Two Ways to Travel, Endless Lessons: Kevin’s Take on Solo & Family Adventures

Solo travel and family travel—two very different experiences, each with its own challenges and rewards. In this episode, pediatrician and seasoned traveler Kevin shares how he balances both, from planning family trips with his kids to embarking on solo adventures in destinations like Argentina, Peru, and Tanzania. If you've ever debated whether to take your next trip alone or with loved ones, this conversation is for you!

G Adventures: https://gadventures.sjv.io/c/6035627/2191429/14092

Transcript

Kelli Wall (00:00)
Welcome to Solo Travel Unpacked, where we explore the world one solo travel story at a time.

I'm your host Kelli and I believe that solo travel.

is a journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and connection.

Each episode, we'll meet a different solo and hear their insights, experiences, and lessons learned.

We'll also take a look at a key solo travel topic

to give you the tools and inspiration for your own adventure.

It's time to hear from today's guest and unpack another solo travel story.

Kelli Wall (00:29)
Solo travel and family travel, two completely different experiences, both with their own challenges and their own rewards.

My guest today, Kevin, has navigated both worlds.

as a busy pediatrician with a family, a packed schedule, and plenty of hobbies.

His free time is limited.

But when he does get the chance to travel, he's made both time for solo adventures and trips with his loved ones.

And he's not alone. Solo travel isn't just for singles.

third of women and more than a third of men who travel solo are married.

Parents find time to travel by themselves too. In fact, 31 % of solo travelers have children.

Kevin has taken five group solo trips to incredible destinations

Argentina, Peru, Tanzania, Chile, and Indonesia, and soon Nepal.

In this episode, we'll dive into what solo travel offers that family trips don't.

how he balances both and what he's learned along the way.

If you've ever debated on taking your next trip alone or with family, this conversation is for you. Let's get into it.

Kelli Wall (01:28)
Kevin, I'm so glad to have you on the podcast. You've had some incredible solo adventures in places like Argentina, Peru, and Tanzania, and of course, Chile, where I met you. But you also have a family and a busy career, which means your travel experiences

pretty diverse. Before we dive into those differences between solo and family travel,

Let's start with a quick intro. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself outside of travel?

Kevin (01:53)
outside of travel. I'm a pediatrician and so a lot of my time is spent doing that although I have cut down on part time in the past couple of years so that's been a good thing. this is my 22nd year as a pediatrician so sometimes after a while things are kind of the same.

I found that travel gives me something to look forward to, especially going through winter and some of the like when there's not that much light in the days are short and it's cold and all that stuff. So yeah, it's nice to look forward to something.

Kelli Wall (02:29)
perk of living in Canada,

Kevin (02:30)
Yeah.

Kelli Wall (02:31)
Yes, and you have two kids, right?

Kevin (02:33)
Yeah, we have two kids two boys were 21 and 17 now,

in the past when they were younger, yeah definitely, all the travel was with the whole unit together. yeah, so we planned stuff in the summer and we'd have to consider where are we going?

So yeah we never really traveled anywhere

know, farther until I think they were like, you know, past like five or six. Except Florida. We talking Florida. Yeah.

Kelli Wall (03:02)
Yeah.

Well, actually, that's the perfect segue. So again, you've got a busy career as a pediatrician, which just thank you so much for what you do. I think that's really amazing. we talked about your kids and though they're a little bit older now, as you spoke to you did take them on some trips. I'm curious, how did solo travel first come into the picture for you?

Kevin (03:10)
now. thanks.

Well, I think it was the kinds of trips that were offered. I had always been looking for something a little bit different than what we do as a family. I always had wanted to do some things which were more outside, naturey, more adventurey type of things. And everyone's family is different. Like some families, the...

every individual is interested or grew up doing those things. And it was just through, you know, just how my family was, it's not everybody was interested or was able to do some of those things. So I always kind of just pushed it aside, just in, in favor of the going, with the four of us to do things we could all do. But as I'm kind of getting older and going through life, I say, there's still some things that

Kelli Wall (04:08)
Great.

Kevin (04:13)
I'd like to do that I haven't been able to do so that's when I started looking at looking online for groups that were doing some of these more outdoorsy type of things and starting to do that.

Kelli Wall (04:26)
Yeah,

it's super interesting because we were just chatting before we got started here and there's so many different companies and so many different ways that you can do it. So curious, what drew you to group trips versus just going completely solo?

Kevin (04:41)
I think it depends. There's probably two things. One of the points that's good about group trips is that just about everything is planned for the most part, except for a few, maybe there's a few hours of you can do what you want or relax or stuff like that. I just found like...

