We actually extended our FIRE timeline because we want to take advantage of the ability to travel as a family. We're also expats and get moved around the world a lot, so we want to take every advantage we can of the lifestyle that this job affords us -- it also helps me cope emotionally with the (long) periods of time where I just don't like my job all that much!
Everyone is going to chime in with a million tried and true ways to save money while traveling, all of which are totally useful and valid. But for us, the most important piece has been thinking about our values as a family and what we want to get out of travel. We decided that we want to value experiences over things, and that we prefer to travel in less luxury for more time and see more stuff. We also want to see A LOT of places, so while we have priorities, we don't have dream destinations and let where we go and what we do be shaped by our options.
We went to Rome in February for a week as a family of 5, and managed to do it for under $1000, regional air included. We picked Rome because it was cheap to get there on low-cost airlines, we could rent an apartment, and the things we wanted to see were low or no cost -- especially because none of our kids are over 12. We tend to live on supermarket food and street food rather than restaurant food, and eat-in for breakfast and pack picnics. This fall, we're doing a 1 week cruise which should be around $1500-2000 with airfare -- we're waiting until after the cancellation period is up and prices tend to fall and will make our ship and itinerary choices based almost entirely on total cost. If it wasn't cheap, we wouldn't do it -- and if prices don't fall into the band I want, we'll probably change that out for a driving trip to Greece. The bottom line is a family trip, not that specific one.
Then we'll do a week in Spain in February -- probably hostels, car rental and a lot of picnics. I'm still working that one out, but my focus when planning is always on value; we know we'll splurge on things that are important to us (so, the Alhambra and a demonstration of sword-making in Toledo) and not on things that don't add value (so a good-enough hotel room or apartment and second class train tickets).
I also recently learned that I can take up to 6 months of Leave Without Pay in a year without interrupting my health benefits or my credits toward retirement. We're now aggressively planning how we can work sabbaticals for long-term travel into our plans and hoping to take the kids to China and Southeast Asia in 2020.
I know that traveling with kids is something a lot of people think isn't worth doing (I hear "Oh, but they'll never remember it!" and "Isn't it dangerous?" and grit my teeth) and that it's a minority position to do it now rather than waiting for FIRE to travel. But I want to go WITH my kids, and they're not going to be young and at home forever. And I've heard a lot of people put off having the life they want until they retire -- with no assurance that you won't get run over by a bus tomorrow. So we're trying to find a happy medium. We've set a minimum savings level and as long as we're there, I don't feel bad downshifting for travel.