7 Lessons I learned after traveling with my son for 5 years

This August (2026) will mark five years since I became a father.

Over all this time, my life has obviously changed.

I no longer have the freedom to go on long-term trips by myself, but I am still privileged enough to keep traveling and, most importantly, I have somehow managed to make travel part of James’ life as well.

At just five years old, I have taken him to 25 countries.

I have never been particularly fond of counting countries, I don’t even publicly share how many I’ve been to myself, so this article isn’t about the numbers.

It’s a reflection about the journey of raising a child who is genuinely curious about the world, and about the lessons that traveling together has taught me over the last five years.

From long weekend getaways around Europe to several-month overlanding trips across the Americas, I can genuinely say that traveling with your child is one of the best things in the world.

Here are some of the most important lessons I’ve learned after traveling with James over the last five years.

2026 also marks 5 years since the creation of ATC Expeditions.
Read how it all started.

1. We’ll go there when they grow older, so they can remember

He’s too young for that trip.

Why not wait for a few more years, so they can remember?

Very wrong approach in my humble opinion.

My answer to those statements is always the same:

Well, we’ll still go, and when he grows older, we’ll just travel somewhere else.

The world is huge. You will never visit every country and region (properly). It’s impossible.

So if you have been dreaming about traveling to a certain destination and you finally have the time and money to make it happen, don’t wait, don’t postpone it, just go.

Ignore those who say that children won’t remember those experiences. Maybe they won’t remember every detail, but they will make travel as a natural part of life. They will grow up seeing the photos, hearing the stories and, most importantly, you will remember.

Then, next year, if you still have the time and money, just travel somewhere else, you won’t run out of countries to visit with your children.

Of course, not all the countries are meant for traveling with kids: Central African Republic or Afghanistan, but the truth is that there is no perfect age to travel, just different ways of experiencing the world.

2. Kids understand more than you think

If you ever meet us on the road, I challenge you to ask James to name and point out the smallest country in the world (Nauru), tell you which is the only Dutch-speaking country in South America (Suriname), or even locate my favorite country, Yemen, on a map.

You might be surprised.

No, I don’t think James is smarter than other children, but I do think that travel has grown so much on him, making him genuinely curious about the world and eager to explore it.

We spend hours looking at maps and reading children’s books about characters traveling the world. One of his favorites is about a penguin who decides to leave Antarctica on the back of an albatross, visiting Peru, South Africa and New Zealand along the way.

We’ve reached a point where James is already suggesting countries to visit and regions to explore. And whenever we travel, I make him fully aware of where we’re going and what to expect from a journey like that.

This is yet another reason why I believe children are never too young to travel. They are like sponges, absorbing all kinds of knowledge and experiences.

In fact, I would even argue that the earlier you start, the better. The longer you wait, the less interested they become in their parents’ world.

So do take your chance while you are still their hero.

3. One day, you must tell them that they will have to start the f*** over

One unavoidable consequence of traveling with kids is that, once they become aware of the places they’ve been to, country numbers inevitably come up. And kids being kids, they can easily become obsessed with them.

I’ve noticed that James sometimes mentions the number a bit too often, occasionally even bragging about it in front of others.

That’s why I think it’s important to educate them about what travel is really about: meaningful experiences, local encounters and curiosity, rather than nonsensical statistics.

Now, if one day, when they grow up, they decide they want to become country counters, that’s up to them.

But they should also be aware that the countries they visited as children don’t count.

Not because they don’t remember them. Quite the opposite. Those trips helped shape who they are and triggered their curiosity about the world.

But traveling as an adult involves making your own decisions, planning your own itineraries and experiencing places on your own way, which is a completely different thing.

So I know that one day, I’ll have to sit down with James and tell him:

Dude, you need to start the fuck over.

4. Find a balance between kid-friendly and local

That’s a challenge, but a cool one.

If you want travel to grow on your child, meaning that they both enjoy it and learn from it, you need to find activities that are fun for them, but local enough that they understand they are somewhere different, absorbing new experiences along the way.

In practical terms, this means fewer playgrounds and fewer Disney World-like trips.

I’ll use our recent Serbia trip as an example.

We traveled to Serbia because, besides San Marino, it was the only country I had not visited in mainland Europe (very selfish, I know).

It was just the two of us for a week, and at first, I wondered whether Serbia would be an interesting destination for a four-year-old, but it was indeed.

We spent two nights in Belgrade, simply walking around, eating ice cream and trying local restaurants, ordering foods he had never seen before. No boring museums or too much walking.

