Family Gap Year: How We Found Freedom Traveling with Kids | Business Insider

A London family’s year-long experiment in location-independent living, sparked by a desire to escape the relentless pace of modern life, concluded in February 2025 with a return to their home city and a renewed perspective on priorities. Lisa Lucas and her husband, along with their two daughters, aged six and eight at the start of the journey, embarked on a self-funded “adult gap year” in July 2024, renting out their London home and embracing a minimalist lifestyle across three continents.

The family’s plan wasn’t a spontaneous escape, but a carefully constructed attempt to balance work, education, and cultural immersion. Lucas, a marketing consultant, transitioned her practice to focus on travel writing and speaking engagements, while her husband, an academic, leveraged his research to identify potential locations offering both professional opportunities and legal residency for the family. This residency was crucial for enabling their daughters to attend local schools. They ultimately chose to live in Tsukuba, Japan; Great Neck, New York; and Leiden, the Netherlands, with five-week travel periods separating each location.

Initially intending to homeschool their daughters in Japan, the family was surprised when their eight-year-old expressed a desire to attend a local Japanese school. The school readily welcomed both girls, immersing them in a daily routine that included walking to school unaccompanied, changing into indoor shoes, assisting with lunch service, and participating in classroom cleaning duties. This experience contrasted sharply with their previous schooling in London.

The family’s time in the United States, based in Great Neck, New York, involved living with family and navigating a different educational system. The girls experienced riding a yellow school bus for the first time, while Lucas’s husband commuted by train. The American school environment, the family observed, differed significantly from their London experience, lacking school uniforms and presenting the sobering reality of active-shooter drills.

In Leiden, the Netherlands, the daughters attended a small international school emphasizing outdoor learning. Students routinely biked along canals and participated in a Dutch gardening program, cultivating their own garden plots. This lifestyle, centered around cycling and waterways, offered a distinct contrast to the urban environment of London and the suburban setting of Great Neck.

Living out of backpacks necessitated a minimalist approach to possessions. Lucas described a newfound freedom from the demands of homeownership and a greater capacity to focus on experiences. She frequently wore a single black maxi dress throughout their time in Asia, finding it adaptable to various activities. The reduction in material possessions, she noted, expanded their mental bandwidth and allowed them to prioritize enjoyment without guilt.

The transition wasn’t without its challenges. Initially, the daughters expressed reluctance about leaving their friends and familiar routines. The family addressed these concerns by emphasizing adaptability as a valuable life skill and providing consistent reassurance and affection. A recurring phrase, “We’re still on the trip,” served as a unifying mantra, reinforcing their shared commitment to the adventure.

The year-long journey provided opportunities for unique experiences, including witnessing wild snow monkeys, exploring waterfalls, and attending to family matters, including the passing of Lucas’s grandfather. The family also forged new friendships, with invitations to visit acquaintances in places like Cozumel.

Returning to London in February 2025, the family found themselves changed by their experiences. They valued the shared memories created – from Hokkaido cream to a road trip from New York to Miami – but more importantly, they gained clarity about their priorities, emphasizing the importance of gradual, quality time together over material possessions and a packed schedule. While happy to be home, they are already contemplating future extended adventures.