Have you ever dreamed of taking a journey around the world? I know I have. I met Tom and Kate and their family on Instagram. Say what you will about social media, but there are many interesting people out there you get to meet who share your interests. Since we started our blog in 2017, I have come across many fascinating individuals and families. Some of them live their lives and travel in a traditional sense. But others, and those have caught my eye, do things very differently.
Enter Tom, Kate and Family
Take, Tom and Kate, for example. What drew me to their story on Instagram, besides the eye catching name of their account (@HoboFamily), were their photos. I wasnât seeing the typical traveling familyâs pictures. There was no lazing around on the beach, or sipping cocktails at an all-inclusive resort, no theme parks with rides. Instead, here was a family, with photos of travel experiences I used to read about in adventure books as a kid.
“…Â our entire lives are in the small suitcase we drag around everywhere with us. ” –Â Tom from @HoboFamily
All of a sudden I had in front of me photos of a normal looking family that seemed to be on a very unusual journey around the world. I was seeing pictures of them in Rwanda, a place many Westerners donât think of as a travel destination with their families. Next, I was seeing photos of them taking a tiny bus across the Sahara. And more recently, there was a photo of this family of five at a police station in the Sinai Desert. When you sum up all these things, you can clearly tell, their voyage is not what most families usually consider to be a typical family vacation.
Those of you who know me will know I cannot just sit and wonder. I need to ask questions. So I reached out to Tom to invite him to share his familyâs story with us and with our readers. And I am so glad that I did, because their story turned out to be very inspiring. People travel for many different reasons. But whatever drove Tom and his family to initially begin their journey around the world, it eventually turned their voyage into a kind of collective healing for them.
A Family’s Journey Around the World
“My bucket list has my family on it.” – Tom from @HoboFamily
Q: Tell us a bit about yourselves and how you came to live your life as we see it today. You seem to always be traveling and having amazing adventures. What prompted you to choose this lifestyle of constant travel? What challenges did you face as you began this journey around the world?
Oh man, I could write pages and pages to answer this question and itâs pretty personal but the short answer is this. We are Tom, Kate, Dusty (11), Miles (9) and Penny (6) and weâre from Delray Beach, Florida. We didnât plan this trip at all and weâve never done anything like this before. It was totally spontaneous. Kate and I got divorced 5 years ago and weâd been living separate lives with new partners handing the kids back and forth on weekends like every other divorced couple.
I sort of fell into a hole after divorcing and stopped working and I got a really bad depression, anxiety and insomnia. I tried everything to fix myself including meditation, self help books, exercise, therapy, drugs and alcohol and, of course, medication. Nothing worked so, in desperation, I left south Florida (where we had been living for eight years) and I went traveling by myself, first to Great Britain and then to South Africa.
While I was in South Africa, Kate mentioned she wanted to take the kids on a road trip around America and I said âMaybe I could come with you guys?â And she said, âOkay!â So I flew back to Florida a couple of weeks later. We rented a van for one month (with crashing waves painted all over the sides) and off we went ⊠Of course we had a great time and that one-month camping trip turned into the epic trip weâre on now…
Q: Tell us about your travels through Africa. Why did you choose this area of the world? How do you deal with schooling for your kids on the road?
Weâre travelling around the world. We bought around the world plane tickets. So we could kind of choose anywhere we wanted as long as our trip âlegsâ kept moving us on a sensible path eastwards. We spent three months in Europe. Then we spent another three months in Africa (weâre in Egypt now). Next week we head to India for three months. After that, weâll be spending four months in the Far East (Japan, China, SE Asia, etc)… then onto Canada!… and finally back to Europe.
We tried to choose places that are fairly cheap so we could stretch our savings further. And as you can see on our Instagram, we also like places the US State Department says not to go to. đ
As for schooling, we try to block off at least 3-5 hours every morning for schoolwork. The kids each have a workbook they work through and some apps on our phones they use. But weâre not too regimented about this. We see this trip as a super duper giant homeschooling field trip. Next year we can be all strict about their formal education. But for now we want to have a good time and see the world.
Q: What has been the most rewarding thing about your adventure? What challenges are you dealing with while on the road?
Thatâs easy. This trip is bonding us as a family. Our family was broken. Now we spend all of our time together and I canât speak for everyone else, but Iâve never been happier. Also Iâve noticed my stress and anxiety have fallen away and Iâm sleeping so much better (although I am writing this at 4 in the morning).
Challenges? Basic stuff. Where will we sleep tonight? How will we get there? What will we eat? What fun things will we do? Oh… and we get challenged a lot over money. People are nickel and diming us wherever we go â or just outright trying to take advantage of us â and it gets a little old after a while.
Q: How do you support yourselves while traveling the entire time?
Yeah, we get this question a lot. Weâre living off savings. We arenât professional travel bloggers or digital nomads or anything like that. Weâve just saved up and now weâre blowing it.
However, sometimes we exchange our services for lodging. For example, we found a volunteer position in Rwanda on a website called Workaway which connects volunteers with volunteer hosts. We got very lucky with this position. I contacted the place on a Monday and that Wednesday we were on their doorstep beginning our jobs. We had no plan B. As always, we were winging it.
