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Planning a Family Gap Year? Don’t miss these epic budget tips for a family gap year in 2025.
It can genuinely feel very intimidating to break away and travel long term, especially when you have kids depending financially on you. Whether your planning to leave in a few weeks or next year, we highly recommend taking some time to consider the cost. Is it really possible to do a family Gap Year on a low budget? In this article we will share some of our best pro-tips to show you how you can travel long term with kids on a low budget.
We are a full-time traveling family, and we have worked out many tips and tricks to keep the cost of long-term family travel as low as possible. In this article, we are going to share our secrets, top tips, and advice to help you plan a family Gap Year on a low budget. Everything we share is from our own experience and you wont find them anywhere else online. So if you’re looking for the best budget tips for a family gap year, read carefully.
EARN AS YOU TRAVEL? – Don’t miss our guide to The BEST affordable countries for Digital Nomads
Why take a family Gap Year?
Firstly, what exactly is a family gap year? Put simply, it is when you take a year out to travel with your family.
Taking a family gap year will inevitably bring financial costs. You may also have to make other sacrifices and compromises if you want to break away and travel for a year with your kids. Missing a year of school. Taking a year out of work. Being away from family and friends. And so on. So is it worth taking a family gap year?
Family Gap years are becoming increasingly popular, and for a good reason. Taking a family gap year is an awesome way to connect with your kids and get closer through amazing experiences. Sharing adventures outside of your comfort zone is a great way to build trust and connection with your kids. It is a great opportunity to work out your values and identity as a family and get closer than you have ever been before. Don’t get us wrong. Family travel can be extremely challenging at times – so we’re not claiming it’s all smooth sailing.
One thing that we love about long-term travel with our own kids is the amount of quality time that we are able to enjoy with them – the years really do pass quickly!
Another great reason to take a family gap year is the confidence, skills, knowledge, and experience that will enrich, inspire, and empower your kids. Family gap years really are an amazing way to equip your kids to learn through real-world experience and help them to become more empathetic and globally minded – the world really is the best classroom. Find out more about worldschooling.
So here are our super budget tips for a family gap year…
1 Stick to one affordable region
If you are planning a family gap year and hoping to keep your budget as low as possible, then we recommend picking one region of the world and exploring that region in-depth. Try to find a region that interests and inspires you and your family. We also recommend that you consider the cost of living, traveling, and exploring your chosen region. For example, if you are interested in Europe, we recommend focusing on Eastern Europe, which is cheaper than Western Europe. If you are interested in exploring Asia, we recommend India and Southeast Asia. Alternatively, South America and Central America are a cheap and beautiful region with loads of adventure, culture and natural beauty. If you can stick to one region of the world (or two), you will not need to take as many expensive long-haul flights. You can also travel overland between countries to save money.
2 Avoid flying (as much as possible!)
One of the most expensive parts of family travel is flying. When you are only taking a short holiday with your family, you will probably take short internal flights or hop on a flight to travel between countries (this is completely understandable if you only have a few weeks to travel; you don’t want to lose too much time in transit). However, if you have a full year to travel, we recommend that you avoid flying as much as possible.
If you can do the journey overland, then you will save money, and this is also more environmentally friendly. Overland travel days with kids can be very tiring and challenging, so we recommend that you prepare well for them, especially if you are planning to cross an international border overland. It is important to consider drinks, snacks, entertainment, and remember to schedule some rest time after your journey. If you do need to book flights, book nice and early.
3 Travel slowly in cheap countries
When you are planning your itinerary, we recommend considering the cost of each of the countries that you are visiting. Look for countries that have cheaper food, accommodation, and activities, and plan to travel slower in these countries. Slowing down in cheap countries is a great way to reduce the overall budget of your family. A clever way to work out the cost of travel in a particular country is to have a look at the price of accommodation per night. If you look on a platform like booking.com, you can search for accommodation in a particular city, filter the results from the lowest price to the highest price, and you will get a feel for the starting prices for accommodation.
4 Stay longer in each place
When you are working out your itinerary, it is very important to figure out a good pace for you and your family. If you travel too fast, you will burn out, and you will find travel expensive. If you travel too slowly, you may feel like you are not seeing and experiencing enough. The key to successful long-term family travel is finding that sweet spot between too fast and too slow. For a long-term family gap year, we do recommend spending a week or two in each destination (rather than a few days).