Then we spent three nights in two different farms in rural Serbia, where he could feed the animals. Sure, you can do that almost anywhere in the world, but the owners only spoke Serbian, everything felt incredibly rural, and the food they served us was very local too.

Finally, we spent two nights in the mountains, staying in a traditional wooden hut, from where we took the Šargan Eight train.

Everything we did was very Serbian. Yet, at the same time, so much fun for a 4-year old.

Now, whenever we look back at the photos and talk about that trip, James has a simple but genuine understanding of what Serbia is like. He remembers the food, the mountains, the farms and the people.

If you can put together a kid-friendly trip in Serbia, you can do it almost anywhere.

5. Traveling with kids DOESN’T mean missing out

There’s a common misconception, which is that many people claim that traveling with children makes you miss out stuff.

I think the whole idea of “missing out” depends entirely on expectations.

If I travel to Tanzania with James, it’s only natural that I won’t be climbing Kilimanjaro or overlanding by matatu all the way to Burundi. But I’m not missing out on anything, because I already know that’s not the kind of trip we’re taking. And if I really want to climb Kilimanjaro, I can always come back another time on my own.

Similarly, when we went to Ecuador with James, climbing Chimborazo was never part of the plan. Instead, we spent three days on a local farm in a tiny village nearby, where the incredibly welcoming locals embraced us and made us feel part of their community, probably because we were a family.

Had I been traveling alone, I would have probably attempted Chimborazo. But I wouldn’t have stayed on that farm, and I certainly wouldn’t have spent hours hanging out with local families.

If I want to do something crazy, like hitchhike across Afghanistan to reach the Minaret of Jam, or spend four days overlanding to Kaieteur Falls in Guyana, I will do that alone or with a friend.

So stop saying that traveling with kids means missing out.

Sure, you may see fewer things, but in return, you slow down, spend more time in places and often have far more genuine interactions with locals than you would as a solo traveler.

Traveling with a child is simply a different experience, just like traveling solo, with your girlfriend or with a group of friends.

Each travel style comes with its own advantages, limitations and beautiful moments.

6. Traveling as a family is easy, but single parenting is a completely different game

There’s another misconception: that traveling with children is difficult.

Sure, it comes with its own challenges, but traveling as a family is actually much easier than people make it sound.

What is difficult, however, is traveling alone with a child. That’s a different league.

James’ mother and I separated some time ago, but I am fortunate and privileged enough to still be able to go on several-week trips with him because her mother has always supported the idea of James growing up traveling.

Still, whenever I travel alone with him, I am reminded of just how much easier things are when there are two of you.

Let me give you a simple example.

It’s late at night. You’re in your hotel room. Outside, it’s snowing and freezing cold, and your child suddenly says he’s thirsty. You realize you forgot to buy bottled water.

When there are two of you, one parent simply runs downstairs while the other stays with the child. When you’re alone, things become more complicated.

And that’s just one tiny example.

Now multiply that by every meal, every bathroom break, every train ride, every time your child gets sick, and the countless tantrums in the middle of the street while you’re carrying all the backpacks by yourself.

When traveling alone with James there are moments when I wonder:

What the hell am I doing here?

Some situations can be rough, but all good moments always make up for the bad ones.

7. Children adapt to everything, adults complain more

We have been running ATC Expeditions for quite some time now, bringing hundreds of travelers from all kinds of nationalities, ages and backgrounds to some pretty unusual places.

And after taking James on multi-country road trips, long bus journeys, campervan adventures and even jungle regions in the Pacific, I can genuinely say that some adults can certainly be more difficult, dramatic and demanding than most children.

Children adapt to almost everything, especially when they are younger.

They won’t complain about shit accommodation, and they don’t care about limited food options, as long as they are having with you.

Remember that, wherever you travel, there will always be children. There will always be diapers and there will always be food for children.

Conclusion

Everything I’ve shared in this article is based on my own experience and my genuine opinion after five years of traveling with James.

Having a son who loves traveling doesn’t make us special, and certainly not better than anyone else.

I simply believe that, just like any other passion or hobby, children often end up embracing what their parents genuinely love.

In our case, we focused on traveling.

This article is not meant to tell parents how they should raise their children, nor to suggest that everyone should travel the way we do.

But if you are also passionate about traveling and, for whatever reason, have been postponing it because you think having children means the end of your adventures, I hope these reflections encourage you to overcome those fears and simply go.

Because if there is one thing I have learned over the last five years, it is that children don’t stop us from traveling.

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