Kate helped organize their library. It was a giant mess of donations before we arrived. And I helped them design a new website. I also took new pictures and wrote the new website copy and helped them design it. And, I also ended up speaking to a classroom of Rwandan kids (their teacher asked me to do it). I told them about America, so they got to hear something a little different that day.
In return, we got free lodging and the use of the school facilities to home school our kids. We borrowed library books and board games. We got to use their WiFi and we participated in some of the school activities. It couldnât have been better for us. We are very grateful to them. And all that was set up in two days through one email.
But we donât aspire to be perpetual travelers. This is a sabbatical and at the end of the year weâre going to re-enter normal life somehow. I have absolutely no idea what that entails right now… where weâre going to live, how weâll earn money, etc but Iâm sure weâll figure something out. Not worried about all that right now. Before we left Florida we both got rid of all of our things, ended the leases on our apartments, said goodbye to our friends and I quit my work). We have a small storage locker there but otherwise our entire lives are in the small suitcase we drag around everywhere with us.
Q: Where are you off to next? Why are you going there?
India. Why are we going there? Well, itâs India. âNuff said.
Q: Have you met any people during your travels that really stuck in your mind? Can you tell us what made them stand out?
Yeah, many actually. Too many to list. The thing they all have in common is they evoked strong emotions in us… either because we clicked as friends… or because they were kind to us… or because we had conflict with them. There were people who tried and sometimes succeeded to take advantage of us. Others stick in our mind because they made the kids laugh or because they taught us something.
Q: Can you think of the most memorable experience you’ve had on the road so far? What was it?
I tried hard to pick a single experience for you but I couldnât. There are just too many and theyâre incomparable. How can you choose between seeing the Grand Canyon and chilling with mountain gorillas in the Congo? Or riding the sleeper train from Budapest to Istanbul versus riding in a hot air balloon over Cappadocia? Or seeing the Great Pyramid of Giza vs seeing Bryce Canyon? You canât. But I still have an answer for you: the most memorable experience is being with my family on an incredible adventure. That is what Iâll remember. Not the places or the experiences. My bucket list has my family on it.
Q: What’s the most surprising place you have visited on this journey around the world? What surprised you about it?
Gosh, your questions get harder and harder. Iâm surprised how cold Egypt is in the winter. How friendly and curious the Rwandese were towards us. Rwandaâs culture was most foreign to us of all the places weâve been so far. How friendly the Albanians are… and how much ancient Roman and Greek ruins they have. Oh… and a big surprise was how fun driving and camping across America was. It still might be the funnest thing weâve done so far. We all absolutely loved it. And it really beat our expectations.
Q: If you were to stop your voyage right now, what would be the most important lesson from your travels to date?
Two things actually. One, that I need to take sabbaticals from work and life from time to time. Working for decades under stress without a break did not lead to happiness. And second, spending a lot of time together has been a very good thing for our family. Weâve gotten so much closer and gotten to know each other so much more deeply. I know we were divorced but I think this would apply just as much if weâd still been married and I was working all the time. Weâre going to do a family sabbatical every 7th year from now on. I guess the bottom line is, the travels have been very good for my head and I hate to speak for Kate and the kids, but Iâd guess theyâd agree.
Q: Was there anything you discovered on your journey around the world that completely blew your mind and perhaps changed your outlook on life?
That giving myself a break from the responsibility of earning money… and spending that break with Kate and the children was a decision that led to a lot of happiness for me… more happiness than I remember having ever felt before… most happy Iâve ever been my entire lifeâŠ
Q: Have you learned something about people you didn’t know before?
Hmmm … you mean like humans in general? I donât think so. Human nature has already defined itself pretty well to me â through reading and traveling â and I donât think it changes much. The corollary to that is, I have learned a lot about myself. And how I should best approach life.
Q: What advice would you give to a family thinking of embarking on a similar journey around the world?
Haha! I hate giving advice. I wouldnât give them any advice. Instead Iâd say âyouâll see.â But if you asked me what advice Tom today would give to Tom of nine months ago, well, that would be the following. Take it slow, and donât try to see, do, and control everything. The real fun is in being with the people you love most. Whether youâre chilling all day in a hotel room or youâre seeing one of The Seven Wonders, it doesnât matter. As long as youâre together, youâre winning. Thereâs no need to try to see and do everything. As a matter of fact, we even have rest days several times a week and we try not to do more than one tourist activity per day when we are exploring.
@HoboFamily PhotosÂ
Tom and Kate were kind enough to share with us some of their photos from their journey around the world. All the photos you are seeing in this post belong to them. You can find many more on their Instagram account. This photoâs description written by Tom particularly grabbed my attention.
Itâs not necessarily what he said (because it is not unique to his experience) but that he was brave enough to say it:
âBack in America, I used to dread spending time with my kids. I was so wrapped up in my own selfish agenda that spending time with the kids often seemed like a duty or an inconvenience. Essentially I was a grumpy babysitter ⊠Now, traveling as we are, we spend all of our time together ⊠often in the very cosy (read: cramped) studio apartments we rent. And I couldnât be happier.â
Final Word
My takeaway from interviewing Tom about his family’s journey around the world is this. It’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey. And who you are on that journey with is paramount. And that you should make time for play as often as possible. Sometimes, while we are too preoccupied with our careers or other goals, we forget what is most important. We are busy doing instead of just being. We forget to take a break, to simply enjoy what we already have. And sometimes we even put our families on a back burner.
