How I Travel

Duane, Marcia, Victoria and Alexandra have been travelling with Jacada since 2015. Duane chatted to us about how travel has changed over time for him and his family and how, when it comes to wanderlust, some things simply never change.

You’ve travelled all over the world: can you tell us if who you travel with has changed over the years? We love to travel as a family: myself, my wife Marcia and our daughters Victoria and Alexandra. As time has gone on and our daughters have gotten older with busy schedules of their own, it can be harder to find free time for trips. In the future we envisage taking more couples trips, or trips with friends, while the girls do their own thing. Ultimately though, getting away, all four of us, is our goal. Family travel is important as it’s such a wonderful connecting point.

Have your travel priorities evolved over time?

I think our priorities have shifted over time. In the past we would have opted for busy itineraries where you get to see and do a lot but now we like to have a little more free time to relax, be together and soak up the area we’re in.

We used to think that we would simply rest on the plane on the way home, but you can come back feeling tired from a trip like that. We do have a bit of fear of missing out though. When we were in Belize we very nearly didn’t go on the excursion to the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave as there was an early start and the activity itself was challenging, but it was so incredible! It's the duality of not wanting to miss out on the incredible activities, but also using a vacation as a time to recharge.

One thing that definitely remains unchanged is prioritising time to connect with local guides on our excursions. Pretty much all of our most incredible experiences have been thanks to the guides.

Tell us about some of your most meaningful travel experiences?

Being in the Galapagos was truly incredible. On the one hand, lots of people have been there, but when you’re there it feels completely exclusive. Walking down a pathway to see the blue footed boobies that you’ve read so much about, and then finally seeing them, is a very cool experience.

In Belize, Jacada found this little bbq place for us to have dinner at and we became friends with the owner. Then, when we went to say goodbye, he gave us food to take for the journey home. It was so kind of him. Such a lovely, meaningful connection to have made with someone from the area. Meeting local people and having those kinds of experiences mean a lot to us.

Our guides in Botswana were great too, taking us to remote sundowner spots that were almost otherworldly in terms of beauty – just incredible. You realise that all these places in the world are so beautiful but it's the people you meet along the way that really add meaning to the travel you do.

What does travelling with family mean to you?

To have the four of us together with no distractions, no one busy doing something else, feels special, and it can be hard to achieve back at home. Even the simple things like getting to spend your meal times together feels like a privilege. Having time to be together while we’re away gives us that dedicated family time we crave.

Travelling as a family means we can set down new pathways as a group. All the incredible experiences we get to share connect us as a family, like getting off a boat on the Galapagos Islands and snorkelling for the first time, it bonds you in a way that being in your own country doesn’t. We love the whole experience of travelling from start to finish, including the journey and even the flights. We find it really fun when we’re together.

We’ve been reflecting recently and discovered that over the years, we’ve each taken different meanings from some of our travel experiences. It’s interesting because at the time you think you’re all seeing the same thing, so it’s been fascinating to learn about our different perceptions, particularly from the girls when they were younger.

Is there one thing you always love to include on your trips?

We all love to be near the water: somewhere we can swim. When Marcia was growing up, her family enjoyed holidays at a cottage by a lake where they could swim everyday. It was an important and joyous part of her childhood. She passed this core memory onto me when we first met, and we’ve now passed it onto the girls.

When planning our recent trip to Zambia we decided to add Mozambique to the end of our safari, which was fantastic. Mozambique has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen and the most stunning sunsets. Our shared love of water is another meaningful bonding experience for us.

How does your approach to planning a vacation change depending on who you travel with?

There really isn’t much difference in planning for just Marcia and I, versus planning for the four of us. All of our interests are very much aligned. We’re probably so in-tune with one another because we have travelled together so much. When Marcia and I took an anniversary trip to Italy and France in 2022, the girls would have loved that adventure too.

We do have different passions but we enjoy sharing them – even if our personal interests might lie elsewhere. For example, Alexandra loves museums, and Victoria has started to share that passion. Victoria is a little more adventurous, but we all love to get involved there too.

When we were in the Galapagos there was the chance to jump off the top of the boat, which we all ended up doing. In Belize, Victoria was keen to go zip lining, so it turned into a ‘I guess we’re zip lining now’ situation and we all loved it. The trickiest part of planning is really just finding time in our schedules.

What motivates you to keep travelling?

I think we get more motivated to travel the more we’re exposed to it. Meeting other travellers who share their own amazing travel stories motivates us to see all the beauty the world has to offer.

Meeting people from different cultures, who educate you on their own stories, makes you realise that on some levels we are all similar in some respects, and those connections drive us to keep travelling as well.

Is there a place you'd go back to? If so, why?

A tough call. We would love to go back to all the places we’ve been to, however there are lots of new places we want to go to as well. If we went back to Galapagos we could combine it with Peru for example; Peru would be new for us. In theory we would go back everywhere, but I think we’ll probably try to discover new destinations. It can depend on the practicalities too, the time of year we can travel, the purpose of the trip. These considerations could possibly see us going back to somewhere we’ve already been. It’s all about balance.

Where’s next and who will be coming with you?

Hopefully summer 2024 will see all of us travelling together again… the list is quite long. Latin America is definitely on that list; so is Africa.