Welsh family of five sold their home, packed backpacks, and left for Indonesia with no return date

In May, Tom and Dani Wooldridge sold their beloved family home in Wales and flew one-way to Indonesia with their three children.

Here's what to know

According to BBC News, the family, including children Olivia, 12, Morgan, 7, and George, 4, set off with no return date and hopes of seeing every continent.

Long-term travel had always seemed appealing, but work, school, and finances kept it from becoming reality.

Dani explained, "It was always a conversation we had but once you start having kids and you've got the mortgage and everything like that it's kind of, 'oh it's not the right time.'"

What changed was a month-long Christmas trip to Thailand. 

"We were fortunate enough to have a month over there, travelled round with the kids and obviously they were almost two years younger than they are now, and managed really well," Tom said, adding, "It all went really smoothly and it was great seeing the kids experience a completely different world to what we'd all grown up [in]. It just felt so great exploring with them."

After that, they started researching and meeting other families who had decided to jet off. When they finally committed to leaving, the couple decided selling the house was the better option than renting it out.

Tom said the adjustment was hardest for their oldest child at first. "Olivia was a bit nervous. She'd just started high school in the September and we left in May. She was very apprehensive about leaving all her friends."

The goodbye was emotional, especially because they were so close to relatives and friends back home. Tom said getting to security after checking in their luggage "was hard."

More background

Bali was their first stop, but arriving there as a family still brought culture shock even though Dani and Tom had visited before.

Dani said the island felt much busier than it had on an earlier visit, and the first days in Uluwatu were especially overwhelming as jet lag and strong emotions mixed with "Scooters everywhere."

They also kept moving rather than settling in one spot, starting on southern beaches, climbing Mount Batur in the north, staying in Ubud, and then island-hopping east through Indonesia before returning to Lombok.

That pace made the whole change feel even stranger. Dani said, "it took us months to really think, 'wow, we're not actually going home'."

The biggest downside, the couple said, has been missing family.

At the same time, they feel the children are building confidence by meeting new people, spending more time outdoors, and experiencing different cultures firsthand.

How did they do it?

Before leaving, the Wooldridges had already put an education plan in place. Dani said they wanted the children to have "real world learning" while still preserving future options such as university or careers in medicine or nursing.

To support that, they brought a "huge bag" of teacher-recommended textbooks and workbooks and continued following the U.K. curriculum.

Olivia also studies math with an online tutor who used to lead math at her high school in Rhondda Cynon Taf and had taught Tom before. The boys work with a separate tutor for the primary curriculum, and Olivia also receives help in English and some science.

After deciding they had packed "way too much stuff," they gave some belongings to locals and reduced their luggage to two 32-gallon (120-liter) backpacks for the parents and two 26-gallon (100-liter) rolling packs, one of them filled with school materials.

They have also used World Schooling Centers in Lombok and plan another longer stay in Malaysia, partly so the children can spend more time with peers.

Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines are all roughly on the itinerary.

Tom said, "Just keep going for as long as we can, and want to. If at some point we don't want to then we'll have explored a lot of places to pick somewhere to stop."

Where can I learn more?

Non-traditional living is becoming more popular along with modern home upgrades. Here are some stories on solar access in Indonesia and the Philippines, off-grid living in Australia, easier plug-in solar in Colorado, and a U.K. panel program.

• In rural Indonesia, life-changing access to electricity now keeps homes bright until morning.

• In Australia, a couple embraced off-grid energy independence after moving into a tiny home.

• Across the Philippines, homeowners are turning to rooftop solar for relief from soaring bills.

• In Colorado, officials are removing barriers and red tape around plug-in solar for residents.

• In North Lincolnshire, a free solar panel scheme is already cutting locals' energy costs.

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