Tomâs story reminds us that we only have the one life to live and we should not waste it on things that do not fulfill us. Tom and his familyâs journey around the world may have began as an act of desperation after they went through some tough times. But it turned into a process of healing for their entire family.
I sincerely want to thank Tom, Kate and their lovely kids for sharing with us their deeply personal story. I think their eventual ability to let go of things and of their past is enviable to a lot of us. To me, their story is one of freedom. Would you be brave enough to embark on a journey around the world such as the one Tom and his family are on? Please share this interview with others. And if you havenât yet, please subscribe to our blog.
In addition, Tom has graciously agreed to answer any questions you may have about his family’s journey around the world. So go ahead and leave a question for him in comments below.
Enjoy your journey!
BPK
Amazing! They are my #familygoals for the future hahaha. I’ve always wanted to do this, someday. Following them now in Insta! Hehe.
Awesome! They deserve to be followed. Such an inspiration to the rest of us.
I love this so much!! I was actually thinking about this just the other day – âthe real side of travelâ. These days it seems to be about the best photos. What a special experience for the children – so life changing!
So true! When you look on Instagram, it’s all about the best angle, pose or edit. But this family are all about real life. That’s why they caught my eye.
Very inspiring! I loved travelling with my parents when I was a kid (nothing quite this epic, but travel nonetheless). I didn’t realise how important those experiences were until I got a bit older. A love for travel is a wonderful gift for a parent to give their child!
I completely agree. Family travel memories are priceless!
This is so inspirational! I thoroughly enjoy reading other travelers stories and to learn more about their journeys
Thanks, Rahma!
Such an inspiring family! Wish I can one day be able to take off like this, maybe when Iâve saved up a bit đ
Me too! I wonder if I would allow myself to let go as much as they have. I want but I am not there yet.
Nice story with a happy ending. I think this family should be travel bloggers. Their experience is very interesting!
I agree! They should blog or write a book about their experiences.
Excellent all round…..what a whizz!
I was bewitched reading this family’s amazing story! Wow!!!!
Your story is really inspiring. These kids are having such an incredible life!
What an incredible story! just shows how travel can give you a new perspective on life and make you evaluate whatâs really important.
Exactly! I love how this voyage had such a healing effect on this family.
Very cool – I admire people who aren’t afraid to buck convention and travel with their kids. The most well-rounded children I’ve ever met are the well-traveled kids.
So true! Like Tom said, their journey around the world has been one big home schooling classroom for their kids.
This family sounds incredible! I hope I can travel with my family around the world one day!
Agreed! They are inspiring us to start thinking about taking a similar trip one day.
This is great! What a great story, thank you for being curious and sharing
Thank you for reading!
What an absolutely inspiring story! It’s so lovely that you’ve both made something so positive out of a bad situation. I’d love to do something like this when we have kids, although maybe not so long-term. I feel like I’d get too stressed out after a while, haha. But I’d definitely like to take them on meaningful extended holidays, and I’d find it interesting learning about how to keep up their every-day education!
Thank you for sharing your amazing and inspirational story!
You talked about letting go and not trying to control things so much. How did you make the shift to being less controlling? Is it simply a mindset thing? How do you approach situations differently now that allowed yourself to let go of control?
Thanks!
Itâs a mindset… we feel like being together is all that matters, so if we miss a train or our hotel isnât what we expected, we let it slide. And we do almost zero planning. We just let Providence take us wherever it wants… and we follow without complaint… you know?
I am a foodie. Have there been any foods you never thought youâd try, but were surprised by how good they were?
Weâre food lovers too… we got pretty bored of the food in Rwanda and Egypt (were vegetarian so that probably didnât help.) But weâre loving the food in India. I didnât expect the kids to eat spicy food… but theyâre eating it every meal now.
Have the children expressed any new interest in careers that may not have been talked about before this epic adventure?
Wow! Very cool article. Iâm going to have to explore their Instagram feed. Questions for Tom & Kate- had either of you travelled much as kids with your parents or was this trip a whole new experience for you? You mention that you like to visit places that arenât âadvisedâ by the US State Dept, are you concerned at all when travelling with young kids? Do you take any extra steps to stay safe? And, curious if the kids had any issues understanding/ coping with the culture shock of Africa compared to their comfortable Florida lives (also thinking specifically about Rwanda & the genocide- did you show them much of that history or did you try to shield them from some of that harshness?) Thanks! The idea of a Round the World ticket sure has me thinking!
What beautiful work you put into this post! Itâs so thorough and came out really well. Weâre totally flattered and proud. Thank you for doing this!
Thank you, guys! Especially for sharing your inspiring story. We wish you all the best on your continued journey. We will faithfully follow all your future adventures. Bea, Pete & Kas