Tell us a little bit about your tribe and your holiday style.
Hi, we are a family of 4 myself, my husband and our two children, Jaelan aged 4 years, 9 months and Aneri aged 2 years and 8 months. We currently live in Malaysia and both teach at an International School over here. Our main reason for heading to this part of the world was to travel, explore and experience new things. Luckily as teachers the school holidays allow for plenty of that, so we try and spend as much of our spare time travelling as we can. We love a bit of everything. Myself and my husband are both very active and try to mix sightseeing, with adventure as well as chill-out time. I am a research fanatic and quite obsessive when it comes to planning our trips away but so far every trip we have done has been amazing.
What has been your favourite family holiday and why did you love it?
Our trip to Australia in 2015 has to be my favourite to date. I think because it is part of the world I have always wanted to travel and a landscape so different to anything I have experienced. We started in Cairns then travelled Alice Springs, Uluru and Darwin. Whilst there we hired a car to get around but flew the longer distances between Cairns, Alice and Darwin. We booked into holiday parks, staying in cabins or caravans. We were there for 5 weeks in total and Uluru was my favourite by far. I loved everything about it. Also because it was our first big trip away as a family and it was successful we realised that we could travel with kids and we got the bug.
What 3 destinations are top of your family travel bucket list?
It’s so hard to choose.
I would love to visit Canada, it just looks breath-taking.
We are yet to visit South America and would love to do something more adventurous and off the beaten track.
I also am keen to explore more of Europe. Coming from the UK I think we disregard it a bit as it is on our doorstep, but there is so much history and culture and feel I need to explore it more.
Must have travel item
Up until recently it was our carrier but our daughter is now beginning to outgrow that but my Manduca and back carrier have been vital over the past couple of years. For the children sticker books and colouring books are always in my bag, or theirs. We are a no tech family and so far have managed most flights with Ipad avoidance but at the moment the kids love their stickers. My son has really got into mosaics and our recent trip to Hong Kong the little pad I bought him kept him entertained the whole way. Ooooh, and snacks….I always have snacks!!!
If you had to pick one travel item that makes travelling with kids easier, what would it be? Try to balance out the days. We have worked out that doing 2 big things in a day is probably as much as our kids can handle at the moment, and us. When I plan trips I look at suggested itineraries and then spread it out a bit across more days depending on what we want to do. Also trying to plan in things that they will like, as much as a play park in Hong Kong is just like a play park anywhere to a 4 and a 2 year old it’s amazing. I actually think travelling with children is more fun than without as we go to places we wouldn’t necessarily have gone to before as it would interest them and you see things through a child’s eyes, nothing is more magical.
Laura has a blog called ‘A Dash of Laura’, that is currently work in progress.
If you’d like to take a look you can find it here