It's kind of a breath of fresh air because whenever we go on a family trip, I'm usually the one. Everybody in the family has their thing, but I'm usually the one that had to research things and look up flights and plan hotels and rent the cars and look at what other requirements there are. then, it's kind of a lot of work to try and juggle everything, especially with

family I think it's a bit harder to accept certain flights. because I when the kids are younger you don't want them you don't want to be hanging out in airports too long. When they're younger they they can't really help much so there's more some of that travel stuff like there's more lag time you got to haul everything yourself you got to

go through maybe different terminals to get to where you're going. it's different when the kids are younger. But with the group trip, part of, I mean, getting back to the original question, it was just that I like the fact that it's organized. yes, some groups will do it better than other groups. But also I think it's, I like the group trips if...

Kelli Wall (06:02)
Yeah.

Kevin (06:22)
there's also group trips that are quite large. you can, we've gone on before where there's probably like 60 people or and like a whole busload. That was a while ago but I found that again it had its good points. We got to go see lots of different parts of Europe very quickly but it's, I prefer like when there's a smaller group because it's just more, it's more fun. You can, it's just you're more tightly knit.

Kelli Wall (06:27)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kevin (06:51)
This line's ever long. Yeah.

Kelli Wall (06:51)
Yeah,

you kind of get to know the others in the group as you go. Well, and you started to touch on this, but I'm curious. Totally hear you on just being able to show up. think as somebody who is always the planner as well, I love, that is one of my biggest draws is that I can see there are itinerary online when I sign up, it's all done. I just have to show up. It's really nice for everybody, but especially when you're the one that typically plans. But you started to talk on this and I'm curious,

From your experience, what are some of the biggest differences between solo travel and family travel? And I know you talked about kind of the airport and how you to be more aware of layovers, but what are some of those other things that stand out to you as being a big difference?

Kevin (07:33)
Well, not to put it in a negative light, but sometimes it's just nice to, just have nothing else to worry about other than because, and yeah, I never, I, this is the thing. I don't want to put things in, in a negative light or anything, but you know, when you have other people, you, you have to be thinking about everybody and

Kelli Wall (07:41)
Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin (07:57)
That's how it works. may not, some people may not want to go here or some people may not want to get up at a certain time or sometimes they don't like this or some, so there's, there's more opinions and things to keep, keep track of.

Kelli Wall (08:08)
Yeah.

Kevin (08:12)
Yeah.

Kelli Wall (08:13)
I

absolutely, I remember one of my friends on another solo group trip I did, those were her exact words. She with her sisters and her mom, I believe, but she said the same thing, right? Everybody has their own opinions on what they wanna do, what they don't wanna do, what time they wanna wake up, what time they wanna go to bed, you know, so it just, and being able to show up for these solo trips, it's just you, which is a nice break to just have your opinion, you know, within reason.

and could just kind of make your own decisions and go.

Kevin (08:42)
Yeah,

I also find it's just nice to... I don't know if I do this more extremely than other people, but if there's a group that has a trip laid out, you usually would assume, okay, these are unique places or places that would be good to go to. I don't have to... For me, usually when I go on the trips, I haven't really even looked in detail what I'm doing.

I just figure, it's planned, it's gotta be good for the most part. And so when people at home or whatever ask me, what are you doing? Are you going to, I don't know. All I know is I just gotta go there and sit on the bus and wherever it takes me, that's where I'm gonna go and I don't have to worry about it. it's just a sense of freedom, yeah.

Kelli Wall (09:30)
Just along for the ride, yeah.

I agree. I think it's really liberating. Again, we were on the same trip to Chile and just to have our amazing guide, Francisco, just say like, guys, bus leaves at nine, be here. And you just get on and they take you wherever you need to go. It's really nice to just, and of course, tell you what to wear the night before.

Kevin (09:42)
Mm-hmm.

Kelli Wall (09:55)
But yeah, it's very freeing and liberating just to be able to show up and to your point, know, it's probably gonna be a pretty cool experience too. And you started to talk about this too and is there anything else that you enjoy more about family trips? Maybe that solo trips don't offer or vice versa?

Kevin (10:15)
Well, I mean, I think the whole concept of going as a family is, you're making, especially if you happen to have kids, it's like, it's part of their life, it's part of them growing up, and it's part of as a family unit, you're spending time together in a different environment. It's creating, hopefully, good memories, and as the kids, when they're young, they don't remember that much, but I do think as they're getting older,

They do tend to remember a lot of the things even though they may not admit it. I certainly remember stuff as a kid but I don't know. think they're kind of like big events, I think, for kids. Whether they want to admit it or not. Sometimes they may not show that they're excited about it. But I mean the most recent one we were on, we went to Galapagos, the four of us.

in 2023. And our kids still talk about it. And they still talk about the people there. And they have their own little jokes and stuff. But they would never admit that. don't think that... Oh yeah, we talk about it all the time. So now that it's on the internet, I don't know if it's immortalized forever. But it's nice to see I think it also depends on the personality.

