We at wandermust family love hearing about other families inspirational family travel stories. We love hearing from established bloggers but also those regularly new on the blogging scene and this month we are featuring one of these families – so without further ado here is the rejecting routine fearless family travel interview!
1. What is your family travel? Full-time, part-time, digital nomads etc.
At the moment we are part-time but we are planning to be travelling full-time by the summer if all goes to plan! I’m excited but also a little bit terrified!
The rejecting routine Family
2. How has your travel style changed since becoming a family?
I don’t think it has changed that much apart from having to make space in our bags for toys, especially lego. We do travel at a slightly slower place because the kids seem happier, rather than constantly being on the move.
3. What was your baby(ie)’s first trip? Why did you chose to go there? What were the highlights/lowlights etc?
Our first proper family trip abroad was to Cologne, Germany to visit Russell’s brother. It was a great trip and seeing the cathedral was amazing. The lowlight was when our little boy fell over and hit his face on the corner of the TV unit. It was only the second day and he ended up with the most awful black eye. Every photo of him looked absolutely terrible! He still had a great time but those photos will never be up on the wall in our house!
4. What is your favourite family travel gadget and why?
I’m not sure if this counts as a gadget but our toddler carrier is our most usedtravel item. I love it and it enables us to still go to all the places we would’ve done before we had kids. We also like travelling light so prefer not to take a pushchair.
5. What is your favourite family travel destination and why?
One of my favourite places is a little town called Tamariu on the Costa Brava. I spent a lot of time there growing up and I still love it there. There are so many gorgeous beaches and it’s really family friendly. There is also the added bonus of an amazing water park about 20 minutes away!
6. What is the most family friendly accommodation you have ever visited?
I think this has to be one of the hotels we stayed in on our last trip to Sri Lanka called “Beach Inns” in a little village called Madiha, near Matara. I felt like we could completely relax there and they have their own private beach so it felt very safe.
The staff were so friendly and always kept an eye out for the kids and entertained them often! They offered lots of food options that the kids enjoyed as they did struggle with the traditional spicy food. There were always other kids about too so they were very happy to have new friends to play with.
Beach babes
7. Family travel bloggers can be guilty of showing only the good stuff – what is your worst family ravel experience?
This has to be a camping trip to Devon. I spent ages looking for a suitable campsite and thought I had found the perfect place. It looked perfect for families with an indoor pool and said it was a short drive to the beach. I’ll admit part of reason I chose this particular place was because it had brand new toilets and showers! I know this sounds bad but I really dislike shared toilets so I thought these would be clean. It was a complete disaster, we had to rearrange the trip from July to the end of September due to Russell starting a new job and the weather was awful.
Camping with a toddler and baby in the cold and rain wasn’t much fun. The indoor pool turned out to be freezing, far too cold for an adult let alone a child. The short drive to a beach turned out to be an hour away and the “friendly local pub” was rarely open, not friendly, and served no vegetarian options at all. The kids still had fun but we went home early and went out for a nice day near home instead.
8. What are your top three tips for other families who wish to travel?
1. Don’t take too much stuff, you’ll regret having so much to carry with you and kids actually need very little, especially in a hot country.
2. Always have snacks you know your children enjoy, however bad a situation gets most children will always be cheered up or distracted with food.
3. Make travel a priority. If you really want to do it, go without the takeaways or the luxuries and it soon adds up. Even if it’s a couple of days and hour from home, it will still be a fantastic experience you’ll remember for ever.
9. What do you wish you had known or done before starting family travel?
You should always have your first couple of nights booked somewhere so when you arrive there is very little to worry about.
It is also a good idea to research possible hotels and know how much they charge before going. We often had very poor wifi making it impossible to plan anything and the children soon tired of stopping at different hotels until we found a suitable one. It seems obvious now but as a couple we always enjoyed walking around a new area while we searched for a hotel.
10. What are your future family travel plans?
We are planning a small trip at some point in the next month. Currently Snowdonia is sounding quite tempting. Our next big adventure in the summer is probably going to be Cambodia but there are so many places we want to see that it’s hard narrowing it down!
And don’t forget to check back on May 1st for our fearless family travel linky – the place for all your family travel posts. Open 1st-7th of every month!