Tell us a little bit about your tribe and your holiday style
We’re a family of four, myself Kyla, husband Randy and our two girls Calais (6) and Kacela (almost 5). They’ve both been traveling since they were babies and they each went on their first over-seas flight before turning a year old. To fund our travels, I’m an optometrist. I have my own business with two business partners who also like to travel, and we each take a good amount of vacation each year. Randy is self-employed and “works” from home, so he can take off whenever he wants. We’ve tailored our jobs to be able to incorporate a good amount of travel into our normal 9-5 lives. When we travel we have a pretty wide range of holiday styles, but our favourite is getting off the beaten path and experiencing local culture. Now that the girls are getting a little older this type of travel is becoming more important to me.

What has been your favourite family holiday and why did you love it?
We spent a month traveling through Hong Kong, Vietnam and Cambodia when the girls were tiny. Kacela was only 6 months old, and Calais had just turned 2. We traveled at a slow pace and went with a loose idea of what we wanted to do and see, but no set itinerary. We never felt rushed or pressured to be anywhere, but we also didn’t feel like we missed out on anything. Of course, there’s still LOTS we didn’t see, but we went in with the mindset that we would do what we could and not worry about seeing it all. The other amazing thing was that the girls opened the door to interact with the locals. Everyone wanted to touch them, carry them or talk to us about them. It was the first time we experienced how much of a people magnet they are! It made for a much more authentic experience and enhanced the desire to continue traveling in a way that provided us with opportunities to interact with and experience true local culture.

What 3 destinations are top on your family travel bucket list? 

  • Ethiopia is really high on my list. There’s something about the delicious food and resilience of the people that draws me to it. I also desperately want to go to Lailbela!
  • Jordan is another bucket list destination. There’s so much there! Petra, old castles and forts, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, sleeping in the desert, the list goes on. Also, there’s a lot of people not traveling to Jordan right now because of the sad events in Syria. In my opinion this makes it a great time to go because there’ll be less tourists!
  • Bali is Kacela’s addition to the list. She loves the pretty “Bali-girls”. I’ve been interested in Bali since I was a little girl as well. My Grandparents had a National Geographic VHS about Bali and I was obsessed with it. Like mother like daughter! We’re hoping to get to all 3 of these top bucket list destinations next year on our round the world trip!

If you had to pick one travel item that makes travelling with kids easier, what would it be? For me this is so age dependent, but it will always be something that can entertain the kids! For my girl’s ages right now (4&6) it would be our Mini Boogie Boards. They’re compact, can be used anywhere, and offer hours of screen-free entertainment!

What’s your best piece of family travel advice that you can share with Our Tribe Travels Community? You could wait until the “perfect age” to travel somewhere, but in my opinion there is no perfect age! Different locations offer different experiences at different ages. If there’s something you want to do with your family, just go and do it. If you’re nervous about it, start small and work your way up to bigger trips. It truly gets easier every time. There’s a lot to learn along the way, but there’s so much joy that can come from traveling as a family.