Enjoying Travel With Kids

Zero baggage - even better than traveling light?

2009-08-18T16:03:00.005+10:00

There's a new way of travelling afoot. The idea is ZERO baggage. That is, renting your clothes when you get to your destination instead of taking them with you.

Interesting idea...

This could probably work really well for people who have "normal" body shapes and "normal" clothes tastes. But for those who don't...

But its an idea worth thinking about. I don't know that its something I would do, but I'm sure there'd be a market for it somewhere.

Tom Bihn Synapse coming soon - we hope...

2009-08-06T12:01:00.003+10:00

Hello! Yes, we're still here!

I have been following the progress of Tom Bihn's backpack design (the Synapse) for quite some while now. It seems to be their longest design-time project ever, and one hopes that means it will be an absolute stunner which reinvents the backpack and challenges normal backpack design.

That's the thing I really appreciate about Tom Bihn - he's an original thinker. A real designer.

Looking forward to seeing the release of the Synapse!

before you go away...

2009-06-08T20:00:00.004+10:00

Here's a little story for you.

Imagine that its the Friday of a long-weekend and you're about to head off on a lovely extended weekend away. You load everything up in the car, hop in, and drive away. Off for a weekend of fun and frivolity with your spouse and kids.

Saturday morning, 5am: Your neighbours wake at 5am, woken by hearing a strange, piercing beeping. Every 45 seconds there's a beep. Count them... all... The neighbours think "We must buy a replacement battery today to put in the smoke alarm." However, when the neighbours get up later in the morning, they realise that its your smoke alarm's battery that is running low and needs replacing. The noise is coming from inside your house, yet they can still hear it loud and clear inside their house, with all the windows and doors shut. And its not a fibro house either - its double brick.

Throughout the day the smoke alarm battery continues to beep. The neighbours visualise sling shots and have very nasty, destructive thoughts. They try all sorts of things to block out the sound - using the cake mixer on high, putting the radio on, putting the dishwasher on, putting the washing machine on, and going OUT.

Saturday night, the neighbours move out to their back room and sleep on the fold out sofa bed - its quieter and they *nearly* can't hear the beeping.

Sunday morning, throughout the day etc, the beeping continues. Sunday night, the neighbours sleep on their lounge again.

The neighbours assume that you'll come home lateish in the day on Monday, at which time you'll replace the battery and peace will reign once again. The neighbours are wrong. You don't come home...

The thing about this story is that WE are the neighbours. And its now 8:30pm and our neighbours still haven't come home. I worked out last night that if they came home late today, we will have heard about 5000 beeps by the time they change the battery. Well, we've heard those 5000 beeps and they're still not home.

So, the moral of the story is: if you have a battery powered smoke alarm, please change your battery once a year. Pick a day and do it on that day every year. Maybe your birthday? Maybe on a specific public holiday? And if you don't change it once a year, PLEASE change it before you go away on holidays.

The thing is, this isn't even the first time its happened. Once before they went away and it did the same thing. We'll be sleeping on the lounge again tonight...

Murray, the Red Wiggle, and Choice

2009-05-22T06:37:00.001+10:00

At the time of writing I just saw Murray, the Red Wiggle, out the front of our neighbour's house. In normal suburban Sydney. Well, I guess he has to live a normal life too... What does this have to do with travelling with kids? Nothing actually, but I was so surprised to see him there that I thought I'd tack it on the front of this post!

My topic for this post actually about the latest issue of Choice magazine - May 2009.

There's an article about international airlines, rating them for criteria like value for money, seat comfort, in flight service, ability to get a convenient flight etc. According to their survey, Singapore Airlines provided the highest overall levels of satisfaction for their survey respondents.

Then there's also an article on travel money, exploring the good and bad points of different ways to pay for things in foreign countries. They look at the pros and cons of credit cards, cash, travellers cheques, ATM and debit cards, prepaid travel money cards, and dynamic currency conversion. They even list one credit card that has NO foreign currency conversion fee!

So, if you enjoy Choice articles, grab a copy of the latest issue of the magazine.

Topping and tailing

2009-05-20T16:03:00.003+10:00

One of the things that we have found helpful when travelling with our kids is to top and tail our kids in their bed: one with their head up one end, the other with their head up the other. It does require a little bit of rearrangement of the bedclothes, but it does mean that they sleep better.

Of course, we'd prefer for them to have their own separate single beds, because sleep comes much more easily that way, but sometimes there's only a double bed for them.

We find that separating their heads and legs means that they are less likely to bump into each other in the night. Because neither of them is particularly tall, it means that much less of them "overlap" in the same section of bed.

And of course if they sleep better, they're much less grumpy the next day. Great when you're wanting to enjoy travelling with kids, rather than just tolerating it!

Farmstay fun!

2009-05-13T06:44:00.000+10:00

Late last week we went on our farmstay trip out to Bathurst, NSW. We stayed at Barcoo's Barn, just south of Bathurst, and it was great!

Our host was Ken and he was only too happy to have us there and show us around. His wife, Elaine, was away horseriding, so normally she would be there to be hospitable (and by all accounts in their guest book, she certainly is!) too.

We came in late in the afternoon, and didn't get the chance to look around. But there was a good spot right outside our room for John to set up the telescope and have a good look up into the sky. It was a lovely clear night, and was certainly darker than Sydney, as we could get a good view of the Milky Way. After he got rather freezing, John eventually came in.

The accommodation was warm, and the beds were good. (There was space for 11 people, plus two futons... Got a LARGE family?) There was heaps available self serve for breakfast - all we had to do was open the cupboards and find it!

After breakfast and packing up our stuff, we went out and met one of the other guests up in a paddock, who introduced us to the Clydesdale horses, Clancy and Barcoo. They're both about 15 years old, and each weigh a tonne. Wouldn't like to have one of them step on our toes.

Ken had gone off over the hill in the truck, and when he came back, he let us into the chook pen to feed the chooks. The Bookworm got right into it immediately, though Bendy was a bit scared of the chickens. Eventually she thawed out and was happily feeding them also.

After that, Ken took us around to the sheep paddock (where we had met Clancy and Barcoo earlier), and The Bookworm helped him feed the sheep, the Clydesdales, two very unfriendly alpacas, and another horse called Prince. She wasn't real sure about patting the horses, but she did it anyway. I used it as a teaching moment (!) and said that if she didn't brush her hair each day, it would end up feeling that rough too! :-)

Bendy was absolutely terrified of the sheep. She was screaming, and Ken was rolling his eyes... She insisted on being picked up and carried around, in the hope that that would keep her out of their reach. She really only relaxed when we closed the gate behind us.

Ken showed us all the bits of equipment lying around the paddock, each with their specific purpose for farm work. Some were for making bales of hay, others for wrapping them in plastic, others for moving them about the place etc.

Then Ken showed us the shearing shed. He weighed the girls on the big old scales where they weigh the bales of wool. It was a bit meaningless for them because it was only in imperial weight, which they don't understand (well, actually, neither do I!), but they enjoyed it all the same.

Then we had a bit more of a chat with Ken outside, before he went off for his morning tea, and we went off on our way home. If we'd had longer, I've no doubt he would have been happy to take The Bookworm off in the tractor with him on his rounds.

Ken was in no hurry to get rid of us, and you can see that he loves having people to show over the farm. If Elaine had been there, Ken said she would have been pleased to hook up the sled behind Barcoo so that the girls could have a ride.

So we highly recommend staying at Barcoo's Barn if you're looking for a farmstay, or even if you're just in the Bathurst area.

Pictures coming soon...

Worst travel experiences: Dining out in London

2009-05-11T18:23:00.000+10:00

It's about time we owned up to some of the really bad travel experiences as well as waxing lyrical over the really good ones. Once you start travelling, it is amazing just how many of both extremes of experience come your way. The bad experiences stick in your memory, and are just as much a part of the retelling long after the holiday - often to be laughed off, even if it wasn't at all funny at the time.

One of the most prominent bad experiences in my mind relates to dining out at a certain Chinese restaurant along Brompton Road, Kensington (London) between the V&A and Harrods. I googled it prior to writing this post and was amazed to find it still operating (we visited in 2002). It got excellent reviews, and by any standards has an outstanding menu.

We visited at lunchtime, and not for dinner, so the restaurant was quite empty apart from a table occupied by staff from the diplomatic missions nearby.

Well, I believe that the food we ate that day was excellent. I can't remember, of course, because such a highlight of this dining experience was completely overshadowed by the service - and in particular the attitude - of the staff. I cannot begin to relate how appalling the service was. It appears that the source of this poor service was none other than the fact that brought with us one of those nasty, filthy objects known as "children".

We only had one child at this stage, and she is a well-seasoned diner in fine restaurants. The Bookworm has good table manners, is polite, eats practically anything put in front of her and I don't think she'd ever had a tantrum in a restaurant. She's not perfect by any stretch, but you could take her anywhere - even when she was a tiny baby. You still can.

Well, didn't we suffer because of her presence! The disdain was palpable. The staff couldn't get rid of us quickly enough. We were made to feel as if we were most unwelcome, and we'd better leave ASAP. I'm just sorry that I put up with the attitude and paid the bill. Next time - if there is a next time - I won't be doing either.

travelling light: travel gadget secret

2009-05-10T06:21:00.000+10:00

For travelling light, its really important to plan well and shop well. However, that doesn't mean walking into every travel store or every travel department of each store and buying all the latest travel gadgets.

I'm going to let you in on a big secret.

Listen very carefully...

You don't need most of that stuff.

I have my favourite little travel gadgets to take with me. I have slowly accumulated them over time, and they have become part my tried and tested travel kit. But, I can walk into most travel goods places these days and walk out again without purchasing anything.

Sure, the camera attachments that let you use a bottle as your camera stand for taking a photo are pretty nifty. But you know what? I don't actually need one.

Those chemical handwarmers which are like little plastic pillows filled with gel look rather clever, but I don't need them for travelling either.

I love looking at outdoor and adventure store catalogues. They're quite fun. I enjoy looking at the weights of all the products and seeing how heavy they are. I enjoy looking at all the latest must-have gadgets and then... turning the page.

Once in a while I'll come across a new product that actually looks like it might work for me. Then I'll weigh it up against what I've already got, I'll consider its multi-functionality, I'll consider its weight and size. If its an item of clothing I'd want to see how easily crushable it is, whether its quick dry, and whether it goes with my existing travel wardrobe. If it is no better, or not appreciably better than what I already have, then I won't buy it.

Life isn't about how much stuff we can accumulate. I think one of the most paradoxical things about travelling light is that it takes most people a lot of effort, and a lot of products (to work your way through and then discard as not being good enough or light enough or whatever enough) to get to the point where you can travel really light. It also usually costs a lot of money.

For some, the act of travelling light becomes just another exercise in consumerism. You CAN go lighter! You DO NEED to spend another huge wad of cash on the LATEST thing. You DO NEED the smallest/lightest/coolest/niftiest doodad, because if you DON'T your trip won't be any good!

UTTER RUBBISH.

That said, I do espouse the principles of travelling light. But I need to remind myself that I do not constantly need more stuff.

travelling with minor celebrities

2009-05-09T11:18:00.004+10:00

John was talking to an acquaintance (Brad) the other night about Brad's family's experiences of living in Ethiopia. When they were last there, their young son was rather pale in complexion (as he's grown older his hair has darkened). Apparently they would have strangers come up to them on the streets and kiss their son, just because he looked so intriguingly different.

We know what this is like.

Bendy has VERY blonde hair, and a very pale complexion. The Bookworm has hair that in some lights looks a little reddish, and again has quite pale skin. We have taken them to quite a number of countries around the world, some of which they blend in like the natives and others where they definitely do not.

In Asia, our children were treated as minor celebrities - which we were completely unprepared for. Australia is a very multicultural place, and we're used to seeing people that look very different to us. In fact, when we were in Asia, I felt much more at home than when in Europe, because I am so used to seeing Asian faces around me in my home environment. However, some of them obviously didn't see us in quite the same familiar way.

We'd have people picking them up and cuddling them, calling their friends over to jointly marvel at them, having their photos taken with them etc. It can feel rather creepy some times, and also by the end of a whole day's worth of it, it can be rather tiresome. And it can make the kids themselves feel extremely uncomfortable, and uncertain. While once or twice can be funny, all day isn't.

Usually its the adults that are the main culprits for this in-your-face-ness, probably because kids are usually a lot more accepting of the way others look. Many of our children's school friends are from Chinese, Korean, and Indian families, so they're very used to kids who look different and have other cultural practices. One of Bendy's best friends at school has very dark African skin, so she just takes such differences in her stride.

So, what can you do to prepare for it? While you can dye hair (which seems a little drastic for taking a 5 year old to another country), there's not much you can do about their skin colour. Probably one of the most helpful things is to make sure the children wear hats, to cover up as much of their hair as possible.

In future, I think that we will warn our children that they might need to expect that others will find their hair and skin colour (and in some places, even their eye colour) interesting. We will need to teach our children to politely say NO when they feel too uncomfortable, and we will need to be careful to read their body language to know when they have had enough, and that it is time step in as their protectors. At other times, I think we'll all just have to put up with it to some degree.

Its made thinking about long term travel a bit interesting for us. We'd very much like to do some volunteering or mission work in another country at some stage in the future. And it is likely that at our destination Bendy in particular could be quite an object of curiosity, simply because of the way she looks. Really, there isn't much we can do about it, but at least we can all expect it to happen, and be pleasantly surprised when it does not.

Do any of you have ways that you have handled such things on your travels?

how to get good airfare deals

2009-05-07T06:40:00.001+10:00

There are some really good deals on airfares out there at the moment, as airlines try to stimulate business due to the economic downturn. With a little homework, you might be able to get a pretty good deal.

A few years ago when we were thinking of travelling to the US the following year, we went into our local travel agent to get an idea of the airfares. We found out that because Air Tahiti Nui had opened a new route from Sydney to New York, they had a special promotional deal on. We managed to get airfares for our kids of just $AU99 return to NY, plus taxes! Because the prices were so low, we brought the trip forward to that year, as we figured that we'd never get a deal so good again.

And Air Tahiti Nui turned out to be a great airline. I still think that their pilots do the best landings ever. They are so smooth and gentle. I guess it comes from all the practice of taking off and landing all the time when flying between the islands in French Polynesia.

From The Sydney Morning Herald, comes a list of ways to secure good prices for your airfares. These are somewhat Australian-centric tips, but you can adapt them to your own locale.

HOW TO FIND THE BEST DEALS

By following some simple guidelines, anyone can travel cheap.

Get in almost immediately when promotions are announced as the cheapest flights will sell quickly.

Fly midweek as the lowest fares are often on off-peak days.

Sign up for airline newsletters and travel alerts

Watch out for new routes: airlines frequently offer special deals to attract publicity.

Check regular sales, such as Jetstar's Fare Frenzy, 4pm-8pm every Friday, and Virgin Blue's daily Happy Hour, noon-1pm

Consider package deals that include accommodation.

travel catering - plastic knife

2009-05-06T05:54:00.003+10:00

Before our last trip, we bought a Zyliss plastic lettuce knife to possibly take with us. As commited one-baggers, we were only taking cabin luggage. We wondered whether one of these knives would be ok to take with us. We figured that it wouldn't show up really obviously on an xray scanner, but if our bags were manually searched then it would easily be noticed. It was cheap enough that if it was confiscated, we wouldn't be too upset. However, in the end we decided it was best to leave it at home. Didn't want our holiday spoiled just for wanting to take a plastic knife.

I still do wonder though, whether it would be acceptable. We did take plastic picnic cutlery with us. In that, there were of course, knives. What's the difference between a plastic picnic cutlery knife, and one of these? I don't know.

The points for it were that it was reasonably light, and definitely not metal. Despite being plastic, its serrated blade was really quite good at cutting. Before we decided not to take it, I actually prepared a whole meal using it once. (I think it was a mince meal though, and didn't need any raw meat cut in preparation!) The vegies were much more roughly cut than I would normally have, but it did work well enough for vacation cuisine!

I'm still not sure about it, but present it here in case the idea is of use to you.

Going to New Zealand

2009-05-05T06:18:00.000+10:00

I was just reading on Gadling about their suggestion for people to visit New Zealand. When I was young my family went on only one overseas holiday, and it was to New Zealand. Dad doesn't like staying anywhere other than in their caravan (because its cheap), so in NZ we hired a campervan. That meant that we could travel overseas without him feeling like he was being ripped off by staying in motels...

Anyway, seeing the post on Gadling reminded me of the wonderful spoof advertisement that they came up with on The Gruen Transfer, which is a fascinating and very funny Australian show about the advertising industry. Each week on the Gruen Transfer, they have a segment called The Pitch, where they get two ad agencies to come up with a TV advertisement to sell the unsellable. The week that I am particularly remembering was when they had to sell the idea of Australia invading New Zealand. It was hilarious.

Now, for something completely new to me, I'm going to try to embed a video here. (Never done this before, and it seemed like a really good excuse to try.) Its the video of the ad that I preferred of the two. You can find the other one pretty easily on YouTube.

.

If this doesn't work, you can find the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AIppqNePdM

For the record, I thought New Zealand was a beautiful place. I don't have any overwhelming need to invade it, either, even though I am an Australian. But a visit might be nice!

Ladies travelling light article in Polish

2009-05-04T06:22:00.001+10:00

Well, for all of our Polish readers (and there must just be oh so many of you...) the article that I contributed heavily to on ladies travelling with one bag has been translated into Polish. That's the first one of my articles that's been in Polish. I've had my stuff in Spanish before, and I think French, but never Polish!

So hop on over to the Polish Skyscanner website to have a read!

And on a completely different subject, we are now the proud owners of a pretty good, not quite entry level, telescope. It cost us the princely sum of $30. John's been out in the front yard looking at Saturn (he's so excited, he's like a little kid!). I had a quick look too, and you can even see the rings! Its only tiny, but absolutely amazing to think that with such a small piece of equipment, we can see SO far! It will be going with us to Bathurst. (The telescope that is, not Saturn...)

Excuses for not travelling

2009-05-03T06:56:00.000+10:00

I recently happened upon the blog Technomadia where the writers are creating a series of posts about excuses for not travelling, and how to counteract each of those excuses.

So far they have covered:

jobs and career
affording it
stuff
family

and they'll be adding more over the coming weeks.

Thought-provoking ideas, and well worth thinking through.

The idea of just upping stumps and going off into the wide blue yonder is appealing, and I think it would be a wonderfully educational experience for our kids (and us!). However I'd suggest another excuse, that for John and I is a big one. It is that we want to have our roots somewhere. For us, that is here in Sydney. That's where our friends and family are. That's where we come back to when we want to come home. And coming home is something that I do love to do.

Favourite places we’ve visited: The World’s Largest Virtual Solar System Drive

2009-05-02T06:19:00.002+10:00

As mentioned previously, we did at least two of the drives which incorporate the World's Largest Virtual Solar System Drive. We joined one of the drives on the Mitchell Highway at Narrabri. Just south of the town, there is a truck-stop/picnic area with a 3D model of Neptune to which it was attached. We were on the outskirts of the giant Solar System – but Pluto was hundreds of kilometres back up the highway towards Moree. Driving towards Coonabarabran, we were nearing the centre: the Sun.

The drive works something like this. Imagine that the dome of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Siding Spring, Coonabarabran is a scale model of the sun. Someone, in their impressive imagination, created scale models of all of the planets (even Pluto) at the scale distances along the roads leading away from Siding Spring. A three-dimensional scale model of each planet is mounted on a gigantic billboard containing information about that planet on it. So, Mercury was just down the driveway road from the observatory, and Venus further along than that. Earth was almost at the main road and Mars just beyond the intersection. The model of Jupiter was simply enormous, and located just before the road entered Coonabarabran.

At this point, there are five versions of the model – each spread out along one of the five main roads leading away from Coonabarabran so that, for example, Pluto is located to the north between Narrabri and Moree, to the east near Merriwa, and to the south in Dubbo. There are several Saturns – hugely spectacular with the rings, of course – located a few kilometres away from town along each of the main roads. Neptune and Uranus much further away down the highway. Pluto, hundreds of kilometres away in Dubbo, was a tiny hemisphere of grey attached to a gigantic board in the carpark of the Tourist Information Centre. The Bookworm, who loves space, loved the drive. So did the rest of us. Tracking down each planet and trying to guess how long it would take to reach the next one was a fun way to pass the time with the kids in the car.

The Solar System Drive has to be one of the more unusual sights we have seen on holidays, but it was terrific fun! The kids loved it as we stopped at each planet to read the brief information and marvel over the relative sizes and distances represented. And it was an interesting way to pass the time on some very long driving. I’m glad that they stopped with Pluto. It was hard enough trying to comprehend the enormity and emptiness of the Solar System without having to stretch my brain around distances across the Universe! It wouldn’t have fit, anyway.

Space: the final frontier

2009-05-01T06:16:00.000+10:00

No, not those ultra-expensive trips being offered by the Russian Space Agency to the super-rich, but a two-day (one night) trip to the central western NSW town of Bathurst next week. It would have been a longer stay, but we have another commitment on the weekend that can’t be missed. We’re staying the night on a farmstay, so there will probably be a later blog post about that – especially the reaction of the kids when they actually get there. At the moment they’re really looking forward to it. But, given their usual response to live animals the farm experience might well be a disaster…!

Anyway, we got a call today from Yvette’s dad. He’s seen a telescope for sale at a garage sale, and he’s going to make an offer on it for us (it is unpriced at the moment). I love space, and the idea of owning a telescope is one that I’ve had since I was quite young, though I’ve always put it of as a bit of an indulgence. To be honest, I think many of them simply become unloved white elephants. However, if we successfully acquire this telescope we shall use it with gusto.

