While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and published some of our own.

Because it was so useful to hear from those who have gone before, we want to share some of our recommendations for YOUR trips abroad. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just many of the great things that come to mind when we look back on our year.

Sorry there are no helpful comments here, but we wholeheartedly recommend all of these places and activities linked below (we DID have some disasters and some less-than-ideals, we just left them off the list). If you want the full story, feel free to email us and we will talk your ear off!

GENERAL TRAVEL

AirTreks Round-the-World Airfare

Renault Eurodrive Lease/Buyback Program

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor CityGuides App

HomeAway Rentals

Holiday Lettings Rentals

AirBnB Apartment Rentals

Rick Steves Audio Europe

ICELAND

Iceland Camping Card

Hotel Keilir, Keflavik

Northsailing Whale Watching, Husavik

FRANCE

Hotel Esmeralda, Paris

Le Manoir Quinquis, Bannalec

Cro Bique, rental in Beynac-et-Cazenac

Font-de-Gaume Cave Paintings, Les Eyzies

Beynac Castle, Beynac-et-Cazenac

Transmanche Ferries

ENGLAND

Broadhembury Campground, Kent

Dover Castle, Kent

Farriers Arms Pub, Kent

London Eye

Tower of London

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

Helm Lune Cottage Rental, Bowness

Holiday Inn Maidstone, Seven Oaks

Car train through the Chunnel

BELGIUM

Maison Antoine Frites, Brussels

European Union Visitors Centre

SWITZERLAND

Chalet Im Batzenboden, Wengen

Trummelbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

CROATIA

Montona Gallery Pizza, Motovun

Perfectly Charming House, Viganj

Antony Boy Camping and Windsurfing, Viganj

Jadrolinja Ferries

ITALY

L’Arcobaleno Apartment, Rome

Il Sorpasso Ristorante, Rome

MOROCCO

Riad Safir, Meknes

Rough Tours Company, Sahara

TUNISIA

Novotel, Tunis

GREECE

Hotel Phaedra

TURKEY

Villa Blanca Rental, Davutlar

Ephesus Archaeological Site, Izmir

Perge Archaeological Site, Antalya

Flintstones Cave Hotel, Cappadocia

Red and Rose Valley Trails, Goreme

Sedef Restaurant, Goreme

Hitchhiker ATV Rental, Goreme

Sahkulu Place Apartment, Istanbul

TANZANIA

Nomad Tanzania Safaris

RWANDA

Solace Guesthouse, Kigali

Kigali Memorial Centre, Kigali

Meze Fresh Burritos, Kigali

MALAYSIA

Petrosains Science Museum, Kuala Lumpur

Novotel City Centre, Kuala Lumpur

THAILAND

Thailand Elephant Conservation Center

Sojos Cafe, Chiang Mai

Khaomao Khaofang Restaurant, Chiang Mai

Free Burma Rangers

Medici Restaurant, Bangkok

Navalai River Resort, Bangkok

Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok

VIETNAM

V’Spirit Cruise, Ha Long Bay

Hanoi Charming 2 Hotel, Hanoi

CHINA

New Day Foster Home Guesthouse, near Beijing

Huanghua Great Wall of China

Olympic Water Cube Water Park, Beijing

Xian HQ Apartments, Xian

Mt Huashan Hike, Xian

Terra Cotta Warriors, Xian

JAPAN

Japan Railpass

Sakara Kyoto Guesthouse, Kyoto

Sakara Gion Machiya Rental, Kyoto

Musashi Sushi, Kyoto

Hiroshima Memorial Park, Hiroshima

Andersen Kitchen, Hiroshima

Toyota Plant Tour, Toyota City

Pepper Lunch, Tokyo

KOREA

Cozy Residence Apartment, Seoul

… AND SOME ORGANIZATIONS WE HAVE GROWN TO LOVE

St. James Muswell Hill, London

Friends of the Lakes District, Kendal, UK

Lakes Christian Centre, Bowness, UK

St. Paul’s Cultural Center, Antalya, Turkey

World Relief Rwanda

Sonrise School, Musanze, Rwanda

Akiba School, Nairobi, Kenya

Light and Power Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

The Ocean Church, Tanzania

Kenya Connection, Kenya

Dave and Lucy Chaves, Nairobi, Kenya

Christ Church Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya

International Justice Mission Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Grace International School, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Free Burma Rangers, Chiang Mai, Thailand

New Day Foster Home, China

HAPPY ADVENTURES TO YOU ALL!

E flying his airplane in the restored marketplace stoa of the ancient Athens agora.

