It takes a lot to impress Peter and even more to impress Peter’s readers; contributor contest winner Marie LeRose did just that. While this can-do traveler is fascinating on many accounts, we needed to hear more about her around the world trip with her four young kids. In part one of her account, Marie shared why she choose to make the trip and how anyone can plan globe-trotting adventures.

Around the world in 42 days…with 4 kids…really? Sounds crazy right? The State Department continues to issue travel advisories to certain foreign countries, heightened security at airports can make traveling with kids a complete hassle, and who knows how our kids would behave on twelve hour flights… but it was one of those trips on my bucket list.

We wanted our children to understand that not everyone lives like us in sunny San Diego and that TiVos, Facebook and Xbox Live are not part of other children’s daily vocabulary. Sure, we had heard and read stories of other families who spent a year abroad, but we didn’t have that luxury. We had a window of opportunity before my husband started a new job, and our children seemed to be the perfect ages. Christian was 7, so we figured he was old enough to tow his own bag and not have melt downs on 16-hour flights; Sophia and Grayson were ten and eager to compete in the Amazing Race, and Gabrielle was 12, which meant the “teen” attitude was just around the corner, so we had to move fast.

Where to start? Where to go? What countries would have the greatest impact on our family? How could we incorporate philanthropy into our trip? Could we plan it on our own or would we need the help of travel agents? Would we need shots?

Giza, top of my husband’s bucket list

Initially the whole idea seemed quite daunting, but with a bit of focus and a lot of time on the Internet, we realized that anyone can plan a trip of this scale and not dip into the college savings accounts. And we did it in six weeks. It was a mere dream in April, the tickets were purchased on May 7, and we departed on June 7.

Were 5 of our passports expired? Yup. Did I look like a deer in headlights when someone asked me if I had all my Visas lined up? Oh yeah! But a few extra dollars can expedite the passport process, and a trip to the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles  is an adventure all on its own.

Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Dubai, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong made the final cut. Greece because our children study Greek History in 6th grade, and a few days on the Greek Islands looked like the perfect haven to recover from jet lag. Riding camels around the Great Pyramids of Giza was a lifelong dream of my husband’s, so Egypt was our next stop. Petra was named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and we had neighbors from Amman, so Jordan became the next destination. Our children are avid snowboarders, and there was no way we could travel that far and not experience Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort in the center of the mall, so Dubai was added to the itinerary. My pick was Vietnam, because I thought the kids would get a real awakening to other cultures by trekking to visit the hill tribes of Northern Vietnam. Plus, there was a local organization

The kids handing out toys in Sapa, Vietnam.

in the San Diego area, called Global Village Foundation, and we could work with them to deliver school supplies to a rural village school in central Vietnam. Obviously with all the talk of China becoming the new leader of the world, we felt like we had to go there and see it for ourselves. And Hong Kong was a freebie, as Cathay Pacific allowed a free stopover on our round the world airfare.

So was it a trip of a lifetime? Absolutely! Could we have gone longer than 42 days? Easily! Did our children have adventures that they will never forget? Definitely! Did anything go awry? Well, if losing a 7- and 10-year old on the Beijing subway counts as something gone awry, then yes… but they’re fine now.

Ready for your Around the World adventure? Here is how to start:

1. Planning. Set up a war room – buy a world map. Our dining room became our war room with maps, laptops, travel books, etc.

2. Pick your destinations. Where do you want to go? Include your children in the planning – what places are on their bucket list? What are they studying in school? What is the curriculum for the following school year? Get Patricia Schultz’s book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. It’s a great resource for discovering adventures on and off the beaten track. We looked for countries that were new for all of us, offered educational value for our children’s school curriculum, and included the adventure of travel by trains, ferries, camels and donkeys.

Tip – think about the time of year that you will travel and the weather for each of these countries. We traveled around the Northern Hemisphere because that required one set of clothing for summer travel. It will also keep the cost of your airfare down by not changing hemispheres.

3. Contact a specialist in around the world airfares – AirTreks is one company based in San Francisco with an expertise in providing complex international airfare. (Note: We tried to use our frequent flyer miles…but it required too many miles and had limitations on the number of stops we could make)

Grayson and woman from Black Hmong tribe

4. Research the documents required for each destination. Passports are needed of course, but make sure they are valid for at least six months past your travel date. Visit the U.S.Department of State which will provide country specific information. Some countries require obtaining a Visa before you travel, while other countries allow you to process the Visa in the airport upon arrival.

5. Learn about the health requirements for each country. Be sure your routine vaccinations are up-to-date. More than likely, your children will be current and the adults are not. Visit the Centers for Disease Control’s website to see which vaccinations adults and children should get for each country that you will visit. Also, ask your physician or pediatrician for a referral to a provider who specializes in travel medicine.

6. Lodging. Look to see if you have hotel loyalty points, credit card points, etc that you can use to stay “free” along the way. We leveraged all our hotel points (Starwood, Marriott, etc) for our stays in the major cities; and mixed that with local eco-lodges and smaller hotels when visiting smaller towns. There are two keys to a successful stay with children: hotels with free breakfast and a pool. Our first night in Athens consisted of chicken fights in the Marriott rooftop pool with a clear view of the Parthenon in the background.

