Have you been dreaming of taking your family around the world? Or, are you headed on sabbatical and are looking for similar stories? This week, one of my fellow travel bloggers, Heather Greenwood Davis, and her family are headed out for a YEAR traveling around the world. I am so excited for them - and excited to follow their journeys online. Heather's site, Globetrotting Mama, is a fantastic resource for family travel. She's a great writer, her kids are adorable (and smart), and they've got an exciting year ahead of them.

Want to learn more like I did? We sat down and chatted with Heather, RIGHT before they take off this week. Here's what she had to say...

WE: Please tell us about your site, Globetrotting Mama...

HGD: Globetrotting Mama is a site dedicated to helping to show travelers the pre, during and post of our around the world experience. The site offers tips on travel and links to deals that come across my desk but might not make it to the newspapers, magazines or online publications I write for. I also like to share a more personal side of my travel experiences with my family, lessons I'm learning along the way and offer some behind the scenes information on the places we've visited over the years

WE: What was the genesis of your site?

HGD: I started writing about travel for Canada's largest daily newspaper, The Toronto Star when I was pregnant with my oldest son (now almost 9!) so I've literally been a globetrotting mama from the beginning, but the website and blog were born out of a desire to share my family's experiences directly with other families. I know, as a mom, how tough it can be to sit down and read the paper and I thought that providing a site with a story line other families might be interested in would be useful. I'm hoping that readers will follow along as we try this year long adventurous experiment and provide their tips and advice so that we and others can all learn as we go.

WE: What led you to travel writing?

HGD: I studied journalism right out of high school and worked as a reporter after that. I always enjoyed travel but I hadn't thought about choosing it as a career until I was pregnant with my son. At the time I had stopped writing for the newspaper and pursued a law degree. By the time I was pregnant I hadn't written anything publicly for about two years. I happened to be flipping through a magazine and came across an ad for a spa in texas that was offering a unique treatment program for pregnant and new mothers. I immediately saw the story potential in it and knew, as a pregnant first time mom with a sense of humour, that I'd be a great person to tell the story. I contacted the travel editor at the paper, pitched my idea and was assigned the story. The story ran on the front page of the section and got a lot of attention. He offered me a columnist position and I've been with the paper as a freelance travel columnist ever since.

Ethan learning to spin wool with locals in Peru 

WE: You're planning a RTW trip - excited much?! Where are you headed first?

HGD: So excited!! We leave at the end of June and will spend the first 2 weeks heading west across Canada and the U.S. before heading off to South America. Overall we'll hit 6 continents and about 20 countries. It was important to my husband and I that we show the kids their country as well as the rest of the world and we're glad that we'll get a chance to do that.

WE: How can travelers best dig deeply into a culture?

HGD: There are so many ways! I know there are a lot of RTW travelers out there who are going a lot slower than we are. I respect that. I think slow travel is a great way to get entrenched in a place and I hope to do that on a future trip. ;) For us we'll be diving into cultural experiences wherever we go. It means connecting with friends of friends, taking the advice of people we've come to know through social media and accepting recomendations on globetrottingmama.com. A big part of what I'll be exploring is the food of the region. I believe that understanding what goes into the meals in a country's kitchens says a lot about the place.

WE: How are you preparing your kids for a year of travel?

HGD: Great question. The short answer? I'm not really. The control freak in me has tried to plan for an entire year of travel and as an adult it's a very difficult thing to do. I'm trying to relax a bit and take things as they come. The kids have already taught me a few things. Their lives have been disrupted  quite a bit - particularly in these last few weeks of planning - and they take it all in stride. I think one of the gifts I can give them on this trip is to let them experience it as it comes.

My husband carrying the boys at the foot of Machu Picchu 

WE: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

HGD: I'm passionate about travel. I believe it offers us the chance to connect in a way few other things do. I hope that our trip will inspire others to travel in the same way that the trips we've been watching have inspired us and I welcome your readers to follow along or point us in the right direction.

WE: Thanks so much, Heather! Bon Voyage - we can't wait to follow your journeys!

For more information, please see:
http://globetrottingmama.com/

All photos courtesy and copyright Globetrotting Mama