Staying a little longer may mean that you can negotiate a cheaper deal for accommodation. You will also spend less money in transit traveling between places. Spending a week or two in each destination also allows your family time to rest, recover, and connect with each destination. An average of 2 weeks per destination allows you to explore 24 destinations over the course of a year. That’s a lot of epic travel and also enough time to slow down, connect and relax.
5 Use public transport
When you are traveling more slowly on a family Gap Year, you can save a lot of money using local transport. Local transport in many countries is reliable, cheap, and efficient. Use subways, local buses and long distance trains to travel around. Night trains are often pretty cheap and a lot of fun with kids. Taking a journey on a local bus can be a surprisingly fun, interesting, and exhilarating experience. Public transport really is an affordable and intrepid way to explore. What’s more, in many countries kids are very cheap or free on public transport.
6 Eat local street food
If you are taking a family gap year, we highly recommend that you embrace the culture by trying local street food. In many countries, street food is some of the best food you will find around. This is particularly true if you are traveling around Southeast Asia. Street food tends to be fresh, healthy, tasty, and very affordable. In many countries, you can fill up on a cheap food dish for as little as $1 – $2. If your kids are not used to eating local street food, this may be a challenge at first. We recommend finding dishes that they enjoy eating. For example, it may be noodles, rice, omelette, or BBQ chicken (which is both surprisingly common and surprisingly cheap the world over). In some countries, you may end up needing to feed your kids by visiting supermarkets or convenience stores to find food that they enjoy eating.
7 Negotiate for deals on accommodation
If you are on a family gap year, you will probably slow down and spend a week or two in each destination. This is a great way to connect with each destination and explore in more depth. It is also a good way to save money on accommodation. Many hotels, hostels, and guest houses will be willing to provide a cheaper nightly rate if you are staying for at least a week. We recommend contacting them directly in advance to negotiate a cheaper deal for your accommodation (they may not reduce the overall price, but they may allow you to take an extra bed or an extra mattress in your room for free). So it is always worth contacting the hotel in advance. The best way to do this is to find the hotel or Guest House page on Facebook and drop them a direct message.
8 Be willing to share one room
If you’re looking for budget tips for a family gap year, you’re going to need to think about accommodation. One of the biggest costs of your family gap year is likely to be accommodation. Therefore, if you can save money on accommodation, you will save a lot of money on your overall trip budget. There are lots of clever ways to save money on accommodation when you are traveling with kids. For a start, you can find cheaper hostels and guest houses. Ultimately, you will need to make a compromise between comfort, cleanliness, and price. In general, cheaper accommodation is not as clean and not as comfortable.
There’s no point going for a family Gap Year if you are not enjoying the experience. We recommend finding places that are sufficiently comfortable for your family and yet not too expensive. A great way to save money on accommodation is to share one room. A family of three or four people can generally share a triple room. Being willing and able to share a bed is also a great way to save money. Some hostels may also include an additional mattress in your room for a small charge or even for free.
9 Go Independent (rather than taking trips & tours)
When you are planning your itinerary for your family gap year, we recommend that you spend some time thinking about the things that you would like to see and experience. This will help you pick the right destinations and work out your goals. Many people now see the world by taking trips and tours. This is great if you are on a short holiday and you have a big budget. However, if you are traveling on a low budget, we recommend that you do activities independently. In general, paying for a trip or tour is likely to be a lot more expensive than doing the activity independently.
It may take a little more research and a little more confidence to do something independently, but it can also be more rewarding. Doing activities independently allows you to go at your own pace and choose the bits that you slow down. So there are a lot of reasons to go independent rather than booking a tour. If you do book a tour or trip locally, you can save money compared to booking online. We always recommend that you barter to get the best possible prices.
10 Plan when to splash out
This may be one of the most important budget tips for a family gap year. If you are planning a family gap year and you go too tight on the budget, you may end up missing out on some of the best activities and experiences. There are times when it is worth splashing out to make the most of your experience. After all, if you are only doing a one-year trip, it is important to make it count. Or put it another way, why spend all this money and make many sacrifices and then miss out on the things that count? We recommend that you spend some time setting your goals and planning what activities and experiences you really want to do. And then make sure that you budget for them. Having a plan like this will also stop you over-spending on other things (e.g. over-priced meals).
For example, if you’re traveling around Southeast Asia, you may want to learn to scuba dive. This is not a cheap activity, but it will certainly enrich your trip. Or maybe you want to take an island-hopping trip with your family, and this is relatively expensive. These are not the points to budget tightly. Of course, we always recommend bartering. The point we are making is this: don’t get too focused on budget that you miss out on those experiences that will stay with you for life.