Yvette suggested taking it with us to Bathurst. I can’t think why that sounded so remarkable – what a great suggestion! A telescope is an ideal holiday instrument to have with kids around. Despite the fact that we know so much, the mystique of space has still a powerful hold over human imaginations. On a clear night, with very dark country night skies, it is an interesting way to pass the time with your kids – thoughtful as well as relaxing (if a teensy bit cold…). So if we get it, it will make the trip with us to Bathurst because the sky will be much clearer (weather permitting) than the light-polluted skies of Sydney. I shall have to see if we can find something really special like Jupiter or Saturn: but even the moon is fascinating with a closer view.

One of The Bookworm’s abiding interests is planets and space. When she was in kindergarten she (with some help) constructed a model of the solar system out of painted polystyrene balls and we suspended it from an old curtain rod slung across her room. So, as part of an earlier holiday to western NSW, we did a number of “space” themed activities. We visited the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Siding Spring, Coonabarabran, and the Radio Telescope dishes at Narrabri. And we did the drives out of Coonabarabran following the World’s Largest Virtual Solar System Drive(see tomorrow's post for details).

So I’m hoping we’ve acquired a telescope rather cheaply, and am looking forward to spending part of one night next week gazing up at the splendour of the Milky Way – weather permitting, of course. And I know the kids will be fighting each other for a turn at looking through it. We miss out on so much of the night sky in the city that it is a real treat to see it in full darkness.

Tom Bihn's new Tri-Star

2009-04-30T06:29:00.001+10:00

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I have toyed with the idea of designing my ideal travel bag. Its something I'd still like to do, but getting the quality products that I'd like to make it with is not particularly easy! Also, I have recently resumed writing my book, so things are a little busy in my brain to be thinking through designing a bag.

Today, Tom Bihn has released his much-awaited Tri-Star bag. I've been very interested in this one, because while I love the design of his Aeronaut, it is simply too large to be used on Australian airlines (particularly Virgin Blue) which have smaller size requirements than US airlines seem to. The Western Flyer, his other major travel bag, has always just seemed too small for my liking.

The new Tri-Star does fit the Virgin Blue size requirements - I know because I specifically checked! And it looks to be a very nice bag. The size seems to be a much more useful one than either the Aeronaut or the Western Flyer, as it sits nicely in between them.

It has backpack straps, which for me are an absolute must, and an optional waist band which is something I would appreciate. It has cinch straps in one of the compartments, something that as a bundle packer, I definitely prefer. I'm not used to packing with three separate compartments, but apart from very fat bulky things, I think I could get used to it. It would certainly stop a lot of things just tumbling around as I suspect that they might in the Aeronaut.

I really love the colour combo of the "indigo" outer and "solar" interior, though really I think that indigo is misnamed - it doesn't seem inky and dark enough to really be indigo!

At 1230 grams (thanks TB, for having metric measurements!), it is significantly lighter - actually less than half - than the wheelie bag that I currently use, which you can see my photos in a previous blog post. I've mentioned before that I'd love to ditch the wheels and have a bag without. It saves heaps of weight, leaving you more of the weight limit in which to actually pack the things you want.

The Tri-Star has handles just where you would want them - on the ends for using in the aeroplane overhead storage bins. There's a lovely padded handle on the side so that you can carry it like a suitcase, which while not my preferred method, is a useful feature for quick "pick it up and move it" occasions. It has backpack straps as I've already mentioned. You can also use it with a shoulder strap, but as I'd never use it in this manner, this doesn't particularly excite me.

The two outer compartments open out flat, though one side has an unzippable divider to divide the pocket further into two. The middle pocket doesn't open out flat, but is instead a slip in pocket. I imagine that this would be the perfect place to put your netbook, to keep it nicely sandwiched between your other things to protect it.

Of course it is made of the beautiful, high quality ballistic nylon fabric that we've come to expect from TB, and has their splashproof zips - something I'm not likely to need, but something I'd certainly want to use if I was making my own.

For me, I think this bag looks just fabbo for travelling lightweight with just one bag/only carry on luggage. I'm pretty sure that it would be large enough to take all my stuff for a several week vacation trip. It also would take all the things that I need for a domestic business trip.

My only beef (which Tom Bihn has no control over!) is the Australian dollar does not compare very well with the American dollar currently, and with the rather hefty shipping that gets added on, it would be extremely expensive to get one from there (Seattle USA) to here (Sydney Australia).

My very wise mother-in-law once said to me that "just because I like something doesn't mean I have to own it." And I think that is how this will have to stay for the time being. I'll have to wait until I can afford it (the dollar goes up?!) or somehow justify the large outlay... Or maybe Tom Bihn would stretch to sending one gratis to this lowly blog so that I can evaluate it fully... Yeah right. Dream on!

Photos swiped from the Tom Bihn website. As I am basically advertising for them, you sort of hope that they won't mind...

Wondering about Kindles

2009-04-29T07:08:00.001+10:00

I had a recommendation from Gina at Portable Parents about Kindles. They're an interesting idea. As someone who works as a book designer, they're somewhat anathema to me! The idea of doing away with real paper and real pages and real books is something that I don't want to even think about...

However, Gina said that they are great for travelling in countries where English is not the language, and therefore English language books are a difficult to come by. That's a really good point.

The other thing is though, that when I'm travelling, I generally don't have time to read. While I do LOVE to read (a friend once said of me that I don't read books, I devour them!), when travelling all my "spare" time is taken up with writing my travel diary, or beginning articles for publication in the various magazines that I contribute to. I often use my travel as the opportunity to find new ideas for stories, so like to start on them while the ideas are fresh. Also, our holidays tend to very much be see-it-all-and-cram-it-all-in holidays, and not the sort where we lie around on beaches or poolside in resorts.

Gina and her husband Sean are travelling through South America with their kids, educating them as they go, and doing the whole thing slowly and as a way of life - not as a vacation. In their case, I can see that Kindles would be great for that purpose. It would be heaps easier and lighter than taking a whole pile of books with you, or trying to buy new ones along the way. Gina said that they download their books from free websites, which makes the whole thing quite affordable.

The other thing that is a consideration for me, is that a Kindle is worth more money than a paperback book. When I travel I prefer to keep the expensive items to a minimum in case they get lost or stolen. I suppose they are quite small, so can easily be hidden, but in some ways, I wonder if they're worth the hassle.

If I was off on a long or leisurely holiday then they're probably worth considering, but for the time being, I think that's one more gadget I don't need to own right now.

Ask the readers: Canberra with kids

2009-04-28T06:47:00.000+10:00

We've been wanting to take the kids to Canberra for ages now. We really want to take the girls to Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre. I went there when I was little but I can't remember it at all. John hasn't been. Its a really interactive sciencey sort of discovery place, with lots to see and do. So that's definitely on the list.

We heard the other day that Canberra zoo is really good, even better than Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo. Not sure why, but perhaps we need to find out first hand!

Tidbinbilla Tracking Station is also on the list, as we're a family that is interested in space. Tidbinbilla is a complex of radio telescopes that are part of NASA's Deep Space Network.

Do any of you lovely readers have suggestions for things to do with kids in Canberra? Its likely that we will go some time in the next few months, during which time it will be particularly wintery in Canberra.

Favourite places we've visited: Papeete, Tahiti

2009-04-27T06:11:00.000+10:00

Tahiti is a stereotypical South Pacific island (part of a larger group, actually) and despite the cliches associated with such destinations it is truly beautiful. Of course, we stayed in a resort - there's not much else for families - and despite this being an uncommon experience (for us) we had a marvellous time. Still, we wouldn't do it everywhere, or every holiday - but a few days here and there are very welcome.

So what was it about Papeete that we really liked? Well, a couple of things. Firstly, for the kids (mostly) each afternoon our resort had fish feeding in the resort lagoon. One of the resort employees would bring down a bucket load of fish food to attract the amazing tropical fish close to the shore where everyone could easily see them. Anyone could take part - the guy in charge would hand out fish food and anyone could get into the lagoon or feed the fish from the shore. Seeing the fish was amazing, and watching the reaction of the kids was priceless.

The second highlight of Papeete was a mode of transport called locally, Le Truck. For the uninitiated, most Pacific nations are not well off, despite the luxury resorts literally strung along their coastlines. French Polynesia is no exception. Many visitors to these idyllic locations never actually leave the resort, except to go to the airport on their return journey. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find that the towns where the locals live are not at all like the resorts themselves. Papeete is, well, lived in. A bit run down, very casual and makeshift in parts, but well loved by the locals.

For those, like us, whose resorts are on the outskirts of Papeete, Le Truck is the recommended public transport for getting into town and back again. With Le Truck, what you imagine is what you get - they haven't dressed it up with a misleading name. It is a truck, with an enclosed area behind the driver's cabin which has bench seats running down the length of the vehicle along either side, and down the middle. It costs the same no matter where you get on or off - I can't remember how much, but it wasn't much. There are no seatbelts. If you travel with an infant car seat, it would be useless to have it with you on Le Truck!

We managed to get on it alright - it was pointing in the right direction. You pay the driver through the window (or his friend in the passenger seat) and simply get on. There are no such niceties as tickets. You get off where you need to - but there are actual stops on the route. Coming back was a bit more interesting, though. I had to get some baguettes at a shop about half way into town (everything else was closed for Bastille Day), so I got off and Yvette took the kids back to the resort. The girls were worried that they might never see me again!

I bought the baguettes, and crossed back over the street to wait for the next Truck. I was joined by an older Tahitian woman, who asked me (our conversation was a mix of her halting English and my halting French) if I was waiting for Le Truck. I told her I was and we waited. She flagged it down as it approached, I paid the driver and got on. The woman didn't. She picked up her shopping and walked down the street.

I was amazed. She had actually waited to stop Le Truck so that I (clearly a stranger) could get on. Her hospitality was overwhelming and helpful! That's what I remember so vividly about Le Truck, and why, if I returned to Papeete some day I would prefer it as my transport and spurn the taxis every time.

Papeete was beautiful because the people were beautiful. The scenic marvels (coral reef fringed beaches, the spectacular sunset looking out across the water towards the island of Moorea etc.) were the icing on the cake. I think a lot of people get this the wrong way round and go for the natural wonders first. I guess it just depends on your holiday and the experiences that you have while there.

Some of our kids' favourite travel memories

2009-04-26T06:48:00.001+10:00

The other day we were talking about eating icecreams. Bendy piped up about visiting an icecream factory. We were surprised, as we visited the Ben and Jerry's icecream factory in Waterbury, Vermont in 2006, when Bendy was just 2 and a bit. Bendy still remembers it. The other strong memory that Bendy has from our America holiday is eating a SpongeBob icecream in Central Park in New York. Bendy actually has no idea who SpongeBob is, as we have no TV, and therefore the only thing she knows about SpongeBob is that he's an icecream character. However, she liked the goofy look of him and obviously its highly memorable for her.

The Bookworm remembers the same day, but not so much in the context of eating icecreams (although she does remember eating the rest of the SpongeBob, because even though it was obviously so exciting and memorable for Bendy, she didn't want to actually finish it!). For her, it was more about learning a bit about the Beatles and John Lennon, in the Strawberry Fields part of Central Park. When they were there, there was a jazz band busking, and the kids really enjoyed listening to it. It took them quite some to get up enough courage to go and put some money in their collection. The Bookworm really didn't want to, but eventually did.

Of course, their other favourite travel memories would have to be from our visit to Hong Kong Disneyland. That will be burned onto their brains and they will never forget it. Indeed, Bendy's new life quest is to visit ALL the Disneylands around the world. Aim high! Just what the Disney corporate executives would want...

When The Bookworm was 20 months old, we visited the UK, Ireland, and Singapore. For a long time afterwards (until the memories eventually faded) her strong memories of that holiday were of the Jacobite steam train on the West Highland Railway in Scotland (also famous as the Hogwarts Express), men on horses in London (the Horse Guards) and a piece of troublesome rubbish that was stuck to the play equipment in Singapore airport. At the time she found this piece of rubbish extremely distressing, and we think that is why the memory stuck with her for so long.

Interesting that all of these memories have strong emotions attached to them. Most were obviously of extreme happiness and even ecstasy, but the distressing ones were equally emotive.

Sometimes people wonder why we take our kids with us on holidays when they are so young. We know that not all the memories that our kids have of their holidays - especially from when they were extremely young - will stay with them forever, but each has a part in shaping who they are. Of course they won't remember things from when they are tiny, but that doesn't make the experiences any less important.

Kids' recommendations for Paris

2009-04-25T06:43:00.000+10:00

We have mentioned that we have some friends who are currently planning a trip to Europe. Last night we asked our kids what they would recommend that our friends' kids should see while they are there.

The Bookworm: the Mona Lisa.

Me: Why?

The Bookworm: Because it's famous. Also the big paintings in the Orangerie [the Monet waterlilies].

Bendy: The Eiffel Tower.

Me: Why?

Bendy: Because its fun.

John: And what advice do you have for them about the Eiffel Tower?

The Bookworm: Get there early and take hot croissants.

So there you have the hot kids' picks for Paris!

Travel nannies

2009-04-24T06:35:00.000+10:00

I'm sorry, but I'm probably not going to be positive towards this concept - and the associated parenting messages it sends - so consider yourself warned.

When Yvette first alerted me to the idea of travel nannies, I thought she was joking. Apparently not. For the uninitiated, they are employees of resorts and hotels assigned to guest families to look after the kids. To remove their inconvenient little presences from the mummies and daddies who brought them into this world. Yup.

Firstly, if you are going to employ the services of a travel nanny, why bother taking the kids in the first place? Why not prevail on the long-suffering grandparents to take the nasty little brutes off your hands? I could, of course, launch into a completely off-topic tirade about parents who have children as some sort of trophy of achievement, or as a fashion accessory (one step above mummy's little poochy in her D&G handbag), or simply as the living organism whose only raison d'etre is to inherit all the stuff you have accumulated in the quest to show off how successful you are... but I won't.

Secondly, since when is it a grand idea to leave your progeny with some unknown individual to take care of their every need? To be completely alarmist, are the employers of travel nannies obliged to undertake police checks etc. of applicants in order to weed out those who might have untoward intentions? Do you really know whether, while you are sipping Pina Coladas on some idyllic stretch of beach in the Bahamas, your little darling is being scarred for life in some way?

Thirdly, why not have some fun together? What a novel idea that might be for some parents, but you know... it CAN be done. Actually, it can be enjoyable. Sure, go to the resort, lie on the beach, do the things you want to do - but does that really require you to abrogate your responsibility as a parent? I think not. Indeed, take advantage of kids programs that might be on offer - events where loads of kids might be involved in something (usually in a very public space), but I really, really cannot see how anyone could need a travel nanny.

Here's the bottom line. My children are part of my family and looking after them is my responsibility. If we go on holidays as a family, we do it together. We enjoy it together. We'll even plan it together. If we want time away from the kids, we'll arrange it - but we're fooling ourselves if we call it a family holiday.

Family Funday Sunday

2009-04-23T06:18:00.000+10:00

Why did we not know about this? In our own city?

Family Funday Sunday came to us serendipitously. Today. Being Sunday, we took ourselves off to the city (Sydney) for a little day trip with the kids - to the Museum of Sydney and the State Library of NSW. We bought our rail tickets, and were charged the ridiculously low price of $10 for the family, return trip included.

We looked at the tickets, and marvelled at our good fortune. The ticket said "Family Funday. Valid Sunday by rail, bus, ferry."

Our interest being piqued, I couldn't help googling Funday and Cityrail when we got home and all was revealed at the Transport Planning Infoline website. We were amazed! How could we not know about this? Which public servant failed to notify us of this fantastic deal? And how long have other people been skulking around our city so cheaply without us ever realising it?

So, what's the deal? As the website says (and I quote):

You don't have to spend a lot on a fun day out for the whole family. For $2.50 per person, your family can enjoy a fun day out with unlimited travel on Sydney's buses, trains and ferries every Sunday. The ticket will even take you to Newcastle and Wollongong!

There is a lot of other information at the website which we haven't yet explored, so further tips and deals may yet be unearthed.

Well, now that we know about this discounted travel deal, we are planning on becoming tourists to our own city (and surrounding areas) on Sunday afternoons. We will be using this service in the future for more exciting short adventures. For those in Sydney, or those planning to come - and you should be, it's beautiful - you'll need all the tips you can get on travelling about this city and the Transport Planning Infoline website is a great place to visit.

Other people's travel photos

2009-04-22T06:57:00.001+10:00

Ok. So you're invited by some friends to come over for dinner, and during the evening they whip out the photo album / laptop to show you the photos (all 9000 of them) from their latest trip. At this point, many of us would watch politely for five minutes, yawn, then feign illness requiring hospitalisation in order to effect a rapid exit.

I don't. A few years ago, some friends did a to-die-for trip around Europe with another couple (sans children). It included a few destinations we were familiar with, and much that was completely new to us. The account of their trip, regaled along with the photos was absolutely riveting. We were hooked! At one point, one of our friends did check that they weren't boring us, and we assured them - completely truthfully - that they weren't. At that point, the realisation dawned on all of us that viewing other people's photos and hearing their stories can be just as much a reliving of your own experiences as your own photos are.

With this couple, we had shared destinations. For another couple, whose trip along the Inca Trail in South America (where we have not been) was fascinating, it was the contrast between our experience and theirs that brought back our memories.

We have thus lived through a wonderful holiday to Estonia, Czech Republic, France, Italy and Austria; a close relative's trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway and around Moscow and St Petersburg; the Inca Trail trip; and another Europe trip done by other friends that included Pompeii (also where we have not been). There are probably many others - but that's just off the top of my head.

I once heard it said that you don't have to own something to enjoy it. I think I'll attribute that to my mother, as she has a small but useful supply of such advice - and it is probable that I did get it from her. By extension, you don't have to have had the holiday to enjoy it. It is possible to enjoy something belonging to someone else.

Far from being boring, I am fascinated by other people's holidays. I love the storytelling and the reminiscence of "crossed paths" where we have also been. I love the opportunity to hear first-hand about new and exotic places that we may not have even considered visiting. And I love the feeling you get when looking at the photos of "I have been there". Even more, I love the feeling of "I know what is just outside the frame of that photo, and where it leads to".

Living vicariously through others' travel

2009-04-21T19:54:00.000+10:00

We have some friends who are currently EXTREMELY excited about their first BIG overseas trip as a family. They did all go to a Pacific island last year, but somehow I think they are much more excited about a trip that they are planning to Europe.

They have lots of questions for us about how we do our travel with our kids. We'll be going on a picnic with them on Saturday, so we'll all get to get terribly excited about their proposed trip!

A family member is also currently planning a trip to Europe, and it has been fun seeing her decide what tour to take, and how and where she will spend her extra time in London.

Far from being terribly jealous of their travels, (well, maybe I am a little...) I'm so excited for them, and so pleased that they are able to go. It does help that we went on a big trip last year, so we don't feel particularly overdue for another one.

Our friend today commented that he just feels like everything is focused on the upcoming trip. I said that I was the same too, except that ours is about 2-3 years away! No, maybe that's not exactly true - I don't think about Greece and Turkey (our proposed destinations) most of the time, just travelling in general!

So we do enjoy helping them to plan, giving them tips on how to manage the long distances with kids, great places to go etc, without planning our own holiday for them! They do after all, probably have quite different ideas about what they imagine their holiday to be like. I'm sure they won't end up doing the same things as us, just because we're different people to them.

However, the opportunity is there for us to talk about what we did, what worked for us etc. And then they're very welcome to chose to do the same, or something completely different!

It just brings back all the wonderful memories...

Why I don't think I'd enjoy travelling solo

2009-04-20T06:46:00.000+10:00

I have always felt that life is so much more enjoyable when it can be shared. I therefore feel that travelling is so much more enjoyable when it can be shared.

Recently our family went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show for the day. I wasn't particularly well, so for some of the day I just sat and watched in the woodchopping arena, while my family went off and explored other things. I REALLY enjoyed watching the woodchopping (though as my SIL says, she really enjoys watching the woodchoppers!) but felt that I would have enjoyed it so much more if my family had been there to see it with me.

There was a tree felling heat which included the world champion in it. The first guy had a handicap of about 16 seconds, and along the line the handicaps got longer and longer until the world champion at the end, who had a handicap of 130 seconds. AND HE STILL WON! It was such a fabulous contest, seeing this fellow who is SO good at chopping down trees, and so highly skilled that he completely outshone all the other contestants. I wanted so much to share the experience with my family.

When I did comment (to myself or anyone else who happened to be listening) the girl sitting next to me probably just thought I was some sort of weirdo who likes talking to herself. But no, I just wanted to be able to enjoy it as part of a shared experience!

When we travel with our kids, part of our aim is to build family memories. That is really important to us, because its the stuff that strong family bonds are made of. Family memories are part of what binds families together, and what makes them distinct and separate from the outside world.

I can tell you all about my dad and his pigeon impersonations in Victor Harbour, South Australia, but it would never be as funny as if you were there, seeing it for yourself. Those memories are something that I share with my family only, because we were the only ones there.

I can't imagine being on the other side of the world in some breathtakingly beautiful place and having no-one to comment on it to. Or no-one to remember it with afterwards.

I guess that people who travel solo have to make the effort to connect with fellow travellers, but personally, I'd much rather have my family there on tap, to provide me with that companionship and shared memory building. I guess that's a luxury that I am extremely fortunate to have.

