How to pick a family vacation rental: our practical tips for choosing a vacation home that is right for your needs. Vacation rentals can be a fantastic accommodation option for families with children. Compared with a hotel, a vacation home tends to provide more space, independence, and the option to cook, often a great way to keep vacation costs down (and keep fussy eaters happy!) Getting a good vacation rental however requires a bit of work. Since each house is unique, you need to pay extra attention to the description of the place, its location and you cannot rely on the reputation of the hotel brand or family. I spend…

Checklist for flying with a toddler + tried and tested ways to keep a toddler busy when flying. Sanity saving toddler-travel checklist

Our process to pick the best destination for our family vacation with resources we use and inspiration guides based on our own travels It’s that time of the year again: the January blues are slowly easing off, my inbox starts filling up with attractive airline deals to near and not-so-near-places and my eyes wander East, West and then East again across the globe. All places promise to be the best family vacation destinations in the world for people with children, but travel brochures aside: what is a good destination for a holiday with children? What is the best transport when travelling as a family and what about accommodation?  The questions are…

Our tried and tested tips for tacking a long-haul flight with kids. Advice and strategies that work for us. Flying long haul with young children is daunting. Before kids, I loved getting on a long haul flight, resting with the in-flight entertainment system and the knowledge that for a while, no matter what my phone would not go off with a work related emergency. Since the kids came along, flying long haul has not been quite as blissful! The toddler years especially are intense when it comes to flying. Unless you are very lucky and your toddler sleeps well on the plane, long haul is now a full immersion into…

Choosing the best destination for your family beach vacation. What to look for when picking the perfect family sun holiday and family vacation beach ideas kids and adults will love. A beach vacation is at the top of many families’ wish list for the summer break and how could it be otherwise? After a long year of school runs, extracurricular activities and rainy afternoons, we ache for some rest and a cocktail of clean sea, soft beaches and good weather is just what we need. I spend hours with my friends talking about these summer dreams but when it comes to the reality of booking a beach holiday, we often…

Our tried and tested family travel tips, based on our own travels. Advice and tips for traveling with kids, by an anxious mum!

Jet lag and kids don’t mix. Crankiness, lack of sleep and stomach upset can ruin your travel experience but there are some tricks to make jet lag less painful. Here is our selection of doable jet lag tips that work. Jet lag has always been one of my least favorite parts of travel. I don’t function on lack of sleep and it takes me forever to get over a time change and things got significantly worse when our kids came along. We started traveling long haul with them when they were tiny and despite following all the well-intended tips for flying with kids we could find, jet lag with kids…

Great travel snacks for toddlers: toddler snack ideas for day outs, the beach, road trips hiking and plane travel. Snacks appear on all my tips for traveling with kids, may they be about a trip to the beach or an international flight because, let’s be honest: ‘hangry’ toddlers are a thing! Snacks for toddlers are also useful on the go for problems other than tuntrums:  On the plane, snacking can help your kids reset ear pressure, just chewing and swallowing In the car, dry snacks can help settle an upset stomach or prevent or help motion sickness On the beach, snacks can help keep kids hydrating and replenish energy, especially…

Practical, realistic, tried and tested tips for tackling car rides with toddlers. Tackling long car rides with toddlers requires two things: patience and gear! No matter how many tips for road trips with toddlers you may read or how many toddler car ride must haves you get hold off, there is no doubt that a long car ride with a toddler requires a bit of patience and resistance to frustration, how much of it depending largely on the toddler and your luck on the day! Over the course of the years, we have tackled many road trips with toddlers and since ours were not the type of kids who would…

How to plan a family road trip with kids: essential tips for planning a family road-tripping vacation. Family road trips are my favorite type of vacation however, they are also the most time consuming to plan. I love creating itineraries so the many evenings spent checking maps, roads, stops and roadside attractions feel like a big game for me, however, it sure is not as easy as a one click booking! Over the course of the years, I feel I have perfected my road trip planning skills and our latest driving trips have been the best we have ever had.  These are my top tips for planning a family road…