Long-Stay Family Travel: Why We Stay a Month Instead of a Week
We rented out our cottage, packed up with our 15-month-old, and moved to Benidorm for a month. Not a holiday. Not digital nomad life. Something in between. Here's how it works, what it costs, and whether slow travel with a toddler is as good as it sounds.
Living this right now — updates coming
We're currently in Benidorm on our first long stay. This guide covers everything we planned and prepared before leaving. We'll update with the full reality — what worked, what didn't, and honest costs — once we've lived it.
Why we think this works
A one-week holiday is a sprint. You rush to see everything, eat out every meal, and come home needing another holiday. A month is different — you find routines, cook meals, discover the neighbourhood, and actually relax. With a toddler, that routine is everything.
How We Fund It: The Airbnb Model
The entire plan hinges on one thing: renting out our cottage covers the costs of being away. Our mortgage is at 7.4%, which is painful. Add council tax, utilities, and insurance on top and the monthly costs are significant. If the Airbnb income only covers those costs, we're not travelling — we're just paying to live somewhere else.
We rejected our first few Airbnb enquiries for exactly this reason. The numbers didn't work. When we set a proper price and got a long-stay booking that actually made money on top of covering costs, that's when we committed.
The cottage. Its Airbnb income funds the whole thing.
Our first month in Benidorm is €2,754 for a luxury apartment. That's deliberately testing what "good" feels like. Future months will be cheaper as we learn what we actually need vs what we think we want. The point of month one isn't to be frugal — it's to find out if we even want this life.
Sunset Cliffs, Benidorm. The €2,754 test — sea view, pool, playroom, gym.
The financial safety net
Our tenant is booked until the end of October. If she wants to extend, she can. If bookings dry up, we come home, let the days reset, and relist. That's the honest backstop. We're not independently wealthy — we need the rental income to keep going. If it stops, we stop.
For the full breakdown of how we prepared the house, what we had to buy, and lessons learned, read our guide to renting out your home to travel.
The Schengen Problem (And Our Plan Around It)
This caught us off guard. We assumed the 90-day tourist rule was per country — 90 days in Spain, then 90 in Italy, then 90 in Portugal. It's not. It's 90 days in the entire Schengen zone combined.
That limits our options significantly. After 90 days in Europe, we need to leave the Schengen area for 90 days before we can come back. Which means the second leg of our trip needs to be somewhere outside the EU.
"I'd be happy to stay in Spain the whole time. But unfortunately we can't."
— Leila
There is a workaround: the Spanish digital nomad visa. We qualify, it's available for up to three years, and it would let us stay in Spain long-term. But we're deliberately not jumping into that yet. We want to test it first.
Where After Benidorm? Our Non-Plan
We don't know. And we're okay with that.
The options on our list for the non-Schengen window:
- Georgia. Cheap, safe, 365-day visa-free. A popular digital nomad destination.
- Turkey. We've been before with Tallulah and loved it. Good weather, affordable, baby-friendly.
- Croatia. Schengen candidate but not yet a member for visa purposes at the time of our planning.
- Albania. Cheap, Mediterranean coast, growing nomad scene.
- Gibraltar. Technically not Schengen. Small but could work as a short stop.
- Morocco. Briefly considered but we're not sure about safety with a baby.
Dubai was always our backup — 90 days visa-free, we know it well, it works. But with the current geopolitical situation, we're not certain about that anymore. Things change month to month.
"I think it's a good opportunity for us to test places and effectively rule them out. Even though we might love Benidorm, I still think we should do our 90 days, go somewhere else so we get a reflection and come back and go ‘now we actually want to be in Benidorm.’"
— Liam
The Digital Nomad Visa Question
Spain's digital nomad visa lets remote workers stay for up to three years. We qualify. Both of us work remotely for UK companies. It would solve the 90-day problem entirely and let us settle somewhere we love.
But we're not applying yet. We want to do our 90 days, leave, get a reflection, and come back knowing we actually want to be in Spain long-term. Jumping into a visa four weeks in and then getting bored at month four would be worse than keeping our options open.
If we do decide Spain is home, we could even sell the cottage and buy a place there for a longer-term visa. But that's a future conversation. Right now it's one month at a time.
Preparing Your Home for Long-Stay Guests
Getting the house ready for a months-long Airbnb let was more work than we expected. Multiple key sets, new bedding, deep cleaning, decluttering, a handbook, personal items in the loft, arranging someone for post and grass. We wrote the full checklist and lessons learned in a separate guide to renting out your home.
The Honest Part
This isn't just about travel. We're trying to find ourselves. We've completely lost our way — both individually and as a couple. The cottage, the village, the isolation, the UK winter — it broke something in us. We were co-existing, not living.
"There's no way it can damage it. We're too damaged at the minute and we are still doing all right. This is to actually bring us back together."
— Leila
A big part of this is having more conversations. When you both work from home, don't see people, and do nothing, the conversations get stale. There's no excitement, nothing new to discuss. But we love to people-watch. Walking down a beach, sitting on a balcony with a glass of wine at night. That's what we're chasing — not a holiday, but a life that gives us something to talk about.
We're not pretending this is brave or inspirational. We're two parents who are bored and cold and sad, and we have an opportunity to try something different while our daughter is young enough that school isn't a factor. If it works, brilliant. If it doesn't, the house is still there.
"We're trying to find ourselves a bit because we've completely lost our way."
— Leila
What This Guide Will Cover (Once We've Lived It)
- Week vs month: What changes after the first week that makes it worth staying longer
- Working remotely: Can you actually work from a holiday apartment with a toddler?
- The relationship test: Both of us answer whether a month together brought us closer or created tension
- Full cost comparison: Month abroad vs month at home, every penny tracked
- Honest advice: Three things to know before trying this, and what to look for in a monthly rental
Our Family Trips
This post is based on our own family experience. We pay for everything ourselves - no sponsorships or freebies. Some links may be affiliate links.