Tag: planning

Top Tips for Travelling Vietnam with Babies or Toddlers

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We have just come back from an amazing family holiday in Vietnam. Our 2 kids have just turned 3 months old and just turned 3 years old. I highly recommend Vietnam as a child-friendly destination but you need to follow some steps to make sure a trip here goes smoothly! Here are our top tips for travelling Vietnam with kids:

  • Book in advance – seems obvious but many travellers like to play things by ear. Once you have kids to travel with planning is your friend! You don’t have to book absolutely everything in advance but i highly recommend all hotels, a lot of your transport and even restaurants if you know the place you want to go to will be busy – you don’t want to be waiting around for a table with kids. You should also have a good idea of what you want to get done each day and the time you have to do it in so that you can make sure you don’t get waylaid and end up hanging around the hotel all day.

The most user friendly place to book is booking.com and its usually the cheapest too. I like to head here to book all our accomodation as I can easily compare deals and view ratings.

  • This one should be obvious BUT I still feel I have to specify: bring your carseats and don’t ride on motorbikes. Just because the locals don’t use carseats and take their children on motorbikes this does not mean its safe. It’s not worth risking your child’s life. Having said that you can make it easy for yourself with a few tips and tricks:
  1. There are travel car seats on the market for older kids that take up much less space if you are moving around a lot and don’t wan to lug carseats around. We took the Bubble Bum Booster Seat for our toddler.
  2. You can stay centrally so that you don’t need to lug your carseats around day to day – you will be able to walk to most attractions and restaurants if you stay in the right area. The best way to get around further afield is by hiring a car with a driver so you can easily leave your seat in the car during activities.
  3. If you have a small baby and you can afford it – take the best travel capsule on the market: the Doona infant car seat. This thing is AMAZING and saves you having to take a travel stroller also. It also means you can just hop in a taxi anytime you like as you won’t have to lug your carseat around afterwards like we had to.

  • The best thing I took with me to Vietnam was life jackets for my 2 young children. We were doing a LOT of water based activities and some places provide children’s lifejackets but these were ill-fitting and weren’t going to fit my 3 month old baby! Taking along one that fit really well for my toddler meant she actually wanted to wear it and we always had piece of mind. Also for babies you can get special jackets that fit snuggly and tighten under the bum so that they don’t slip out. We used a baby lifejacket when we took her on a kayak, rowboat and a speedboat and felt so much more comfortable (what a daredevil baby she is!).

  • Even if your child normally eats really healthy, varied food (you are living the dream my friend) don’t sweat the small stuff while you are on holiday. Mealtime battles are just not worth ruining the trip. Kids are more tired than usual and on edge due to being in unfamiliar territory – it’s ok if they just eat white rice/bread/chips for every meal and ask for an ice-cream every day. Remember they are on holiday too and let them enjoy it. We found that if we didn’t push her, once my toddler had had a good rest and got in the swing of things she was ready to try some unfamiliar foods – and she still got to experience the novelty of going out to eat all the time and trying all the amazing tropical fruit on offer. It’s still great for their development and sometimes there is nothing you can do – such as when we asked for a small spoon and received a plate of hot chips which my toddler immediately tucked into – the desire for a spoon forgotten.

  • Talking about overtired kids, plan some nap or rest time into your days. Even if your child has outgrown naps they may revert back to taking them while you are away. Even adults tend to start taking naps when they are on holiday so its a reasonable expectation. Napping will allow them to handle the new experiences a lot better, escape the heat in the middle of the day or make way for a late dinner out.

  • If your kids won’t wander through a museum at home – don’t expect them to when you are overseas. Plan activities that you will both like – places they can wander and look at nature, swimming pools, playgrounds, shopping, beach, buses etc. if they are really into that, boats if its a novelty – travel to your kid’s interests. You can still have a great time and find some cool alternative things to do.

  • Lastly, If you can – bring help! Travelling with the grandparents, aunties and uncles or friends is the best idea ever. You can take turns babysitting, there are more eyes on the kids and more interesting people for the kids to interact with. Plus it makes the cost of hiring a car etc. cheaper. Not everyone will have this option but even going with another family with kids helps to spread the responsibility.

Following these tips I’m sure you will have a fantastic time with your kids – and make memories that will last a lifetime. I know we sure did!

Erika xx

How to: Decide Where to travel next?

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Sunset walk along the beach in Canggu, Bali

If you are anything at all like me, you look at one picture of a beautiful island or exotic wilderness and want to jump on a plane right away. This isn’t usually possible unless your a billionaire with no job – there’s only so much leave I can take from work and only so many times my savings can cover my mortgage while I am gone!

With 195 countries in this world and countless destinations within them, deciding where to travel is much much harder than ever before. I see daily images of places I would rather be – but which place would I most rather be at?

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Lounging next to the infinity pool on the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore

I find there are a few key things to keep in mind – looking at your current priorities makes this decision easy!

1. Cost

Most people, when deciding to travel, only consider whether they can afford a trip or not. Instead, consider your finances – if you have any spare income at all you can afford a trip, its just about prioritising. My husband and I try to do one overseas trip a year but some years we have more spare cash than other years, so we chose a trip based on what we can afford.