We’ve spent the last two days SEEING EVIDENCE of human life in Athens that stretches back more than 5,000 years. This is super real evidence — tools, pottery, whole buildings, ancient roads — things we can actually touch and walk around and regard or play Star Wars light saber duels inside.

Even our language has visible roots of ancient influence from Athens, like this: ancestors of the medical profession once worshiped a goddess named Hygiena.

Historical evidence is in every courtyard, on every street, across every view. There is some sort of ruin OUTSIDE MY HOTEL WINDOW. It’s impossible to miss that this sprawling history in Athens was once REAL … the day-to-day life things of living, breathing people.

Evidence like this was on my mind today after an Advent reading in Isaiah. In a prophecy, the people of God are told two great enemies have banded together and their new union is primed for attack. After they’re instructed to “Be careful, keep calm, and don’t be afraid,” God’s people are told:

If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.

As we waded through touchable history in Athens … I realized that we have very little hard evidence of the One I believe has overcome history itself. No relics. No childhood homes. Nothing I can actually touch. I admit to you that these reflections were troubling. It was faith chewing, a good exercise perhaps … but hard nonetheless.

So in the end, how does faith really work? I don’t have a great answer for you. But I do have this: I need(ed) help, and my Savior came — comes — to save me. He didn’t come to build a wall that would stand for 2,012 years.

*I* am part of what stands after 2012 years. With Him.

We walked today through the same tunnel once used by Roman gladiators on their way to ancient games in an ancient Athens stadium.

The tunnel ended with this exhibit about the modern Olympics.

The motto pictured below was too good to pass up … because OUR WANDERING IS NOT YET FINISHED.

This photo is a great example of THE MIX — the elusive combination of history, education, family, fun, beauty, and exercise that S and I are often trying to nail on this adventure.

It’s tough to make out all the details … but there’s the family, of course, then the marble-lined track from the 1896 Olympics, the sunset, and, off in the distance on the far right, the Acropolis. Yes, we did force the boys to run around the track.

They used this stadium for the 1896 Olympics.

I am learning to embrace my Inner Tourist.  Or rather, my true Tourist Self is showing more and more on the outside.  And I am learning to accept it.

One of our sons is sometimes (often!) mortified at our family’s touristic appearance, loathing to travel as a fivesome in public places, and often drifting behind or away in order to distance himself from the so obviously American family. He has pleaded to return to a hotel to change shirts when he realized he and another brother were wearing matching shirts.  I get it.  I have felt his pain before.

I have spent over half my life living in tourist destinations — and I have thoroughly enjoyed being in the know, confidently winding around camera-laden crowds studying maps, priding myself in my sense of belonging in a place where others are merely visiting, and if I were to dig really deep, I’d probably find that I felt superior to the tourists visiting my city.  I love having the answers.  And I would rather drive around for hours trying to find a place on my own rather than ask someone for directions.

But being a professional tourist these months has changed my perspective.  I am confronted with layers of questions that, if you follow the trail far enough, pretty much get down to what is the meaning of life.  As we visited the Acropolis in Athens, Greece today, these questions hit me square in the face.

Why do we pretend to know where we are going?  Why do we want to look like something we are not, or to seem like we are more than we are?  What gain is it to appear we know more than we do, when we really don’t?  Why is there fear of seeming like an outsider?  Or like a human?  Basically…where is my identity?

Striving to appear better than reality is, of course, not a new concept.  Construction on the Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena, began around 450 BC — 2500 years ago.  I learned today that the base of the massive structure is crowned (like a football field!) by 6 inches so that it does not appear to sag in the middle.  The 34 columns along the sides of the Parthenon are tilted slightly inward, so as not to appear to splay outward.  Each marble column was designed to bulge slightly midway up, to give the illusion that it is bearing a mighty weight.  Even the Ancient Greeks were hoping to impress someone.

Little by little, I am throwing in the towel in the battle of public perception.  We laughed hysterically in the Moroccan Sahara, wondering if anyone thought we were locals.  We stood without shame on the Acropolis, listening to the Rick Steves audiotour on my phone’s speaker.  I am happy to admit that I don’t know where I am going, but with that comes a firm confidence in Who is leading.

We are what we are.  Today, we are Tourists.

This is out my window on the way to Athens.

S and I sat next to Abu Hussain today on a flight from Tunis to Istanbul (on our way to Athens). The older man was on the first leg of a long business trip — to Turkey, Germany, Spain, then back home to Doha, Qatar.

He was kind to take an interest in our year-long adventure … and was impressed when E counted to ten for him in Arabic.

Abu Hussain asked for E’s school notebook, then wrote this — roughly translated — in Arabic:

Remember this special time you’ve had with your family and all the memories you’ll have of being together.

Share these memories with your own children.