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If you have money to burn, go ahead and stay in a homogenized international hotel, shut off in a room of your own with little or no interaction with the local scene. But we advise you to go cheap—for a richer experience!
What will your family learn from a trip overseas? The easy answers spring to mind: art and history, culture and politics, geography, and a little language. Parents who write to us, however, say the most important things their kids learned by traveling abroad were surprises to the whole family.
 But they’re different! Especially if your kids are approaching their teen years, they may be convinced that anyone who doesn’t dress and act a certain way will be swallowed up in a galactic black hole and die. Seeing their peers in other countries acting very differently from the norms at home helps them realize that it may be possible to be yourself and live to tell about it.
Toddlers can speak Italian. Or Japanese, or Shona. Your kids will be fascinated listening to children younger than them speaking another language. And awestruck that kids their age often speak two or three languages. With encouragement, this awareness could help them buck the monolingual norm back in the U.S.
Cars are not essential. Too many American kids live in areas without trains or busses and have never traveled anywhere except by car or plane. As they will be the future engineers and city planners who will help save our planet, it’s a good thing that your trip will make them realize how a good public transportation system can work.
Oh. I have a family. In today’s busy world, days can go by without the entire family sitting down together. Mom and Dad are working, there’s play rehearsal, soccer practice, doctor appointments—and we lose touch. Traveling together gives everyone a chance to get reacquainted. Families are often surprised at what they learn about each other when there’s no alternative.
I can do it. At home, it’s easy to operate within a narrow sphere of familiar assumptions. You and your kids both know what they “can” and “can’t” do. Travel puts everyone in unfamiliar situations that often require creative solutions. Pride and confidence blossom when your 10-year-old is the first one to figure out how to read the Metro map, or your teenager shows you how to operate the mysterious water heater on your hotel shower.
Once you understand that lessons like these will be the most important legacies of your trip, you will realize that sitting in a café and people-watching, hanging out in a shopping mall, or riding the #38 bus to the end of the line and back again can be just as valuable as visiting one more cathedral or museum. Don’t cram your itinerary full of must-see cultural treasures. Leave time for real life, and reap the benefits.
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Travel Abroad 
