Big Five – FeedWhen the late Rainer Jenss asked me to be on the advisory board for the Family Travel Association, little did I know what an honor it would be. It brought to life a blog I wrote some years back, counting how many vacations days we really have to travel with our children from the age of 6 to 18. When I saw how low the number really was, it put into perspective what family travel is all about and how much dedication it takes as a parent to share those little moments. Rainer and every other parent were right, the time goes go by very fast. And family travel is really about tests, isn’t it? No, not a test on your patience, though that can happen at times, rather a test of whether or not a destination was truly family focused, or merely family tolerant.
I first tested Egypt as a family destination when my son Shiv was two years old. Too young I know, however it still didn’t stop my family and I from having a blast. Fast forward to March 2025, my final spring break with Shiv before he heads off to higher education institutions, and it was time to let a 13 year old and an 18 year old test Egypt again, this time during Ramadan.
If I thought taking my son 15 years ago was fun, little did I know how much fun this would be as my wife and I watched Egypt unfold through the eyes of our children. This visit was such an adventure. Sunrise private hot air balloon where we celebrated Shiv’s birthday, seeing the tomb of Neferhotep just opened last year after a 30-year restoration and so much more, topped off with a desert sunset on ATVs in the West Bank. My daughter Jaya had me in stiches. After telling me she was hungry and sleepy, like most 13 year olds would say, she rode the ATV tandem with me while I sent my wife and son off on their own bikes. As I squeezed down the throttle, letting her drive with me, I asked her if she was still tired and still sleepy. The answer, nope!
The best part was seeing how curious my children have become —my son, a history buff thanks to his history class on ancient civilizations, and my daughter, who had been learning about King Tut in her 6th-grade class last year. It wasn’t just what they learned that amazed them; it was the fact that the history they had studied was being challenged and rewritten at every turn. They were comparing what they had read with what they were experiencing and discovering in that moment – and drawing their own conclusions.
Now if that’s not learning, what is?
