Travelling With An Only Child Isn’t What People Think It Is

One of the biggest questions we get asked is about travelling long-term with an only child.

Usually it starts quite cautiously. Parents almost apologising for asking it.

“Isn't he lonely?”

“Doesn't he struggle not having siblings around?”

“Doesn't he get bored just being with adults all the time?”

And honestly, we get it. Before we left, we had exactly the same worries ourselves. Probably worse because when you’re planning this kind of life, your brain suddenly decides every possible thing is a concern at 2am.

There’s this assumption that travelling with one child means they’ll spend their entire life sadly staring out of bus windows while adults discuss ferry timings and accommodation check-ins.

The reality for us has looked very different.

Jax is genuinely happy. Not fake Instagram happy. Just content.

He likes meeting other kids, of course he does. He’s eight years old. He likes scootering, Minecraft conversations, swimming pools and finding somebody willing to spend an hour making ridiculous Lego vehicles with him.

But he also really likes his own space.

That’s probably the bit people struggle to understand sometimes. Being comfortable in your own company isn’t automatically a sad thing.

Some afternoons he’ll happily sit drawing while we work on blogs. Sometimes we’ll all play cards together for an hour in a tiny apartment while a thunderstorm batters the windows outside. Sometimes we’ll watch a family series together after a long travel day because everybody’s too tired to pretend they want to do anything productive.

That’s just normal family life. Ours just happens to move countries more often.

“Won’t he be lonely?”

Honestly, this is the one we hear the most.

And yes, there have been periods where we haven’t seen many other children around.