When Cath Pirret and her husband Iain took their daughters Jessie, 10, and Holly, 7, to Britain earlier this year, it was a trip that was all about showing the girls where their parents grew up. But there were also some key sightseeing opportunities, such as Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall and Tate Modern, before heading to Paris to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. So, what did the couple from Melbourne hope their girls would get from the trip? "A greater understanding that travel is not a difficult thing to do," Cath says."Some of the highlights are to meet new people and adapt to lots of different situations." Cath believes that children, in order to truly benefit from travel, need to be old enough to understand and appreciate the experience. Sydney-based ABC Radio broadcaster and film critic C.J. Johnson travelled a lot with his parents as a child. His father was "really into rivers" and decided he was going to make it the "family mission" to see the "seven great rivers of the world". There's no doubt, thanks to a richer society and the greater ease and access to all forms of travel, that few -- if any -- generations of parents and children have ever had the ability to journey together as far, as wide and as deep as the present one.Travel brings history to life, builds children's independence and opens their minds. A child's view also helps adults to see the world through new eyes. For Keith Bellows, the award-winning editor-in-chief of the American National Geographic Traveler magazine says the world is simply"the greatest classroom we have". He's convinced, like Spicer, that any parent willing and financially able to give the gift of travel offers a gift that keeps on giving. "Children who learn to travel will travel to learn," he says. "And they will do it all their lives." With that in mind, Bellows, a father of three, wrote a book, 100 Places that Can Change Your Child's Life. The couple and their kids  _  .
went to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo first visited Hadrian's Wall and Tate Modern in France first stayed in Britain and then went to France only preferred to have the key sightseeing trips