Affording that dream holiday

2009-04-19T06:22:00.003+10:00

I recently learned of a "vacation calculator" designed to help people see where they can make savings in their spending, so that they can save for their dream vacation. The Yaycations Calculator goes through a series of questions, asking how much you spend on various products and services over certain periods of time, then adds up the amount of money that you will save over a year if you opt to go without those things.

Seems like a great idea. I decided to give it a go. I went through all the questions, and I saved...

...precisely nothing.

Its not that I'm not willing to do without stuff. Its that I'm already doing without, and that's how we can afford our family holidays.

Last night I was looking at the monthly credit card bill that had arrived yesterday. Apart from one or two more unusual expenses, all our money was spent on groceries, petrol for the car, and medical expenses. It was quite amazing. I hadn't realised that we lived quite so simply.

Without trying or wanting to sound "holier than thou", here's how we do it.

We have a car, and a mortgage, but we manage to live without lots of the "added extras" that so many people have. We have no TV, so we don't need cable. Neither of us has a mobile (cell) phone. We make sandwiches to take to work and school. We don't buy a daily coffee when out. Instead of buying CDs, we mostly listen to the radio - and purchase music infrequently. We borrow books from libraries - only buying the rare 'must-haves'. We don't need DVDs because we don't have a TV to watch them on. We only purchase clothing when we absolutely need to, rather than just because we want to and minimise the purchase of "label" clothing. I even sew some of our own clothing sometimes. We don't go out to clubs or the local pub.

We still have hobbies, (I do lots of embroidery), we are in the process of renovating our house (we're very much DIYers so we save heaps there), we occasionally will have a meal out or takeaway (about once every one or two months), we have a lawn mower man (John is allergic to grass). We give money to carefully chosen causes on a regular basis. Our kids do extracurricular activities like music and sport.

But far from having a terribly boring and sad existence, we enjoy our lives. We enjoy each others' company, and we enjoy going on holidays together, as a family. We can usually manage a big overseas holiday about once every 2-3 years.

So if your wish list includes a vacation, and you don't think you can afford it, how about firstly trying the "Yaycations calculator" to see what you can save. Then why not take a careful look at your expenses to see what you can do without? As you'll see from the calculator, even small weekly expenses can add to a lot over a year.

For us, holidays with our kids are a priority. We learn heaps about the world around us from our travels. Our family vacations also create shared memories that help to bind our family together. So for us, putting aside money to pay for our family holidays is also a priority. It means that in some ways we "do without", but we can only see great big benefits from doing so.

Favourite places we've visited: Sainte-Chapelle, Paris

2009-04-18T06:41:00.000+10:00

I loved the Sainte-Chapelle for two reasons. The glorious stained glass windows are, of course, the paramount reason to visit. Few churches can rival the technicoloured splendour of the windows which seem to defy gravity and stretch away up to the vault of heaven itself. Even the lower chapel (for the royal servants etc.) was impressive!

I have a soft spot for stained glass, and this little chapel is a supremely fine repository of that art form. Architecturally it is a wonder: the spindle-thin columns of stone supporting the weight of the roof with over an acre of glass in-filling the spaces between, towering to a great height above the decorated floor. And the light. All that glorious coloured light streaming in from the outside. It is no wonder that the architects of Gothic cathedrals thought they were transmitting the immutable presence of God to the awestruck congregations of the middle ages. It still works in our high-tech information age. A telephoto camera lens helps to make out the detailed figures within the higher glass panels that are otherwise indistinguishable from the floor.

I'd love to have had the chance to experience a choral concert in the upper chapel - I suspect the acoustics are impeccable.

The other reason I loved the Sainte-Chapelle is more prosaic: I had my first actual conversation in French with a security guard, asking for and clarifying directions to a toilet other than the nearest one (inexplicably closed...) for Bendy. A great sense of accomplishment swept over me despite the ordinariness of the subject.

Our travel tip for the Sainte-Chapelle is this: there are TWO queues into the Palais de Justice. The one on the left is for visitors to the Palais de Justice (i.e. probably not you). The much longer line on the left is for the Sainte-Chapelle. We joined the wrong line at first, and then were sent on to the end of the other one right at the doorway. It stretched back to the corner of the building, so we thought we'd be there for ages, but it was really only about 20 minutes from there until we went through the security screening checks.

Encouraging your kids to enjoy the travel moment

2009-04-17T06:27:00.000+10:00

Often when reading blogs about traveling with kids, you see suggestions for using DVD players and such like to entertain your kids while your doing "boring" things like moving from one place to another.

I have a suggestion: how about encouraging your children to enjoy looking at what they see around them? How about encouraging them to actually engage in their surroundings, to observe, to comment, and to experience? What is the problem with looking out the car/train/etc. window at endless stretches of countryside?

Apparently children HAVE to be kept entertained for every moment of their waking lives. Why? Why must we cosset our kids by keeping them in an entertainment bubble that means they basically take their home environment with them? Why even take them on a vacation, when you could all happily stay at home and keep watching your TV? If you want a travel experience, watch a travel show...

Or, how about actually TALKING with your kids? How about talking about what it is that you are seeing? How about getting them to comment on their travel experiences?

What did you like best today?
What did you like least today?
Why did you like/dislike those things?
What was the most surprising thing today?
Do you have any questions about what we've seen so far today?

I know that kids can get grumpy and "bored" when you're travelling, and at those times its important just to maintain the peace. However, how about encouraging them to experience rather than just passively sit back and be entertained?

Favourite places we've visited: Quebec City, Canada

2009-04-16T06:23:00.000+10:00

Quebec City, Canada has two distinct parts. First, there's the yukky modern city. It seems about as lifeless and uninspiring as many modern cities can be.

Then there's the old walled city - and that's a different world. We were privileged to stay within the walls a few years ago at a charming hotel with an all-important adjoining parking garage (with a hefty fee...). What a pleasure it was to stay in this place! We could easily have lived there (except we didn't experience winter, and I suspect that it's a little colder than what we experience in Australia). So, what was so good about Quebec City?

Well, I guess the first thing is the people. Canadians are universally hospitable. We've never met an impolite, unfriendly Canadian and I wouldn't wonder if they didn't exist. And despite occasional English/French rivalry and attempts to secede from Canada, the Quebecois (French Canadians) were extremely courteous to us as their guests, even if they did assume we were British...!

Secondly, the architecture is fantastic. A European city in North America, replete with French architectural styles. The grand hotel Chateau Frontenac, with its commanding position above the city, certainly reinforces the French influences in the buildings.

Thirdly, the ambience and quaintness (and I don't mean that in a condescending way) of the city: cobblestones, steep winding streets, artists on the pavement, Christmas shops, the tangled driving maze, the wall encircling the town, the street decorations. The myriad of tiny details that conspire to create the feeling of a place, and not just the pretty view.

Fourth, the view. Commanding a high position above the St Lawrence Seaway, it is one magnificent view. And there's a long promenade to take advantage of it.

Fifth, the wonderful, wonderful eateries. OK, so we debased ourselves and went to McDonald's once, but we have repented of our error and won't do that again in a hurry. But the cafe across the street and up a bit was simply fantastic. Our lunch servings were so substantial we had to join several tables together just to fit the trays on them (there were 2 adults and 2 kids, ages 5 and 2)! And, the staff let me practice my very haltering French - we conversed bilingually until I got it right! The food was great and the coaching graciously endured. Also, the kid-friendly staff and food at the St James Resto-Bisto is worthy of special mention.

In planning this holiday, we had intended to see New York and the New England area - Vermont in particular. We stretched things and reorganised the itinerary to squeeze in several days in Quebec City, and we are so pleased that we did! It was well worth the visit.

Ladies travelling light packing list

2009-04-15T06:31:00.003+10:00

A week or two ago I read an article on the Skyscanner website about travelling light. The author, Sam, wasn't sure that ladies would be able to manage a 3 day weekend with only carry-on luggage. I wrote to him to let him know that of course you can! I sent Sam my packing list, including weights and even some photos.

Sam was pretty impressed by the list, but later the same day I received an email from one of the female staff at Skyscanner, noting that I didn't include any make-up, and THAT was the real sticking point for so many of the ladies in the Skyscanner office. Well, personally I don't bother with make-up unless I have teaching engagements, which I don't when I travel internationally. I just think that the people I meet while travelling couldn't care less whether I wear make-up or not - and if they do, that's their problem, not mine!

The follow-up article has now been posted on the Skyscanner website, with a large slab of it devoted to my personal packing list.

The photos haven't been included, so I've got them here for you.

First up, we have the contents of my packing list, all laid out for you to see. For the details, see the article at Skyscanner.

Next, we have everything packed into the bag - very messily, I might say!

Lastly, we have the packed bag, ready to go.

Travelling light, with one bag is completely achievable for ladies. As for the make-up issue, if you're only travelling so that people will see you and appreciate how you look, maybe you've got things the wrong way round? On our last holiday I saw a T-shirt which said something like "Come to play, not to show off your clothes". Amen.

Favourite places we've visited: The Alhambra, Granada, Spain.

2009-04-14T06:30:00.002+10:00

There would be few places on earth which rival the overwhelming magnificence of the Nasrid Palaces of the Alhambra. Located on a hillside overlooking the Spanish city of Granada, it is a must-see destination for any travellers to Andalusia. The gardens of the palace, and the summer palace of the Generalife (next door) are magnificent - so it isn't just the interiors that are worth seeing.

We were there on a mostly sunny day - though it was raining as we left. We had driven from Seville for 3.5 hours to be there, and found the route - especially in and around Granada - to be really well signposted. This can often be a problem in unfamiliar territory, but not here. The directions were superb, and there was loads of carparking (pay parking).

We had pre-booked the entry to the Nasrid Palaces on the internet about 3 months in advance. This is because they only permit a certain number of people into the Palaces each day - so if you turn up on the day there is no guarantee you'd get in. And I wanted that guarantee. I don't think that pre-booking made any difference to the price - just to the certainty. You are allocated a half-hour timeslot within which you MUST enter the Palaces, or you miss out. I seem to recall, however, being able to nominate either morning, afternoon or evening tickets - but you can't specify the timeslot.

We turned up as early as we could and were helpfully assisted at the Servi-Caixa machines by an attendant to actually retrieve our tickets. These are scanned every time you enter the grounds - you can do this as much as you like - and on entry to the Palaces.

We got some takeaway lunch from a little store across the street - ham and cheese rolls or something as simple. There is not much to choose from, so bring your own if you need to. The adjoining restaurant was pricey and uninspiring. We entered the grounds and found ourselves a little seat in the shade of the trees at the approaches to the Generalife. Quite a few people were in the area, enjoying the sunshine, the gardens and their lunch.

Ahh yes. The lunch. Apparently you can't eat lunch in the grounds. At all. We were roundly told off for doing so (as were the other visitors) and were made to exit the grounds and eat outside. We could only conclude that it was some sort of effort to keep pigeons away - otherwise who would bother with such a rule? Obviously we wouldn't be able to eat inside the Palaces, but outside? It hardly made sense. Well, we sat outside the complex entry and ate, then re-entered without hassle.

After a very brief look at part of the Generalife gardens we headed for a longer-than-expected walk to the Nasrid Palaces. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. The queue for our timeslot was long, but once it got going it was quite a quick entry given the number of people.

Nothing can prepare you for the interiors. Of course, I'd seen lots of photos etc., and read Moorish Architecture of Andalusia by Marianne Barrucand as part of the lead-up to the holiday. I was still unprepared. As we have said a few times in previous posts, there is nothing like the reality of being there to bring something to life. One of the things that amazed me was that each room I entered was more magnificent than the previous one - if that were at all possible. I cannot begin to adequately describe the intricate details of the tiles, the plasterwork, stonework, timber ceilings and beams. Everything is covered in the most exquisite decoration. And the amazing thing is this: it should look overdone and tizzy, but it isn't. It is remarkably restrained and elegant.

The kids loved it too. They looked for patterns on the walls, they looked at ceilings - and they constantly reminded us that you must remember to look up - they looked at a thousand small things that adults might otherwise miss: everything from door handles to window shutters, ponds to floor tiles.

We went in search of Moorish Spain, and stayed in Seville as our base in order to minimise the travel, packing and unpacking and all the settling in that a new hotel requires. In addition to the Alhambra, we visited the Real Alcazar (Seville), Cordoba Cathedral (the Mezquita, Cordoba), and the very tourist-free ruined city of Medina Azahara (outside Cordoba). If Moorish Spain is ever on your itinerary, then the Alhambra must not be missed. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and it was worth the seven hour round trip to get there.

DIY toiletries bottles

2009-04-13T06:20:00.003+10:00

It is a fact of life that if you want to take liquids on board a plane in your cabin luggage, they now have to be a tiny size. Depending on where you are, they have to be either 100ml or less OR 3oz or less.

Its a bit silly really (well, completely) because those two amounts aren't even the same (100 millilitres = 3.38140227 US fluid ounces), so we people who use millilitres actually have a larger capacity allowed than those who use fluid ounces...

But anyway, you can either buy travel size products, and get to like them (!) or buy generic bottles and put your favourite products in them. We go for the latter. The problem with buying generic bottles is that the authorities in charge of these things like to SEE what the capacity of the bottle is. Its not good enough for the bottle to LOOK like it is 100ml/3oz or less, it has to SAY it is. And often the generic bottles don't have their capacity marked.

Now, on a good day, you'd probably get through. But if you just happened to get the security person who's had a bad hair day, you can say goodbye to your carefully re-packaged favourite toiletries!

For our last trip, I bought small empty bottles from the local pharmacy that had no size on them. I knew they were less than 100ml, so that was ok. Took them home, worked out that their capacity was about 75ml, and made up some pretend labels for each of the products I needed to take (with my own fake brand name and logo etc) and their capacity clearly labelled on each. Doesn't hurt that I'm a graphic designer so can make them look pretty respectable. :)

You can use plain coloured paper as I did, and put clear packaging tape over the top to stick them on, or use Avery type adhesive labels that are suitable for getting wet.

No-one questioned my bottles, and over the course of our trip, we went through many checks.

There are lots of rumours going round that the liquids rules might be relaxed some time this year, so we can all hope for the best! However, if you are travelling light, then its always a good idea to keep your liquids to a minimum, because they're quite heavy.

Quick travel tip - keeping your bag shut

2009-04-12T06:30:00.002+10:00

Today we went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It was a lot of fun, but it reminded me of a travel tip that I'd like to share. When in crowds its always good to keep your bag shut in such a way that others can't help themselves if they so desire. Crowds seem to me to be just the sorts of places light-fingered people might like to acquire new possessions by unscrupulous means...

The backpack that I usually carry on such occasions has a zip with no cover over it, so the zipper pulls are on show for all to see. To discourage likely thieves, we put old split rings (ours are actually curtain rings) on the zipper pulls. Its not going to STOP anyone, but it is likely to slow them down. It does make life a little harder for someone wanting to help themselves, and sometimes that can make all the difference.

It does also slow you down when you try to open your own bag, but that's a small price to pay. You can either slip the ring off one of the zipper pulls, or pull the zipper apart between the pulls so that it sort of bulges open enough to get in to get what you want.

Its cheap, light and easy, and looks much less like overkill than putting a lock on your bag for such a day!

Our kids also used their bottle bags today - lovely to offload their water bottles and the weight they entail to them, rather than us having to carry them! Towards the end of the day The Bookworm said to me "I'd forgotten I was even wearing my bottle bag." Ah, the usefulness of good (though admittedly not very attractive) design!

last minute accommodation type websites

2009-04-11T06:16:00.000+10:00

Recently we wanted to book a weekend away in a NSW country town, staying at a motel, farmstay or something similar. We headed to Wotif to find what was available for our dates in the town we wanted. We read through the list and investigated a couple, and eventually decided on a farmstay. We were in the process of booking, but found that there was a $4.95 booking fee for using the Wotif site, which personally I'd rather not pay. (Call me cheap, but I like to save where I can!)

I suggested that we check the farmstay's own website to see if there was any difference in the rates. There was! In the end, by phoning and making the booking directly with the farmstay, we saved just under $40 for one night's accommodation. Yes, it cost us a phonecall, but we would have had to be on the phone for an awful long time for us to cancel out that $40 saving!

Also, instead of having to pay the full amount up front, we only had to pay a half-rate deposit upfront.

We did find the "last minute" website useful for browsing a good list of available properties, quickly and easily getting an overview of the ones that interested us, and seeing which were available on the dates we required.

However, it certainly pays to check the establishment's own website if they have one, or even just call them to see if they have cheaper rates than the "last minute accommodation" type websites.

$1 kid fares with CountryLink trains

2009-04-10T06:42:00.000+10:00

From 8th April until 27th April 2009, CountryLink (NSW country trains) are offering a wonderful promotional fare of $1 for children travelling with adult family members, to CountryLink destinations.

Train travel with kids is a lovely way to go somewhere. For kids that are used to going everywhere in cars, try a train for once! Its a very relaxing way to travel - especially for the usual drivers!

Check out the terms and conditions at CountryLink.

Another travel cot option: the PeaPod by KidCo

2009-04-09T06:56:00.001+10:00

I just learnt about a new travel cot option today: The PeaPod. I've not seen one of these in person because they aren't available here in Australia, but they look like an excellent idea.

They are a tent-style fold out cot, which is completely zip-up-able, so can keep out the little biting insects. They come with either a pump/blow up air mattress (and its pump), or a self inflating mattress, depending on the model you choose. I'd probably go with the self inflating one - it looks a little more sturdy. A cot-size fitted sheet would probably fit perfectly, and teamed with a cot sheet and blanket (if needed) your kid will be ready for some ZZZZs!

The PeaPod P102 model (which is the one that I think looks the best) weighs only 4.5lb/2kg, which is an excellent, light weight. The models with more features such as a sleeping bag are a bit heavier. They easily pack up into a disc shape, and have their own carry bag for storage and carrying. From the video sequences on the website, it looks like it is VERY quick and easy to both put up and down - definitely one for the dummies or even just the tired parents who have grumpy kids that need a sleep NOW!!

Open dimensions:
47"L x 30"W x 19"H / 121.92cm x 76.2cm x 45.72cm
Storage bag dimensions:
14"L x 5"W x 14"H / 35.56cm x 12.7cm x 35.56cm

Going by the length of the opened out cot, you could easily fit a child who is up to 2-3 years of age in there (as long as they are not exceptionally tall!) with room for them to move.

The side (door) zips down, so provides easy access for you to get to your crying baby, or for tucking your kid in, or for the older child to get out to go to the toilet by themself.

All the sides have mesh "windows" for good cross flow of air, but if you needed to close it up a bit (so the child can't see out so well and be distracted by the rest of the world) you could easily throw a sheet over it to block the view a bit. The fabric is also apparently good for UV protection - not sure if that is just the main fabric or the window mesh as well.

From the type of construction that it is, I cannot imagine that you would have any trouble getting this onto a plane as part of your carry-on luggage. (Of course I can't guarantee that - because who knows whether the powers-that-be would agree with me!) But to me it seems like there is nothing in its construction (such as chunky metal poles) that could be construed as a weapon, so you should be able to take it in cabin with you, if you are travelling the one-bag way with cabin luggage only. However, I don't recommend you try to use it during the flight itself...!

There are a few different models at different price points, so you can choose what suits your needs and budget.

All in all, this looks like a really good product, which would be perfect for road or plane trips. Just whip it out, put it up indoors or out, and its kiddie sleep time. Sweet dreams!

Kids and cameras

2009-04-08T07:09:00.000+10:00

When The Bookworm was six (almost seven) we got her a cheap digital camera and memory card for Christmas. This was in preparation for our last overseas trip - thinking that it would be nice for her to be involved in recording what she saw, from her perspective.

On our return from the trip, as I was sorting through the photos, it turns out that she'd taken about 900 photos in all - in just three weeks. We were amazed! Now, she's no brilliant photographer, and she definitely improved as the holiday progressed, but from time to time she took some amazing photographs.

What also impressed us were the subjects of some of her pictures. She frequently took photos of things that we adults would never have thought of taking - goldfish in the ponds at the Real Alcazar, the tile patterns on the Alhambra walls, the chandeliers at Versailles - and it really demonstrated the point of view of children. They have not been taught "how to see" or "what to see" or "what to photograph". So they just take photos of things that are of interest to them. Sure, the composition isn't always fabulous, but sometimes the photos are really striking anyway.

She took a photo - accidentally, I think - of the white gravel approaches to the gates at Versailles. The top 10% of the photo is the Chateau and approaching tourists crammed in at an odd angle, and the rest of the picture is the gravel. But it is an amazing picture to look at because the perspective makes it look as if the Chateau is warped in shape.

She took a photo looking down from the Tower of Belem, Lisbon, at the pavement and people below. She set the angle diagonally across the picture and thereby created a very strong image using the white pavement edging as a dominant visual element. This photo is so good that it has been entered in the Photography competition at the upcoming Sydney Royal Easter Show. We're looking forward to seeing how she goes - even just being selected for exhibition would be great.

We wondered if she would be too young to manage looking after a camera - after all, kids don't always look after their belongings particularly vigilantly - but we thought it would be a good way to teach her to be responsible for something valuable (though not too valuable, in case she did lose or break it...). But we gave her lessons in how to hold it securely so you don't accidentally drop it, and showed her how to keep it stowed under her clothing when not using it to make it more inconspicuous. Naturally, we also showed her how to use the basic functions as well.