Kelli Wall (11:29)
Yeah.

Kevin (11:37)
Our kids, they're a little more reserved, so they're not going to be out like coming out and saying, oh, I love that. That was great. But you see in other things and you're making the memories and that's what it's all about, I think, in the end.

Kelli Wall (11:44)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

And it's, you literally read my mind because my next question for you is gonna be what's been one of your favorite travel memories with your family? And it sounds like the Galapagos are pretty special, especially if you've got kids that age that are willing to own up to being a pretty cool trip. That's pretty successful.

Kevin (12:09)
Yeah, and it was good because it wasn't a big, like there are islands, but there was only so many places you could go in the towns. They could go and explore on their own. It wasn't like if they went to London or, I don't know, some place that's massive like Paris, and you're, where are they going? are they gonna get lost? You know, it was kind of nice. It was a new place, but it was kind of confined, but...

Kelli Wall (12:19)
rate.

Right.

Kevin (12:36)
still exciting to see what was there because everything was different.

Kelli Wall (12:38)
Yeah, yeah.

So curious to piggyback on that. What has been one of your most rewarding solo travel experiences?

Kevin (12:48)
I mean they're all rewarding in a different type of way. I mean I particularly enjoy, I found going on the hikes, I usually try and pick something where there's some type of hiking involved. I mean the first one I did in Argentina there was a hike and there was a glacier hike thing and there's some kayaking and what else, some biking. So I thought that was a

Kelli Wall (13:03)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin (13:16)
It was a nice mixture of stuff, But I was really bad at hiking the first time. I was way behind everybody else, like half an hour, 45 minutes, and then I was like, I didn't think I'd ever do it again. Because, okay, I got that out of my system, but you guys probably said before, it gave me something to look forward to.

you're just in these areas where they're just the views are amazing. mean pictures when you go on some of these places for hikes right the pic even you take pictures it's just not the same you can't you can't show what it's like in a picture that's right because because it's just so massive like you can't take a picture of the whole thing I don't

Kelli Wall (13:57)
They don't do it justice.

say, you say you struggled on the Argentina trip. I will speak from experience with the Chile trip. You were way up in the front. Maybe I was in that mid to back group. You absolutely killed it. I don't know if I'm to the point yet. Somebody asked me if I would do it again. I was like, me again later. I think I'm still recovering from our three towers hike, but magical.

Kevin (14:28)
yeah, it was great. And yeah, I when I went home, I was like, I'm going to, it gave, I started doing like my routine at the gym. So I've been doing that for like two years now and putting hikes in.

Kelli Wall (14:40)
I mean, you killed it. I was thinking when I went on that trip, was like, I'm in shape, like, I'll be fine. I wasn't in that kind of shape. So maybe send me your workout routine because I was struggling.

Kevin (14:50)
It's just Stairmaster. It's Stairmaster.

That's all it is.

Kelli Wall (14:55)
There you go. So everybody out there going on a hike, get on the StairMaster.

Kevin (14:59)
Because

before when I went to Argentina I used to run like mostly 5k sometimes 10k. I was like, okay, I'm in good shape but going up is not the same as going flat. Yeah.

Kelli Wall (15:11)
Mm-mm, it's no joke. It is

no joke. my gosh, it was an incredible hike. yeah, it was, I'm glad going into it that I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be, because I think I would have psyched myself out. But it was a good time. But to just keep us going here, I know your boys are older, but when you look back and they were younger and with your limited free time, how did you decide what was the balance of traveling solo or when to take a family trip?

Kevin (15:39)
I guess I would say, it's just different phases of life. I mean, I didn't even think about taking a solo trip probably the first, gosh, when there were babies up until 16, 15, 16.

It was always like we should we should be doing family trip things and I never really looked yeah

Kelli Wall (15:57)
Totally.

Kevin (15:58)
part of the thing is with these trips though, like if you go with a group, they provide some of the things.

Kelli Wall (16:04)
like you just pointed out that I, you don't have to think of it in advance. I mean, before our big Patagonia hike, they had our packed lunches ready for us. know, things that we didn't have to think about going to the grocery and then buying the food. It was just so nice to just have it there. so I'm curious, is there anything, you know, that you can advise, any advice you can give on anything that solo travelers can maybe learn from family travel?

or that family travelers can learn from solo travel.

