Is travelling long haul with young children something you would consider doing? I must admit, we only took short haul flights with our son until he was much older but many families happily travel long distances and know how to make the trip as stress-free as possible.
I learned more about best way to plan such holidays when I was involved in my first Google Hangout with BritMums. Despite a few technical difficulties (I must remember to turn my microphone volume up in future) I am no longer a Hangout virgin and would feel comfortable being involved again. You can see my first attempt here as a group of us discuss long-haul travel tips.
Someone who knows exactly what is involved is Becs from Becs on Life. In order to activate a permanent residency order as she plans to emigrate to Australia at some stage in the future, Becs flew out to Sydney and back with her husband and 1 year old little girl for a very speedy 8 day holiday which was a great success: Becs on life: Travel
Many families find their first long-haul destination is a flight across the pond to sample some Disney delights. Michelle from The Purple Pumpkin Blog can provide you with masses of information about her flight to Orlando and what she thought of the attractions when she got there. Take your pick of posts from her Back To The Magic (Trip Report Index)
If you want some inspiration for trips to Asia, take a look at Jetlag & Mayhem, a travel blog by Nicola, a British mum who now lives in Hong Kong. Her website is packed full of useful reviews written by herself and other guest posters who pass on their knowledge of family-friendly worldwide destinations. Here’s a great example of the information available: A week at the Hyatt Regency, Danang – Vietnam
Another favourite blogger of mine is MsCaroline, author of Asia Vu, mum of two teenage boys and new owner of tiny puppy. She is an American expat now living in South Korea. It’s always a treat to read about her life in Seoul but she has recently returned from a vacation to Cambodia and had this to say about its famous UNESCO World Heritage site: Chuseok 2013 in Cambodia: The Temples of Angkor
Whilst we are still in Asia, I couldn’t resist including this post from Curry Queen who blogs at Every Silver Lining. With both her children off to University now, CQ and her husband are visiting India and have some very pertinent but amusing advice for road users: Driving Delhi-style – everything you need to know.
Now we’ve travelled long haul, I think it’s only right to bring you back home and share some posts about the UK. I have accommodation reviews for four British cities, all unintentionally beginning with ‘B’.
Birmingham: My recent review for BritMums of the Staying Cool serviced apartments. At the end of the post is a discount code for BritMums members to receive 15% off a booking: Review: Staying Cool apartments and Birmingham for families.
Brighton: The Hotel Pelirocco has just opened a Star Wars themed room. Joanne from Joanne Mallon’s Opposable Thumbs wasn’t staying there but a friend was so, naturally, she popped along to see what it had to offer: I spent the night with Darth Vader
Bristol: If being slathered in chocolate and knocking back chocolate martinis sounds like your idea of a perfect weekend, you’ll be very envious of Mummy Barrow who experienced both, plus some excellent customer service: Mercure Bristol and National Chocolate Week
Belfast: Liz from The Mum Blog has just returned from a trip to Belfast, a city she found to be cosmopolitan, intriguing and welcoming. Read about her stay at the boutique hotel, The Fitzwilliam and discover more about the delights of Northern Ireland: A Weekend in Belfast and Northern Ireland.
As always, please pop any recent travel posts on the linky and I will try and visit each one, plus you can visit each other’s. If you write a post in the next few weeks you would like me to consider for December, tweet me @mumsgoneto or via the contact details on my blog.
About Trish Burgess
Trish Burgess started her blog ‘Mum’s Gone To…’ with a series of posts called ‘Mum's Gone To Iceland' where she was extremely ill on a whale-watching trip and thought she would die snow-mobiling on a glacier. Thankfully she survived and continued with less scary family trips: ‘Mum’s Gone To…Canada, Cyprus, Barcelona, Berlin etc. Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne she now lives in South Lincolnshire and travels with her husband and occasionally with her son, who is now at university. Trish can be found on Twitter at @mumsgoneto
- Web |
- More Posts(71)
Jody Brettkelly
Wednesday 13th of November 2013
Twice I did London to NZ by myself with three small children and it was not worth it - 26 hours of nightmare and still when we got there the time change meant we were up all night. Now the kids are older and we are living in California an overnight flight from San fran to Auckland goes by in a flash and I love that we fly into summer feeling fresh with only a three hour time change. With young kids - It's not only the flight time but the time difference that really gets you.
Trish - Mum's Gone to
Friday 15th of November 2013
Interesting to hear about the time difference problems with long haul. Obviously another huge thing to take into consideration, not just the flight time. Thanks for popping by to comment, Jody.
Trish
Wednesday 6th of November 2013
Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. So lovely to hear how such a massive trip when your children were so young was a great success. An encouraging message to anyone currently considering long haul with little ones.
Iyas
Monday 4th of November 2013
As I approach 50 (I can't believe I just said that), the best thing by some margin that I've done in my life is to travel with my wife and 4 young ones (2, 3, 7 and 9 at the time, with the 2 year-old still in nappies) for 6 months around Latin America. I blogged about it at the time on www.oursouthamericablog.com (purely a journal - not commercial).
My wife and I had wanted to do the trip on our own years back, but once the family started, we parked those ambitions. Until we decided to unpark them and not wait until retirement to do the big trip, and planned this incredible journey, even working our kids' school curriculum into it (the eldest two made documentary videos of the Mayan and Aztec temples which they posted on their own blogs to share with their school chums back in blighty who were studying the Aztecs).
And that's my biggest tip for anyone considering longhaul (or longer expeditions). Stop considering, decide and do. Our biggest hurdle was actually just deciding to do it. Once that was done, the rest was a breeze.
Expat Mum
Monday 4th of November 2013
As you know, I've been doing the Chicago to Newcastle journey (usually via London but sometimes Glasgow or Manchester) for 20 years now with babies, then kids and now slightly more independent beings. Because I'd come back for weeks if not months, my husband usually flew only one way with us, if that. When I look back at some of the things I've had to do on my own, particularly when the older two were 3 and 1 for example, I can't believe I didn't collapse in a sobbing heap on a regular basis. I had a friend in Australia at the same time however, and she used to make the 26 hour journey (with two layovers) with three boys under the age of 6. That put it all in perspective.
Trish - Mum's Gone to
Monday 4th of November 2013
Of course, you're a pro at long haul flights. You'll know all the tips. I can't believe you didn't collapse in a heap either. Your Australian friend was quite a woman too!
Frog Mom
Monday 4th of November 2013
Hi Trish, really nice round-up! I'm going to Thailand in February and will definitely check these blogs for some up-to-date info on the islands. Also, I wanted to share a post I wrote recently about Norway: http://frogmom.com/2013/11/travel-with-kids-what-to-do-in-bergen-norway/
We just took our 8- and 10-year-olds to Bergen for half-term and had a blast. I'm in the process of writing more but thought I'd start with a family activities post. Thanks!
Trish - Mum's Gone to
Monday 4th of November 2013
I'll certainly have a look at your post on Norway as we have been to Sweden and Denmark recently so are keen to continue our Scandi adventures.
Let me know when you blog about Thailand next year.