And she succeeded admirably! Since coming home, she hasn't really used it - so I don't think she's yet hooked on photography (that's OK, she doesn't have to be) - but she does have the skills to use it confidently should she ever want to.

Favourite places we've visited: Scenic World, Katoomba.

2009-04-07T05:55:00.000+10:00

For all the non-Aussies out there, Katoomba is situated in the Blue Mountains, a gorgeous World Heritage Listed region to the west of Sydney, Australia. Favoured in bygone days as a health resort, it is a centre of tourism in our region - and with good reason. The natural beauty of the area is outstanding, and there are many ways of enjoying a day or a week in the area.

Unfortunately, most tourist buses only visit Echo Point, to view the Three Sisters rock formation, and iconic view known from thousands of postcards, and then force you to spend all your money at horrible souvenir shops. Pity - there is so much more in the mountains.

Scenic World, from my childhood, was one such tourist trap. A few years ago we stayed in Katoomba when the opportunity arose for Yvette to do some teaching in Katoomba. The girls and I spent a day at Scenic World, and I was genuinely pleased at the transformation that has been effected in the intervening years. Sure, it's still a tourist trap, but it has certainly improved. There are three elements to a visit.

Firstly, there's the cable car suspended high above the valley, overlooking the National Park. On a good-weather day the view is incredible. I remember the old tin-pot cable car which has thankfully been relegated to the carpark, and we marvelled that this new version, with its glass floor for viewing directly below (and somewhat creepy to stand on).

Secondly, there is the Scenic Railway. Once built to haul miners up from and down to the valley floor, it is a very steep rack rail that is more like a tame rollercoaster. It still sets your stomach a-flutter as it appears to plunge over the cliff in an almost vertical position.

Thirdly, at the bottom of the Scenic Railway there is a wonderful new boardwalk through the temperate rainforest in the valley. This is absolutely fantastic. There are little boards describing the ecology of the rainforest, particular plant species, and a very cool, green ambience that can consume many lazy hours of wandering and sitting.

So, while Scenic World is very touristy, it is not as bad as you might think. The addition of the rainforest walk is certainly a plus. If you can manage a bushwalk as well, you'd end up with a really great day out with the kids in a natural environment. At the end, of course, there are always the rewards on offer at Blue Mountains Chocolate - all hand made, and only a few streets from Echo Point. Mmmmmm!

Favourite travel items: CD Audio books for car travel

2009-04-06T06:50:00.001+10:00

A couple of years ago we did a week-long trip to the central west of New South Wales which involved long stretches of driving between Sydney, Narrabri, Coonabarabran and Dubbo. To entertain the kids (and ourselves!) we purchased the CD Audio book set of most of the stories by Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, Danny the Champion of the World, The Witches etc.

What a great investment they were! They helped pass the time really well, and the narrations were fantastic, including many different voices for the characters.

If you can get hold of decent audio book CDs then I would thoroughly recommend them for long car trips.

The process of learning to travel with one bag

2009-04-05T06:44:00.001+10:00

Our journey from too much luggage to one bag each has taken a long time, not the least because we only heard about the idea of one-bagging before our last trip. We immediately fell in love with the challenge!

But we expect that with each big trip we take, and with the changing needs as our children grow older and larger, that we will change and improve our packing list a little each time. With each trip we have taken, we have learnt something new. With each destination and season we will adjust our packing to suit.

From our first big trip, I learnt that you shouldn't allow your mother and sister ANY access to your suitcase beforehand. As it was for our honeymoon, they thought it would be fun to put confetti in everything. Thanks SO much!

From our second trip, we learned from one of our travelling companions, that a bag weighing 28 kilos is just TOO heavy! Try lugging that up and down steep, narrow stairs... or any stairs for that matter.

From our next trip, we learned that things can easily get crushed in checked luggage. We had a number of plastic items in the bags that got broken or cracked, and therefore were rendered useless. Fortunately this happened on the homeward journey, so we weren't without those things while we travelled.

On our most recent trip we learned that one bag/carry-on/cabin luggage only is the way to go!! I also decided that I would prefer not to have a bag with wheels, though my husband still prefers wheels on his.

So for our next trip, we will certainly take some things off our packing list - at least one of the car seats, for example - and add new things on. We learn a little more each time, and I'm constantly searching forums, blogs etc for new ideas.

So if you've never tried one-bagging before, don't expect that the first time you do it, your packing list will be perfect. We'll be trying to shave off a little more weight and a little more bulk each time.

But you have to start somewhere!

Sleeping with a washing machine

2009-04-04T06:38:00.000+11:00

We've mentioned before that sometimes it is unfortunately unavoidable that you have to share a bed with your children. I know that some people do this out of personal preference, but we are not included among that number.

Wherever possible we try to arrange it so that we can have a double/queen bed for the adults and the children have either a double to share or a single bed each. When the kids have to share a bed, we have topped and tailed them so that they are each using a different part of the bed (and get in each other's way less). This seems to work better than having them both with their heads up one end, because one of our children is a washing machine when it comes to sleeping...

Once, in Portugal it happened that we could only get two separate non-connecting rooms, with a double/queen size bed in each. That meant that we had to have a parent and a child sharing each bed (we didn't feel safe leaving our kids in a room without us). One of us therefore had to draw a short straw and share with The Washing Machine.

It wasn't me...

[...and here John butts in for a minute: I had just driven for six hours and was extremely tired so I didn't need what was coming next...]

John was woken in the middle of the night by Bendy who was sitting up, trying to pull the pillow out from under his head. She said she wanted her pillow back. John pointed out to her that it was his pillow, and hers was where she had left it. She doesn't always bother with sleeping parallel to the sides of the bed, with her head helpfully resting on the pillow. On this occasion as for many others, she was actually sleeping across the bed, and had therefore lost track of her pillow. John had been pushed, kicked and pummelled for much of the night by her feet, as she lay across the bed. Needless to say, he didn't get a really satisfying night's sleep.

So, sure, if your children are a little more passive than ours are in bed, by all means co-sleep with them if you are that way inclined. However don't be surprised if we choose not to.

kiddie leashes

2009-04-03T06:41:00.000+11:00

Look, some people love them, others hate them. I think most people fall into one of the two camps. Child leashes seem to polarise people. I think its because the people that hate them can't understand why you would want to treat your child like a dog, but the people that love them realise how valuable they can be at keeping ultra-adventurous kids from running off.

Personally I don't much like the look of a child on a leash, however, when we were first thinking of taking Bendy on her first overseas trip, we wondered whether it would be a good idea to have one. The Bookworm is a very compliant child, and if you tell her not to do something, she will comply. Bendy, however, likes to see what she can get away with. For her, we wondered whether a leash might be really useful in busy places like airports and on New York sidewalks.

At the time, I only knew of the sort of leash that is just a harness. I don't like the look of them, and I can't imagine a kid does either. So I thought about how I could make a leash a little more inviting and even desirable to a child. I decided to make a harness with a built in tulle skirt with sparkly sequins sewn onto it. For a little girl I hoped that this might make it more desirable. It did. We tried it out at the shops with Bendy before we went on our trip. She did like it (a bit). However, by the time our trip came, we realised that she really didn't need it, so I don't think we even ended up taking it with us.

My nephew though, has a backpack type leash that he loves. The backpack is in the shape of a dog, and he calls it Scrufty (I think this is the name of Bob the Builder's dog) and he loved it. He no longer needs it as he has matured. But it was really useful when he was younger.

Its in the same style as the one pictured at the top of the post. I had a look on Amazon, and there's actually a large range of different animals that you can have: a lion, a horse, a panda, a pink poodle, a cow, a giraffe, a monkey, a koala, a lamb, a frog, and even a unicorn. And then there's a range of Disney characters including Piglet, Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Pluto (who looks like his neck is broken - nice touch!), Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Pretty much something for all tastes... So they are quite a bit more palatable (for the adults) and desirable (for the kids) than the plain harness type (which are also still available) I used to see when I was younger.

For travelling with kids, they can give peace of mind. Though you'll have to ignore the dirty looks that people who find them offensive might give you! For me, I don't think I'd care what other people thought if I felt it was going to keep my child safer than without.

another reason to travel with one bag

2009-04-02T06:50:00.001+11:00

Earlier this week Qantas workers went on strike for about 4 hours at various domestic and international airports across Australia. This meant that no baggage was loaded until the strike was over. It held up flights and got many people extremely annoyed.

Apparently people eventually got moving by leaving without their luggage. The luggage was to follow on later flights. What an absolute pain! You'd really be wondering if it would actually turn up.

Hmm... I can't help but think that if you only have one bag that doesn't need to be checked, there wouldn't be that problem. You'd still have the inconvenience of delayed flights, but at least you'd know where your stuff was.

Choosing a hotel with kids in mind

2009-04-01T06:21:00.001+11:00

When we travel with our kids, we want to make sure that the place we are staying will add to our experience, not detract from it. That said, however, we don't really spend much time in our hotel room because we are out sightseeing, so we don't feel that the accommodation has to be particularly fabulous. But there have been a few places we have stayed that thinking back, they make my skin crawl...

So how do you choose a hotel, particularly with kids in mind?

First we consider what we are after:

We like budget hotels, that have rooms large enough to hold all four members of our family. On occasions we have had to settle for two separate rooms with no adjoining doors, with one adult and a kid in each room sharing a bed (less than desirable for us, because for one adult, its like sleeping in a washing machine). Where you can have adjoining doors, this is so much better, as it becomes more like a two room apartment - adults in one, kids in the other.

We don't need all the mod cons, just a clean, reasonably quiet room, with a functioning and clean bathroom with hot water.

On previous trips when our kids were younger, we needed a cot supplied. We don't anymore, and you can always take your small size portacot with you if you prefer (we've done that too!).

We like to stay fairly centrally located in a city, so that we can easily walk (or catch trains etc) to a good number of the places that we want to visit. You may choose to stay further out of town for a cheaper price, and travel in each day to see the sights, but we prefer to pay more and travel less.

If there's an old town, then often we like to stay there for the atmosphere that it gives. Don't expect the small hotels in these places to have large or interconnecting rooms. The buildings may have been there a very long time, and not be purpose-built as hotels. However, for the ambience of the old towns, we put up with such inconveniences when necessary.

Sometimes we like breakfast included, but sometimes that's just a big rip-off! You can usually self-cater breakfast for much cheaper, but when you've just arrived in a town and haven't had time to check out the lay of the land to find somewhere that you'll be able to source some breakfast, there are times when it is easier to just cough up for the in-house breakfast.

We have found hotels in the following ways:

through brochures at our travel agents

online through sites such as Hotels Combined

through our travel agent's online contacts

chain hotel websites

Choosing a hotel through online sites can be a bit dicey sometimes. There have been times when there's just been this niggling doubt in my head that perhaps the website is just a front, and the hotel doesn't exist at all? Maybe that's just being paranoid, but it is a thought that has entered my head on occasion. I mean, what could be worse than turning up in a foreign city where you don't speak the language, with kids and luggage in tow, and finding that your accommodation doesn't even exist? Thankfully, that's not been something we've ever needed to deal with!

We did turn up once outside the vacant lot that was supposed to contain our hotel. It turned out though, that someone had gotten the address wrong. On finding the correct address, there was a sizeable hotel there, to our relief!

We have chosen our accommodation solely over the internet, and (gulp!) even prepaid, and arrived to find that the hotel was certainly there, the room was just lovely, it was clean, quiet and functional, and the hotel was well located. A good experience all round, and it was much cheaper than anything that we saw in that city in the travel agent brochures. I found our hotel in Paris, using this method, and it (the search and then also the stay!) was great!

However, when you choose your hotel, don't choose it solely on the basis of the photo in the brochure or on the website. Chances are, the room that they are showing you is one of their best rooms, and you may not be getting one that has been so recently redecorated or even cleaned!

After fruitlessly online searching for a place to stay in the countryside in Portugal, we went grovelling to our travel agent. We had tried online searching using town names from the region, and "accommodation" or "hotel" type terms; we had tried using some of the conglomerate hotel search websites; and had tried chain hotel websites for anything in the region, each with no success. Our travel agent eventually found us a homestay type place (Quinta Princesa do Pinhal), using some of her online contacts (she made no commission on the booking, so it was very good of her to do this for us, but then we had spent a lot of other money with her!). It was a self-catering apartment within a house, and the owner was thrilled to have her first Australian visitors!

When we are looking for a hotel, we generally go for 2 to 3 star establishments. For us, these usually offer us good enough facilities for the money we are paying. In the past we have also looked at hostel accommodation, but for the locations we were looking at, none of the hostels would accept children as young as ours. We would look at this again for future trips, as our children are getting older all the time (aren't we all?).

Before travelling for the first time with our young kids, we did wonder what we would do at night, when they had gone to bed, but we didn't yet want to also be asleep. When you only have one room, lights on for the adults can be a bit distracting for little kids.

We have found a number of ways around this: we once rearranged the room to put some lounge chairs and a lamp in the luggage alcove, so that we could sit and read and write in our diaries after they'd gone to bed. We have also put on only a pale bed lamp so as not to be too distracting. And then, if worst comes to worst, you can always sit in the bathroom - we haven't had to resort to this yet. I seem to remember my brother in law and sister in law once put their young baby in the wardrobe (with door slightly ajar for breathing) at night so that she could sleep in darkness, without them bothering her. There ARE ways around these things - you just have to be creative!

Of course, our most kids-in-mind hotel that we have ever stayed at, would have to be Disneyland's Hollywood Hotel in Hong Kong. It was like one big 24 hour Disney-fest! The rooms were decorated with Disney paraphernalia, and it overlooked the Disneyland Park. The dining room where we had breakfast was completely Mickey and Minnie themed, even down to the waffles, which were Mickey Mouse shaped. The kids had an absolute ball, and were so excited to be staying there. Yes, it cost an arm and a leg, but it was definitely chosen with the kids in mind, as their very own special part of the holiday.

Types of kid-friendly accommodation

2009-03-31T06:34:00.002+11:00

There are many different options for types of accommodation when travelling with kids.

hotels (boutique or chain)
B & Bs
motels
caravan parks
apartments (serviced or unserviced)
campervan or motorhome
hostels
tents
home- and farm-stays
house swaps
staying with relatives or friends
resorts

Wherever you stay, regardless of the type of accommodation, if you have very young kids (babies or toddlers) you will probably want to do a quick initial reconaissance of the room to move or remove anything that is likely to be either hazardous, breakable or hideable (thinking TV remotes here!) before you let your child loose in the room.

And its always worth remembering that wherever you stay, your kids need to be taught to respect the property of others and the needs of others (like keeping the noise down for the sake of other nearby guests). It is a fact of life that most kids are varying degrees of self-centred, and most need reminding.

Now, let's go through each list item separately to work out the good and bad points.

Hotels - boutique or chain
Hotels are often the most easy form of accommodation to find. They come in large and small, expensive and cheap and everything in between. For kid-friendliness, hotels can offer cots (usually at no extra cost or for only a small charge), high chairs in dining rooms, and sometimes extra facilities like pools. Sometimes hotels will offer child-minding facilities so that you can have a night out without them, but personally, this goes against all my feelings about *family* holidays.

Small family run, boutique hotels can offer excellent service as the family that runs them usually wants to retain their customer base! Larger chain hotels are often less personable, but you if you've stayed in that chain before you'll know the level of service, cleanliness and facilities that you're likely to get. Its like McDonalds food - you know what you're likely to get, even if you're on the other side of the world.

B & Bs - Bed and breakfasts
Bed and breakfasts are common in some countries. They offer you the chance to stay in a home and have a room and breakfast provided for you. It is a lovely way to feel like you are "mixing with the natives".

However, if you have touchy feely sorts of children who love to explore their surroundings primarily by touch, then some B & Bs won't be for you! I know that some of the B & Bs that we have stayed in would not be suitable for my child who is a toucher. I just wouldn't feel safe with her in that sort of environment with ornaments and personal belongings that could be broken. However, with our non-touch child, we have stayed at some lovely B & Bs that were extremely welcoming of children. One even gave her a soft toy to help her remember her stay there. And many cultures do value children very highly and love to have children staying in their homes.

There is no guarantee of the quality of the breakfast you are likely to get. One place we stayed, the only drink we got for breakfast was a single shot glass of orange juice each. On the other hand, at one place we were welcomed with freshly baked cake at 8pm on our arrival. In Belfast we stayed with a lovely couple who gave us excellent recommendations for a dinner eatery, and were so thrilled to be able to add Sydney (our home town) to their map of guest's origins. You can get really stingy at some of these places, but most people are just terribly welcoming and generous. You can tell the difference between the people who did it for a job, and those who do it because they love people...

Motels
Motels are unique to a few countries. Rather than a large block of rooms in a multistorey building, motels are more likely to be long, sprawling establishments with individual rooms all adjoining side by side. They usually offer a basic room with ensuite. Some have restaurants where meals are served. Family rooms will often have bunk beds for the kids, which some kids are not used to using (I'm thinking of toilet stops in the middle of the night) but find incredibly exciting ("I want the top bunk!!"). Motels are usually basic but serviceable.

Caravan parks
Caravan parks can offer a range of accommodation types: your own caravan or campervan (see below), your own tent, or onsite cabins or onsite caravans. If you have your own van or tent, caravan parks can be quite cheap. At most parks you share laundry, toilets and showering facilities. Onsite vans sometimes have ensuites, and cabins usually do. Your own van, onsite vans and cabins usually have kitchen facilities, meaning that you can easily self-cater. With tents you have to bring your own kitchen facilities, but some parks have barbeque facilities.

Caravan parks often have play areas for kids, which can be an excellent place to send them while you try to erect your tent, or get set up. And some also have pools. In some parks, with longer stays, the kids may have the chance to make friends with other children also staying there, which can be great for some cross cultural friendships, and just regular child to child interaction.

I do remember staying in an onsite van when I was little and the bedding was all covered in vinyl. It had been cleaned with some really over-smelly cleaning product, and I can remember it really stopped me from going to sleep! But most wouldn't be like that!

Another point to consider is that if it is raining and or cold, caravan parks can be miserable places...

Apartments - serviced or non-serviced
Apartments are basically like hotels except that they often have kitchenettes and maybe a suite of rooms rather than just the one room. Serviced apartments are more likely to be serviced less often than a hotel, but if you remember to hang up your towel (and that's not too much to ask, is it?) then there should be no problem with that. Apartments are usually available for longer stays than hotels (you'd probably find it hard to get one for just a night). The self-catering aspect is a definite plus, in my books, and the fact that with a few rooms you don't have to be living in each others' pockets all the time is a definite winner.

Campervans or motorhomes
For longer term travel, campervans and motorhomes are often regarded as the way to go. Some people buy their campervan at the beginning of a several month trip, planning to sell it at the end. They can also be hired. Campervans mean that you can take your accommodation with you. Some places you may be able to just stop by the side of the road, but most times you will be better off and safer finding a caravan park to stay in.

With a campervan, everything is with you all the time. This has its good points and bad points: good is that everything is with you, bad is that you have to take everything with you wherever you go, and let's face it, for a family size vehicle, they are usually large truck-ish size, and that adds to the petrol/gas bill when you have to lug it and all your belongings around in it all the time. It can be harder to park and to manoeuvre than a smaller vehicle. You also will be living in each others' pockets - you'll be eating, sleeping, and travelling in the same confined space all the time. But, it can be much cheaper and easier than hotelling it.

Hostels
Youth hostels are a cheap and affordable option. Despite the name "youth" being attached to them, these establishments are more and more catering for families and people who don't actually fit into the young-adult type category that they have typically catered for. They often have family rooms available - its not just dormitory style accommodation anymore.

We have not actually tried this sort of accommodation yet, because the places we have stayed that have had hostels did not accept children as young as ours. I believe that that is not the case in all hostels though. They can be a great way to meet other travellers, and if your kids love being with people, what better could there be?

Tents
This is listed separately than caravan parks, as you can use tents in lots of other places. If you're a "get off the beaten track" type family, a tent will allow you to do this. You can go into national parks and out into nature. For many kids, going camping in a tent is a really, really exciting prospect. (Some parents don't seem to agree though...)

If you stay in a caravan park, powered or unpowered sites can be very economical, and if you're in a National Park, you may need a camping permit, and maybe pay a per night tariff, but its still a very very affordable way to travel. The bad points: rain, cold, snow etc.

And one incident that does spring to mind was camping with some friends on the NSW (Australia) Central Coast, just near a beach. In the morning we woke up to find a funnel web spider (highly highly poisonous, dangerous Australian spider) on the far side of the tent - meaning, further away from the door than we were... yes, it had to crawl past us or over us to get to where it was... It makes me shiver just thinking about it. But the moral of the story is that tenting is a great way to get close to nature! Maybe too close?

Home- and farm-stays
Homestays and farmstays can be a great way to experience a different way of life or culture. We once stayed on a farm in the south of England. The Bookworm had her first up close and personal encounter with a very loudly honking goose! We also stayed at a farm north of London that had THE best bacon we have ever eaten - it will go down in history for us!

Homestays can be an excellent way to experience everyday life in another culture. While it may be difficult to find homestays for a whole family (because of the number of extra beds needed), its great for seeing how other people live, and joining in with them. It can lead to trying new and authentic regional foods, and learning about other cultures.

House swaps
House swaps are where two homes are traded for a certain period of time. Families can stay at someone else's home, while the someone elses stay in the other family's home. Whatever the other family has in their home is usually yours to use for the time that you are there. That sometimes even includes a car.

