If there is one thing we have mastered as a home-educating multicultural, expat, mixed (and a lot more adjectives we could not think of right now!) family of five is that every individual is unique. UNIQUE. ONE-OF-A-KIND. ORIGINAL.
All mass produced goodies are cheap and low quality. Thought bubble – Made in China in bulk! Education should not be mass produced, love cards and love emails should never be copied and pasted. With this similar principle, travel plans should not be made in bulk. Simply because…. we are all different! Different shades, unique fingerprints, different tastes, unique brain synapses, different agenda.
As a family traveler, we are not fond of arranged tours. We like to customize our travel plans based on our specific travel goals for the family. Satisfying all five family members at one travel location is not only difficult, but close to impossible. Yet we prefer it because, we have kids! Kids who we want to be decisive for themselves and not go to join the lot. And also because it’s way cheaper! We own our time, toilet breaks and transportation mode. Perfect for a semi-introvert family!
What we miss though, on not joining tours, are the variety of travelers we meet. The solo traveler, the history buff, the been-to-all-you-guys-should-go-there-traveler, the I-can-never-travel-with kids traveler, cheapo-traveler, classy traveler, check-in-facebook-asap traveler, among others.
We respect those people. They know what they do NOT want and focus on what they DO want.
The saddest part of people not wanting to travel, is when they do travel because the blogs, the Facebook posts, the chats focus on having a travel bucket-list or travel goals and they are convinced that they have to have the list, too. Otherwise, they won’t be living their life too the fullest. It’s always sad to conform to society’s expectations against one’s own.
We are all unique. Traveling choices are unique to individual.
It’s okay not to have the desire to travel. It’s okay not to travel. It’s okay not to have any wanderlust.
And of course, similarly, it’s okay to have loads of wanderlust. It’s okay to want to travel. It’s okay to want to travel a lot. It’s perfectly okay to breathe travel.
Our choices. Our goals to live by.
Turknoy Travels 100! 
Really love your tips and these images of your family!
Thank you! ❤️
This is some great insight! Sometimes we get caught up in how much we love to travel that it completely confuses us when others don’t want to. And instead of convincing those people to travel we should accept that they don’t want to!
Yes. Acceptance is the key. Especially difficult when we can see the beauty of travel, right? To each his own individuality, that’s what we always say.
I can’t live without travel! The world is such a huge beautiful place and I’ve been bitten by the travel bug 😀
We feel the same about travel! ❤️
I totally understand not wanting to do the tours and the super touristy things. We are similar, we want to see some of the touristy things, but tend to want to be on our own.
Nice to know that we are not alone being that weird family traveling on our own. Happy travels from our family to yours.
My husband hated traveling when we first got married. If he couldn’t drive there in less than three hours he wanted no part in it. But since I am a travel bug, I would make trip plans and over the years he has come to love traveling!
I loved reading this because at one point boyfriend told he wasn’t into traveling and I just couldn’t believe it haha. But he eventually came around and loves it.
I think I’m somewhere in between…i like to see new places but i wish i could do it without having to sacrifice the comfort of home and home cooked meal…im pathetic i know😊
I love to travel but just don’t have the opportunity to. It’s a bummer but I am always happy for the families that get to!! What an adventurous life of making incredible memories. xoxo
Love your unique perspective and point of view! Such a fun read!
I love traveling! Love the tips!
This post hits the nail on how we are as a family too. We cannot do tours as we get very anxious and want to wander on our own. Nice to know that that is totally normal and there are others like us 🙂
I haven’t traveled yet with my kids because the thought of taking 3 kids anywhere is daunting. Way to make sure you’re still traveling!