It’s that time of year again!  School is almost out and summer is fast approaching.  Summer 2019 will mark a few milestones for us.  See what exciting plans do we have this year?

I know for many in the USA summer has already begun, but our schools don’t get out until the third week of June.  Of course, that also means we start a bit later and don’t return to school until mid-September.  We pretty much follow the true seasonal calendar.

Now that we have teens and Lars has been doing a bit of international travel on his own, our plans are a bit different compared to past summers.  This summer will mark a few milestones for us too.

Teens

First, let’s briefly dip into the teen conversation.  The past couple of years Alan and I have listened to our teens’ input, rules, restrictions zone when it came to planning travel.  They wanted to just take short trips, so they could spend more time with their local friends.  They didn’t want to spend days in a car on a road trip and definitely needed their own space when it came to sleeping.  All of this means we haven’t been doing those long epic summer vacations.

• Summer 2013 – We shared our 6 week European Road Trip with you.
• Summer 2014 – We were a nomadic family and “lived” on a houseboat in Amsterdam, enjoyed a 3 week Road Trip in Europe, then made the big leap over to a life in Southeast Asia.
  
• Summer 2015  – We had just returned to Spain and stayed fairly local, with a week in Granada and a week in Mijas Costa.
• Summer 2016 – An 8-week road trip in Europe!  (Spain and France) with a housesit!
  
• Summer 2017 – We planned a local summer, but plans changed.  A last-minute 3-week trip to the USA.
  
• Summer 2018 – We worked a bit, finished up ebooks and just stayed in Spain.  We took a couple of short breaks with Anya and her friend, while Lars was off volunteering. This is when we went glamping in Granada and also stayed at a spa resort in Almería.  Alan also played a bit with timelapse video and we have a great post about it.  San Cristobal Beach Almuñécar Summer Day Timelapse

Wagoners Abroad Summer 2019

Now for our plans this year.  This is a summer with a few milestones for us.

Milestone #1 Grandma Linda in the summer!

Grandmas Linda will be visiting us the last week of June and it will be the first time she’s been here during the summer.  Each year she has visited in the spring or fall, but it is a completely different experience in the Summer.

It will all kick off with her first night off with us at a friend’s birthday party and then we get into the Fiestas de San Juan.  We won’t be taking her to the midnight water fight in Lanjarón, but she will love the bonfires and parties on the beach.  The week will be local and then we will all spend a couple of nights in Málaga!  I am sure we will either add to or enjoy our list of Things to do in Malaga.

Milestone #2 Work, Work, Work!

This year our consulting season has been a little unpredictable.  Usually, we are busy from January through May.  Then another little surge with arrivals in August and September.  This year, we’ve had a steady flow with people contacting us for consulting, meeting up on scoping trips and arrivals!  People aren’t just coming before school starts anymore.  We have a few client meetings in June, July, and August.  Because of this, we aren’t planning to be away for more than a few days at a time in July.

Any travel we may do will likely be last-minute weekend away or something.  Anya is perfectly happy staying in town, so she can just hang out with friends.  If you do go away for a short break, she will just invite a friend to come along.

Milestone #3 The wings have spread!

As you know we have been granting Lars a bit more freedom and independence over the past year.  He went off to his Diverbo Teen volunteer program out of Madrid, on his own last summer.

Last October he was off on his first solo international trip to Ireland.  He met up with several of his friends from the Diverbo program and had a great time.

Shortly thereafter, he’s made a trip to the UK to see another friend from Diverbo.  Again, everything went well and he’s done a few more hops over to the UK.

Having a 17-year-old with wanderlust is a fabulous thing, on paper.  Ha!  Now we’ve really done it.  He wants to spread those wings a bit further.  He now has some amazing plans for his summer!

Summer 2019 plans for Lars

Lars gets his own section for his summer plans!  I’ll also have you know he is completely funding this journey and has made all of the plans on his own, with parental approval of course.  Lars has planned a summer of budget travel and volunteering!

Volunteer Job #1 Spain

He will once again kick off his summer for 2 weeks at the Diverbo Teen volunteer program.  Remember he just needs to get to the venue and then for 2 weeks, all of this food, drinks, and accommodation is included!  This will be his 4th summer volunteering and it inspired him to seek out more volunteer opportunities.

Volunteer Job #2 Germany

After his time with Diverbo, he will fly over to England and visit a friend.  Then he and his friend will be doing a 2-week wwoofing (not a typo!) volunteer job in Germany.

WWOOF – World Wide Organization of Organic Farming

The hosts offer food, accommodation, and opportunities to stay and learn about organic/biological growing and farming.  While the volunteers give hands-on help and have an interest in learning about organic farming and gaining skills in sustainable ways of living.

High Hopes

They had hoped for an opportunity in France for French language immersion, but you need to be 18 to volunteer.  In Germany, you can volunteer at 17, so Germany it is!  They really lucked out and selected a farm with a multilingual family, so they may still get a little French immersion if they wish.  The will be working each day doing odd jobs and helping around the farm, possibly driving tractors, caring for animals and more.  This is all in exchange for accommodation and meals.

Following their time in Germany, they will take a day or two to make it to the south of France.

Volunteer Job #3 France

Once in the south of France, they have another farming volunteer opportunity set up through family friends.  So the exchange will be pretty similar to the set up in Germany.  Here they may have different farming duties to perform, but it is with a family friend.  Following this experience, around mid-August, each of them will fly back to their home country.

Milestone #4 A Wagoner Family Vacation

We do have one family vacation planned for this summer, actually late in the summer.  It is all about a big birthday for Alan!  Lars will be home for less than 2 weeks and then we are all off for a week in Greece!  Alan’s always wanted to go to Greece and I found some great deals on flights.  We will only be away for a week and are going to stick to the mainland while there.  So, we will have to save the islands for another visit, with more time.

Athens Greece!

We will spend a few days exploring Athens and then head off to Marathon.  If you have any must do recommendations for Athens, let us know.  In Marathon, we will be staying at an all-inclusive beach resort, which was booked with airline miles!  None of us wanted a vacation full of travel days, so we are ending it in style.  We won’t need to worry about costs, eating out, activities or anything.  We have a room for the adults and a room for the kids!  It is all about rest, relaxation and a real vacation.

Since we are travel bloggers, our life is travel and travel is our life.  So this means we are always working, even when you think we are on vacation.  The kids requested “a real vacation”, so we are trying to make that happen.  Just enjoy our time and possibly not even bring our laptops with us.  That is the plan, we will see what reality turns out to be.

What are your summer 2019 plans?

There you have it!  Our plans for the summer.  I can’t wait to see how it all turns out and we will keep you posted along the way.  Let us know what your plans are.