Nikki, Laanni, Raif and Ian love their small-scale living in Suzy the caravan (Picture: Supplied)
Welcome back to How I Parent, where we get a glimpse into how the nation is raising their kids.
This week, Nikki Collinson-Phenix, 47, from the Isle of Wight, tells us how her family of four ditched their lives in the UK to travel the world in their tiny caravan.
Their small but mighty caravan, affectionately named Suzy, is just 8m in length. Nikki and her husband, Ian, sleep on a double bed, while their kids, Laanii, 12, and Raif, six, have bunkbeds in the same room.
‘It’s taught us how you don’t need much stuff, and the importance of family and time over material things,’ Nikki tells Metro.co.uk.
Nikki loves to travel – but didn’t start globetrotting until she was in her late teens.
‘My childhood was very dysfunctional and didn’t include any travel, so I didn’t start seeing the world until I was an adult,’ Nikki explains.
‘Aside from a couple of package deals, my first proper travel was solo backpacking around Australia and New Zealand in 2006, and then backpacking in Africa in 2007. I definitely caught the travel bug!’
The family spends lots of time outdoors (Picture: Supplied)
After Nikki met Ian, and they had their two children, it only made her want to travel more.
‘Becoming a parent made me want to give my kids the childhood I would have loved to have had, one full of travel and adventure, and one where they could grow without limits and embrace new cultures and experiences.’
And it was Nikki’s idea for them to actually leave the family home and travel – but Ian took some convincing.
‘I was a chiropractor and I loved my job, but I worked long hours and wasn’t seeing my kids as much as I wanted to. I didn’t feel like I was parenting that well.
‘So this was 100% my dream and idea. At first, Ian didn’t believe at all that my dream was a realistic possibility. I had to work hard to change his mindset. Once he was on board, it was all systems go.’
The family spent two years saving so they could start their adventure, with both Nikki and Ian finding new jobs that they could do remotely.
Nikki started a job as a remote working consultant, and Ian became a distance running coach. They also founded Global Trailblazing, a global online club that brings kids together from all around the world.
And, they soon began sharing their plans with loved ones.
They’ve learnt to downsize their belongings (Picture: Supplied)
‘My friends and family were really supportive and excited for us, but I did have some of my patients who thought I was crazy and irresponsible, especially as a parent,’ says Nikki.
‘They were all of the older generation – doing something like this was just not what people did!’ she says.
Next, the pair bought Suzy the caravan, their soon to be roving home.
‘We already owned a small cheap caravan called Myrtle that we used for local family holidays,’ says Nikki. ‘We would often say how great it would be to take our caravan on a long adventure, like our own tiny home. That’s why we decided to live in one longer-term.
‘The model of our caravan is a Quattro so we called her Suzy after the singer Suzi Quatro!’
Finally, in September 2021, it was time to set off. ‘As we got on the ferry from the Isle of Wight with our caravan in tow, I was actually a bit emotional as we sailed away,’ says Nikki. ‘It had been so hard to get to that point and yet we had persevered, and now our dream was finally happening.’
The family stays tidy in order to save space (Picture: Supplied)
The family had no plans for where they were headed, and after spending their first four days on a campsite in Caen in France, they decided to head for Spain.
‘We just sat as a family with a map at that campsite in France and said: “Where do you fancy going?” We decided to head to Spain and made a very rough plan of our route.’
Nikki and her family have now been travelling full-time since 2021 and in that time have visited 23 countries, spending up to three months in each place.
There are so many highlights,’ says Nikki. ‘Taking my daughter, who loves Greek mythology, to visit all the places she had dreamt to go to in Greece, like the Acropolis, The Temple Of Poseidon, Olympia, Mount Olympus and loads more was amazing. It meant the world to see her so happy and in awe.
‘We’ve also taken the kids on a gondola in Venice, chased hot air balloons in the beauty of Cappadocia in Turkey, and been unexpectedly snowed in in Bosnia when it hadn’t snowed for 14 years and was not forecast!’
Having such a small living space doesn’t come without its challenges, though.
‘Suzy is 8m long with one room where we all sleep; the kids have bunk beds and we have a double bed,’ explains Nikki.
‘We love being in there, and we can be very self contained with water and electricity as well as solar power and an LPG gas system; she is very much our beloved tiny home.
Showing her daughter the sights of ancient Greece has been a favourite memory for Nikki (Picture: Supplied)
‘We do have to run a tight ship though so everyone plays their part in keeping her tidy and has their own jobs to do in her. I do all the cooking, Ian is the washer up and the kids prepare the dinner table and clean up after, keep the sofa tidy and sweep the floor.’
The small space means the family have learnt to downsize.
‘We save space by everyone what you would call a capsule wardrobe! We each have a selection of summer/winter clothes and rotate, with the ones not being used stored under our bed,’ says Nikki.
‘The kids both have 2 storage boxes, one for clothes one for toys and personal items.
‘Their bunks have curtains around them so they can decorate and personalise their bunks and area how they like. Raif has dinosaurs and superheros, and Laanii has horses!
‘Our 12 year old hasn’t really requested her own space yet, whilst she is growing up she does still like to hang out with us a lot! We do have a separate bathroom so all private changing can be done in there so we can have privacy when needed.
‘Most of the year we have been in warm places so we only really sleep in the van with lots more outside fun and many campfires and toasting marshmallow and BBQ’s!”
‘Honestly, it doesn’t feel too small. We specifically chose Suzy’s layout because it gave us the best use of space and the feeling of space.’
When it comes to educating her children, Nikki doesn’t worry that they’re not in the classroom.
‘My kids were in mainstream schools before we moved, and so yes they’ve come out of those schools, but not out of schooling and education,’ she says.
The kids are educated on the go (Picture: Supplied)
‘I think that is one of the misconceptions. Mainstream school is not the only way your children can learn. My daughter attends live online schooling and my son mixes up homeschooling, online schooling and has attended some local schools in some of the countries we have visited.
‘My kids are thriving and so much more advanced. Their eyes have been opened from their former village lives to having a world schooling global perspective.’
While education hasn’t posed a problem for Nikki and her family, travelling full-time hasn’t always been easy.
‘A lot of Europe is in the Schengen Zone which has meant we couldn’t spend as much time in some of the countries as we would have liked to, due to their visa system which only allows you to visit the area for for short stays up to 90 days within a 180-day period’ she says.
‘Constantly counting days is stressful and exhausting, and you end up feeling like a tourist, whereas in areas we’ve visited outside of the Schengen area we’ve been able to really become part of the community, learn some of the language and culture and actually live there, rather than just feeling like a tourist, and we’ve stayed in some of these places for three months.’
Although living away from home in a caravan isn’t always simple, Nikki’s happy to continue for as long as she possibly can.
They have no plans to head home anytime soon (Picture: Supplied)
‘Everything happens for a reason and on our travels, often, if one door has unexpectedly closed, it’s led to an even better one opening. I’m honestly so happy.’ she says.
‘We see so much more of the kids now too, because we are together so much. I really feel like I am a mum now, not a passing stranger.’
As for what’s next for Nikki and her family, they’ve got no plans to return home any time soon.
‘We recently purchased a small renovation property in Bulgaria so we are here for the winter with Suzy and then I’m not sure where we will go next, but we would like to go to South East Asia and Central America soon so maybe one of those countries might be next!’
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Nikki, her husband and their two kids are travelling the world.