Before Wheels Up: The Unseen Side of Planning a Round-the-World Journey

Behind the dream of a global family adventure lies a quiet mountain of preparation. The kind of admin that doesn’t sparkle on Instagram, but without which, the journey simply wouldn’t happen. Here’s a peek behind our curtain—key things

we had to take care of before setting off.

👦Task #1: Preparing Young Travelers

Preparing our kids for a year of global travel meant more than packing bags—it meant building habits, mindsets, and confidence. We regularly walked long distances, learn to stay aware and safe in unfamiliar places, and being comfortable when they don’t speak the language. We encouraged them to be curious and open-minded with food and experiences, to leverage their English as their bridge language, and to become problem-solvers who can fix small hiccups on their own. Self-autonomy was the goal—not perfection, but progress—so they can carry not just their backpack, but themselves, through the world. Full post coming soon. 

💉Task #2: Getting All the Vaccines

We rolled up our sleeves—literally. A visit to the travel clinic quickly became a non-negotiable part of our pre-departure checklist. Over two sessions, each of us took about seven shots. Liam wasn’t exactly thrilled with the sight of the needle (especially that long one), but to his credit, he braved it like a champ.

📝Task #3: Do Our Inventory

This one was... fun. Well—not really. Before heading off, we had to inventory every single item in our house for customs and insurance purpose. And wow—turns out we own a lot more than we thought. As a consultant, I (Benoit) couldn’t resist diving into the numbers. The final count? 3,617 items, spread across clothing, electronics, furniture, kitchenware, tools, art supplies, games, and more. Honestly, maybe too much of everything. A few highlights:

• We somehow own 74 Lego kits.

• And 111 board games—clearly we’re ready for any rainy day on the planet.

• On the clothing front, Audrey and I apparently share eerily similar values. Make of that what you will.

It was a giant task, but it gave us a fresh perspective on what we actually need—and a great excuse to declutter. Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised if we purge even more when we arrive back in Canada.

📦 Task #4: Sort Out Storage & Insurance

Our trusty, slightly dusty old Honda has been enjoying a quiet break in an Ottawa storage facility—and it looks like it’s getting an extended vacation. We also coordinated to send our shipment from Japan to the same facility. Conveniently, both our current and new storage are now housed under one roof—and they offer proper insurance coverage for everything. One less logistical jigsaw to worry about.

🌍 Task #5: Finding the Proper Travel Insurance

Arguably one of the most tedious—but absolutely essential—tasks on our list. We spent hours comparing providers, looking for coverage that ticked all the boxes and all the countries we where going: emergency medical care, trip cancellations, personal liability, remote evacuation, and even protection for stolen electronics (because yes, our laptops and cameras are coming along for the ride).

In the end, we chose Safety Wing for its cost, insurance options and simplicy. I’ll dive deeper into why we picked it—and what we learned along the way—in a future post. Let just hope we don't have to use it!

🎓Task #6: Planning for Homeschooling

One of the bigger puzzles was figuring out how we’d manage schooling on the road. Both kids are currently enrolled at a French Lycée, and thankfully, the french schooling offers a solid distance learning option through the CNED (Centre Nationale d’Enseignement à Distance).

It took a bit of digging and coordinating—another registration, another round of paperwork—but knowing we have a structured, familiar curriculum to anchor our world tour brought us peace of mind. Using CNED during our travels ensures our kids stay on track with the French curriculum—and makes transitioning back to a regular lycée in Canada smooth and familiar.

☁️ Task #7: Backing Up to the Cloud

With a year on the road ahead—and no access to our usual gear—we knew we had to prepare for total digital self-sufficiency. No external hard drives, no filing cabinets, no rummaging through drawers for that one medical form.

So, we digitized everything: documents, IDs, school records, medical files, insurance papers… you name it. Then we set up a layered cloud backup system, making sure we had secure, redundant access from anywhere in the world.

When your whole life fits into a backpack, cloud storage that works anywhere, anytime isn’t just smart—it’s survival.

🏡 Task #8: Changing Our Address (Everywhere)

Oh boy—this one tested our patience. Between government agencies, banks, schools, insurance providers, and all those random subscriptions, we had addresses scattered across all over the place. To get a handle on it, we combed through six months of mail (physical and digital) just to figure out who still had our old details. One by one, we started updating records. It was long, dull, and frustratingly analog for a digital age—but it had to be done.

🛒 Task #9: Buying the Right Equipment

Outfitting four suitecases for a year on the road meant making every item count. We focused on gear that was light, durable, quick-dry and multi-use—every gram had to earn its place. We’ll be traveling with four regular backpacks, two check-in suitcases, and two carry-ons. To gear up out, we spent a full weekend exploring the biggest outdoor sport outlet mall near Tokyo and tracked down everything we needed: hiking hats, rashguards, hiking pants, Gortex rain jackets, quality footware, power banks and a well-loved football kit. We’ll share a full gear breakdown soon—including what made the cut and what didn’t.

🚘 Task #10: Securing International Driving Permits

We’ll be renting all sorts of vehicles on this trip—cars, campervans, scooters—so getting our international driving licenses sorted was non-negotiable. Here’s the twist: we needed international licenses from Japan and not Canada. That meant a full morning at the driving bureau in Tokyo, politely convincing the official that yes, we do hold valid Japanese licenses (even if we didn’t look the part). The trick was to time it just right—we applied right before departure to ensure the license stayed valid throughout the trip. We also had to contact our home country’s authorities to ensure our original licenses stayed current, so we’re legally good to go when we return. A tale of two bureaucracies—but mission accomplished.

💊 Task #11: Securing Prescription Meds & Contact Lenses for the Year

Since we’ll be without full health coverage during our trip (beyond emergency care), we had to plan ahead for our medical essentials. Availability can be unpredictable—especially when your next stop might be a remote farm in the Laotian jungle. So, we scheduled visits with our doctors, dentists and optometrists to cover all bases: prescription medications, contact lenses, backup glasses, and that slighly anoying ankle pain that comes up once in while. We left with a year's worth of everything we’d need to stay healthy—and sane.

🛂 Task #12: Visas & Passport Renewals

This one was straightforward in theory—but time-sensitive in practice. First, we double-checked all our passports to make sure they’d stay valid for at least six months beyond our last destination. Then came the visa deep dive. We flagged a few countries with entry requirements: the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Laos, Australia, and New Zealand. Each had its own process, fees, and quirks—some more straightforward than others. We’ll break down exactly what was needed (and what it cost us) for each country in a separate post.

📶 Other Tasks

Of course, there were plenty of other things to tackle—little tasks that didn’t make the headline list but still kept us busy: finding the right eSim plan for each country, setting up cloud calendars, organizing finances, doing the budget, etc.

But that about wraps up the big ones. Hopefully this gives you a realistic snapshot of the behind-the-scenes hustle involved in prepping for a year-long adventure. It’s not all sunsets and boarding passes—but clearing the runway makes the flight that much sweeter.