TLDR; Summer of 2026 was a bit different for us. This year we did an ”Around the World in 60 Days ” trip, planned by our kids. Before we get back to our normal business-as-usual routines and become a part of clog, I just wanted to blog and share how our 10-year-old kids planned(well, most of it) our trip—their key takeaways from travelling the world and why it’s so important to travel than ever before.
3 months before Start of trip:
It was around March 26 when we started to think about planning our upcoming summer vacations. I had just completed my much-planned but less-trained Vasalaoppet. I was just recovering from the sore muscles and inner happiness of completing this personal milestone when we started planning this.
Like every year, we could have booked some last-minute trips and/or travel to India. But not this year. We did an around-the-world trip (with fewer countries when our kids were 1 year old) and had this thought to repeat it again when the kids are a bit old enough to soak in & remember the trip.
Our younger one had just turned 10 in march’26 and we decided to do it this year. (Perhaps it was YOLO or just some unscratched itches.)
Using Kanban to plan our world trip.
Instead of us as parents planning the whole trip, we decided to involve our kids in the whole process. The idea was to engage them in the nitty-gritty of real-time planning.
We introduced Kanban planning to the kids and onboarded them to a physical Kanban board(see pic right). We decided to fly east and circumvent the whole globe in around 60 days.
From choosing the countries to booking tickets, hotels, transportation, language translations, and packing stuff, they were involved in everything.
Rio on weekly Kanban board.
Some Key Takeaways:
Now, when we are back from the trip and are archiving all the memories we made, zipping the 200 GB of data to the cloud and hard disks. Here are some of the key takeaways our kids have learnt over the last 2 months:
1. Adaptability & ownership:
When we booked the first leg of our journey, Trump had not gone insane and suddenly decided to attach another country across the globe.
With Dubai as the first country on our trip, the kids planned the whole trip, sightseeing, etc., on a happy scenario; we called PLAN A.
Everyone have a PLAN, util they get PUNCHED in the face – Mike Tyson.
Little did we know the world(or atleast middle east) would be a different place mid 2026. With huge uncertainties a month before the travel day, we had to redo the whole planning, redo bookings, skipping or replacing Dubai with another country, etc.; all were on the table. So the kids started to make Plan B, Plan C, etc.
Adaptability & owning the outcome was one thing they learnt first-hand. Being fully aware of the risks, following new and, of course, financial implications of replanning, they were part of the shbang & owned it as well.
In today’s world of AI, and one prompt away, knowledge/information kids have it all. As a parent, I personally feel making kids accountable, adaptable to changing situations and owning the outcome goes a long way.
Btw, while kids had Plan B & C ready, we were able to stick to plan A, and it went like a charm :).
2. There are Multiple parallel worlds out there.
I was fortunate enough to have a chance to work and travel in almost all geographies before calling Sweden our home. Having worked with people from so many nationalities and cultures, one thing i always admired was How Different and similar we all are.
Our kids were born and brought up in Sweden. They have almost all things served on a silver spoon, from a well-functioning country to schooling and transportation. You name it. Almost all of those are taken for granted, which is not the case in most parts of the world.
Even though they have travelled quite a lot (mostly in the Western part of the world), one thing we always wanted them to see is how big, different, similar and unique our planet is. There are so many parallel worlds out there, and how interconnected they are.
Learning to respect, accept and get along with people who are not similar to us was one of the key things they learnt along the trip. In a world divided by wars, more siloes
From meeting new friends, to Vihana using her newly learnt South Korean in remote villages near Busan, to finding her YouTube subscribers in a Thai floating market was an experience indeed.
3. Having a life of Texture.
When I reflect back on all the memories i had since my childhood, some of the most memorable life experiences are so memorable precisely because they had friction. Precisely because they were inconvenient.
It’s why we still laugh about the trip when our bags got lost by the airline. Or the Dubai war and uncertainties around it.
Or the meditation we did in a beautiful temple on the coast of Busan
For better or worse, when all your plans went awry, and you had to wing it at the last moment. It’s when most of the textured memories of your life are made.
4. Digital Detox.
We managed to dodge giving personal mobiles to kids as much as we could, and very recently they got mobile phones. Over the past year, we noticed the screen time(TV, Games, laptop and newly added mobile) really started going up.
Maybe we both(as parents) work in the technology sector, so we’re on screens for most part of the daylight.
Talking THROUGH technology to Taking TO Technology; I noticed a real shift in the last few years in how we as a family really started to move away from using talking through tech but rather talking to it. (AI Agents). Perhaps kids started to imitate me here too. (Definitely not preach what you teach).
This trip was yet another reason to do a digital detox for the whole family, where we decided to be off the grid for 60 days. (Only relied on public wifi or hotel wifi for bookings and urgent navigation, etc.)
On a lighter note, one thing we noticed in every country we visited during this trip (irrespective if its small or big, developed or developing, city or village). Everyone was hooked on their screens. :) Slaves to technology, I call it.
From booking robot taxis(Waymo) in SFO, to feeding kangaroos in melbourne, to hiking yosemite, to sunkissed beaches of bali, pattaya, &dubai, to seeing magnificent temples of far east, to escaping war in dubai.
The summer of 26 will indeed be a memory of life time for us & them :)
Indeed A Textured One….
Vihana and Rio have tried to journal the whole trip on their YouTube channel.
See below if you are curious to see all the countries we visited.
So where are you travelling next?
“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.” //Kurt Vonnegut
Love & Peace,
//Chakshu
Here’s what I am reading this week.
Started reading Nexus by Yuval in June’26 and was determined to complete the book during our world trip.
I will have endless time to kill :). Myths i had.
Here i am, still reading this beautiful book on how information networks have shaped humanity from the Stone Age to now.
Or perhaps it’s too good to be soaked in slowly.
Highly recommend.
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