"We spent £85k and took our kids out of school to go travelling for a whole year"
- 7 months ago
A couple rented out their home and took their kids out of school to go on a year-long £85k around-the-world family trip.
Dennis Horstman Maassen, 51, and wife, Sheila, 45, de-registered as citizens of the Netherlands to legally remove children, Oz, eight, and Zola, six, from school.
The family took trains, hire cars, boats, buses and planes through 14 countries - including Ireland, New Zealand, Japan and Hawaii.
They spent around €100-a-night on Airbnb and hotel accommodation and their biggest one-off expense was around-the-world plane tickets costing €15k.
And while many are saving money for the future, the family decided to spend it on a around-the-world trip.
Dennis says that because of rising costs it was "cheaper" for them to travel than stay at home.
And with Dennis owning a small production company and having a number of projects abroad, the family decided to combine his work with travel.
Dennis says the children's' school was "supportive" of their plans and even gave the kids work to do whilst they were away.
Dennis and Sheila rented out their home and sold their car to raise some extra cash for the trip, before heading to their first stop, Germany, on August 8, 2022.
The family then spent time in Ireland before jetting across the Atlantic to visit Canada and the US.
Trips to theme parks in Florida and road trips on the west coast were followed by a flight to Hawaii, where they spent three weeks.
Continuing west, they eventually reached New Zealand and Australia before venturing through Asia to reach Japan.
A quick stop in Singapore and Dubai rounded off their year around the world, before they flew back to the Netherlands on July 25, 2023.
Dennis, a production company owner, from Arnhem, the Netherlands, said: "When we thought it was an option, we made the decision to do it quite quickly.
"I had some job opportunities with my creative production and we thought it would be nice to travel with the kids and school them as we go.
"We had to rent out our house and sell the car, but the house had tenants within a week and it was a nice way of making passive income whilst we were away for the year.
"I budgeted about €100k for the trip. We didn't have that in the beginning but doing some of my production work along the way helped with costs.
"In general we paid around €100 for accommodation a night, €3k-a-month for car rental and the around-the-world travel ticket was €15k euros.
"For some it's a lot of money but in general I think we did it pretty well and if you look at your costs in general for a family-of-four for a year I don't think it's too much."
Dennis Horstman Maassen, 51, and wife, Sheila, 45, de-registered as citizens of the Netherlands to legally remove children, Oz, eight, and Zola, six, from school.
The family took trains, hire cars, boats, buses and planes through 14 countries - including Ireland, New Zealand, Japan and Hawaii.
They spent around €100-a-night on Airbnb and hotel accommodation and their biggest one-off expense was around-the-world plane tickets costing €15k.
And while many are saving money for the future, the family decided to spend it on a around-the-world trip.
Dennis says that because of rising costs it was "cheaper" for them to travel than stay at home.
And with Dennis owning a small production company and having a number of projects abroad, the family decided to combine his work with travel.
Dennis says the children's' school was "supportive" of their plans and even gave the kids work to do whilst they were away.
Dennis and Sheila rented out their home and sold their car to raise some extra cash for the trip, before heading to their first stop, Germany, on August 8, 2022.
The family then spent time in Ireland before jetting across the Atlantic to visit Canada and the US.
Trips to theme parks in Florida and road trips on the west coast were followed by a flight to Hawaii, where they spent three weeks.
Continuing west, they eventually reached New Zealand and Australia before venturing through Asia to reach Japan.
A quick stop in Singapore and Dubai rounded off their year around the world, before they flew back to the Netherlands on July 25, 2023.
Dennis, a production company owner, from Arnhem, the Netherlands, said: "When we thought it was an option, we made the decision to do it quite quickly.
"I had some job opportunities with my creative production and we thought it would be nice to travel with the kids and school them as we go.
"We had to rent out our house and sell the car, but the house had tenants within a week and it was a nice way of making passive income whilst we were away for the year.
"I budgeted about €100k for the trip. We didn't have that in the beginning but doing some of my production work along the way helped with costs.
"In general we paid around €100 for accommodation a night, €3k-a-month for car rental and the around-the-world travel ticket was €15k euros.
"For some it's a lot of money but in general I think we did it pretty well and if you look at your costs in general for a family-of-four for a year I don't think it's too much."