If you're ok with someone that you don't know staying in your home (and remember you'll be staying in theirs, so the element of exchange usually tempers and wards off any antisocial behaviour) then this can be a great way to find accommodation. Usually the only cost involved is signing up for one of the many home-swapping websites or organisations. All manner of homes are swapped - so even if yours isn't the most flash or luxurious house, that won't be a problem.

If they don't have cots/high chairs etc and you need them for your youngsters, they may be able to borrow some for your stay or you could hire some from a local baby goods hire company.

Staying with relatives or friends
If you've got long-lost relatives or friends that you can possibly impinge on and obtain the offer of enough beds for the whole family, go for it! Its cheap, and can be a great way to see them for the first time in ages or for some, even for the very first time ever. Be good house guests though, and don't overstay your welcome or abuse the friendship! You may even score a free guided tour (with your hosts) of your destination. Again, if your hosts do not have the baby stuff that you need, it could be borrowed or hired.

Resorts
Resorts most often offer hotel-style accommodation, with serviced rooms. They usually have excellent facilities with extra activities etc. Some are very kid-friendly with children's programs - but personally, if its a family holiday, I'd prefer to actually be spending time with my kids, not have them shipped off to some kiddie program! But, there can also be sporting activities, tours, pools, games etc that can be fun for the whole family.

I'm sure there are other types of accommodation that I haven't included, but that's a pretty good list of alternatives so that you can start to plan for your next trip away with the kids.

Alternatives to money belts

2009-03-30T06:02:00.000+11:00

Money belts are useful for carrying valuables that you don't need to access regularly, such as passports, larger stashes of cash, alternative credit cards etc. Some of the alternatives we have seen include:

extra internal pockets in clothing
wrist wallets
singlet vests with pockets
socks with hidden zip pockets
clothing belt with hidden zipper pockets

Not all of these, in our opinion, serve as useful a function as money belts/pouches - but they are certainly worth considering depending on what you need them for. The idea of putting a passport into a wrist wallet is just silly, but the idea of having additional internal pockets in clothing is a potential solution if you have sewing skills.

I found that for small, regularly used items (e.g. credit card, small change, transport tickets etc.), a discreet zippered pocket in my shirt was the best place to store things. One shirt had a pocket in the side seam at waist level which was invisible unless you knew to look for it. It was great for ease of access as well as for security of valuables.

Extra internal pockets in clothing

Yvette came across the Instructables website which contains instructions on how to add extra internal pockets into clothing. Personally, I think this is the best option out of all of these alternatives to money belts, however it only works if your clothing already has pockets! And you also need reasonable sewing skills. The advantages include being able to make internal pockets to suit your needs - whether you only need small ones for credit cards etc., or one large enough to stash a passport.

Wrist wallets

By "wrist wallet" I do not mean a wallet with a wrist strap. I mean a cuff-like object which has a zip pocket inside it. Here's a link to one variety so you can see what we mean. I like the idea of storing the car keys that way, though not having done it before, it might seem a bit weird at first - and maybe too lumpy. Looks like a great idea for going to the beach or other outdoor environments. If you have the right sort of contents, it wouldn't matter if the whole thing were immersed in water. Here in Australia, our banknotes are polymer so they won't disintegrate if you happen to go for a swim. Metal coins ditto. Credit cards ditto. Keys ditto - but you can't have the automatic battery-operated door opening devices: they'll be ruined.

Obviously you can't fit your passport inside it, and it might look a little dorky in summer, but could easily be covered by a sleeve in winter. It may also be a bit too visible and hence attract muggers. You could also wear them around your ankle to minimise visibility - especially under trousers or socks.

Singlet vests with pockets
This means "undershirt" not singlet tops as outerwear. Envisage a singlet top (tank top / vest) with a velcro or zipper pocket. Here's a link to a ladies' version.

Socks with hidden zip pockets and Clothing belt with hidden zipper pockets are a couple of other possibilities. Here are a couple of examples of Ladies' and Men's Zip It Sox which have pockets sufficiently large to take even a passport. These would be obviously not much use if it were too hot to wear socks. Another possibility is the "ordinary" clothing belt with a cleverly hidden zipper pocket. Not great for travel documents or passports, I wouldn't think. You'd need a cummerbund for that - perhaps a bit overdressed for the beach?

Without having tested each of these options, my personal preference is for hidden pockets in clothing, maybe in conjunction with a wrist wallet. We'll have to give them a go sometime.

Favourite travel items (not!): money belts

2009-03-29T06:44:00.000+11:00

Money belts are a practical, possibly essential item when travelling. Yvette and I took different varieties of money belts on our most recent trip.

I had one of those that hang from your neck and tuck underneath your clothing. I chose this variety because I was doing all of the driving and did not want the discomfort of having a money belt wrapped around my waist all the time. The one I chose was spacious enough for 2 passports, tickets (e.g. train tickets), cash and a few other bits and pieces without being too bulky.

Yvette had a waist money belt, and she was able to fit much the same sorts of contents in it. We each had our own passport plus one of the kids' ones so that if something happened to one money belt we didn't lose all four at once!

Problems emerged within days of setting out. The cord on my money pouch had a toggle thingy with a small spring inside it so that the length of the cord could be adjusted. The spring snagged on the cord and almost shredded it completely through - before we'd even reached a destination. We had to take the toggle off and tied a knot in the cord at the required length to make do.

Yvette's developed a hole, caused by wear from the corners of the passports within a week of use. Luckily she can sew - because no matter how much she kept closing up the hole the passports would soon open a new one. Money fell out at one stage - luckily we probably only lost a few euro coins, but it was annoying all the same. The passports seemed to be putting too much pressure on the fabric seams and they kept separating.

While in Spain we encountered very hot weather. Yvette found that her money belt became irritating against her skin, making her itchy and sweaty. It was heavenly relief to take it off when we got back to our room! My money pouch wasn't so bad in terms of irritating skin, but it is more annoying to access when you need to, and it does hang like a lump around your neck. If you let it hang loose under your top layer it tended to swing back and forth, so I found that I had to tuck it into the waistband of my pants to keep it still.

Personally, both the money belt and the money pouch needed a better design. They are safer than having a more easily accessible wallet or handbag, and they are designed to carry slightly larger items like passports, but they were not a huge success. We will be investigating alternatives for the next trip.

Favourite places we've visited: Western Plains Zoo

2009-03-28T06:18:00.000+11:00

We had the opportunity to visit several towns in western New South Wales, Australia, two years ago and spent a couple of days in Dubbo - a large regional centre. The prime attraction (but by no means the only one!) is just out of town: Western Plains Zoo. Western Plains is a large, open range zoo in which it is possible to see the exhibited wildlife on foot, by car or by bicycle (which can be hired at the zoo).

This zoo is involved in a large number of animal conservation projects - from tigers, to rhinos, birds to primates. We discovered that the zoo is open very early in the morning for guided walks, hosted by volunteers from the Friends of Western Plains Zoo. These walks take you behind the scenes to some of the night enclosures, and also give you the chance to see things like feeding up close. The early morning walks cost extra on top of the daily admission ticket, but it is well worth it. It was difficult getting up at the crack of dawn to get out to the zoo (and have the kids organised!) but what a great time we had! Click here for the early morning walks website (it's really difficult to find just by browsing from the Zoo web page!)

Bendy went berserk over seeing the giraffes (her then-favourite animal). She nearly popped out of her skin with excitement - AND we got to see them being fed up close. She also nearly went mad over the camels (though we don't really know why - she'd never shown much interest in them before, or since...). The guide we had was excellent. She was fun, knowledgeable, and friendly - willing to answer questions, pick up the kids for a closer look etc. We had a look through the rhinoceros night yards, amazed to see so many of these critically endangered creatures in one place. The only animal we really couldn't see were the zebras - they were in quarantine due to an outbreak of equine influenza in Australia that brought any horse-related businesses to a standstill.

The tour went for a couple of hours, and was over just prior to the main zoo gates opening for general admission. While there were lots of people (in small groups) doing the early morning guided tours, it felt as if we had the place to ourselves. We spent most of the rest of the day exploring the zoo to its full extent (the tour doesn't cover everything!) and it was a great opportunity for our kids to see endangered species (both exotic and native) in a somewhat natural habitat. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we wandered at our leisure around the zoo, chatting about the animals, about conservation and appreciating the magnificent diversity of the natural world. We caught the hippopotamus talk and feed (a daily event, not part of the early morning tour) which was fantastic, and had the kids gripped throughout.

We highly recommend the early morning walks at Western Plains Zoo! Next time - which might be a while away - I'd consider staying at the Zoofari Lodge and have the whole wildlife-at-night experience as well.

The things kids say!

2009-03-27T07:57:00.000+11:00

One of the main points behind overseas travel is to experience places quite different from home. Travel to Europe (and other places) allows a brush with certain significant historical periods simply not available in real life in Australia. Take the Roman Empire, for instance. The largest and most powerful political entity in its heyday - but it completely bypassed Australia.

So when we go to Europe, we sometimes visit ruins (Roman or otherwise). This gives US a connection with a distant history (physically and temporally) and also brings it to life for the kids. On our last trip, we took the opportunity to visit the Roman ruins at Conimbriga, Portugal; the Iron Age settlement of Citania de Briteiros, Portugal; the Moorish city of Medina al-Zahara, Spain and the Roman city of Italica, Spain.

You do have to be careful what you say to your kids, and how you say it, because everywhere we went Bendy would walk around the sites loudly declaiming about just how much the Romans had ruined it (whether or not the Romans had ever been there!). "Roman Ruins" transformed into "The Romans Ruined It"!

Waterproof versus water repellant

2009-03-26T06:48:00.001+11:00

I've had a question from one of our readers about the difference between waterproof and water repellant fabrics, so that she could figure out what to use to make some travel clothing for her kids.

I tried writing about this and found myself wandering round and round in circles getting myself more and more confused. So instead I'll send to you someone whose knowledge I really respect: Roger Caffin, at www.bushwalking.org.au.

You can find really in depth, thoughtful information on the following page (with lots of links to more pages):
http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/FAQ_Rainwear.htm

Sorry, I tried to do it myself, but why reinvent the wheel?

Favourite places we've visited: San Gimignano

2009-03-25T06:50:00.002+11:00

It is with some trepidation that I start a new series of posts about our favourite places to visit - they might just become too popular and lose some of their charm. However, here goes.

Top of our list is San Gimignano, Italy. What a beautiful place this is. We came upon it almost by accident - we were looking for a place in Tuscany when our travel agent suggested San Gimignano. Following that recommendation was one of the best things I have done, travel-wise.

For starters, it is World Heritage listed: and that generally means quality or significance. The whole town dates from the middle ages, and is picturesque in every way. The countryside around is filled with vineyards and fields of sunflowers, and the town is perched on the crest of a hill overlooking it all. All the stereotypical features are perfectly exhibited in San Gimignano: narrow, winding cobbled streets; rough, rustic stone buildings, NO CARS (must be kept parked in a hotel garage or outside the town walls), and a very slow, easy pace. There is a couple of tiny but exceptional museums, beautiful churches, town squares, discreet souvenir shops (restricted to one street, where most of the tourists on day-trip coaches congregate), and good restaurants.

We stayed in the Hotel Leon Bianco, and had a room overlooking the square. One morning, Yvette opened the shutters and watched the town wake up. The smell of freshly baked bread and brewing coffee mingled with the quietness in the air to create one of those indefinable but memorable moments. The day before, as we wandered across one of the squares, we became aware that the noise level had dropped, and that everyone seemed to be walking quietly. There was a harpist in the shade of the arcade at the side of the square playing exquisitely wonderful music, and anyone who could hear it seemed to show the utmost respect and gratitude for the intangible gift of music. We listened for a while, then crept off to our museum destination carrying with us something extra we hadn't brought with us.

Another time, we climbed to the top of the tallest tower (there used to be 72 of them!) to look out over the town and surrounding Tuscan countryside. Wherever we went in San Gimignano it seemed as if there were a thousand tiny treasures waiting to be revealed. Time stood still, but of course it raced by all too quickly.

Of course, the whole driving experience was accentuated in this hill town. I had never driven a car with a manual transmission until I got to Italy. I learned pretty quickly (though not very well) how to basically propel the care in a forwards direction. Once it was underway I was OK, but if I stopped for ANYTHING (toll gates, traffic lights etc.) then it could take me quite a while to get going again. I think the expression is "bunny-hopping"... Well, I did more than my fair share of that in San Gimignano! The 'no cars' rule is strictly adhered to. You can ONLY drive into town to drop of luggage at your hotel. You must then either leave your car in the hotel garage or take it back outside the walls. Our hotel had a garage - and quite frankly I didn't care how much they were charging me for using it, as driving that manual car was very frustrating.

There is one set of traffic lights in San Gimignano. Because the streets are so narrow, it allows a free flow of cars in both directions by alternating which direction has the right of way. I stopped at those lights. I finally got going again after SEVENTEEN changes of lights (surely a record!). It was a pleasure to use the garage! In the morning the hotel staff got the car out for me and I could go forwards again quite happily. On our last morning, however, they got me to reverse out. I'd never reversed at all until then, and wasn't sure I could do it. The garage was little wider than the car - so my room to manoeuvre was severely limited - but I did it (eventually).

San Gimingano had a great mix of culture, history, size, ambience and memories. It is one of the best places we've ever visited. I'll never forget that experience, and I'll never again hire a manual car.

5 top items for travelling kids

2009-03-24T06:17:00.002+11:00

These are our top 5 suggestions for what to take for your travelling kids. Some are for fun, some are for comfort, some are for safety.

A hat. Protect your kid's precious skin from the sun by taking a hat for them to wear. This doesn't just apply to sunny places, as UV rays can make it through clouds.

Sunscreen. Hats don't cover everything, so use sunscreen also.

A special (small) toy. Travelling can be unsettling for kids. They don't have their usual routine, they don't have their usual surroundings, and sometimes apart from their family, they don't even have their usual language. By taking a small special toy, the child will be able to take with them something that is special and familiar. (You'll need to keep a good watch on it though, because it would be disastrous to lose their favourite toy.)

A small bag for them to carry at least some of their own stuff. Even small kids can have a light backpack with a piece of warm clothing, a snack or a small drink. Kids love to be helpers, so why not encourage them to help with carrying a few small things. As they get older, they can carry a bit more. We're not trying to make them packhorses, just to share a little of the load. NB: This is for day tripping, not as their actual luggage.

A surprise pack for the journey. This is a parcel of things that the parents put together as a surprise for the child. It could include a couple of reading or picture books that you'll know that they love, a sticker book, a colouring book, some coloured pencils, a small quiet game etc. The idea is to present it to your child at the beginning of the journey (plane, car, train etc) so that they can keep themselves occupied with new and exciting things as you travel. It does not need to be expensive to put together - you can pick up a lot of these sorts of things at discount shops. It could be parcelled up in a special cloth bag, or even just a paper bag with their name written on it in large happy letters!

If the kids are happy, it means that you can all be enjoying travel with kids!

The cheese incident...

2009-03-23T06:14:00.000+11:00

OK, so I mentioned a cheese incident in the last post. Let's just state from the outset that I love cheese. I am especially partial to Brie - and triple cream if at all possible, though any sort will be just fine. Our trip to Tahiti was the first time I'd set foot on (notionally) French soil since going to New Caledonia as a teenager. We got it into our heads that it would be nice to track down some real French cheese. So we took ourselves off for a walk and about 20 minutes later came across a little shopping centre with a handful of shops which included a supermarket-and-variety store all in one called Carrefour.

It was a teensy bit run down - a kind of slow, nonchalant carelessness about it. What it did have, however, was a HUGE cheese section which stretched for metres and metres down the centre of the store. Mmmmm! Cheese heaven. I had so much choice! And it was ALL imported from France! It was impossible to know where to start. Yvette left me to it - she couldn't cope with the overload! - and went in search of fresh fruit. I read labels, tried to do quick exchange rates in my head (didn't work, but it made me feel better) and bought a wedge of the creamiest, sloppiest authentic Brie.

We took it back to the hotel and relished the fantastic flavour as we sloooowly nibbled our little cheesy treasure. We wrapped the remainder for the next day, and popped it into the bar fridge. When it came to the next afternoon, we sought out our cheese and found that housekeeping had removed it from the fridge and disposed of it. QUELLE HORREUR!!! I had a fit there and then! How could they do that! Barbarians!

I most certainly went, with my pleasantest smile and determination, to the concierge and lodged a complaint - which needed resolving immediately as we were preparing to leave for the airport. The concierge was most understanding, and said he'd see what he could do. I went back to our room frustrated and despondent at being robbed of my little pleasure.

A while later, there was a knock on the door. Before us stood one of the hotel staff, bearing an apology and a plate from the kitchen with a HUGE quantity of Brie and several bread rolls. Would that suffice? Certainly it would - and it did! Thank you. It turned out to be a much finer cheese than the one we'd lost, so we enjoyed Brie rolls at the airport at midnight.

There was so much Brie we couldn't possibly eat it all without actually becoming ill, so we wrapped it up and took it onto the flight with us. We did eat more on the way to Sydney, but were still left with a sizeable wedge as we approached those friendly souls at Customs and Quarantine. Australia has some of the strictest quarantine laws in the world, but we thought we'd give it a go.

We declared it (of course - stupid not to! Getting caught was NOT something we wanted to do over a wedge of cheese, no matter how good!). The woman who served us was most apologetic about having to confiscate the cheese - but completely understood that we might want to keep it. Who knows? They might have let us keep it (delusional, aren't we?)... We were OK with letting it go - it was obvious we had to - we'd had rather a lot already.

When we finally did get to Paris, we sourced a fromagerie and stocked up on more Brie. You might have to do what the Romans do in Rome, but in France you HAVE to eat their cheese! And they go ever so nicely with fresh baguettes...

The lost bag episode...

2009-03-22T07:00:00.001+11:00

For our trip to the US, Yvette made a travel bag for each of the kids to take onto the plane. In it there was a selection of storybooks, activity books, pencils etc. The Bookworm's bag was hot pink, and Bendy's luminous lime green: deliberately done so that they were easily identifiable and not easily overlooked.

However... on our return trip from New York, we occupied the two seats adjacent to the window in the last 2 rows of the plane. I was with The Bookworm, and Yvette with Bendy. Our flight was delayed in New York due to a storm, and as it was underbooked, it was diverted to Los Angeles to collect more passengers instead of flying direct to Papeete in Tahiti. So the flight was several hours longer than expected, and we arrived in Papeete at about 2am. We were exhausted, and the kids were too - though both had slept on the journey.

We checked into our hotel and had a lovely relaxing two days thankyou very much, looking out over the coral-fringed lagoon towards Moorea. All the more enjoyable knowing that my work colleagues were at a boring conference and I was on a South Pacific Island.

Our departing flight left Papeete at about midnight. We had the kids take an early nap while we packed our stuff. I was out dealing with a frustrating cheese emergency (maybe a later blog post) when Yvette was overcome with a nasty sinking feeling. She searched everywhere for Bendy's green bag, but it was nowhere to be found. We scratched our heads to think of the last time we'd seen it, and Yvette came to the sick realisation that she had tucked it under the back seat of the aircraft prior to arrival and left it there.

Bendy hadn't missed it yet, and we couldn't tell her just yet with more than 8 hours travel to go. We rang the airline in Tahiti - nothing handed in or found - and also enquired at the airport when we were checking in. There was absolutely NOTHING identifying the bag as ours - no luggage tags, name etc. because we expected to always have it in our possession. That made it even more difficult to describe to airline staff. We were really, really hoping that the lime green colour would make all the difference. We were told to check the luggage claim in Sydney, as that was the destination of our original flight. No luck there either.

I went around to the lost luggage office and filled out the paperwork, not really holding out much hope for ever seeing the bag or the $150 worth of books it contained (some of which were gifts).

About a week later, Yvette received a call from the lost luggage office at Sydney airport. The bag had been found, and would we like to come and collect it? It made Yvette's day! The following weekend we paid the exorbitant parking fee and went and collected it. We had to go to the storage area where the lost and severely damaged baggage is held, and it was a real eye-opener. We've had checked luggage damaged before, but some of the bags we saw were literally smashed to pieces. It was quite a shock - luggage is not cheap!

Well, the bag was safely returned to Bendy, who was overjoyed to see it, and we learned a few lessons ourselves: know where all your belongings are before you exit a plane; label ALL luggage, even if it is going to be with you all the time; and travel only with carry-on luggage if possible; make sure you luggage is distinctive - the lime green colour saved us; and to avoid being the owner of one of those smashed up bags.

Favourite travel memories: Chaarming!

2009-03-21T07:36:00.000+11:00

It was a warmish day at Conimbriga, which is one of the Roman ruins sites in Portugal. We arrived around lunchtime. We sat on a bench in the shade of a tree to eat our lunch.

Sitting there, quietly enjoying our lunch and the surroundings, Bendy (aged 4) suddenly turned to The Bookworm and said, with airs, graces and put-on posh accent, "Bookworm, its chaarming having you here with me!"

We fell about laughing. No idea what brought that on!

shoes for travelling

2009-03-20T06:08:00.001+11:00

IF you can get away with it, take only one pair of shoes, and wear them on your feet! This will reduce bulk and weight in your luggage. It may be though, that you have to take more than one pair. If this is the case, if at all possible, wear the larger and heavier pair on the plane so that you have to carry less in your luggage.

Tips for travel shoes:

Only take comfortable shoes. If they're not comfy at home, they won't be on holidays either.

If they are new shoes, wear them in so that you are used to them before you go. Blisters and travelling are not fun!

Choose shoes that are culturally appropriate. Even though joggers/trainers etc can be comfortable, in some places they are considered too casual.