Kevin (16:28)
I'm not sure if it's independent of each other. I personally find that I think when I go solo, you try not to stress out. It's like, if you have to, if something's delayed, then you're delayed. If you have to hang out someplace for a few hours, then you hang out. It's, I don't know. Maybe it's, maybe it was a little bit more difficult to do that because you're with the family because

You want everyone to have a good time. Again, you feel responsible and partially responsible and you don't want anything to go wrong. But, yeah.

Kelli Wall (17:01)
think that's

a good life lesson. Just like more laid back maybe.

Kevin (17:06)
Getting angry is not going to get me home any faster. you know, things don't go the right ways, okay, whatever, you know, try It's not perfect. It's not perfect. I mean, stuff comes up, you know,

Kelli Wall (17:12)
Yeah, I think that's it. That's a good way to look at it.

Kevin (17:18)
the reason I like travel is because things are different. when you live you're used to living, if it's the same thing over, over, over. mean, even, I remember once we went, yeah, he was on the way to Galapagos. We had to stay in Ecuador overnight and then we didn't have the right money. So my family was like, oh no, do we have the money? I was like,

doesn't matter. mean we're here because money is different and that's why we're here because now we can say okay this is the money. I mean I'm not always that calm but I remember saying that. I was like no if it was the same if we all had the same money then why are we even here?

Kelli Wall (17:44)
figure it out. Mm-hmm.

That's a good way to look at it. And then our one little last question about solo versus group is do you have any advice for people who love solo travel, but also want to balance it with family trips?

Kevin (18:09)
it's hard to generalize That's going to be a very individual thing because, I mean, if people, you may have families that the partners have the same interests and they may be interested in the same thing. So maybe they would end up doing more of like, say, these adventurous things together.

Kelli Wall (18:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kevin (18:36)
I think it depends. I can't really say one is they just have their differences. But even even in that it really depends on the family unit and what people like. I mean, one thing is like after we went on our Galapagos trip, our oldest son was so excited about it. Now he's going on a solo trip next. Well, when he's graduating in May, he's now signed up to go on a solo trip to Costa Rica.

Kelli Wall (18:37)
I think that's totally fair.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's amazing.

Kevin (19:02)
So that'll be good because it made him interested. Now it's going to be a great learning experience for the first time. He's traveled by himself.

Kelli Wall (19:12)
That's so special. I love that he's doing that. Following in your footsteps.

I know at the very start of the episode I touched on your upcoming Nepal trip, so this might be the answer to this question already, but are there any destinations or experiences still on your bucket list?

Kevin (19:28)
The two that I think about now is I would like to go to New Zealand and I guess if I'm in that part of the world, I might as well, it'd nice to go to Australia too. I mean, it's so close. then, well, then my other places like above there, like Japan and Thailand

Kelli Wall (19:49)
So what draws you to New Zealand? What's the appeal? No, I mean, it's stunning, it's beautiful. Curious what it is for you. Mm-hmm.

Kevin (19:53)
This is the Another place to hike.

there's apparently a very stunning, or probably many stunning, multi-day hikes in Iceland. So I'd like to do that. That's an interesting point, because our family has gone to Iceland. But at the time, we would not have been in the position to even try and go on something like that. We were more of a driving around, look at the scenery type of thing.

So, yeah.

Kelli Wall (20:23)
Yeah, well,

I actually was just looking and it was like seven, eight years ago this week I was in New Zealand. I would highly recommend it. Don't know if you're a Hobbit fan or Lord of the Rings. I think I read them in school, but that was one of the biggest draws in New Zealand and it was really, really cool to go to the Hobbiton. So if you make it over there, even if you're not a Hobbit person, it's amazing. I would highly recommend it if you, yeah.

Kevin (20:31)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I'd go there. I'd go there. Yeah.

Yeah, sometimes the flight is a bit long, but it'll be okay.

Kelli Wall (20:57)
Yeah,

it's all worth it in the end. speaking of the end, we're getting close, but before we wrap up, I know, I told you, it'll go by so fast. But before we wrap up, I always love hearing a favorite solo travel story from the guests. Do you have one that's really shaped your perspective or memorable one that you've had from traveling alone?

Kevin (21:02)
already? Well,

I have one from when we were as a family, but involved just me, but it wasn't when I was alone. Okay, so the story is again from a couple years ago when we went to Galapagos. what happened is, okay, you're going into it's the, they say you're going to the national park and there's an entrance fee, which, which I know about beforehand.

Kelli Wall (21:21)
Alright, well that's perfect.

