Guest of the Week: Ida Thunberg, Round the World Traveller with children

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Ida Thunberg and her husband mostly live a normal small-town life in Värmland with their two sons Milo and Jack. However, the family has a great interest in travelling, which has led to many exciting trips together, including in Sweden and around Asia. Now they are planning perhaps the biggest trip ever, as they will be travelling around the world!

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The family has recently sold their house in Värmland and is currently preparing for their big adventure. We took the opportunity to ask Ida about her experience of travelling with children and planning for the big trip. If you want to follow the family on their Around the World adventure, and if you want more tips on travelling with children, you can check out the family's blog. Travelling with children.

Can you tell us a bit about you and your family? What do you do when you are not travelling?

We are a very ordinary small town family! We live in the small mill town of Degerfors in Värmland, where Milo and Jack go to school and leisure centre. I work as a freelance journalist and Patrik is self-employed with assignments in a wide range of industries; when we are at home it is mostly in industry and when we travel he is a travel photographer.

Then we have travel as our biggest leisure interest, and it permeates much of our time, even when we are at home. We plan, read, watch travel programmes on TV and lots of other things. Milo and Jack have several leisure activities, with swimming and football being their main interests. We also like to do a lot of things at home, like being in the forest, camping and swimming. And we spend a lot of time with family and friends.

Where does your interest in travelling come from? Have you always travelled a lot and where was your first trip?

My first trip abroad (apart from Denmark) was to Rhodes when I was 18 years old. So I didn't grow up travelling abroad, on the contrary. But we camped a lot in Sweden and rented cabins, made lots of excursions and looked around a lot.

So I think my interest in travel comes from the fact that my mum and dad have always done a lot of things with us. Then I have "scaled up" it on my own far beyond the borders of Sweden. But they laid the foundation through their fixing and their curiosity, I'm pretty sure.

Can you tell us about three great destinations where you travelled with children?

Loved Thailand. We have had such nice long trips there with the children during their baby/toddler years so the country will always be in my heart. Especially the smaller islands that have given us a more personalised approach, like Koh Jum and Koh Phayam.

Laos. The island Don Khone in the archipelago called 4000 Islands was amazing. We cycled around this car-free island and on the neighbouring island of Don Det, we swam in the Mekong River and had such a great time.

Storforsen, Älvsbyn, Norrbotten, Sweden. An absolutely marvellous place. Milo and Jack and their cousins had a lovely day here, as did we parents, barbecuing on the rocks, jumping off cliffs and enjoying all the incredible views.

What are your top tips for travelling with children?

Setting is almost everything. It may sound a bit simple, but if we adults assume that everything will be fine - it usually is. If, on the other hand, we convey that we ourselves are nervous and anxious, and find it super boring to wait for buses and trains that never arrive ... well, then it will be super boring for the children too.

Have reasonable expectations. This really applies both with and without children. But I think that families with children in particular have a tendency to paint a fantastic picture in front of them that looks like the charter companies' advertising pictures. Instead, start from yourself and your children - what do you like, and what suits you? Choose those things, even if they don't match the charter brochures.

You are about to embark on a round-the-world trip. What does the itinerary look like?

Well, it's not quite nailed down... But for now, and with MAJOR reservation for changes: Dubai, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Caribbean islands, New York. We are scheduled to be away for nine months. Departure on 28 August, and we will probably come home at the end of May 2017.

How have you prepared for this trip?

Wow, it's in so many different ways! Financially, it's a constantly frugal lifestyle, at least when it comes to material things. And we plan the trip very, very carefully. I never watch TV; all my free time, except when I'm with the kids, is spent planning the trip. We read a lot about all possible destinations, we check distances, whether it's possible to travel by night train or night bus, and if so, what times and from where.

Then we are also preparing for Milo's schooling, checking out possible freelance jobs along the way, buying a new camera to be able to document very well for blogs and reports, and everything else. Milo will be in second grade the year we are away, and we will teach him ourselves in co-operation with his school and teachers. We will have some books, and an important part of the teaching will be that he himself writes stories about what he experiences that we send home to the school. And lots of reading of course!

In addition to the traditional teaching, we will practise a lot of English, ordering food ourselves, talking to new friends and so on. In general, we always try to focus on the children learning new things, and not least broadening their horizons in different ways. After all, the world is much bigger than Degerfors ... Little brother Jack would have attended the six-year kindergarten during this year and is therefore not obliged to attend school. But he will definitely come along anyway, and he will also "go to school" for the whole trip.

What are you most worried about for the trip and what are you most looking forward to?

That we will be away for a long time, and this from the perspective that we have our closest people - our parents and other family and friends - still at home in Sweden. That something happens to them while we are far away is by far the most worrying thing.

The thing I'm most looking forward to is the four of us being together, like 24 hours a day. It may sound a bit cheesy, but I really love being with my little family. And in everyday life at home in Sweden, there are many other things that demand attention, such as work, everything to do with the house and home, and all the children's activities. To be together all the time and also experience so many new things - it almost still feels unreal that it will actually happen.

Finally, a question we ask everyone we interview: What is your dream destination?

New Zealand. It's been that way for a very long time, so it feels amazing that we'll be landing there at the end of November and spending a couple of months there. We are planning to travel by camper van for a few weeks, and we would love to live and work on a farm somewhere.

Thank you Ida Thunberg for sharing your experiences and thoughts!

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