Who knew that you could find a Whiner Hat on the Internet? Even our kids looked horrified when it finally arrived…but we thought it might be a fun way to torture the person who even uttered the words “this is so boring”, or “when can we go home?” And the whiner hat was not just for the kids, I was fully prepared to wear it if and when I “lost” it over travel plans gone awry. So the whiner hat was added to the packing list and the planning continued.

We realized that it was easy to get caught up in the logistics of planning, and lose sight of the bigger goal…how can we ensure that this trip opens our minds and inspires our children to explore the world and learn from this adventure?

We decided that the kids needed to take some ownership in this journey and so they each “owned” a country. They were responsible for completing the research on the history and local traditions, identifying the “must do’s”, learning the key phrases of the local language, and identifying the popular foods we had to try. They then had to present their report to the rest of the family. We had no idea that this would start Christian on an obsessive search for the best shawarma in the Middle East, and that Grayson had a true talent for accents and language, and could easily greet complete strangers in their native language.

As parents of avid soccer players, we know soccer is big in the United States, and we know it is the national pastime in most other countries, but we had no idea that traveling around the world during the 2010 World Cup would open up a world of introductions and conversations with complete strangers. Every taverna in Greece would have the soccer games on their small televisions, patrons would gather at all hours of the night to watch the games, and our children would strike up conversations with anyone who was a “futbol” fan. Even our hotel in Hoi An, Vietnam set up a big screen television with refreshments at 3 am so that avid fans could wake up and watch the games. Our children purchased soccer jerseys in every country, and that became their uniform for the rest of the trip. Owners of small shops in Vietnam would yell out “Eto’o” when Christian wore his Samuel Eto’o African jersey or they would ask Grayson if he was from Argentina when he wore his Lionel Messi jersey. While we were not able to experience World Cup in South Africa that summer, we actually might have had a better experience because we were able to participate in the hysteria of World Cup in seven different countries.

Making a difference along the way was definitely a goal, but finding a community and organization that we could support was not as easy as we first thought. We definitely needed to find a cause that our children could relate to so that it would have a lasting impact on them. Hitting the search engines on the internet, we connected with GoPhilanthropic, an organization focused on connecting donors to a selected group of organizations around the world. They connected us with the Global Village Foundation which brings books and school supplies to areas in Vietnam that do not have access to learning tools. And you would be amazed at the money that your kids can quickly raise through lemonade stands and signs that read “1 Lemonade = 1 book in Vietnam”.

Spending a day at this school in Vietnam, and delivering books and backpacks to these children was truly a highlight of our trip. Although school was out for the summer in Vietnam, all of the children came back that day, in their uniforms, to meet us, play soccer and receive their new school supplies. Visiting this rural school with its wooden benches and single blackboards made going to school in San Diego look like a stay at a Four Seasons resort.

How to survive the trip around the world and make it a journey of a lifetime:

1. Have your child own a country. Come up with the topics that you want them to research, learn and present to the rest of the family. History, religion, food, language, key phrases, etc.

2. Start a family blog so that friends and relatives can follow your adventure while you are traveling. We used Shutterfly and their Share sites. It allowed us to have a page for each country of our trip, we would post our pictures and comments, and family members could also post their comments back to us.

3. Bring a soccer ball. Even if your children are not as soccer crazed as our children, it is a universal sport, and a soccer ball will save you in an airport during layovers. They played soccer with security guards in the Sharm El Sheikh airport in Egypt; met 12-year old Thanos on a beach in Naxos Greece, and not only did we play soccer with him for 3 days, but he would join us for dinner and our kids still communicate with him over Facebook! (hint: bring a small portable ball pump in case an airline asks you to deflate the ball on the flight).

4.Travel journal – each child had to record the highlights of the day in their travel journal. Think about how fun that will be to look back on later in life….if they can read their messy handwriting!

5. Pack light and then unpack half and pack lighter! We each brought one roll aboard suitcase and one backpack. I can’t even pack that light for a weekend soccer tournament these days…but we made it for 42 days, and we were not sick of any of our clothes!

6. Bring trinkets to share with local children. We went to a local party store and bought smiley face balls, and would hand them out to the children we would meet in the rural villages of Vietnam.

7. Volunteer. Inspire your children to have a lemonade stand, or yard sale, and raise money for an organization that can benefit from a few hours of your time, while also having a profound impact on your children.

After 4 continents, 9 countries, 15 flights, 42 days, 25,000 miles, camels, donkeys, kayaks, trains, ferries, no meltdowns, and nobody wearing the “whiner” hat…we made it home safely. The kids were thrilled to see our dog and their friends; Mike and I were depressed that the adventure was over. But the depression was fleeting and quickly replaced with the joy of having our own bathroom and the space to roam around our house without tripping over suitcases and backpacks.

It was a journey that we still think about daily, and that we long for again. And the most magical moment of a journey around the world with your children: seeing the look on your child’s face when the tooth fairy finds them in a hotel in Dubai.

For more around the world travel ideas, check out:

• Traveling Around the World without Luggage
• 10 Tips on Backpacking Around the World From The Lost Girls
• An Around the World Journey–Without a Plane
• Tips for Tipping Around the World

Text and photos by Marie LeRose for PeterGreenberg.com