‘In a few weeks, we’ll be leaving our worries behind’
Packing up five people for a trip takes patience and preparation. But one Nova Scotia family is getting ready for at least six months of nonstop international travel.
“There’s so much to do. It’s keeping us very busy,” says Victoria, a mom of three in Nova Scotia. “Our house is also half boxed up, since we’ll be renting it while we’re travelling, and we’re down to the wire in terms of squeezing in appointments and travel vaccinations before we go.”
Victoria and her husband Andrew had always wanted to see the world with their family, and assumed they’d just take a big trip every couple of years. But everything changed when two of their children were diagnosed with choroideremia – a rare, hereditary, and incurable eye disease that causes blindness in males.
Determined to have their sons “see and experience as much as possible” before their vision fades, Victoria and Andrew decided they’d all spend six to nine months touring countries all over the world.
The plan is to leave Canada in December and visit Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bali, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Dubai, South Africa, Namibia, France, and Norway before returning home sometime in the summer of 2025.
aloSIM trial run in Costa Rica
Spending six months on the road – with three children in tow – felt surreal for the family, so they decided to do a ‘trial run’ to Costa Rica back in the spring to see how everyone adjusted to being away from home. They had a fabulous 10 days exploring Costa Rica, and documented everything on their family instagram account, Absorb.The.Light.
The aloSIM team provided them with free eSIM data packages for Costa Rica so they could test it out and get a feel for using downloadable SIM cards. Victoria says they had no trouble installing Costa Rica eSIMs on their phones before they left Canada, and they were able to connect to a local network as soon as they landed in Juan Santamaría.
The family was also able to use free international phone numbers from Hushed, so they could call and text easily on their trip. The phone numbers let them call local spots in Costa Rica – hotels, restaurants, activities, rides – and also stay in touch with friends and family back home.
Having Canadian phone numbers wound up saving the day during a vacation emergency, when a family member became very sick. They were able to open the Hushed app and use their Nova Scotia (902 area code) phone numbers to dial a doctor back home for medical advice and a prescription, which they filled at a local pharmacy.
“Within just a few hours, our trip was back on track,” Victoria told Team Hushed in an interview back in July. “We were so grateful to have your support – both the eSIMs and the Hushed phone numbers.”
Hotel Wi-Fi was ‘unreliable at best’
Victoria had expected they’d also be able to hop onto the free hotel anytime they were back at their hotels, but that didn’t go as planned.
“One thing I hadn’t anticipated was how useful the eSIM would be when we were in the hotels. For at least half the trip, we were in pretty remote areas and the hotel Wi-Fi was unreliable at best – at worst, it was non-existent,” she recalls.
“Luckily, the aloSIM data from the eSIM was great, so that was a huge win for us – especially when we needed to plan outings for the next day, book tickets for excursions, or have the kids complete some class assignments.”
How much data was needed in Costa Rica?
The family used their free aloSIM credit to snag 2GB Costa Rica eSIM packages for everyone, and they all had data remaining at the end of the 10 days.
Victoria especially liked how she could choose which apps were allowed to use their eSIM data, so she could make sure no one was accidentally burning through data playing games or streaming high-res videos. This also ensured their phones weren’t allowed to use data for trivial in-the-background updates.
“In my day-to-day life at home, I’m either at work or at home for the majority of the day, using Wi-Fi – so I was worried about running out of data,” says Victoria. “As it turns out, I had more than enough data to do everything I wanted – navigating with maps, emailing, sending iMessages, surfing the web, listening to music, and generally using my phone exactly like I would at home.”
“aloSIM is amazing, truly.”
Using Hushed and aloSIM around the world
Team aloSIM is currently working closely with Victoria and Andrew to make sure everyone in the family will have access to free prepaid eSIM data in any country they visit.
Having local mobile data at all times will mean they can check maps, book reservations, pop onto social media to update their vacation Instagram account, Absorb.The.Light.
Team Hushed is also making sure everyone in the family has a Hushed phone number for calling and texting, so they can contact local businesses in any of the countries they’re visiting, as well as stay connected with everyone back home in Canada.
Vacation prep underway
Victoria and Andrew will be taking leaves of absence from work, so they’ve been tying up loose ends with their jobs while also preparing for everyone to leave next month.
Packing for five people – for at least six months – has definitely been a challenge.
“We’ve done a trial pack and realize we still have to pare down the amount of clothes we’re taking,” says Victoria. “We’re sticking with the plan for carry-on bags only, and we’re working on finding ways to take less of everything, or smaller versions of what we need.”
Victoria says everyone is ‘a mix of excitement and nerves,’ as they get closer to leaving behind life in Nova Scotia.
“Everyone is getting really excited to go, especially now that we’re just a few weeks away, but the kids are a bit anxious about missing that much school and leaving their friends and sports behind,” says Victoria. “It will be a big change.”
If packing and trip prep wasn’t enough, they also decided to organize a fundraiser, with all proceeds going towards the Choroideremia Research Foundation.
“As a family, we’ll run 10km in 10 different countries, so we’re working on how we’ll pull that off and collect donations for finding a cure for choroideremia,” says Victoria. “And absolutely none of us are runners, so that’s a little scary. But I know when we take off in a few weeks, we’ll be leaving all of those worries behind.”
Follow the family on Instagram (@absorb.the.light) to tag along on their amazing around-the-world adventure.
