looking for advice on short family sabbatical

[kiwi]

I'm hoping to plan a longer family vacation/short sabbatical for this coming summer, with my husband and 2 boys (8 and 12).  My thoughts are that we’d be gone 2 months, spending a month or so in one home base (renting an apartment or AirBnB) and then the same in another location. The “home base” locations would be places that are very livable, and also great as a base for day trips.

What I’m thinking is something like a month in Munich, and then in Barcelona. Or…Tokyo and Chiang Mai. As you see, I haven’t even settled on a continent. 

I’d love some feedback on these ideas. Anyone done anything like this?

[limeandpepper]

Out of the cities you mentioned I've only been to Chiang Mai, and I think it can be a great base for trips within North Thailand, but I wouldn't limit myself to just day trips. I did a similar sabbatical with my partner, and we spent about a month in Malaysia (only the peninsula), a month in Myanmar, a month in Thailand (only the northern region), and a month in Taiwan. But different to your idea in that we were a bit more nomadic in each country - instead of doing day trips out of a home base, we'd just up and go to the next city/town/village we were interested in, spend a few days or a week there, off to the next one, and basically kind of do a loop back to where we started. But if you don't feel the desire to visit places that are hours away from Chiang Mai, then just staying there and doing day trips can be perfectly sufficient.

[gooki]

Great idea. My parents took me out of school for two months while we traveled Europe when I was 8 and my brother was 10. Spent 6 weeks with family. And the two weeks doing our own thing in Belgium and LA.

Some of my best memories are from this trip.

Personally I'd opt for a bit more travelling. Spend 1-2 weeks per location instead of a whole month.

[SeanMC]

My family did this for about 6 to 8 weeks when I was 10 and when I was 12. I have 2 brothers (one younger, one older). We had a home base that was the same the whole time, and then took maybe 2 or 3 overnight trips spread out, day trips other times, and some days of just chill/life stuff/playing/swimming/etc.

I disagree with the advice to stay 1 week and keep moving on. One of my favorite parts is that we made friends with other kids where we were staying. This only could happen because we stayed in the same place long enough to be included when a bunch of kids were playing ball or going to a nearby playground or park.

[little_brown_dog]

Germany is an awesome idea for a home base. You can get to many of the other countries pretty quickly via the train systems. Day trips might be Switzerland, Austria, and Czech Republic. You could do overnights in France or Northern Italy.

[Papa bear]

We did this as a family for 2 summers when my brother and I were in late elementary/jrhigh. 

Family bought a motorhome, traveled the continental U.S. one year and then western Canada and Alaska the next. My dad sold the rv for the same as he paid for it after 2 summers on the road.

Great experience all around.  Whatever you do, it will be one of the best memories that you and your family could have.  Good luck!


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[dreams_and_discoveries]

Sounds great - we did one month long holidays as kids in France, as my mum was a teacher - we had a great time.

Two months over summer sounds very do-able, and not long enough for anyone to get really homesick.

Enjoy :)