Grab the Kids & Go

IT'S TIME TO GRAB YOUR KIDS & GO ON THE GAP YEAR HOLIDAY OF YOUR DREAMS Your children won't be this age forever.

This travel guide brings together invaluable advice from well-travelled families who have much to share. Learn how to make your travel plans come to life, and get answers to such questions as:

• Is our child too young (or old) for this trip?
• What are the range of trips we might consider?
• Are we going to regret going away for so long?
• How can we afford this?
• When is the right time to go?
• Who will take care of the house and pets while we're away?
• What if our kid is a little brat on the trip? Could that ruin the whole thing?

Peppered throughout are lessons from Taryn Ash's extensive personal travel experiences, which included a gap year tour of Africa, Asia and Europe she took with her family of four.

Together they camped atop a 4x4 through the Namibian desert, ate spicy cobra in Vietnam, taught English in Zimbabwe, and earned blisters on their hands restoring a medieval house in France.

They hunted for tropical shells with local children on a remote Philippine island, worked hands-on to rehabilitate monkeys and baboons in South Africa, and collected data on African wildlife for academic research.

They splashed their way through caves in New Zealand, practiced Buddhist chant in rural Laos, and learnt to kiteboard on the South China Sea, all while being homeschooled through a curriculum Taryn (a professional curriculum designer and educator) developed. And that's just the beginning.

Don't hesitate another minute Begin planning your family gap year today