Kevin (21:42)
I didn't quite clue in that going to the island, that's the park. I thought, okay, well, you're just going to go to the towns and stuff, and then you're going to drive to the place and there's like a park and then you pay it. I didn't realize landing at the airport is the park. you get to the airport and they're like, okay, we need some money. I got to pay it for four people. And I was like, okay, where's the ATM? But there's no ATM. It's just like an empty hanger with a

Kelli Wall (21:54)
Yeah.

You're gonna swim

back.

Kevin (22:10)
with a couple of security things. So I'm like, I don't have any money. They're like, okay, well, you're gonna have to go get some money. So we had to leave all our passports there. And my wife and my kids just kinda, I don't know what they were doing, but they hung out. So then they called the police. They're like, you're gonna have to go into town with the police. the police, he's okay, get in the car. And then at first I'm like, okay, is he really a police?

Kelli Wall (22:38)
Right. my god

Kevin (22:38)
It's a strange country. What if I'm

going to go?

anyway, now there's this other guy who was also a security and he had like this puppet It was like this puppet of a policeman. Yeah, I have a picture of this I'm gonna send it and he was trying to make the kids feel better so But I guess he was off duty so we the police and the other police the puppet guy and I went in the car

And they said, okay, we're going to have to go into town and find an ATM. So we're driving into, I don't know where, I'm hoping that I don't get like mugged. And then I said, I said, can I take a picture of the, of that puppet? And he, he, he shows me in the front of the car. said, no, I don't want to hold the puppet. So I have a picture of me with the puppet in the back.

Kelli Wall (23:13)
that come back alive.

Kevin (23:29)
So then we

So then we get in, we find this ATM, but of course it's all in like Spanish and I'm like, I'm putting in the card, but you don't know what everything means. the police was over on the side waiting and then I was trying to get the money, but I couldn't get the money. So eventually there's this lineup of people behind me like what the hell? So then the police comes.

and he's like standing with me and he's like, okay, he's reading with me, but this is what you gotta do. And then the people are wondering why there's a police guy with me at the ATM. And finally we figured out, you're

Kelli Wall (24:04)
With a puppet.

Kevin (24:07)
allowed to take out so much. So I had to do like four separate transactions to get enough money for all of us. So then I finally got the money,

then I got back and then my wife said, oh, so did you get the money? So it's all make sure you bring enough money to go with you when it's National Park.

Kelli Wall (24:18)
my God, I love it and I.

That's a really good tip and things you might not have to worry about on a solo group trip. But if you're not on one of those.

Kevin (24:31)
Yes, because you would have a guide that would say you're

only allowed to take a hundred bucks out at a time. Yeah.

Kelli Wall (24:37)
Yeah, yeah,

they'd have it done for you.

The last thing I am going to do, Kevin, is I just have questions.

The advice I'd give to someone considering solo travel is...

Kevin (24:49)
the advice I'd give to someone solo traveling is, you know, do your research, check the reviews, check all the health requirements, and then just go for it.

Kelli Wall (25:01)
Perfect, I love it. My favorite part about solo travel is...

Kevin (25:06)
My favourite part about solo travel is that I don't really have to worry about anything.

Kelli Wall (25:11)
Just show up and go.

Kevin (25:12)
I just show up

and I just get on the right plane and hopefully all my luggage goes through and then that's it.

Kelli Wall (25:21)
And the last question, something I learned about myself during my solo travels is...

Kevin (25:28)
Well, something I learned about myself is I didn't think I was... I thought I was in better shape than I was, but then I learned that I can still improve at something even though I'm kind of getting into the middle age phase, or not getting into, I'm in the middle age part of my life. But it's still somewhat refreshing to know that there's still things you can improve on, or one can improve on. Because some things, the ship has sailed. I'm not going to get any better than that. Like, I'm not going to play...

Kelli Wall (25:56)
Yeah.

Kevin (25:58)
in the NHL.

Kelli Wall (26:01)
But

you can get really good at hiking and you have. Always room for growth. Always room for growth. That's awesome. Well, Kevin, thank you so, so much for coming on to the Solo Travel Unpacked podcast today. I'm so glad our roads crossed on our trip to Chile this past fall. I absolutely love getting to meet you and appreciate you sharing the insights on a solo travel and family travel and sharing all your hiking and puppet stories that I'm sure.

Kevin (26:04)
You can, yeah, see, yeah.

Yeah, was fun. Yeah.

Yeah.

Kelli Wall (26:30)
Everyone will love.

So thank you so much for coming on today, Kevin. Really appreciate it. See ya.

Kevin (26:34)
Yeah, it was fun. Thank you.

Kelli Wall (26:37)
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