e » Berlin: $1180 , including round-trip airfare from JFK and a one- week stopover in London. How do these numbers compare to your current domestic monthly expenses, including rent, car insurance, utilities, weekend expenditures, partying, public transportation, gas, memberships, subscriptions, food, and all the rest? Add it all up and you may well realize, like I did, that traveling around the world and having the time of your life can save you serious money. Fear Factors: Overcoming Excuses Not to Travel Travelling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building here after seeing Italy. —FANNY BURNEY (1752-1840), English novelist But I have a house and kids. I can’t travel! What about health insurance? What if something happens? Isn’t travel dangerous? What if I get kidnapped or mugged? But I’m a woman—traveling alone would be dangerous. Max excuses not to travel are exactly that—excuses. I’ve been there, so this isn’t a holier-than-thou sermon. I know too well that it’s easier to live with ourselves if we cite an external reason for inaction. I’ve since met paraplegics and the deaf, senior citizens and single mothers, home owners and the poor, all of whom have sought and found excellent life-changing reasons for extended travel instead of dwelling on the million small reasons against it. Most of the concerns above are addressed in the Q&A, but one in particular requires a bit of preemptive nerve calming. It’s 10:00 P.M. Do You Know Where Your Children Are? The prime fear of all parents prior to their first international trip is somehow losing a child in the shuffle. The good news is that if you are comfortable taking your kids to New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., or London, you will have even less to worry about in the starting cities I recommend in the Q&A. There are fewer guns and violent crimes in all of them compared to most large U.S. cities. The likelihood of problems is decreased further when travel is less airport and hotel-hopping