I love reading blogs about family holidays, but I sometimes feel like family travel bloggers live in a world of unicorns and rainbows.
They trot up the Himalayas with their toddlers in their backpack (because they found the best carrier in the world, of course), they have anti jet-leg techniques down to a fine art, they always choose the perfect accommodation and they have children who never ever would throw a tantrum anywhere, least of all in a public place.
Or do they?
We all put our best step forward when we write our blog posts, but I can guarantee you that the reason why so many family travel bloggers have so many nice holidays is down to the fact that they have had their share of travel fails and they have learned from them.
I confessed a lot of my own travel disasters in a post I published right before Christmas (this one) and since this candid approach received a lot of positive attention I decided that this time I would force some of my blogger friends to share their own ’embarrassing’ moment.
Being the fun bunch they are, they raised to the challenge and sent me some of their stories. Each of them links to their blog where you can find more candid adventures and a lot of family travel inspiration covering, I am not joking, all continents with the sole exception of Antarctica!
Family travel disasters: travel bloggers confessions
Marianne, Mum on the move
One of my standard pieces of advice I give to people about travelling with kids is to pack changes of clothes for everybody in your hand luggage.
Well, I didn’t heed my own advice on a recent three-hour flight from Phuket to Hong Kong and paid for it. Luckily I did have changes of clothes for the kids – but not for us. First, my son’s nappy leaked, so we swiftly changed him into his change of clothes.
Next, he threw up all over me. Not having a change of clothes for myself, I had to do my best to wipe down my vomit-covered jumper with a wet wipe, while my little boy was changed into his sister’s flowery leggings.
Then my daughter fell asleep on my husband’s lap, knocked his beer over and leggings were now on her brother, she now didn’t have a change of clothes until we got to our suitcases, and my husband (who also didn’t have a change of clothes) had to walk through immigration with a large wet patch on his jeans, looking like he’d wet himself. Moral of the story –pack a change of clothes for everyone!
Maria, One Tiny Leap:
We had a minor travel fail early in our US road trip. Arriving in Houston, we had two visits planned, to the Houston NASA Space Centre, where we planned to pretend to be an astronaut for the day, and to the famous Schlitterbahn Water Park, where we planned to swoosh down slides and ride the River Rapids all day.
Keri, Baby Globetrotters
Nicole, The Passport Kids
And did you know you can get a flat tire on a stroller? No? then you should read this post by Nicole of The Passport Kids with a few other precautions you might want to take before travelling with children!
So, now we have confessed our travel disasters: have I encouraged you to share yours? I hope you do so in the comments!