008: Sustainable Family Travel Hacks from The Drifty Vegetarians
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Love to travel, but hate how wasteful it can feel? Sri and Deepika from the Drifty Vegetarians join us in today’s episode to give us their sustainable family travel hacks. In addition, they help us understand a bit more about what life is like as an Indian Expat in America and the challenges they face traveling around the world with two young children.
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If you’ve ever been told that traveling with young children is pointless, then Sri and Deepika can prove that it’s not. From a trip to Hawaii when Atharv was a baby to their most recent trip to South Africa, their two young children have been to over 23 countries and counting! And mom and dad don’t let having children stop them from living their more adventurous life either. If you check out their Instagram you will see that they make sure to still go after their bucket list. From dancing the tango in Argentina to sky diving in Dubai, these adventure junkies are showing their kids to do what they love!
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Who are the Sri, Deepika, Atharv, & Aadya from The Drifty Vegetarians?!
A young Indian (non) immigrant family living in America for the last 16 years. They fall right in between little more than part-time travelers and little less than full-time travelers category. They work hard in realizing their travel dreams and at the same time showcasing the world to their kids. However, they don’t take the world for granted. They are on a mission to incorporate more and more sustainable family travel hacks as they go.
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In This Episode with The Drifty Vegetarians We Cover:
Who’s to Blame for Their Love of Travel?
There’s always an instigator when it comes to a love of travel, and for Sri, it was his father. Both Sri and Deepika grew up traveling with their families, but for Sri, his father’s job allowed them far more opportunities. However, they both ended up with the travel bug and met in the USA during university and have been traveling ever since!
Traveling with Young Children:
By 13 months with Atharv and 10 months with Aadya, Sri and Deepika were flying around the country and the world with their children. Of course, as first-time parents, they had the same travel worries we all do. But they quickly realized how perfect traveling with babies and toddlers is because it’s so cheap for them. And it doesn’t matter if the children remember it or not, the time and explorations are for all involved. Especially when schedules are so busy and you barely see each other day to day these travels are so important to family bonding and memories.
How Traveling is Benefiting His Education & The Challenges They’re Facing
When your kids are young you can become spoiled with a lack of rules about attendance. Now that Atharv is in first grade though, getting time to go during the school year is becoming more difficult.
There’s a phrase that we love, “Travel broadens the mind.” and The Drifty Vegetarians are discovering that with each trip they take. They’re seeing how travel is opening up history, culture, and geography in a way learning from a book can not. Listen to find out more about the challenges they’re facing and the solutions they’re finding.
Challenges of traveling with young children:
While most are always worried about illnesses while traveling, Sri and Deepika take these instances as just a part of the travel life and have developed a method of teamwork that allows them to slow down as needed, but still, make the most of their travel experiences. It’s so obvious, it makes me wonder why I’ve worried about it before!
Then there are the normal everyday challenges of raising young children… like food! And yes, even a family with a culture rich in food that has traveled the world seeking the best vegetarian cuisine each country has to offer, experiences picky eaters!
Travel & Cultural Challenges as an Indian Expat in America
The ability to freely travel *most the globe is often taken for granted by most Western cultures. However for this family, not only do they have to jump through hoops to obtain visas for most places they’d like to visit, but they also have to deal with American Immigration. As an expat, their travels are constantly questioned and they have limitations on how long they can leave the country. This challenge has appeared many times over their time working in the USA and it adds another dimension to their travel journeys that most don’t consider.
Traveling as Vegetarians
Traveling with food restrictions is often a concern for many families, but The Drifty Vegetarians have made it a point to seek out the best in vegetarian cuisine. However, it’s not always easy. In Brazil, they said the language barrier and meat culture made it difficult to find food sometimes. Sri jokes that everything was steak, even the water! Even their go-to trick of finding an Indian restaurant proved difficult.
In most the world, however, they have enjoyed vegetarian or vegan food easily. In fact, they give their favorite vegetarian dishes and food tours from Japan to Egypt! So if you’re a vegetarian looking to travel the second half of the episode is going to give you some amazing ideas!
Sustainable Family Travel Hacks:
Traveling the world and being a parent are both inherently not so eco-friendly. But The Drifty Vegetarians have been on a mission to balance their travels out to be more sustainable. While they don’t feel like they are experts yet, they do have some great tips that everyone can implement even in their daily lives. It’s all about taking one step at a time. If each person can just make one small change we can slowly change the world.
Links & Places Mentioned:
Where to Find The Drifty Vegetarians
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/the_drifty_vegetarians
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxsZSaiPdHPIBAbld0fdwbg
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1 Comment
Staying Healthy While Traveling · May 10, 2019 at 9:53 pm
[…] a year and their worst fear is that they’ll get sick and it’ll ruin the whole trip. The Drifty Vegetarians showed us that you can still enjoy your trip, but Megan is going to help us have a better chance of staying healthy while traveling in […]