Ladies, DON'T wear high heels for sightseeing. Surely that is common sense, but apparently not...

In some airports you have to take your shoes of for x-ray screening. Shoes that are easily removed and put back on again are advantageous in such circumstances

Any other decisions will likely be based on the weather you're likely to encounter. For hot weather, wear shoes that keep your feet cool, and allow any sweat to dry easily.

If you're going to need to dress up, say on a cruise, you'll need to consider which shoes will be dressy enough. If you can manage dressy, comfortable shoes that can do your whole trip, great! Otherwise, this is a case where you might need to pack an extra pair.

If you're going to a very cold climate, make sure your shoes are really warm, as well as taking warm socks. My sister is planning a several month trip to Germany around Christmas. They're planning to buy shoes there simply because you can't get warm enough shoes here in Australia. We just don't have that sort of climate.

If you're going somewhere REALLY wet, take shoes that are either waterproof or dry really quickly.

If you need to take more than one pair
If you've tried and tried to work out how you can only take one pair of shoes, and no single pair covers all your likely needs, then you may have to succumb to packing an extra pair. If this is the case, make sure both pairs are light. Wear the heaviest, bulkiest shoes on your flights as this will cut down bulk and the amount you have to carry.

Pack a plastic bag that you can store the extra shoes in, so that any dirt doesn't get spread around inside your luggage.

The MOST important thing, though is that ANY shoes you take are COMFORTABLE!

Need another reason to carry-on only?

2009-03-19T07:05:00.001+11:00

According to SITA's 2008 baggage report about airline luggage, more than 42 million bags were mishandled in 2007, with 1.2 million of them irretrievably lost. They estimate that if things continue in the same fashion, about 70 million can expect to be mishandled in 2019.

The most likely point in the bag's journey for something to go wrong is if they have to be changed from one plane to another.

The report points out that actually only 3% of bags never turn up, which they try to spin as being a positive thing. And I suppose that it is better than 10% going permanently missing. However, if you're the owner of one of those 3%, that's quite an inconvenience!

A far better way to travel, in my opinion, is with no checked luggage at all - travelling light with carry-on or cabin luggage only. That way, there's no chance that you'll lose your bag (unless its YOUR fault - and I have done that!) and it'll be much easier to enjoy your trip, knowing that your bag will arrive with you.

Of course, one wonders where the lost bags all go. Is it to the same place as socks, biros and coathangers?

clothes for traveling light

2009-03-18T06:07:00.000+11:00

If you're planning to travel light, you're going to need to choose your clothes wisely. Whether you're putting together a travel wardrobe for yourself or for your kids, there's a bit of planning involved.

We have talked about which items of clothing and how many are a good idea in older blog post, so I won't go into that again right now.

The idea of travelling light in terms of clothes is to limit what you take, and wash it more often. Some tips for choosing your clothes for travelling light:

All your clothes should mix and match. Everything should be able to be worn with everything else. One way of doing this is to keep to a completely neutral palette. If you like a bit of colour, maybe your hat could be brightly coloured, or maybe all your t-shirts/shirts could be the coloured items that you wear. Otherwise, if you don't mind looking like my daughter Bendy, just don't worry about putting odd colours and patterns together! (She is well known for putting patterns with as many patterns as she can. The more the merrier! And it suits her bright and happy personality.)

Choose clothes that don't wrinkle easily. Even though you'll be living out of a suitcase, you don't have to look like you are! To test this in a shop, grab a handful of the fabric and give it a good hard scrunch in your hand. Let it go, and if it looks completely crushed, leave it there on the hanger. You do not want to be ironing clothes on your holiday. That would mean either taking an iron with you (weight you do not need to carry!) or finding one at the place you are staying. Its better not to have to do either!

Choose clothes that dry quickly. Heavy cords and jeans do not dry quickly. Don't even think about taking them! Many synthetic (or synthetic blend) fabrics dry quickly. Cotton does not.

Choose fabrics that breathe well. In order to get quick drying clothing, we could wear nylon everything, however nylon does not breathe well. You don't want to feel like you're living in a sauna, so you need clothes that breathe.

Choose clothes that can be easily hand washed in a hotel sink. Don't choose dry-clean only clothes! The ability to wash all that you take in the hotel sink will mean that everything can be washed out at the end of each day, ready for the next.

Where possible, take items that can double up. Some people swear by taking sarongs, because they can be used in so many different ways. For the ladies they can be a skirt. They can cover shoulders in the churches you might want to visit where modesty is important. They can be wrapped around your head as a scarf for sun or dust protection. A sarong can also be used as a picnic blanket, a beach towel, a bag for dirty clothing... I haven't bothered with a sarong on my travels, except for the trip where I bought my sarong in Tahiti. I haven't missed it when I haven't had it with me, but others may find them useful.

Some people absolutely loathe zip off pants. I have two pairs, and I must say that I like them. Sure, they look a bit dorky, and they do scream tourist, but I find them great for the days where the temperature starts cool, gets REALLY hot, and then cools off again. It also means that by taking them, I'm taking 4 pairs of pants instead of just two: two pairs of shorts, two pairs of long pants. I also wear them at home when I know that I'll have to be out walking in the rain a lot, because mine dry really quickly. If you don't like them, that's fine, but some people do.

Choose clothing that is culturally sensitive to the places that you are visiting. If you will be visiting places of worship such as mosques, churches, temples etc, dress modestly. In many places, short skirts, shorts, bare arms, bare shoulders, bare heads are not culturally appropriate. Do a bit of research before you travel to find out what will be appropriate, so that you do not offend your hosts or appear to be offering more of yourself than you had in mind...

When we were in Rome and visiting St Peter's Basilica, there was a family who had obviously not read the guidebooks. At least one among their party was wearing shorts. Of course, they were not allowed in. They were completely indignant about this: "But that's cheating!" (why, I don't know!). Do your homework.

Make sure all your clothes fit you properly and are comfortable. If you wouldn't wear it at home, you won't wear it when you're on holidays. I made the mistake of assuming that a pair of pants that I put in for The Bookworm, fitted her. After a few days of our holiday, she told me that the waist was too large and they kept falling down. Now, I'm not sure if they had just never fit her (as our kids have a lot of hand-me-downs, and she has a very skinny waist) or whether the elastic had perished. But it meant a quick hand-sew fix in the hotel room, with one of my very precious needles that I had brought with me.

Choose clothing that can be layered. For warm weather, you'd wear the lightest layer. For colder temperatures you will add more layers. This way, you won't have to take twice as much if you are likely to encounter warm, cool or cold temperatures.

A lot of this sort of travel clothing can be purchased from travel or adventure stores, but keep in mind that not everything in these stores is going to fit the above criteria. And of course, some clothing in regular clothing stores might fit the bill perfectly, without the inflated "travel" pricetag! Read labels carefully, and do the scrunch test. You can't really test the quick-dry-ness of a piece of clothing unless you're sure you're going to keep it. I can't think of any shops that are happy for you to return clothing that has already been washed!

By shopping carefully and evaluating what you already own, you should be able to piece together a good travel wardrobe for yourself and the kids.

not all fabrics are created equal

2009-03-17T06:40:00.000+11:00

In my quest for my perfect travel bag - one which I think I'll have to make - I read the other day on the Tom Bihn forums about a fabric test that they had submitted their fabric and a competitor's fabric to.

It was interesting to see that the Tom Bihn 1050 denier fabric turned out to be more wear-resistant than a 1680 denier fabric. You can see the pictures and a blurb about it at the Tom Bihn website.

Doug Dyment, has a wonderful explanation about types of fabric at www.onebag.com. You'll need to scroll down to the heading: "Quality Luggage Components".

Doug explains the differences between different weights (denier is a measure of weight, not strength) and the difference between ballistic nylon and cordura nylon.

All this means the plot thickens in my local search for the perfect fabric. While I can find two places here in Sydney where I can get luggage-type fabric, without seeing the fabrics, its hard to know quite what they're like. I do like the shinyness of ballistic nylon, but the fabrics I have found are cordura, rather than ballistic.

In case you're interested, the two sources that I have found so far are Synergy Textiles (caution: very unattractive website!), and Ricky Richards. I'd love to know if there are any places in Australia selling ballistic nylon fabric by the metre. Anyone?

more on traveling and food allergies

2009-03-16T06:51:00.000+11:00

I found a really useful post on Delicious Baby about travelling with severe food allergies.

Even if you don't have children with food allergies, why not read it anyway, and educate yourself about how you can accomodate others who do, when you're travelling? I'm sure their parents would appreciate us making life easier for them!

Enjoying your own city with the kids

2009-03-15T07:51:00.000+11:00

Assuming you live in a city, of course - but you get the idea. One idea I am wanting to explore with our kids is to take some time during the school holidays and explore our own city as if we were tourists. Obviously I'm not going to the expense of staying in a city hotel - though there's some merit in doing that - but at least to explore the sights and sounds of home.

It is a curious thing that we often take our own city for granted. We go to enormous expense and time planning an overseas trip, while largely ignoring the things right under our noses. Sydney is a great city. It is beautiful, reasonably tidy and has much to offer overseas visitors: some of which we don't know anything about!

So I have occasionally taken matters in my own hands. From time to time we visit the Art Gallery of NSW or the Powerhouse Museum, and we've been to Taronga Zoo. And obviously we've been to the Opera House (what must be one of the most photographed buildings in existence). I took The Bookworm on a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and my mum and I took the kids on a ferry ride to Watson's Bay for fish and chips by the harbour. We have explored Katoomba in the Blue Mountains with the kids - a freezing good time in winter.

But there's so much more than that. I'd actually like to do the hop-on hop-off bus tour around Sydney to see and hear about my own city. Also, we've never been to the Australian Museum (natural history) or Fort Denison (on an island in Sydney Harbour). It would also be nice to do some of the walks in the National Parks around the Harbour, or the beaches, or Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (about 10 minutes from home...!).

The city is only the epicentre - the surrounding areas are also possible options as well. We're surrounded by magnificent National Parks, wineries about an hour away, and the national capital - Canberra - only 2.5 to 3 hours away.

If you can't do the large scale overseas trips - and you may not want to, particularly with kids - then there's still a lot to be gained from considering a holiday closer to home. You might be surprised at just what hidden treasures are right on your doorstep.

Road atlases and navigating tips

2009-03-14T05:33:00.002+11:00

I don't know if this will be really obvious to everyone else, but other places in the world (outside Australia) actually number the exits on their motorways. I mention this simply to make navigating in the car so much easier.

I have driven long distances across several countries and had Yvette navigating for me. We usually take with us the road atlases for the various regions we travel through. The brands we have used are:

Each of these are quite different to use, and have various benefits and drawbacks. With respect to motorway exits we found them numbered in the road atlases. There seem to be two numbering systems. The first (as used in Europe) is that exits are simply numbered in order from 1 at one end to whatever at the other end. The second numbering system (as used in Quebec) is that each freeway exit number is derived from the distance the exit is from the beginning.

Both numbering systems work well. And once you've worked them out they are brilliant for navigating purposes. The numbers are usually displayed on the large signs beside the motorway prior to each exit. I only mention all of this because if you, like me, are totally unaware of such systems, then you will find it absolutely invaluable for getting around. Indeed, even the Google Maps driving directions use the exit numbers.

Yvette's sister tells of her experience in Germany:

When we were in Germany, we bought a map book of Germany in Australia before we left. Very helpfully in Germany every single turnoff from a major road is numbered, so we spent the night before we drove anywhere writing out the sequence of numbers we needed to take. Although we got lost once (because turnoff 35 JUST WASN'T THERE!) we used the map to get us back to the right place and back into our sequence of numbers.

Our experience was similar. In Quebec, once we worked out what all the numbers on the map actually meant (and how they corresponded to the directions) it meant that driving itself was much easier to manage. It did take us a few hours to figure it out, though - enough to miss a major turnoff and enter a city from a completely different direction.

The good and the bad of the various brands of road atlas...
(And while we're here, I'll just point out that different editions to ours might be slightly different.)

AA Good points:

comprehensive coverage of each state of the USA and Canadian provinces
the markings for 'scenic routes' were actually scenic! We drove Route 100 through Vermont and were not disappointed.

AA Bad points:

huge format book - really much too large in size to take with you. If I could bear to rip a book (and I can't do it) I'd have taken out the relevant pages.
the city and town maps are very scanty - you'll need extra ones for them.

Michelin Good points:

manageable sized book
distances in both miles and kilometres
good city and town maps - much more useful than the AA ones

Michelin Bad points

very cluttered maps
sometimes it can be difficult to identify which distance measurements correspond to which roads - some of the numbers seem to 'float' ambiguously between a number of roads

Philip's Good points

manageable sized book
good introduction to each country in Europe
very clear maps - less cluttered than the Michelin ones

Philip's Bad points

city and town maps inadequate
some of the marked scenic routes were NOT scenic, and some that were scenic were not marked as scenic in the road atlas

All had good motorway routes with exits marked clearly. Obviously, if you choose to travel on back roads there is less detail available in road atlases for those routes, but most of the main ones are marked, and usually with the national road number for the country it is in.

With a decent road atlas, and an understanding of how the motorway and road numbering systems work you should have less chance of getting lost. Despite all of our planning in this regard, we have been lost - but not often. Once in Ireland, trying to get around some roadworks that created a huge traffic jam, once in Quebec when we took the wrong exit and I had the wrong street address for the hotel, and once in Seville on approaching the city.

Actually, come to think of it, I'm going to have a whinge here. The road atlases show the big scale routes around a country, and often have city maps. What bugs me are the city maps - they infrequently show enough of the outskirts of a city to show where and how the motorways actually connect with the local streets. Once you leave the motorway and head into a town or city you can easily get lost until you can reorient yourself on the city maps. That happened to us especially in Seville, but it has happened before that too.

Make your own gear: satchel bag

2009-03-13T06:51:00.000+11:00

Last Saturday I went to a local furnishing fabric wholesaler's special "direct to the public" sale. The wholesaler does really high quality fabrics, many of which were absolutely gorgeous.

I picked up an offcut of some animal print suede. Its normally about $70/m but I got my offcut for just $5. There was enough there for me to make a bag. So I set about designing a bag to use it with. I wanted to experiment with lots of pockets to see which ones ended up being useful.

Following are the pictures of the resulting bag (numbered 1-5, left to right, top to bottom). Its a satchel/messenger style bag (1), with a top flap, that has a sort-of hidden zip pocket (2). It has another zip pocket in the bag body underneath the flap (3). Then there is the main section of the bag (3), and on the back is a magazine pocket (4). The straps attach on the sides (5).

I used a plain black polycotton poplin for the lining. The strap is made of black strap webbing.

I was really happy the result, and have used it a couple of times already. I wear it across my body, rather than just on one shoulder. Its comfortable, and very workable.

I like the back magazine pocket - as well as for books and magazines, its also just the right size for one of my books in its mailing envelope - really useful for ducking up to the shops to post them! (I sell the books that I have written via mail order, as well as them being available through craft shops). The front hidden pocket is good for a notebook and pen. The zip pocket under the flap is good for a lightweight cardigan or jacket and my keys. In the main section I can easily fit my 600ml drink bottle, my wallet, an umbrella, and various other bits, with lots of room to spare for if I need to pack more stuff into it.

What would I change? Well, I haven't yet figured out how to secure the top flap. I'd like some way to have it a bit more secure, rather than just having it flapping freely up and down. I wondered about a magnetic clasp or a plastic clip where you press the sides in for buckle release (if you know the sort I mean).

I'd also like to put a slider into the strap so that the length is adjustable, but I didn't have one when I was making it. Its ok the length it is, for ME, but if anyone else wanted to use the bag, it might not be just right for them.

I would also make the zip of front hidden pocket finish a little higher. At the moment it goes right to the bottom of the flap. If it finished even just 2cm higher, it would make things a little less likely to fall out - they don't fall out easily as it stands, but I think it could be an improvement - and it would mean that I could take some of the bulk from the zipper out of the seam at the bottom of the flap.

Of course, apart from the flap securing part, these are only minor things that can easily be fixed. I really think that I need some way to secure down the front flap for the sake of travelling. I just think that its a little too tempting for pickpockets the way it is. Its ok for my normal everyday life of taking the kids to school, and going up to the local shops.

And all of this is just practising and finding out how bag making and bag design works in preparation for designing and making my own luggage for travelling light. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'd like to lose the wheels from my luggage because it will be lighter. I am used to carrying a backpack on my shoulders, so wouldn't have a problem with loading them up.

I think that a dedicated travel luggage backpack would be really suitable for travel with kids, because it will mean that I can hold hands and attend to them without worrying about holding onto my bag. And anything that makes my life easier when travelling is going to help me with enjoying travel with kids!

Make your own gear: patterns

2009-03-12T21:10:00.001+11:00

Just a quickie.

Found an excellent range of clothing, luggage etc patterns at Rockywoods.

Travel and anaphylaxis

2009-03-12T05:37:00.000+11:00

Having recently had some dietary restrictions placed upon me, I got to wondering about what you would do if you were travelling and you or your child had severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions to food or environmental stimuli. I have a friend who has a child with life-threatening food allergies. I asked her how they do holidays.

She said that they generally go to her parents' place (out of town) or other relatives. They did consider a trip to New Zealand (only a few hours on a plane), but she quickly realised that they couldn't even do that. She pointed out that many airlines still serve peanuts, and there would be a very high chance of there being peanut residue in the seat upholstery. Let alone not knowing what ingredients are present in the airline food - even if they brought their own, because those around would still be consuming it, and that's not even thinking about the food or other allergens available in different holiday destinations.

I had never considered this before. I now have great sympathy for the difficulties that people dealing with such allergies have to overcome in order to do a simple thing like going on holidays. If you have succeeded in holidaying with an anaphylactic, please let us know how to do it!

The great regrets

2009-03-11T06:18:00.000+11:00

Travel is expensive - but great fun. You go to a lot of effort to plan and pay for what are probably once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and you know that you can't see everything. You have to choose. I know that some people are crippled when faced with such choices - and from time to time I am too: it can be really hard to leave something out of the itinerary that you just can't get in.

But sometimes you are faced with an opportunity to do something, and for whatever reason you choose not to. I don't mean that it comes down to time or cost: the opportunity is possible on both counts. But you just don't do it.

We've experienced this a couple of times, and those experiences have really made us aware of the need to take the opportunities that are presented. On our first trip together, Yvette and I spent a week in Vienna. We had the opportunity to take a day trip to Prague. We decided against it, and instead decided to go out to the Danube River and chill out. It was a decision we have forever regretted. The Danube, as it flows through Vienna, is not picturesque. Upstream, yes, but through the city - no. It is neither beautiful nor blue. We could have been in Prague, but we weren't.

In Scotland, we drove across the highlands from Stirling to Fort William. On our way we stopped for lunch at Blair Atholl - practically outside the gates to Blair Castle, which we decided not to visit. It was only years later that Yvette realised that we should have gone in, that the castle was the home of a magnificent collection of textiles that she would have loved to see. Obviously we didn't know this at the time, but we had the opportunity and failed to act.

In planning our trip last year we originally planned to do a side trip to Tangier, Morocco. We regret not doing that on one level, but on another the idea of taking two small, fair-haired children into a bustling, manic, culturally disorienting North African city just didn't feel right. We don't speak any version of Arabic, and felt that it would have been enough of a struggle to get about as adults without having to contend with the kids as well. We're still planning to include Morocco one day - but we're saving it for when the kids are older.

I guess we're fortunate that our real regrets have been so few, but the advice still stands: seize every opportunity you can while keeping in mind that you can't do everything.

favourite travel items: collapsible bottles

2009-03-10T06:48:00.000+11:00

On our last trip we took with us two collapsible water bottles. The ones we took were 1 litre Flexi-Bottles from Kathmandu (shown right), because that's our local outdoor gear shop. For people not in Australia, you'll probably find Platypus brand much easier to find.

We LOVED these bottles. Why? Oh, I'm so glad you asked!

they collapse and roll up really small when empty
they can be partially collapsed as the water is drunk, taking up less space in your pack
they weigh only 27g/1oz (Kathmandu ones)
they can be filled even with boiling water
even though they flatten when empty, the gusseted base means they can stand up when full
ours had a sports pop-top you can drink straight out of
they're made of strong, durable plastic.

How did we use them?
We used them to carry extra water around with us each day, as a backup for when our individual water bottles were empty. Because they're strong, we could just put them in the backpack with all our other stuff. We also left them in the car if we knew we'd be coming back to it through the day.

We boiled water each night and poured it straight in to let it cool down. On a previous trip, we didn't take bottles that we could pour boiling water into, which meant that we had to pour it into our bowls and let it cool down like that. Pouring it straight into the bottles meant that we didn't have to worry about it spilling (especially as it could easily scald). We could leave the bottles out overnight to cool, or if we had a fridge, we could put them in there so that we had chilled water.

The water tasted fine, and didn't have a plasticy flavour at all. We had no problem with leaks, and I've even heard of people filling them up with hot water, putting some fabric around them, and using them as makeshift hot water bottles to keep themselves warm! Not a bad idea!

I highly recommend collapsible water bottles (Platypus brand shown left) for travelling with kids. It just meant that we didn't have to worry about running out of water on our daily tripping about, and when we didn't need them, they could be rolled up so wonderfully small. We saved money because we didn't have to buy bottled water. There's nothing like saving money, worry and effort for enjoying travel with kids!

Of course, you don't have to only use them for travel - they can be used any time!

