We've already talked about the potential for anxiety when leaving everyday life and - more importantly - friends and family behind during a sabbatical, but now it's time to get practical. Whether you want to counter those fears by taking family with you, or by having friends visit, or if you want to go totally solo, we can make sure the logistics are taken care of.
Taking Family with You
Research shows that roughly a third of our clients who took a sabbatical last year did so accompanied by their partners and children. It might seem a daunting feat to take children out of school and travel the world as a family, but if planned properly this can be one of the most rewarding experiences both parents and children will ever have. And that's before mentioning the invaluable quality time spent together, and the family bonding and life lessons learned from the family bonding and lift lessons learned from encounters with fascinating people and places around the world. Time though, for a quick reality check. Arguments will still happen, and no, children do not learn how to pass their GCSE's while on safari in Kenya (but as before they will learn lots of other things). Thankfully we can line up fully qualified and fully flexible tutors to travel with you, recommend great online courses, or even arrange ad-hoc lessons with teachers from international school. To help with littler ones, or generally diffuse arguments, we also have a healthy address book of nannies.
To put it simply, hile we recognise that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach when it comes to family travel, in our experience having the advice of those who have planned or taken a family sabbatical before it utterly invaluable.
Having Visitors
It's amazing how infectious the idea of travel can be. Declare at a dinner party that you're setting off on sabbatical and we can almost guarantee that half the table will promise to come and visit you in some far flung destination. Granted, not all promises will come true, but many will, and it's an opportunity for your visitors to finally make the trip they've always intended (with the help of Original Travel, we hope) as much as for you to be reunited with long lost friends. Similarly, for families with older children, what better way to spend the university Easter holidays than travelling around India with Mum and Dad? And if you're away for a birthday or Christmas, who knows, we might even be able to surprise you with a visitor or two...
Going Solo
For some, the whole point of taking a sabbatical is to get away from everything and everyone, spending much needed time truly alone. It's an incredibly liberating feeling realising that you are not dependent on the network of people around you, and that you are self-sufficient. It may even help you appreciate your friends and family all the more. For a taste of total isolation with space and time for self-reflection, travel somewhere far away from the temptations of Wi-Fi, where beautiful scenery and peace are the perfect companions on your journey.