For example: In 2015, we got married (which is SUPER expensive however strictly you keep it to just the basics!). This meant that our overseas trip for the year would be our honeymoon but we couldn’t afford a luxury trip to the Maldives (my ideal honeymoon destination) because we had just paid for a wedding. Instead, we spent a week or so in beautiful New Caledonia which is much closer to home for us (we live in New Zealand) and less known for its luxury resorts. If we went to the Maldives, we would have spent way more on flights and would have had to skip staying in one of those beautiful over the water resorts (which is really the purpose of going to the Maldives isn’t it?) Now we can save that for another time – maybe our 20 year anniversary!

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Here I am frolicking in the water in Noumea, New Caledonia

A holiday by the beach is what most people look for for a honeymoon – and we got to have this in a less luxurious way by choosing New Caledonia. If the style of holiday you can have is a lot more flexible, think about heading to a country where the cost of living is cheap – your money goes a lot further in many Southeast Asian, South American and African countries than it does in say most parts of Europe and the USA.

This brings me to the next thing to think about before you decide on where to go on holiday:

2. Decide what type of holiday you would like to have

What are you into? If you are like me – you like to experience almost everything so this makes the decision much more difficult. However, I still think about what I would most like to do by thinking about what I would like the holiday to achieve: Have I been stressed at work lately – I think I need a relaxing holiday in this case. Do I need to update my wardrobe – how about a trip focused on shopping? Have I been really disappointed with every restaurant I have eaten at lately? Let’s go somewhere with amazing food! Have I been feeling bored with my daily routine? Time to have an adventure.

You can always combine these things: How about heading to Italy for amazing food AND shopping? Or to Mexico for beaches AND adventure?

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I’ll admit it – I went to Carnival in Rio De Janiero, Brazil just to have the best party of my life!

Part of deciding what holiday to have includes when you can go: for example, I would avoid going anywhere in the rainy season (especially if they have monsoons). If your headed to the beach, pick summer in the country you are at – you won’t mind if it gets to 40 degrees because you will be swimming constantly. If you are sightseeing or heading to a city, pick a time that will be cooler as you don’t want to be walking around all day sightseeing in sweltering heat.

3. How long can you go for? 

This should play a significant role in how you decide where to go. The distance you are planning to travel should be based on the length of time you have available for your trip – for me, getting to Europe means about 2-3 days spent travelling. For that reason, if I have a week’s holiday I am not going to go to Europe. I might pop over to Australia or one of the Pacific Islands, possibly somewhere in Southeast Asia where I can take one flight and not have to transfer. If I have three weeks or more, I am more likely to venture further afield.

In a week or two’s holiday, I wouldn’t try to fit in more than one country – If I have more than two weeks, I may try to see parts of two countries: such as make the trip over from Spain into Morocco. If you have months (lucky you!) It’s best to base yourself in one part of the world so you can experience more of those places that are difficult to get to on their own. For example, I spent six months in Central America which was a good amount of time. I would discourage purchasing one of those ‘Round the World’ flights advertised by travel agents as you end up only going to those places that the airline flies to all the time. These are easy to see on a stopover or a much shorter trip.

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To get to Havana, Cuba I had to fly via Mexico – as I was already in Mexico it was easy and so so worth it!

There is one final thing that I would recommend when choosing where to travel, it is the one most often overlooked but really important when choosing where to go.

4. What stage of your life are you in? 

Where you are at in your life should play a big role in making travel plans – especially if like me you want to fit so much into your life. For me, I try to organise things so that I don’t miss out later on. I did 6 months of travelling when I was young and carefree and nothing was holding me back -do it while you can as your life won’t be that way for ever! Now, I have a husband and a mortgage and a career – my wanderings need to be more carefully structured and fit into my 4 weeks holiday a year.

Another thing to think about is children. If you want to have children they will severely limit your ability to travel – its not impossible of course! But you will have less funds available and more people to pay for on your trips! You also need to decide more carefully where you will travel – not only once you have children in your life but beforehand too. For example, if you travel to South America the risk of Zika virus means, you need to wait 6 weeks (women) or 6 months (men) before you conceive a child! Best do this a while before you want to have a child then! Or at least don’t take your partner along ladies!

To show how these factors have shaped my decisions, here’s an example. I would love so much to visit Disneyland in the USA. However, I plan to have children so why not wait until I can take them? They would love Disneyland even more than I would and its the perfect trip to take children on. I also really wanted to visit India but India is a terrible place to take young children because they touch everything and put it in their mouths and India is SO DIRTY! So, I went there in Jan/Feb this year while I still had the chance!

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Exploring the intricate carvings at the City Palace in Jaipur, India

Think of these 4 things next time you are considering a holiday and the decision should be easy – or at least easier than it was before! If worst comes to worst just throw a dart at a world map and see where it lands!

Let me know in the comments how you choose where to travel or where you have decided to go next after using my guide. I love hearing about all the exciting places you are going and it might help me decide where to travel next!

Erika xx