"After our graduation ceremony, Suzanne and I are going to San Francisco," I told my mom at age 14. "By ourselves, of course."
My mom was very skeptical, and I was very angry at her for being skeptical. I was determined to show her that I could travel the world without her and my dad. But by the time I graduated high school, Suzanne and I were no longer on speaking terms. She went to the same campground in France as every year, I ended up going to Peru with my parents. A year later, I went camping with them; it wasn't like I'd made any friends at college who would want to travel to the end of the world, or even the end of the street, with me. I swore it'd be our last family vacation though. But the summer of 2016 saw us travel to the Baltic States and Russia. We went to Southeast Asia in 2017. Last summer, at age 23, I traveled to Africa with my mom and dad. It's awkward at times, and people do give us weird looks. I've had people ask if the "we" in many of my blog posts really refers to my parents and myself (the answer is yes, unless I've mentioned other people by name, I do travel with other people). I'm not ashamed to admit these things, because honestly, traveling with my parents has its perks.

Before I go into the main reasons why I still travel with the people who raised me, I want to get one minor reason out of the way: finances. I'm a full-time student with the worst freelance job in the history of freelance jobs, so when my parents and I travel together, we usually make a deal. I'll pay for my plane ticket and food, they'll pay for accommodation and excursions. My parents make sure I can keep traveling; they know staying in one place for too long does a number on my mental health.
Of course, I would not travel with them if they were horrible people, no matter how much money they'd throw at me. But my parents are pretty amazing, especially when it comes to traveling.

This is my mom in Vietnam, in the early 90s. Vietnam had only just opened its borders to Western tourists and the Vietnamese were still suspicious of Western faces (with good reason, in my opinion). My parents didn't risk their lives, but it wasn't the safest destination out there either. When they traveled by train, they had to sit in a compartment that had iron bars covering the windows, because locals were known to throw rocks at the compartments designated for tourists. Still, my parents couldn't be talked into picking another destination, because they wanted to know what the other side of the world looked like. They traveled through Yugoslavia with their own car, which they once had shipped to Iceland so they could go on a road trip. They went to Latin America, decided to skip Venezuela when they spotted automatic rifles on every streetcorner. They saw Mexico with practically zero knowledge of Spanish and they'd been to the US, Asia and Australia long before those places became standard destinations for every high school student confused about life. They traveled the world together for more than a decade before I was born. Honestly, why wouldn't I want to travel with people who have so much experience exploring the world?

My parents' experience also takes an enormous weight off my shoulders. When I travel by myself, I'm responsible for every part of the trip, which is overwhelming at times. With my parents around, I don't have to worry about every little thing. My mom is usually in charge of luggage, keeping our clothes clean and reigning my dad in when he wants to go completely off the grid and risk our lives for an adventure. My dad is responsible for finances, transportation and us not dying in dark alleys. I'm his right hand, I help in making the program, picking activities and I help out with language barriers when I can. We're a good team (most of the time) and I do not see why I should not be part of that team from time to time.

My dad on an Egyptian street at 3.30 am, waiting for his bus to Israel (1984)

Although my parents and I get along and we usually work together pretty well, I don't want to travel with them all the time. It usually depends on the destination. Had my parents retired from traveling and decided to go to the same campground in Germany for the rest of their lives, I wouldn't be tagging along anymore. In that case, you'd see me traveling the world on my own. But I'm lucky with parents who still want to go to uncharted territory. Some places are simply not safe enough for me to visit on my own, but my parents are often interested in those places too. It was their idea to go to Africa, they simply invited me to come along. It was their idea to go to Southeast Asia, they insisted I'd come so I wouldn't sink into sadness for good. And it was their idea to go to Russia just because none of us knew what that would be like.

The fact that my parents know me so well is also a reason why I like to travel with them. They know what kind of museums and activities I'm interested in and won't pressure me to go clubbing because they know it will make me miserable. At this point in time, I have not yet found anyone whose style of traveling fits mine. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends, but most of them have such different expectations and wishes when it comes to traveling that I just know we'd end up fighting before we're halfway to our destination. I'm fine sleeping in hostels and sharing my bus with locals, but I know that makes some people uncomfortable. I like to have a vague idea of what I'm going to do at my destination, others want to have every minute planned and confirmed, or they don't even want to know what they can do at our destination until we get there.

Mom always has my back

Apart from that, I know I'm not the easiest person around. I stress, I freak out, I get depressed. I can be a handful, both at home and abroad. The past four years have not been easy on me and my mental state, but my parents, especially my mom, know how to handle me and how to keep me in a good headspace when traveling. It's a burden they are still willing to carry, for which I'm eternally grateful, but I don't want to put this burden on anyone else yet. I see traveling to destinations in Asia and Africa as a big commitment, and I need to be sure someone can handle both the destination and my mood swings before we end up in a major existential crisis in the middle of nowhere.
At the end of the day, I do wish I'd found a permanent travel buddy who isn't related to me. But the truth is that I haven't, so I travel either alone, or with my parents. It's not the situation I hoped to be in at 23, but it could have been much worse. I think of myself as one of the luckiest daughters in the world. My parents have taken me everywhere from Madeira to Australia when I was underage, and they continue to explore the world with me now that I'm older. I understand that I'm not expected to travel with them anymore, but in 20, 30 or 40 years, I will look back on this time in my life and count myself more than lucky for having been given all these opportunities to make beautiful memories with my parents. Those memories are irreplaceable and worth all the sneers and stares.