wallop

We're leaving for a 9 month trip on 1st November to countries around the Pacific Rim. We'll be mostly taking public transport, with a few...

Switzerland at the end of August was good, because their children had already started back at school (ours go back in Sept) so the...

We had a fabulous holiday in Switzerland last summer with our 3 children. You can swim in lakes and many of the lifts are open in summer,...

Our children will be aged 8, 6 and 4 in November. Our tickets cost about £8.5k sterling. The children cost 75 percent of the full adult...

One trip to Trailfinders in the snow, one phonecall and a vast sum of money later and we are the proud owners of five round-the-world...

I love reading books with my children before we go to a new place so thanks for that recommendation. I still use Lonely Planet to research...

We are planning to start in Hawaii, then head to NZ, on to Australia for a couple of months, then about 4 months in SEA leaving us with a month in Japan in July 2011. We've tried to plan according to climate and who we can stay with at various times. Obviously we're not leaving for a year, so this may all change, but we've already booked Xmas in with a friend in Auckland, because we really want to see her. Our plan is to take it slowly on the whole, with a couple of weeks in each place. I also think we'll have a few busy weeks of moving on every few days, followed by weeks doing nothing on the beach. To a certain extent we're planning to make it up as we go along as we're not sure how tired children will get etc. We are also planning to rent out our house and my husband has applied for unpaid leave from work, which he's likely to get. As others have said, it's all a risk, but life's too short to spend the whole of it worrying about things that may never happen.

I love the research bit and tend to plan in quite a lot of detail in my head, without booking too much in advance unless it's going to be a busy time where I'm going. I find that sometimes it can really eat into your time if you haven't planned, because you waste a lot of time searching for accommodation etc when you arrive in a place. I don't think there is a perfect balance, because clearly you don't want to feel like you are wasting your time in Argentina. Personally I think that although you lose flexibility when you arrive if you've done a lot of pre-planning, you also free up your time when you get there so I'd rather plan in advance. You can always change most plans later if you need to.

Time Out do an excellent kids guides for London and (I think) New York, otherwise, I've found other blogs to be the most useful resource.

I think you will overlap with us. We are also from the UK and leaving this time next year. Which part of the world are you planning to be in then? We are starting in Hawaii and travelling clockwise around the Pacific, ending up in Japan after about nine months.

I'm a backpack fan. We travel with one each (65l and 40l for me and my husband and little ones for kids). You have to pack really light,...

Hi, we are planning a 9month round the world trip with our children who will be aged 8, 6 and 4 when we leave this time next year. Our plan is to travel around the Pacific (Hawaii, NZ, Aus, SEA and Japan). I've been to most, but not all of these places before, but not with children. I look forward to sharing experiences and getting ideas. Our blog is http://itsasmallworldafterallfamily.wordpress.com

Diary of a Wombat is by Jackie French

Thanks everyone, these are really great suggestions, I'll get onto Amazon!