One Year Off by David Elliot Cohen

  • I don’t know how this book ended up on my shelf. But, looking for a book to take along on my next trip, it seemed like a fitting title.
  • After one chapter I knew that this was not a book that I would leave along the way, as I usually do when I travel. This book I want to keep.

Reading One Year Off was like going along on the Cohen’s trip around the world. Told in a conversational, comfortable voice, I identified with David Cohen’s travel experiences. In fact, he seemed to have very similar ideas to mine as I travel. And we, too, once traveled for a whole year with our young children. We did it less drastic – in a camper all around North America.

The Cohen’s hoofed it all around the globe. Having traveled before they got married, this couple wanted to do so again with their children – ages 9, 7 and 2 or so as they set off.

They take the bare essentials as they fly off to Costa Rica to discover a rain forest. They spend time in Europe and have fun adventures in France and Italy. They describe a crazy ferry ride to Greece and have fun holding their own Olympic races on the original site of the first Games.

I especially enjoyed reading about their African adventures as they go on safari. Like us, they spend time traveling across Australia. I recognized much of the descriptions of the vast empty Nullarbor and the convivial Aussies they met.

One place I have not been to, that the Cohen’s visit in this book, is India. Their descriptions of the annual camel market in Rajasthan made me want to put this at the top of my bucket list!

The book is realistic. It gives practical advise in case you, too, want to take a year off with young children. But even without that, it makes for a plain fun read.

Remember to order from your local bookstore or from http://www.betterworldbooks.com
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684836017
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684836010