Are you dreaming about the Big Lap of Oz or HELL NO!

Are you dreaming about the Big Lap of Oz or HELL NO?

There are two types of caravanning families – Big Lappers and the rest of us! Which one are you?

Not everyone wants to be a Big Lapper! We absolutely love following along the adventures of our Big Lapper families as they travel around our gorgeous country! Living on the road, full time, is an experience that more and more families are doing each year.

The numbers are incredible, we have seen hundreds of families embarking on their big lap of oz, creating social pages and websites and showing the world what Australia can offer, while spending quality time with each other. Livin’ the dream!

Rewind 20 years ago, it seemed to be only the ‘hippy/alternative’ families hitting the road with the grey nomads full time.

Rewind 15 years ago, suddenly families were discovering that turning their Big Lap of Oz dream into a reality was easier than first thought and the numbers of families caravanning their way around Australia started to rise.

What happened next changed EVERYTHING!

Social Media accounts started popping up. Caravanning families were sharing their adventures with their family and friends, others started tuning in and ideas were planted!

The HOW to do it? was now easily accessible for everyone.

Save your arse off! Or SELL everything – most families say to budget for $700 – $1000 per week. (You can read from over 20 full time travelling families here – How much does it really cost?)
OR plan to pick up work along the way! Read our popular article – How to make money on the road here!
Get a caravan, camper or tent
…..and GO!

Is it really that easy? According to our Big Lapper families…. that is it in a nutshell! (Check out their stories in our Big Lappers section)

Rewind 2 years ago – COVID-19 hits Australia and suddenly everyone is considering caravanning!

So…why isn’t everyone doing or planning their Big Lap?

Let’s start with us! When people find out that we are NOT big lappers, as owners of Caravanning with Kids, we get asked WHY NOT? all the time…

Caravanning enables us to see parts of Australia that we have only ever dreamed of and over the years we have had some epic adventures. We take extended holidays – 4 weeks here, 5 weeks there, 1 week here and as many weekends as possible. Caravanning helps us do this, caravanning helps us reconnect, caravanning helps us to travel MORE than ever. Our Red Centre adventure ,our Tour of Tassie & recently our Outback Queensland & Cape York adventure are massive highlights. We will eventually do the Big Lap of Oz…not in one hit, but it might take us 10 years doing little bits at a time.

If we love it this much, then WHY don’t we do it full time??

Here are a few reasons – (we would love to hear your reasons too…)

We LOVE our work! Over 80% of the families we have chatted to have been miserable in their working lives, stressed and ready to chuck it all in! I totally get it…if I hated my work, I would pack my bags tomorrow.
We wouldn’t sell our dream home and saving $50k might seem impossible!
We connect as a family! ….because of caravanning! As business owners, we are flexible and this enables us to get our FIX whenever we need it.
To be completely honest – the thought of home schooling our 10 & 13 year old girls makes me want to vomit. Considering I’m an educator by trade, this might sound a little odd. If we ever chose to hit the road for a big stretch (…bring on the West Coast one day!) then, I would have to suck it up and do it! I would then be the one reading all the articles in our Road Schooling section! Hahaha (this reason would not stop us doing the Lap)

We asked some of our caravanning community WHY they’re NOT planning their own Lap of Oz:

“We can’t afford it!”
“Can’t get extended time off work and like the security of having a job”
“We have responsibilities & commitments that we do not want to drop”
“Life is Good”
“We would prefer to do it when the kids are older and we are retired”
“I could not imagine living in a caravan with our 4 children!”
“I would miss the luxuries of home”

Do you want to be a Big Lapper? Not interested? What are some of your reasons WHY? We would love to hear from you…

*article first published in June 2018 – updated in Nov 2021*

Join our AUSSIE BIG LAPPERS Facebook Group: Singles, Families, Couples, Nomads…this is a group for EVERYONE!

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