The one luxury that always got pushed to the side. Until now.

By BERN MORLEY

When I was first approached about a family trip to Vietnam, I’ll be the first to admit there was a little bit of trepidation on my part. Vietnam? Like all 5 of us?  This however, comes down to my own naivety. At the time I couldn’t even locate Vietnam on a map let alone begin to imagine how a family of 5 might fare there. In fact, as a family, we have never ever flown in an aeroplane together, let alone been overseas.

To be honest, as of 14 days ago, my children didn’t even possess passports, such was our international innocence. Not through lack of desire mind you, it was just always that one luxury that got pushed to the side.

Seemingly every New Year’s Eve we’d sit down, my husband and I, and vow to get ourselves on a decent holiday sometime in the following year. A holiday that included the words “Quality Time” and “Hassle Free”. We even went so far as to set up a “special bank account” to save for it.  But as often happens, life gets in the way and we had to prioritise. The money we saved inevitably having to be spent on braces or doctors or you know, food to survive.

The closest we have come to a family holiday was at Christmas. We made the pilgrimage north or “back home”. An on road round trip from Melbourne to the Gold Coast. I’m not sure you know what the words “unadulterated hell” truly mean until you have completed these 4,000 kilometres with 3 children of varying ages in the back seat of your car. The holiday itself was lovely and we did get to relax but here’s the thing, my kids didn’t do anything different. They swam, they ate the same food they always do and they talked to the same people they’ve always known and they learnt approximately nothing new.

So that was the great thing about this trip to Vietnam. It’s not going to be something we’ve done before. We won’t have tasted the local foods or met the local people. Our kids WON’T be on their iPads and iThings and avoiding the beauty that is right there in front of them. I mean LOOK at this itinerary.

This isn’t a skim the surface, see the country from a distance yet not interact kind of holiday. We’ll be essentially treating our children to another world for a whole 13 days and this genuinely excites me. Not only will it be something they will never forget, they will take away from it, I’m hoping, a new outlook on their own, very blessed lives here in Australia.

I think, and I think this is something we will ALL benefit from, is that we will see beauty and we will see pain. But above all, we will be experiencing SOMETHING new. And we will be experiencing it as a family. And this is because of this amazing trip. We will be getting out of our comfort zone and this a GOOD thing.

The thing with Intrepid Travel is that even though you will get the attention and help of a guide, it’s non-invasive. We will be sleeping overnight on a junk, visiting local schools, sleeping on trains, delighting at water puppets and most importantly, learning about Vietnam’s rich history.  We will be looked after every step of the way, yet still get to enjoy the trip freely. This is the beauty of Intrepid Travel.

So join me as we take this journey. My husband Phil, my quick witted 13 year old daughter Maddison, my beautiful, hilarious yet sometimes heartbreakingly socially baffled son Sam and my ratbag, 6 year old son Jack. 

Your sense of adventure doesn’t disappear just because you have kids, so why should your family holiday destinations be limited to the ‘usual suspects’? On an Intrepid Family Adventure you and your kids will encounter plenty of real life experiences along the way – anything from riding a tuk-tuk in Bangkok, playing football with the Maasai in Kenya or sailing down the Nile in a felucca. Whatever it is, learning and exploring in the real world opens eyes and minds in a way the virtual world never can.

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Where is your next holiday to? What was your favourite cultural experience?