10 of the Best Travel Websites for Adventurous Families
While spontaneous excursions have made for some great family memories, a little bit of planning goes a long way towards keeping our travels smooth. When you’re ready to get out and explore, here are some of the best travel websites for adventurous families to help plan or inspire your next journey.
Family Travel Websites That Will Inspire Epic Adventures Together
1) Travel Babbo
If you’re a parent who’s interested in going beyond the standard family-friendly vacation destinations, Travel Babbo—whose motto is “take your kids everywhere”—is the family travel website for you. In addition to writing about his family’s epic adventures and lessons he’s learned along the way, site creator Eric Stoen’s photos beautifully capture his kids exploring amazing destinations around the world. And if you’re looking for a cool family travel idea, Eric does something that’s unique. Every year he takes each of his three kids on a one-on-one birthday trip to wherever they dream of going. They’ve traveled to destinations like Hong Kong, Belize and even Antarctica. You can’t help but be impressed and inspired to go on an off-the-beaten path adventure with your own family when you visit Travel Babbo.
2) The Traveling Child
“If kids live there, kids can visit” is the motto of The Traveling Child, and you’ll often find the Hambrick family exploring destinations most don’t consider kid-friendly. They know that family travel can be expensive and they do their best to provide recommendations based on affordable flight deals. The site branches out from destination pieces and adds on very relatable but not very talked about issues such as traveling with a kid who has eczema, or how to take decent family vacation photos. Monet, the mom, wants to show that black families have representation in the travel world. To help diversify the book shelves, she wrote her first book called The Traveling Child Goes to Rio de Janeiro, based on their 2018 trip to Brazil.
3) Earth Trekkers
In 2014 and 2015, Tim and Julie Rivenbark took their family of four on a trip around the world. They spent 13 months on an 87,000-mile journey, traveling through Europe, southern Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Their goal was to spend as much quality time with their kids as possible while they were still children. Their trip wasn’t just about seeing a bunch of countries, museums, and UNESCO sites, it was about going on an unforgettable adventure as a family, changing their view of the world, and learning about what is really out there. Years later, they continue to share on Earth Trekkers to inspire other families to adventure with their kids and create amazing memories.
4) 2 Travel Dads
Chris and Rob Taylor, otherwise known as 2TravelDads, are known for taking their sons out into the world and experiencing it all as an LGBTQ family. Their blog was the first LGBTQ family travel website and has helped many other diverse families share their experiences online. They want to encourage families like theirs to be visible in the world, traveling beyond their comfort zone in safety. They also host a podcast where they share more tips and personal stories from their adventures.
5 ) Crazy Family Adventure
Craig and Bryanna Royal, and their four kids (yes four!), are a full-time nomadic family living out of an RV indefinitely as they explore the U.S. and Canada. Even if you could never imagine constantly being on the move, you’ll appreciate the authentic videos, destination suggestions, and the insider’s glimpse at RV life that they share on Crazy Family Adventure as they inspire families to deepen their connections through travel and time outdoors together.
6) Family Vacation Critic
While Family Vacation Critic is not flashy nor does it come with a super inspiring backstory, it is a part of the TripAdvisor family and is well-organized and gets straight to the point. One of the best features is that you can be guided to different content depending on your kids’ ages, meaning you don’t have to surf through a bunch of content directed at families with a newborn when you are looking to plan a trip with your three teens. It has a lot of top 10 lists. Plus, there’s also a focus on what many families want: deals.
7) Learning Escapes
Writer Marta Correale is an Italian expat in Ireland, so expect this site to have a heavy Europe angle. Marta shares that her first travel experiences as a child were of her family packing up the car with a tent, a basket of low-tech camping gear, and a huge amount of books. They would let curious names of places or main landmarks decide their stops. It was independent family travel, a perfect blend of adventure, fun and education – and that’s the kind of cultural travel style that she loves to share with her community on Learning Escapes.
8) The Mom Trotter
Karen Akpan, her husband, and their young son Aiden (and often her nieces and nephew, too), are currently traveling the USA full time in an RV. While they may not be the first family to trade in their comfortable house for life on the road, her take on it is very refreshing. On her popular blog, The Mom Trotter, she doesn’t sugarcoat anything, but instead empowers parents and shows them that traveling with kids is possible even as a one income family, stay at home parent or while working a full-time job. She is also the founder of Black Kids Do Travel, a safe space for families to discuss their travel and issues that they face traveling the world with children of color.
9) Full Suitcase
Jurga, the writer and mom of the site, comes from a degree in economics and worked in finance for a multi-national biotech company. Her content is straightforward, practical, and no-nonsense. Sometimes a reader doesn’t need to hear some mom’s musings of the cute thing her son said upon seeing his first Redwood tree – sometimes they just need to buy a travel bag and want the real deal scoop on which one works best for a teen. Full Suitcase is organized very well with destinations, so if you are leaning towards Asia, you can get all that content in one spot.
10) Outdoor Families Magazine
Differentiating itself from many other family travel websites on this list, Outdoor Families Magazine is multi-author platform giving you multiple perspectives as opposed to just from one mom or dad who represents the entire content source. There is a solid 101 Series to help you prepare for common adventures like backpacking and road tripping with kids, as well as a great Stewardship section to help families teach their little ones about caring for the environment. It covers outdoor pursuits all over the globe, ranging from sea kayaking in Greece, and where to adventure in Patagonia, to the best family-friendly whitewater rafting adventures in the U.S.
Are you an adventurous family and think I missed a site? Please leave a comment below and share your favorite app or site for adventurous families!
Travel writer Kim Tate, the founder of Stuffed Suitcase, contributed to an earlier version of this article that first appeared in June 2017.
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