Aside from a one-off trip to Europe, the furthest Jessica Gee ever travelled while growing up was to Walt Disney World in Florida with her family.
However, over the past eight years, the travel influencer, known as âThe Bucket List Mom,â has visited more than 90 different countries with her entrepreneur husband Garrett and their three children Dorothy, Manilla and Calihan.
âI never had the thought in my brain that âI want to travel around the world,ââ Gee, from Denver, Colorado, tells CNN Travel. âThat was never me. But the more I get out there, the more I want to see.â
According to Gee, everything changed when her husband, whom she first met while on a church service mission in Vladivostok, Russia, sold his app to Snapchat for US$54 million in 2014 and decided to quit his desk job.
Unique opportunity
âWe were in a weird situation that maybe not a lot of twenty-something-year-olds are put in,â Gee admits. âWe were sitting on some new wealth, and we didnât know what to do. So we decided that we were going to set that all aside, and see whatâs out in the world.â
The couple, whoâve been married since 2009, were keen to experience different cultures and âjust learn a little bit.â
âWe still felt so young and naive,â adds Gee.
They soon began planning an extended trip to Southeast Asia and decided to launch an Instagram page, , to collate their adventures.
âHonestly, I do think we kind of had this perfect storm of Garrettâs creative skills, and my background in marketing,â Gee says, explaining that she studied product placement in college. âNow I just do it with my own life.â
After putting the acquisition money into savings, they sold their furniture and most of their belongings, raising around US$45,000, and headed off around the world with Dorothy and Manilla â Callihan was born while they were on the move â in August 2015.
They had initially planned to spend a few months travelling, visiting Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, as well as Pacific islands Fiji and Tonga, but after briefly returning to the US, they decided that they wanted to keep going.
âThe little bit of travelling turned into three years full-time,â adds Gee, who has just released a travel guidebook, , in partnership with National Geographic.
The family went on to visit dozens of countries across the world, including Germany, Morocco, Japan, Brazil, Guatemala and Dominica.
Family favourites
Gee lists Belize among her top âfamily-friendlyâ destinations, describing the Central American country as a good âstarter destinationâ for U.S.-based families who arenât ready to venture too far afield.
She also recommends âincredibleâ Alaska for those seeking outdoor adventures for their children.
âYou have the fishing, the wildlife, the whales and the bears,â she says. âItâs great for kids who are maybe a little bit older â five and up. But I took my two-year-old there and he had a blast.â
Gee was also incredibly impressed by East African country Rwanda, a destination that she was apprehensive about visiting due to preconceived notions.
âI had seen [the movie] âHotel Rwandaâ and thatâs all I knew,â she says. âSo I was nervous, and scared. And it ended up being the most life-changing destination for me.â
After spending so much time on the move, Gee is accustomed to extended travel and actually finds it easier than short-term travel, explaining that she often feels exhausted after taking a week-long vacation.
âWhen Iâm travelling for a month at a time or more, I get into a groove, I get into a routine,â she says, adding that she packs more or less the same amount of items regardless of whether sheâs travelling for a month, six months, or a fortnight.
She spent her entire third pregnancy âliving out of a suitcaseâ before welcoming son Calihan in 2018.
âI hadnât realized how much of a toll flying is on your body,â says Gee. âSo it was exacerbated [due to my pregnancy].â
âMaybe it was also because it was my first pregnancy over the age of 30, but my back and my body hurt.
âBut at the same time, we went to so many places in those nine months that I loved.â
Big adventure
Gee makes a point of ensuring that her children feel involved in their travel plans before they set off anywhere, getting them to help pack their backpacks, while framing everything, even a long-haul flight, as a âbig adventure.â
âThen as soon as they sit on the plane, theyâre so stoked to pull out the toy, the book and the snacks that they packed,â she explains.
According to Gee, one of the best ways to make travelling with young children as painless as possible is to âchoose the best attitude.â
âKids 100% feed off of parentsâ attitudes,â she says. âSo when things are tiring, exhausting and stressful, you just have to buck up and be positive. Because if youâre losing it, theyâre going to lose it.â
While she tries to plan for all aspects of their travels, including scheduling flights during nap times and making sure their luggage is ready, Geeâs learned from experience to always have a backup plan.
âThings go wrong,â she says. âYou lose your luggage, or a flight gets cancelled. Those hiccups.
âHaving to deal with that and navigate kids and their needs â thatâs always been the hardest part.â
The Bucket List Familyâs Instagram account has amassed nearly three million followers over the years, and theyâve since launched successful YouTube and TikTok accounts, with the income earned from partnerships with different companies helping to support their travels.
Gee acknowledges that their situation is unique, and there are many parents who simply canât afford to jet off around the world with their kids.
She provides money-saving tips in âThe Bucket List Family Travel,â including home exchanges and budgeting apps, and encourages families to figure out what they want to do travel-wise and then try to âmake it affordable.â
âA lot of times, itâs just finding a national park and camping or hiking,â she says. âOr seeing if you can work enough to earn some time away for an extended period.â
The Gee family have âserviceâ listed among their travel goals, and do their best to incorporate activities like volunteering at an orphanage into their trips.
âUsually travel is a selfish endeavour. Taking the time to really look outside yourself and your own family and see who you could serve locally will be a huge blessing,â Gee writes.
After three years of being on the move full-time, the family of five returned to the U.S., purchasing a bungalow in Hawaii, in 2018.
Ever-changing bucket list
âThe one thing that we miss when weâre on the road is community,â Gee says. âWe missed having friends and family [around] and wanted to get our kids into sport and let them experience that.
âSo thatâs when we decided to settle down and then try to have the best of both worlds.â
Theyâve continued to travel as a family in the years since then, and recently spent an entire summer in Africa.
But staying in one place for a long period of time has proven to be something of an adjustment for her children, particularly son Manilla, who was around 11 months old when they first set off.
âHe was used to sleeping in a different bed every night or every couple of nights [when we first came back],â she explains. âSo he would sleep in different rooms of the house every night.
âIt was a weird adjustment for him to learn that we werenât going to the airport and that we were staying home.â
Although Gee does her best to schedule their travels during school vacations, there are occasional exceptions, such as an upcoming visit to Antarctica.
âWe have extra tutoring just to keep them on track,â she says. âAnd weâll bring our school work along with us.
âAnd even during the summer when they donât have school work, we still bring along those extra books and try to make it exciting for them.â
According to Gee, her familyâs bucket list has changed over the years as theyâve all become huge wildlife enthusiasts, so things like seeing the âpandas in Chinaâ and the âorangutans in Borneoâ have moved close to the top.
âMy favourite thing to do with my family is go on safari,â she adds. âWeâve done that a handful of times now.
âBut to me, thereâs nothing better than being out in an environment where something new [is happening] every single day.
âYou wake up and you donât know what youâre going to see, and then to see these animals and wildlife and how they all live together and depend on each other.
âIt sounds so corny, but literally the circle of life. Experiencing that and witnessing that with my family is just so beautiful.â
She advises other parents keen to travel more with their children to try to step outside their comfort zone and âget out there and explore,â whether itâs âfor one week of the year or for a lifetime.â
âI feel like the more you get out and experience things, the more your bucket list grows,â says Gee.
âI think a lot of American families have their vacation that they go to. For me it was Disney World. And I love Disney World, donât get me wrong.
âBut [itâs important] to be able to get out and see the world and realize thereâs so much more out there.â