Strollers / prams / pushers

2009-03-09T06:21:00.000+11:00

We recently saw a family on holidays with their whacking great padded four-wheel-drive pram. Not surprisingly, they were having trouble getting it on and off a tram! We bought a $30 umbrella stroller and took it with us on two holidays (UK and US) and used it for two years between, and for a long time after before it finally fell apart. Thankfully for our most recent holiday, our children were old enough not to need one.

For very young children a stroller is a must. (Though some people may prefer backpack type carriers for babies and young toddlers.) If you take one, you can sometimes have it with you right up to the door of the aircraft, and then it will be stowed in the luggage area during the flight. By taking an umbrella stroller overseas, we discovered a host of great reasons to go with them rather than the hefty 4WD variety:

Umbrella strollers are lightweight. When you have luggage and kids in tow, light weight is seriously important. You would also be surprised how many stairs and escalators you'll have to negotiate - especially on public transport. On our trip to the UK we did not travel light with our luggage, and couldn't imagine how we'd have coped with a great big stroller as well as the super-sized check-in bags. Remember who will be pushing the stroller (you!), and that every gram it weighs will be more you will have to push. The world's great sights are not always found with lovely flat approaches, and I'm glad it wasn't me who pushed a shopping trolley sized monster-stroller up to, and inside, Edinburgh Castle.

They are relatively small, both when open and folded up. This means that they are good for getting into hire cars, onto buses, trains etc. and they can be tucked away underneath seats if required. If you use the hop-on hop-off bus services in many cities then you'll be carrying the thing up and down a lot. Their small size means you can more easily negotiate narrow passageways found in shops, markets and the like.

They are often cheap. If the stroller fell apart or was damaged by baggage handlers it wasn't a great loss. They can also suffer increased wear and tear from surfaces like 'cogglestones' (our youngest daughter's word for cobblestones).

It could be picked up easily. Sometimes I found myself hoisting the whole stroller with the child still into it to negotiate an obstacle (e.g. stairs). When folded up, umbrella strollers can be carried in one hand while the other hand has a firm grip on the child.

We try to practice walking before the holidays too, to get them used to walking long distances, and quickly. The stroller was a convenient backup for when they got tired. You could try walking your child to school, preschool or to the shops as practise. (This is good for your health too...!) We practised “walking to the Eiffel Tower before it opens” on our way to school, and “walking quickly to get to the Alhambra”. It gave the kids a sense of expectation of what was to come on our holiday too.

A stroller is a great convenience to have for young children. When considering which one to take, just bear in mind that it is you who will have to manage it, often in tandem with other luggage and definitely in unfamiliar surroundings. We're convinced that a cheap umbrella stroller is the way to go.

How to be the best Dad in the world...

2009-03-08T06:04:00.000+11:00

One word: Disneyland.

Ordinarily, I am not really fond of spending either my time or my money on things which are blatantly commercial and tastelessly trashy. However, I did it, and I don't regret it one little bit. Our kids have grown up sadly bereft of most forms of advertising that children are subjected to simply because we have chosen - quelle horreur! - to live without a television.

But you know, those crusty executives at the Disney conglomerate have their ways and means, so our two little girls were quite familiar with every Disney Princess in their repertoire.

On our most recent trip to Europe, we had the opportunity to stop over in Hong Kong on the way home. We usually do this to break up the ultra-marathon distances Australians have to travel to see much of the planet anyway, but Hong Kong afforded us the possibility of satisfying every little kids' dream (except Yvette's, apparently) of going to Disneyland. Yvette was a bit skeptical about the idea at first, but my repressed inner child was fully in favour of it. And to add icing to the cake, we eventually opted to stay in one of the full-on Disneyland hotels.

Well, it is hard to summarise what the kids' response was. We kept it a secret from them for a long time, and eventually we let on to this surprise. Their excitement was palpable. Watching them enjoy themselves was one of Yvette's and my lasting and most satisfying travel experiences (life experiences). Once we arrived they looked as if they were going to burst, such was the excitement they displayed. Bendy has, since then, found a new aim in life: to visit every Disneyland park on the planet.

A few good things about Hong Kong Disneyland, which we thoroughly recommend:

It is small. Or should I say, It's a small world. Unlike the behemoth versions in America, HK Disneyland is on a geographically manageable scale.
It is designed with small children in mind. This is not a park for teenagers, though some would undoubtedly still enjoy it. There is a distinct lack of adrenalin-pumping rides - but there are some. Bendy LOVED the thrill of Space Mountain. The Bookworm screamed in terror and thought her end had come.
It was crowded, but not oppressively. Sure, we waited in lines, but no more than 20 minutes for any ride. Most were only about 5-10 minute waits.
The photos with the Disney characters are a really fun way to capture the memories - and they even let you use your own camera. They'll even get a team member to use your camera to take your family photo so you can all be in the shot. I did feel for the team members in the character costumes in the ridiculous heat and humidity.
Disney's Hollywood Hotel (where we stayed) was a great place to stay. There were shuttle buses to the park, a breakfast spread that has to be seen to be believed (including Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles), and unbelievable decor.
There is a long waterfront promenade between the two Disney hotels from which you can see Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. It's a pleasant way to fill in some time.
HK Disneyland is very close to the airport. And if you have a long break between flights it would be possible to fit in a visit to the park. If you stay at the park, there's the added benefit of not having to struggle with the kids and your luggage through the streets of Hong Kong itself.
It is very well connected to the rest of Hong Kong by public transport. HK Disneyland has its own railway station on a spur line between the airport and Kowloon, so access is fast and easy. But taxis would suffice just as easily.
We were able to get a deal through our travel agent where we got a 2-day Disney pass for the price of one day. Part of the deal was that we had to stay in one of the Disneyland hotels. It was convenient, and added to the whole experience. And we could go in to the park twice - which we did.

So, do your kids a favour, and satisfy that inner urge to go to Disneyland which formed long ago while you were watching episodes of "The Mickey Mouse Club" on TV. I know we shouldn't do anything so crass as to "buy" the admiration of our children, but in retrospect I know it was a really, really positive experience the kids will never forget. And I came away with a smug inner glow knowing that - for a while, at least - I was the best Dad in the world.

The joys of the Paris Pass

2009-03-07T06:35:00.002+11:00

The time has come to sing the praises of that most wonderful of inventions, the Paris Pass. I know that many cities have similar passes, but it is the only one we've actually purchased. We looked into the Lisbon Pass, but quite frankly it is unnecessary. There are no queueing issues in any location in Lisbon - even the most popular sites.

But the Paris Pass is a different matter. We purchased the 4 day pass, which included 4 day public transport passes as well. We purchased 2 adult and 2 children's passes, though naturally the children's passes were much cheaper as they have free entry to all the museums. We got theirs for the transport pass.

Paris Pass is not cheap - initially. However, it provides you entry to dozens of places in and around Paris, and includes all of the most popular museums and places of interest EXCEPT the Eiffel Tower. Once you have visited a few of the sights you have made your money's worth back. If you are only going to visit one or two sights, you might not consider the Pass worthwhile, though there are 2-day passes as well. We used our Paris Pass to get into: the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Versailles, the Musee du Moyen Age, the Sainte Chapelle, Musee de l'Orangerie, and took the free Seine River cruise that came included with the pass.

In terms of value for money, we definitely got our money's worth.

In terms of saving time, the Pass proved to be priceless.

Everywhere you visit in Paris has a queue. Some of them are long. Most of them are not popular with adults, and even less so with children. The longest we queued was about half an hour to go through the Palais de Justice security prior to entering the Sainte Chapelle. We could have queued for much longer. We simply walked in to the Musee d'Orsay, while the regular ticket line snaked out into the plaza in front of the museum. We got preferential entry into the Musee de l'Orangerie (where the queues were much shorter, but in the rain) - and they seem to limit the number of people in the gallery at any one time. And we didn't join any lines at the Louvre - again we simply walked in.

But the real benefit was seen at Versailles. The day we visited was very hot and sunny. Thousands of people visit Versailles. There is no limit to the number of people who can enter the Palace at any one time (unlike the Schonbrunn in Vienna, or the Alhambra in Granada). Our Paris Pass enabled us to join a very short queue - we were inside in about 10 minutes. The real ticket queue was tragically long. It wended its way up and down the forecourt and was at least 4 hours long. None of it was sheltered from the baking sun. I shudder to think what a waste of time that would have been, and what a ridiculous thing to do - either with or without children.

If only for that one experience, I would have still purchased the Paris Pass. We - all of us - had a fantastic time at Versailles. The Bookworm went nuts with her camera, photographing all the shiny, glittery things she could see (and there's a lot of that sort of thing!). Just to think... we could have spent all that time in a monotonous line with bored, whingey kids.

A word of caution about the transport tickets that come with the pass... Yvette was the custodian of the transport tickets in a pocket of her well designed travel pants. Unbeknownst to us - until it really mattered - the tiny magnetic pocket closures had demagnetised the tickets so they no longer worked at the Metro stations. We were stuck - several times - on railway platforms. And to prove that the Parisians are not as arrogant as their stereotype suggests, we got unsolicited instructions on how to get through the barricade without a functioning ticket from a very helpful woman. Owners of Scottevest with its myriad pockets, some with magnetic closures - beware - this applies to you too!

In short, the Paris Pass was one of the best investments we made for our holiday. We pre-purchased them via the internet from the comfort of our own home and they arrived not long afterwards in the mail. We simply took them with us, and they saved us both time and money wherever we went.

Travel cup/mug comparison

2009-03-06T07:07:00.007+11:00

When we travel we often eat in our room, for convenience when kids are tired at the end of the day, and would be too grumpy to eat out. Because of this we take a "picnic set" of sorts with us, consisting of 4 bowls, 4 plates, 4 mugs, disposable cutlery and a chopping mat.

While what we took last time worked ok, we are always interested to know if we can do better: either lighter or take up less space.

Whatever we consider, it has to be suitable for adults to eat off with it sitting on their laps, and unlikely to be easily knocked over by young children. You know how they get distracted, turn around, and - OOPS! - there goes the dinner/drink onto the floor!

Today I'm going to do a cup/mug comparison. Our criteria are as follows:

can take hot liquids, for John's cups of tea and my hot chocolates
are stable enough not to be easily knocked over
are as light as possible
are as compact as possible
can be successfully picked up by the kids
can be moved across the room from where the food is served to where it will be consumed, without squashing and spilling

Last time we took a set of 4 plastic mugs from Kathmandu with us (see below). Having taken our scales with us all around our local shops, these were the lightest that we could find. They weighed only 31g each but don't stack very compactly, measuring 15 x 8 x 10cm when stacked. They came in a plastic carry case, but we did not take them in it - unnecessary extra weight! We just put them in a long tube plastic bag (one that the newspaper was delivered in, actually!) to keep them together.
The stats: weight: 31g/1.1oz | dimensions: 10 x 8 x 6cm/4 x 3 x 2.5" | capacity: 150ml/5 fl oz | plastic

Since then, in my online travels, I have found the following options:

Fold a cup: These cups are apparently standard issue to the Swedish and Norwegian armies. They are sturdy, solid looking and unbreakable. Reviews from people who have had them for years and years say that they last and last really well. They look to be extremely stable.
The stats: weight: 28g/1oz | dimensions: (closed) 2.5 x 9cm/1 x 3.5" | capacity: 200ml/7 fl oz | crush-proof plastic

Flatterware collapsible cup: I'm sorry, but I've never though that these sound like a very successful idea. I just think surely they must leak? They look reasonably stable, because of their base, but I'd be almost sure that kiddie fingers would experiment with collapsing them with their drink still in it... Too much of a temptation, I'd say! However, if you were just using them to take your daily medication with, they'd probably be fine - because you're not likely to keep it full for very long, so they wouldn't have much time to leak.
The stats: weight: 85g/3oz | dimensions: (closed) 3 x 9cm/1.25 x 3.5" | capacity: 350ml/12 fl oz | material: plastic

Light My Fire spill-free cup: These cups have a lid that you can use to make the cup spill proof. The lid, which has a sip spout, is attached by a cord, so you won't lose it. It has lines marking 100, 200 and 300ml. Because they are quite squat, they look very stable. They are microwave safe - a plus if you happen to encounter a microwave when you are travelling! I do wonder about the usefulness of the "handle" for holding it, though I suppose big hands could hold it around its body - little hands might not be able to.
The stats: weight: 65g/2.4oz | dimensions: 15 x 11 x 5cm/5.75 x 4.5 x 1.9" | capacity: 300ml/10 fl oz | material: polypropylene

Guyot Designs squishy bowl & cup set: These come in a set with bowl and cup - you can't buy them separately. They're squishy, so they're obviously not going to break, and you can fit them in the spaces in your luggage. They look like they'd be reasonably stable on the table. As for little hands picking them up, I would hope that they are not too squishy - hopefully the kids wouldn't just pick them up and accidentally squeeze everything out all over themselves! They're made from silicone, so they're heat resistant. (Picture from www.guyotdesigns.com)
The stats (cup only): weight: 48g/1.7oz | dimensions: 6 x 9cm/2.45 x 3.45" | capacity: 200ml/6 fl oz | material: food grade silicone

Orikaso mug: These are just the most amazing idea! A piece of plastic that folds up into a mug. Wow - that's origami for you! They are very lightweight, and when unconstructed can be completely flat (though I'd say the plastic would have a bit of memory along the folds). I'd be concerned about a couple of things: that they would conduct heat too well, making them difficult to hold comfortably despite the handle, and that they're so lightweight that they'd be easy to knock off the table if only partly full.
The stats: weight: 85g/1.9oz | dimensions: 11.5 x 10.5 x 9.5cm/4.5 x 4.25 x 3.75" (constructed), 25 x 24.5cm/10 x 9.75" (flat)| capacity: 200ml/6 fl oz | material: polypropylene

Sea to Summit X mug: These mugs are made of silicone and collapse concertina-style to form a flattish disc. The mug has a hard plastic ring so that it maintains its shape, especially when you pick it up. The ring is the part you hold if it contains hot drinks, though being silicone it would be pretty heat resistant anyway. The base is reasonably wide, so should be fairly stable. It would be interesting to see if these have too large a diameter for the kids to pick up easily. These cups could possibly double as a breakfast bowl, having by far the largest capacity of all the cups compared here.
The stats: weight: 60g/2.1oz | dimensions: 11 x 11 x 7.5cm/4.5 x 4.5 x 3" (expanded), 11 x 11 x 1.5cm/4.5 x 4.5 x 0.6" (flat)| capacity: 480ml/0.5 quarts | material: silicone

Well, that's my list. Please feel free to add your suggestions for other cup/mugs and any reviews of any of these products in the comments section.

I'm still really undecided about which is our best option. I think perhaps my ideal solution doesn't exist yet. All of the above cups and mugs have their good points and bad points. I think I'll have to get back to you.

More about museums and kids: small is beautiful

2009-03-05T06:34:00.000+11:00

So we've visited a fair number of the really monolithic cultural institutions in our travels. Our kids have been to the British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Natural History Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). All fantastic institutions, and all overwhelmingly huge. Taking kids there is a major undertaking (see Kids and the Louvre: a survival guide).

Something interesting we have discovered along the way is that small institutions can be wonderful - sometimes appreciably better than the gigantic ones. Not only can the exhibits themselves be first rate, they are frequently less crowded and much more manageable for taking kids around.

Any decent travel guide will mention smaller places, but I'm going to list a few we've visited that were outstanding. None of these are "children's museums". They are all fully-fledged museums for adults. However, our kids have each found many things to enjoy in all of them during their visit. This is only a selection of the places we've visited - there are many, many similar ones, of excellent quality and equally welcoming to kids.

The Burrell Collection, Glasgow. Primarily a museum focussing on the medieval period, it is conveniently set in parklands where the kids could run around for a while.

The Cloisters, New York. Another medieval collection, this time at the tip of Manhattan island. It is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and well worth a visit.

Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts. A living museum made up of farms, homes, and a school preserving the unique Shaker way of life. Those who work the farms and keep the village running are not Shakers themselves, but keep everything running in an authentic manner. Our kids adored this place (so did we - we could have spent a whole day there easily - but we ran out of time).

The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Home to a huge collection of books and manuscripts, including important early New Testament fragments, and a magnificent selection of historic Qu'rans.

The Morgan Library, New York. Another collection of manuscripts, this time mostly European up to the early days of printing. It also includes a collection of original (i.e. autograph) music scores.

Trinity College Library, Dublin. For one thing only: the Book of Kells. Words alone cannot capture the magnificence of this book. Just go there. Actually, there are a couple of lesser-known treasures there also which are worth seeing.

Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris. Rightly famous for the huge waterlily paintings by Monet. A wonderfully intimate gallery where kids will not feel out of place.

The Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares, Seville. A really fascinating place where a series of different rooms have been set up as 'working' exhibits showcasing various local crafts and industries. Examples include gilding, olive pressing, pottery and tile painting, and leatherwork.

The British Library. It has a single exhibition space with all sorts of iconic and amazing items from their collection, such as the Codex Sinaiticus, hand-writted Beatles lyrics, Beethoven manuscripts, the original of Alice in Wonderland. Manageable and amazing.

The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. A little larger than some of the others, but very kid friendly and usually not crowded. It showcases Australian social, design and engineering history and has some hands-on areas for kids. The two steam locomotives are always a hit.

The Nicholson Museum of Antiquities, Sydney. Part of the University of Sydney, best of all it is free. The exhibits displays draw from ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome and Cyprus. The kids usually like the Egyptian mummies.

Any museum in Portugal. At the time of writing, Portugal was - even at the height of the European summer - uncrowded, though we didn't dare enter the over-developed Algarve coast. We didn't queue for anything, everything was reasonably priced, and nothing was too big for kids to manage. And the kids struck up a wonderfully funny relationship with the museum attendants at the Museu de Artes Decorativas in Lisbon.

The Tower of London. The crown jewels are a must for any little girl who fancies herself a princess, or who just loves shiny, sparkly things.

We should also mention Hong Kong Disneyland as a sanity-sparing alternative to the larger versions in Los Angeles, Florida, Tokyo and Paris. It covers a physically smaller area, is far less crowded than the others, and therefore waiting times in queues are much reduced. It is, however, more suitable for younger children as it has one really gut-wrenching rollercoaster - Space Mountain (which 4-year-old Bendy loved, and 7-year-old Bookworm detested).

The giant museums and galleries are unmissable - usually because they are the custodians of a particularly iconic work, but don't overlook the less frantic pace of smaller institutions. You can often see artworks or historic pieces whose quality is on par with the major institutions.

Car seats

2009-03-04T05:53:00.000+11:00

If you’re going to hire a car, you will need a car seat for any child up to about 7, or any child that is short. You can usually hire one from your car-hire company, but they are often very expensive to hire. When we went to the UK a few years back, we found that it was cheaper to buy one for £20 when we got there, instead of paying £65 to hire one. We did an internet search for the closest baby shop to Heathrow (in Slough, if anyone's interested), then went straight there from the airport. At the end of the trip, we left the car seat in our hotel room with a note on it saying “free to a good home”. We had enquired about donating it to Oxfam, but they weren’t accepting any baby goods.

On our trip to the USA and Canada, we took our own car seats. As our children were a little bit older (though very short) we opted to take half-booster seats, which went into the checked luggage. On a subsequent trip to Europe, we shopped around and found some even smaller in size and weight which easily fitted in our cabin luggage with all our other belongings (we had no check-in luggage).

Check the regulations of the country or countries to which you will be travelling. In large countries, these regulations can change from state to state or province to province, so you will need to check the state’s individual regulations. Places to check regulations include current edition driving atlases or up-to-date travel guides. You may also be able to find the information on the internet. In many cases, other countries’ regulations are more relaxed than Australian ones, meaning you can take whatever suits you. But check if there are specific regulations with which you will need to comply.

If you do decide to hire a carseat, check very carefully that it suits your needs. I have heard horror stories of people hiring cars complete with outdated and unsafe car seats that stink of vomit or are covered in food stains and crumbs. Check as best as you can before you book, what the seat you will be getting is like. If the car-hire company promises anything, keep a copy of that promise in writing. When you pick up the car, check the seat over properly. Make sure you can install it correctly and safely. Insist on reading the instruction manual. If you are not happy with what is being offered, ask for a different seat.

If nothing is suitable, you have a few options. If you are picking up at an airport, don’t sign the car-hire contract, and go to another car-hire company, and see if they can provide for your needs. Or tell the staff that you will take the car seat to the closest baby-goods store, purchase a proper car seat, and drive back with the hire car seat and return it for a full refund of seat hire fee.

When travelling with kids, safety in the car is of paramount importance. Take or hire a decent car seat for each child who needs one, and comply with the local regulations. The driving speed on some motorways in Europe is legally quite high - unrestricted in places like Germany - and frequently exceeded by local drivers. Good car seats are essential.

House swapping

2009-03-03T06:40:00.000+11:00

Some family members are wanting to spend a couple of months including the coming Christmas, in a particular place in Germany while one of them does some doctoral research. I suggested to them that they should consider house swapping to reduce the costs.

I figured that offering a Sydney house in summer for a couple of months might well be attractive to some people!

They have launched into the process of organising it, and currently have two families/groups interested in swapping with them.

Yesterday I found this article in the Sydney Morning Herald, about house swapping and thought I should mention house-swapping as a low-cost way of obtaining accommodation while travelling with the family.

It could work for you!

