010s)
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To illustrate some of the points above, take a look at how many different and wonderful places are within 300 miles of each other.
More to come on this topic!
Talk soon,
Dan & Betsy
Family Conversation topic: Could Europe be a good fit for your family? Where could your family go, what would you like to do in Europe? How does it compare to South America, Asia, and other areas of the world? Cultural fit, language(s), weather, cost, history/art?