6 week holiday - where?

[Twizbe]

DH told me today that next year he's entitled to a 3 month full pay sabbatical! A reward for 10 years service apparently.

He does need to get approval and have a 'plan' for what he's going to do. He suspects something like charity work or professional /
Personal development.

We've been brainstorming ideas of what we can do.

Ideally we'd like to take this opportunity to travel. I'm a SAHM and we're mortgage free. Our kids will be 6 and 4 next summer. We'd have to stick to the summer holidays for travel, but it seems like a golden opportunity to up sticks for the whole holidays.

Ideas so far;

1. decamp to France and / or Germany and DH does some intensive language work. He has a degree in French and German but due to changes in his work and covid he's become very rusty.

2. do a family charity project type thing in Asia somewhere. DH has lived in both Hong Kong and Singapore. We've both travel a lot in that region and love it.

3. go to Australia (not sure what the purpose would be here) and base ourselves in Brisbane and see some of the country. I'd love to go to Uluru. We visited back in 2014 and did Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns so would be good to do something else. Aware it would be winter though.

4. something in US and / or Canada. Nothing is really grabbing us here though.

Any ideas or recommendations of family volunteering groups?

Could you have a six week holiday and he does his personal/professional development thing alongside it or do charity work before or after the trip.

Do Asia! So much to do, and so many different sort of places. You'll get a lot out of it. Don't do Europe as plenty of chances to do 1-2 week trips there in the future. Australia is so far and you won't go anywhere else when you're there. Speaking from experience it's a bit too similar to here too

I would consider travelling, with kids a van would be ideal and try and head towards Asia or Morocco

Japan. So interesting and child friendly too. All sorts of volunteering opportunities. It's also not as expensive as you'd imagine.

I have always made sure my kids have high school attendance, but tbh at those young ages and with that opportunity, I wouldn't feel tied to just 6 weeks. Make the most of it and go for as long as possible!

Thank you for the ideas.

I'd love to go to Japan. We have family there and if we time it right could meet up with my husband's aunt.

I thought about a van and travel but DH is 6'7 which would make the whole thing very very uncomfortable.

Morocco is a def no. We went there a few years ago pre kids and didn't like it at all.

We might fit the volunteering stuff around the 6 weeks. That's a good idea.

If it was just our youngest we would do longer but I don't want to take my eldest out of school. He had some SEN issues that have been greatly improved by school attendance.

Asia, Asia, Asia. As you've traveled there before, you know how easy it is to travel with young children. Loads of volunteering opps around SE Asia.

Can I suggest that you think about missing the last 2 weeks of the summer term? Schools wind down and your child's extra support will not be as high priority in that final fortnight. Extensive travel has so much learning for children, I think it's a worthwhile investment.

Does the volunteering have to be around a certain type of work/theme? i.e. does it need to fit somehow with his work?

I'd second Asia - you could pack in some fantastic cultural experiences (Bali, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand) or see some amazing wildlife (Borneo, Malaysia).

But don't dismiss USA/Canada - wildlife and culture aplenty there too. Vancouver, California, Pacific Northwest, Utah, Maine, Nova Scotia - so many ideas depending on what experiences you want/need for DHs work

Asia would be amazing but do remember much of it is monsoon at that time of year so you'd need to chose your destinations carefully. Also I wouldn't be keen to drive in most of Asia, its pretty scary.
I think that choosing somewhere to stay and do a community project for a month or so would be really rewarding and may work better for your elder child than moving around a lot. You could for example build a school or something and stay in the village for the time, then give yourself a couple of weeks at the end to travel a bit more widely. Parts of Sri Lanka are rain free at that time of year and could be amazing, also a small enough place to travel afterwards.

If you want to drive, Africa may be better than Asia.

I don't know if the project has to relate to his work. Knowing him I think he'd like something physical like building a school.

We'd love Asia. I think DH would love to show the kids where he lived. We honeymooned in Malaysia and Bali and we'd love to go back. We went in late July / early august.

USA could be good. Our son's godfather lives in LA and it would be lovely to see him. I also have a cousin in Portland who id love to see.

I think depending on what we decide to do we might miss the last week of school.

I'm really excited about it as you don't get these chances often. I've ask DH to find out everything he can about the scheme so we can plan more.

You could fly to LA then drive up the California coast to Yosemite - the wildlife and scenery are outstanding, the kids would love seeing the chipmunks, racoons, the chance of bears, deer, elephant seals on the coast. You could even camp there which would be fun!

No idea what your DH could do for a voluntary thing though!