Travelling With Kids

Travelling Australia with kids isn’t just a holiday. It’s choosing to uproot your family’s routine, pull kids out of school, leave behind friends and sports teams, and live together in a space smaller than most bedrooms, for months or years. It’s a decision that generates equal parts excitement and doubt, and both are completely justified.

The families who do it overwhelmingly say it’s the best thing they’ve ever done. The kids who grow up on the road develop independence, resilience, curiosity, and a connection to Australia that no classroom can replicate. But it takes planning, patience, and realistic expectations. A Big Lap with kids looks nothing like a Big Lap without them, and pretending otherwise leads to frustration for everyone.

This section covers everything: whether the Big Lap is right for your family, how to handle education, keeping kids entertained on those long driving days, safety at camp and on the road, the social dynamics of travelling children, and the practical gear you’ll need. Each topic has its own detailed guide linked below.

It’s not always this idyllic. But the moments that are? They’re worth every tantrum in the back seat.

Is It Worth It? The Honest Answer

Yes, with caveats. The Big Lap gives kids experiences that are impossible to replicate at home: swimming with whale sharks, watching crocodiles in the wild, walking on red desert sand, meeting kids from every corner of Australia, and learning to be comfortable in unfamiliar places. These experiences shape who they become.

But it also means: less personal space for everyone, limited access to specialist medical care, leaving behind friendships and routines that matter to your kids, managing education from a van, and the daily challenge of keeping small humans engaged while driving 400km through flat scrub. The honest assessment is that it’s brilliant and hard in roughly equal measure.

The families who struggle most are those who expect the trip to be a permanent holiday. It’s not. It’s life, relocated. The good days are spectacular. The bad days involve a toddler tantrum in a 40-degree caravan, a teenager who hates everything, and parents who haven’t had five minutes alone in three weeks.

Education On The Road

Education is the number one concern for families considering the Big Lap, and the number one topic of conversation among families already doing it. The question isn’t whether kids can learn on the road. They can, and they do, prolifically. The question is how you structure it: formal distance education through a registered school, homeschooling with a curriculum you choose, or unschooling that uses the road itself as the classroom.

Each approach has legal requirements (registration varies by state), practical implications (distance education requires reliable internet and scheduled school hours), and philosophical differences (structured vs freeform learning). Most travelling families end up with a blend: some formal work, some real-world learning, and a lot of adaptation as they figure out what works for their kids.

The detailed guides below cover the registration process, curriculum options, the practical challenges, and how families make it work day-to-day.

Road schooling looks different from classroom schooling. That’s the point. Kids learn maths from fuel calculations and geography from standing on the land.

Keeping Kids Entertained

Long driving days are the biggest daily challenge with kids on the Big Lap. A 4-hour drive that’s pleasant for adults is an eternity for a 5-year-old. The strategies that work are a mix of preparation, routine, and accepting that screens are not the enemy when used thoughtfully.

The secret most experienced families share: keep driving days short (under 3 hours for young kids, under 5 for older ones), break every 90 minutes, and have a bag of activities that rotates regularly so nothing gets stale. The best in-car entertainment costs almost nothing: audiobooks, I-Spy, story-making games, and drawing.

Safety

Kids at camp need different safety considerations than adults. Open water, campfires, reversing vehicles, wildlife (snakes, spiders, crocodiles in the north), and the vast space of a bush camp all present risks that don’t exist in a suburban backyard. Most families find that kids quickly learn the safety rules of camp life, but it requires active teaching and consistent reinforcement, especially in the first few weeks.

Road safety is equally important: correct child restraints for age and weight, regular breaks for driver alertness, and understanding that towing a caravan changes stopping distances and vehicle handling.

The Social Side

Will my kids be lonely? It’s the second most common concern after education, and the answer surprises most parents: Big Lap kids are some of the most socially confident children you’ll meet. They learn to introduce themselves to strangers, make friends quickly, adapt to different social situations, and maintain friendships across distance through technology.

The travelling community is full of families, particularly during school holidays and the peak travel season. Caravan parks are social hubs where kids form instant friendships around the pool and playground. Free camps with other families create evening play sessions that run until dark. And the friendships formed on the road, where families meet, travel together for a week, then reconnect 3,000km later, are genuinely special.

Age-Specific Considerations

A Big Lap with a 2-year-old is a fundamentally different trip from a Big Lap with a 14-year-old. The gear, the daily rhythm, the entertainment needs, the education requirements, and the social dynamics all change with age. We’ve created age-specific guides for the groups that need the most targeted advice.

Big Lap kids don’t lack friends. They collect them across the country and reconnect in the most unexpected places.

Health & Gear

Access to healthcare in regional and remote Australia requires planning. Finding a GP, dentist, or pharmacy in a small town is different from the city, and specialist care may require a detour to a regional centre. Our healthcare guide covers what to set up before departure and how to manage medical needs on the road.

Kids also need specific gear: car seat configurations for the back seat, bunk setups in the van, storage for toys and school supplies, safety equipment at camp, and entertainment systems for the car. The right gear makes family travel smoother; the wrong gear (or too much of it) adds weight, cost, and frustration.