Today we are so excited to conclude our road trip travel series by featuring Monet Hambrick on The Mag. Monet is a travel writer, author, mother of two and founder of the incredibly inspiring and informative website The Traveling Child. Her website was a huge resource for me as I researched (and eventually purchased!) my first trailer and started to plan my own cross country trip. Learn more about Monet and her family, her inspiration for writing a children’s book (The Traveling Child Goes to Rio de Janeiro), her favorite trips and much more!

Introduce yourself and your family.

We're the Hambricks- Monet, James, Jordyn (6), and Kennedy (4). We love to travel and document it all on our blog The Traveling Child and through our children’s books. Monet is the planner, James goes with the flow, Jordyn is the adventure junkie, and Kennedy keeps us in check! Our motto is "If kids live there, kids can visit" and you'll often find us exploring destinations most don't consider kid friendly. Most of our travels are based on flight deals and we share tips for affording travel. Some of the best deals we’ve gotten are Miami to Rio de Janeiro for $304RT, Miami to Denver for $44RT, and Miami to Amsterdam for $200RT. You'll find itineraries for every trip we've on (family, girlfriends getaway, baecations and solo) to make your planning process easier.

When we’re not traveling we’re providing tips on keeping kids busy and educated at home, managing natural hair and staying fit.

When did you decide to pursue a traveling lifestyle for your family and what were those early discussions like with your partner?

I wouldn’t say we decided to pursue a traveling lifestyle, both my husband and I were blessed to grow up traveling. For me as a 1st generation American I had my passport from when I was born, traveling often to Jamaica where my parents were from. Then growing up I also traveled with my family throughout the States and my parents took my brother and I to England and France one summer. I studied abroad in High School, going to Botswana for 5 weeks after getting a scholarship through a program I was in. I studied abroad again in college, this time in China and actually with my now husband who I was dating at the time. He also traveled growing up, his aunt would take him with her to Costa Rica, Ghana and other trips. So for us we didn’t decide to pursue it, travel is something that has been a part of our lives and really the only reason we ever talked about it together was when people found out I was pregnant and constantly made remarks about how we wouldn’t be able to travel anymore. We’d look at each other like, they do not know us!

Like many, but maybe even more than most, I’m sure you miss traveling. What are some ways you’re coping?

We miss traveling so much! We were scheduled to leave for the most amazing two week Spring Break trip to Egypt on March 11th.

Of all of your intensive travel itineraries, which are your favorite trips?

Ohh it’s also so hard choosing favorites! Our top five in no particular order would be Kenya, Brazil, Morocco, Door County, Wisconsin, Costa Rica and our Southwest Road Trip via RV.

Name up three items that you can’t go without packing.

We don’t travel without our portable charger, I have the Jackery Giant and it charges my phone 3 times, our tripod, and snacks!

Anything else you’d like to add?

While when I started my blogging journey nearly four years ago my goal was to inspire parents to travel the world with their kids while providing tips to make it easier and affordable, it’s become more than that! Not just to my family but to our travel community we’ve grown who tell us how important representation is and how much it means for them to see a Black family doing what we’re doing.

If you type in family travel in google images you’ll see a trend and what you’ll notice is family’s that look like mine are missing. Instead of complaining about it and letting Google images dictate the norm I decided I wanted to take our positive images off the internet and into homes. So I wrote a book series on my family's travel, The Traveling Child Goes to with the first book The Traveling Child Goes to Rio de Janeiro. My hope is to help diversify the book shelves of all families regardless of race but to also let little black girls and little black boys know the world is theirs and they can go every and anywhere they choose.

You can check out some other amazing travel books written by Black authors here.

And finally, where can we find you?