Kids and travel diaries

2009-03-02T06:40:00.000+11:00

Travel diaries are really important. Especially for kids. I know it's a hassle, and they find it a chore, but you must insist - and you should write your own to model the example to them. Yvette recalls that when she was eight years old, her family went on a four week trip around Australia. Every day her Mum and Dad forced her and her siblings to write in their diaries, no matter whether they wanted to or not. They considered it a bit of a chore. But they each filled an exercise book with daily entries, drawings, stuck in brochures from the places they went to, tickets, etc. Her parents still have the diaries and they are a wonderful reminder of all that they did. Without them, they would remember a lot less.

Since I first kept a travel diary 13 years ago my writing has changed. My first diary was very succinct. Yvette's mum said she could tell that my diary was written by a male. Yvette's diary of the same trip was littered with more experiential stuff, whereas mine read more like a catalogue. To be honest, it communicated what we did and where we went, but it is still not an overly interesting read. Still, it fulfills its primary purpose: to reconstruct memories in detail. For my later diaries I have tried to be less systematic and more descriptive - but I'm finding that as it changes the diaries have become unwieldy in their size.

Our eldest daughter - "The Bookworm" - first ventured overseas with us when she was 20 months old. She has no recollection of that trip (nor would we expect it) and she was in no position to record her own experiences in any way. She did take a small notebook to do drawing in, and from time to time Yvette or I would record simple sentences in it about what had happened during the trip.

Her next overseas jaunt was at age 5. Still a bit young for a travel diary, I created a "travel guide" for her. It was a little booklet full of activities (e.g. colouring-in; dot-to-dot etc.) which had a story (which I wrote) as its main theme. The basic premise was that there was a fairy which was trying to recover a host of treasures that had been stolen from fairyland, and she needed our daughter's assistance to find them. The things to find were located at various sights we were going to visit in New York and Canada. It worked brilliantly. She didn't complete everything (it wasn't meant to be "homework", after all) but she did try to find all of the sights in the treasure hunt. Some of the "missing fairyland treasures" included a crown (on the Statue of Liberty); a winged beast (Assyrian sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art); a castle (Chateau Frontenac, Quebec); and a unicorn (the tapestries at The Cloisters, New York).

At seven, The Bookworm kept her own written diary, though it was more difficult to motivate her to write than do a treasure hunt. In addition, we bought her the cheapest available digital camera and a large capacity memory stick for the Christmas prior to the holiday. She took about 900 photos - some quite amazing, others barely distinguishable - as a means of recording what she saw. Yvette and I tried hard not to direct her as to what she should photograph, and as a result she got an eclectic photo gallery of things which she viewed as important. Sometimes we had to remind her to take the camera out, or that "now" might be a good photo opportunity, but often she did it on her own. As well as the photos taken by the adults - all carefully planned and framed etc. - we have a lovely record of incidental things overlooked by us, including floors, walls, fish in ponds, and the chandeliers at Versailles.

Our youngest daughter - "Bendy" - did a colouring-in book to remember various parts of the holiday - though whether she actually will remains to be seen.

For the adults, Yvette kept a hand written diary. I knew I'd be verbose, and to keep our weight limit down I used the tiny Asus computer we took away with us. I managed to type about 40 pages in three weeks - most of which I'd have not bothered to write if I had done it be hand.

I also purchase a blank art book (spiral bound, with blank A4 size pages) and stick in all the tickets, brochures etc. collected along the way (arranged in order). These form a sort of visual diary of the trip to accompany the written diary. Despite all the wonderful experiences that travel brings, it is amazing the details that you forget as time passes. Keeping a diary re-ignites those memories, and can help you to recall those experiences with greater clarity in the future. With kids it is vital. They simply won't remember it all - just the best bits, or those things which impacted them the most. A diary will record their perspective long after it has faded from their minds.

Enjoy the "being", not just the "seeing"

2009-03-01T06:45:00.000+11:00

If you've read the previous posts, you'll know I'm a meticulous planner. From destinations to routes, from timetables to opening hours: I will research it all. I'll even have a checklist in my head for each museum, gallery or sight to ensure that I get to everything I want to.

One of the hardest things is to combat the temptation to simply "tick the box" once I'm there, and miss the enjoyment of the moment. I had a wake-up call on an early overseas trip (with Yvette, but pre-kids). In St. Peter's at the Vatican I stood in front of Michelangelo's beautiful sculpture, Pieta. I'd seen it before in books, of course, but here I was in front of the real thing. The sculpture astounded me, but what really grabbed my attention were the significant number of other visitors who simply walked up towards the sculpture, clicked their cameras, and walked away. They didn't even bother to look at it for a minute or two. I knew I'd spent a small fortune to travel half way around the world to be there, and even if they'd spent less by travelling from elsewhere in Europe or the US it did seem a bit pointless. I wondered if those visitors would spend more time looking at their photo than actually remembering being there.

Ever since, I have tried as much as possible to experience the moment of "being" rather than just "seeing". To hang around for a few minutes. To stand still and look - really look, and not just glance. To talk about what we're seeing with Yvette and the kids. To just sit and take it all in.

This isn't confined to museums and galleries - but it works perfectly for them. When we were in Quebec City, Bendy needed an afternoon nap, so Yvette offered to stay at the hotel while I took The Bookworm out to keep noise at a minimum. We went to the parklands around the fort at the top of the city, where she could run around and enjoy the sunshine. We also wandered along the boardwalk overlooking the St. Lawrence River, just whiling away the hour or so before we headed back. We didn't "see" or "do" anything from our well-planned checklist. We just enjoyed "being" together. Later on the same trip, it was ice-creams in Central Park, New York with both kids while watching a great little jazz trio (and I took a long time to convince our eldest to put $1 into their busking hat).

There are so many possibilities:

you can sit and watch the world go by in a park, from a cafe, on the steps of the village church - somewhere with a good vantage point (and some aesthetic value)

sit and watch your kids in the new environment - and watch the reactions of others to them. You might be surprised at the pleasure they bring to others. At the Orangerie in Paris, The Bookworm had a camera which she used to take endless photos of her sister pulling silly faces in front of Monet's Waterlilies paintings. Watching it was very amusing for us, and we got a few positive comments from complete strangers about their antics. Even the museum attendants - while watching them closely - were entertained by the kids

stop. Take a breather in the midst of the rush. Sometimes I consciously remind myself to notice where I am and what is going on around me. When seeing something significant, I like to remember that this is what I have come all that way to see - so I should actually to the seeing!

The times of just being together, between must-see sights, or even at those sights are part of the pleasure of travelling. Sharing the "being" as well as the "seeing" with your kids helps them to get the point of what travelling is all about.

make your own gear: finding clothing patterns

2009-02-28T06:41:00.000+11:00

I often enjoy looking at other people's packing lists. On some of the Ultralight (UL) and super-ultralight (SUL) backpacking websites, you can read really interesting articles about people's efforts to cut the amount and weight of stuff down so that they can travel REALLY light. I look at these lists and think "Yes, but how much does all this cost?" Beside the weight column, I often wish they had another column: cost!

Because a lot of technology and experimentation goes into the high-tech fabrics and gear that people use for these sorts of exploits, the dollars add up pretty quickly! BUT if you make your own gear, this can considerably reduce the cost.

However, one of the most difficult aspects of making your own gear for travelling light is trying to find patterns to use. If you're like me and are incredibly jealous of those people who can draft their own clothing patterns, but are not able to do it yourself, you're going to have to find a suitable pattern from somewhere. Most of the regular clothing pattern companies don't really do patterns that are purpose-designed for outdoor gear, so you have to look further.

In my online travels, these are the ones I have found:

Jalie patterns. Jalie make contemporary ultra-multisize sewing patterns (from child to adult) for outdoor gear, sportswear (cycling, gymnastics, skating, swimming, and ballet), maternity and casual wear.

Green Pepper Patterns. Adult and children's outdoor clothing, and acccessories such as hats and bags.

Shelby Extreme Materials and Gear. Outdoor clothing tested by the Finnish Scouts! Both shareware and retail patterns.

Thru-Hiker.com. Kits for outdoor gear, including materials needed. Not available as patterns only. Forum community to help with construction and any questions.

Sew-Go patterns. Bags, tents, bike bags, sleeping bags, clothing, etc.

Controlled Exposure Patterns. Hat, gloves, gaiters, pants.

The Rainshed. Books and patterns for outdoor gear.

If you know of other patterns for outdoor gear, please let me know, and I will add them to the list.

Why Tom Bihn's Aeronaut bag is a work of design genius

2009-02-27T21:35:00.005+11:00

I think I've mentioned that in my everyday life I am a designer. I am trained as a graphic designer, and regularly employ my skills as a book designer in publishing my own books. However, I primarily work as an embroidery designer. Because of that I have pretty good sewing skills, and occasionally try my hand at drafting my own patterns. (Oh, how I would LOVE to do a pattern drafting course to really understand garment construction...!) I think I have also mentioned that I am currently working on designing my ideal bag for my personal requirements.

With all that out of the way, by way of background, I now come to my main point:

Tom Bihn's Aeronaut bag is a work of design genius.

Now let me tell you why.

Good bags are made to last. The ones that last are the ones that don't develop spots of particular wear, because that's where holes are most likely to develop.

The places that are most likely to wear are along the edges. Most bag manufacturers get around this problem by putting vinyl piping along the edges. This is pretty ugly, and also adds to the weight. It does counteract the wear in those places though.

A far more stylish solution is to build it into the bag so that there are no sharp corners.

Let's think about your regular suitcase. Its basically a rectangular prism. (fig a)

Its pretty easy to round off some of those corners by rounding the corners of the end panels. (fig b) However, that still leaves us with a sharp edge at the ends. (fig c)

So how can you round that off as well?

Ok, shift your mind to thinking about a tennis ball. (fig d) It is covered in that weird felty sort of fabric. Its a sphere, but its covered in only two pieces.

By creating two curved, interlocking pieces (fig e), you can cover the whole tennis ball in two almost flat pieces of fabric (not completely flat, because felt has a bit of give, and will stretch somewhat around the ball shape too).

This is what Tom Bihn has done with the ends of his Aeronaut bag. By curving the ends of the bag body into the end panels, he has managed to round off all the edges and corners of the bag. Pretty clever!

Seams add structure to a garment or in this case, a bag. You end up with a double thickness of fabric along the inside of the seam, in the form of a seam allowance. Along the length of the seam, this double thickness of seam allowance gives body. Tom has seams along (or near) most edges of the bag, which helps to give the bag structure, helping it to hold its shape.

However, seams are also naturally weak points across their joins. Its because they have only sewing thread to hold them together, which is not nearly as strong as the woven fabric itself. In looking at the Aeronaut, one of the things I noticed was that most of the seams are curved. I figured there had to be a reason for it. (You wouldn't do it just for fun, because it would actually make sewing the bag together considerably harder, and time is money...) However I realised that by curving the seams, Tom has cleverly moved them away from any absolute edges of the bag (which are rounded anyway) to reduce the impact of these weak points being on the edges.

In having the separate end compartments, he has created "baffles" (by use of the internal walls) which also add structure to the bag, making it stronger and less likely to bulge outwards. Bulging can be a concern for any soft-sided luggage, but the baffles cleverly help to minimise it.

I can see all of this just from analysing the pictures on the Tom Bihn website. I've never even seen one of these bags in the flesh, yet I can tell the guy is a genius. I take my hat off to him.

So the question you're probably asking is, "If you love it so much, why don't you just buy one?" The answer to that, my friend, is that unfortunately the genius Aeronaut is way too long for the maximum legal carry-on of the airline that I most regularly fly with. :-(

more on packing cubes

2009-02-27T06:30:00.001+11:00

Have been reading up more about packing cubes. (Mesh packing cubes from Magellan's shown right.)

One really good case FOR them is that when your bags are searched by airport officials, they don't mess everything up so much, because they can simply take out the cubes and put them each through the scanner.

I reckon that even though we use Doug Dyment's wonderful clothes packing method, the whole bundle could still be put into a packing cube to keep them neatly bundled.

I DO like the idea of everything being nicely sectioned off, so that all the little things don't fall to the bottom of the luggage. I'm really getting close to wanting to try them.

Now, I wonder if they could help me organise my office and keep it nice and tidy...?! Maybe that's going a bit far...

The Bookworm and Bendy

2009-02-26T06:16:00.000+11:00

I'm sick of typing "our eldest daughter" and "our youngest daughter". It is too unwieldy, and doesn't read very personally. So we're creating mysterious avatars for them.

Our eldest daughter is a voracious reader, so she's The Bookworm.

Our youngest seems to be completely made of rubber, and can fold herself in half - so she's Bendy.

Make your own gear: windshell

2009-02-25T07:21:00.000+11:00

I have finished making my windshell out of the pertex fabric.

It looks a little crushed because I'd just taken it out of its stuff sac just before the photo. It squishes down to be wonderfully tiny, as you can see from it in its stuff sac.

The completed windshell jacket weighs just 93grams including its little sac. I was really pleased with the result.

The pattern I have used is a free pattern from Shelby Extreme Materials and Gear, called Vuokatti. I stumbled across the Shelby website, while looking for something else. I then noticed that they had some patterns for sale, and THEN noticed that they had some for free. I looked through them and decided that I would be able to adapt the Vuokatti pattern to make what I wanted.

Vuokatti is actually a pattern for a knit top, with no zip. Because I wanted to use woven fabric, instead of a knit, I first did a test from some similar fabric to see that the fit was ok. I needed to make a few adjustments to make the less "male" and more female in shape. I also needed to adapt it to put the full zip down the front.

Am really happy with the result, particularly that it compacts so well, and is so light. This afternoon we are supposed to be having some light showers, so I look forward to seeing how water-resistant it is. Pertex fabric is not waterproof, but is water-resistant. It will be interesting to see how it goes, but any water-resistance is basically a bonus, because that's not the point of this item of clothing.

The idea of a windshell is not that it is water-proof - that would be a different piece of clothing. A windshell is to cut the amount of wind that goes through one's clothing, the idea being that if you cut the windchill, you make yourself much warmer. My plan therefore is that I will be able to wear this over the top of my other clothing so that I cut the windchill.

Taking into account the amount of fabric I have used, the zip, the binding and the thread, my jacket has cost me the princely sum of $AU20 - a huge saving on what you might pay retail.

Kids, toilets and other yukky bits...

2009-02-24T06:56:00.000+11:00

A very important consideration for any parent with young children is toilets! Public toilets can be difficult or even impossible to find, so one often needs to think ahead.

Firstly, explain to your children that finding toilets is going to be difficult, and they are going to need to give you as much warning as they possibly can, when they need to go. Then, they might need to hang on for enough time for you to locate a suitable toilet. Also, if they need to sit down, they will have to wait long enough to put toilet paper on the seat. You just don’t know how clean these things are...

Secondly, before you leave anywhere where there are toilets, such as a hotel, museum, shopping centre, cafe, make the kids go - whether they need to or not. You are the parent - tell them to!

Then, when you arrive anywhere where there are toilets, ask them if they need to go. When you are leaving, make them go again. When there are no likely locations, look for public libraries, museums, galleries, McDonalds, cafes, restaurants etc. Keep in mind that it is good manners to purchase at least something from any eatery whose toilets you may need to use. And if these options still do not present themselves, look for pay toilets (oh, I shudder to think of them) or find a quiet corner in a quiet street or garden (hey, the locals do it!). You might like to keep a small quantity of toilet paper with you in a ziplock bag for such eventualities. You’d be surprised how helpful people can be when you have a child who desperately needs to go.
After all, they don’t want the little surprise on their floor.

We haven’t yet encountered any squat toilets with our kids, and I can only imagine how “interesting” that will be.

As a dad with daughters, accompanying my kids to the toilet in different countries can be fraught with difficulty. As most dads will testify, men's public toilets are not a great place to take children - especially little girls. Our local shopping centre has "Parent's Rooms" specially set up with baby change facilities and kid-sized toilets, and Dads - as well as Mums - freely use them, this is not the cultural norm in many societies. While in transit in Dubai airport, I did wonder about asking the concierge where I could take my daughter when she needed her nappy changed just to see what the reaction would be (I was obviously bored...).

My best advice would be - if they are available - to use the disabled toilet facilities located separately from both the male and female toilets.

And just to brag, we took our very young daughter to the Art Gallery of NSW. She needed to have her nappy changed, and the only baby change facilities available were in the female toilets. After enquiring politely where a dad might take their child (met by baffled looks, and stammered half-apologies that such a facility didn't exist), I made a written complaint in the gallery visitor's comment book. We recently visited again, and I was gratified to note that baby change facilities have since been installed in the men's room. One point for the dads!

If you are early on in the toilet training process while on holidays, keep the child in nappies (diapers). It will be less traumatic for them, and you won't have to deal with bedwetting. Make sure you take half a dozen or so, so that you have plenty of spares.

Vomit. Ah, yes, we can plan all we like, but we are helpless in the face of vomit. Tummy upsets are caused by all manner of things: badly cooked food, something in the water, overheating, car sickness (or seasickness, air sickness etc.), poor hygiene and any number of micro-organisms designed to wreck a good holiday. But once your kid has it, there are a few things you can do to help.

Be able to locate a pharmacy. Travel guides often tell you what the local version of a pharmacy looks like. You may not speak the language at all, but sign language can communicate a lot.
Boil your water, or buy water in fully sealed bottles. Make sure your kid doesn't get dehydrated. Use water purifying tablets if necessary.
Rest as much as possible. If car sickness is the issue, take breaks, wind down the window to let fresh air in, and don't let them put their head down (e.g. reading, drawing etc.).
Watch what they eat, and don't give them anything too rich, spicy or fibrous. Bland is best. We fed our unwell daughter orange juice and hot chips in Singapore and paid dearly for it. So did the hotel housekeeping staff, who had to change the cot sheets. Sorry...
Don't make them do too much. This might mean missing out on a particular sight, but your child's health is important. Our daughter had the opportunity to vomit at the Tower of London. As a result, Yvette didn't do the tour, but spent an hour or so sitting in the not unpleasant grounds inside watching the ravens and the Yeoman Warders. Find something "low impact" to do: sit by a river, in a town square, on a beach and watch the world go by.

Dealing with the yukky bits is part of being a parent - you've just got to take the necessary precautions so the yukkiness is minimised on holidays.

Self-catering: How do we do it?

2009-02-23T08:00:00.000+11:00

OK, so one of the best parts of the travel experience is surely the experience of food. In a previous post, we mentioned kids and restaurant behaviour. We love to take our kids to restaurants so they can experience dining out, as well as experience the local cuisine. But it can be expensive, and add to the general unsettledness that kids feel when away from home. We have found that self-catering in our hotel room is possible, though it calls for a LOT of creative thinking!

To prepare for the self-catering experience, here's what we take with us:

4 x plastic plates
4 x plastic bowls
4 x plastic cups
6 sets of disposable picnic cutlery
1 x flexible cutting mat (ours is actually a Tupperware freebie giveaway cutting mat)
1 x washing up brush
concentrated washing up liquid (less than 100ml, to comply with LAG regulations)
a universal sink plug
1 x quick dry face washer to use as a teatowel

Naturally, we have weighed everything - and we never buy expensive items. We had two bowls cracked through careless baggage handlers when we used to do checked luggage, so it all has to be cheap. We went with disposable picnic cutlery because we really didn't know if it would be confiscated at customs: it wasn't (and we went through baggage screening in Sydney, Hong Kong, Paris, Lisbon and London).

Here's some things we have done. Firstly, find a supermarket, general store, or similar near to your hotel. For example, in Seville, we found a small shopping centre about 5 minutes walk from our hotel. In Paris, we used small stores such as boulangeries, greengrocers and cafes. Even in Tahiti, where we stayed at a very plush hotel, we walked about 20 minutes to the local Carrefour supermarket (where the cheese counter was breathtakingly huge, and stocked full of French cheeses. Mmmm...!).

These sorts of stores are the self-catering key to success. Secondly, scope out your hotel room for possible equipment bonuses. Sometimes they have fridges. OK, so these aren't always very cold, but they open up the possibilities. A few have had microwaves - but they are a rarity. Many have tea and coffee facilities, including either a kettle or a coffee machine. The equipment provided will dictate the limits of your catering options.

KETTLE

One of the key appliances will be a kettle. There's a lot you can do with boiling water. For someone like me, the main thing is a decent cup of tea. If the hotel lacks tea-making facilities, I buy my own tea at the supermarket. In Portugal, we purchased a cheap kettle at a supermarket for the whole journey, then 'donated' it to our last hotel room. There are all sorts of substances in packages that you can turn into meals (or partial meals) simply by adding boiling water. These include soups, noodles and rice dishes.

When in America, we had to make do with the ubiquitous filter coffee machines. We had to run boiling water through them quite a few times to reduce the coffee taste! And I did wonder whether you could actually cook on the hotplate that sits underneath the coffee pot - though that's probably a safety hazard!

We boil fresh water each night and pour it into our 1 litre collapsible water bottles to cool down in preparation for use the next day. Boiling the water is a safety precaution against picking up some bugs or diseases, though obviously in some destinations you would need to do more than that to get safe drinking water.

KNIVES

In addition to a kettle, when we finally arrive at our longest land-based section of the holiday, we buy some cutting knives. We got a packet of two perfectly adequate vegetable/fruit knives in a Lisbon supermarket for only 0.50 eurocents. We use these for cutting fruit, vegetables, cheese, bread rolls - anything at all, really. Buy some knives - they are incredibly useful. Obviously we can't take them on planes any more...

PLASTIC WRAP

We also usually buy the cheapest roll of plastic food wrap, so we can contain any partly used food - half tomatoes, cheese etc. An alternative to this is ziplock bags that can be washed out when used, ready for re-use.

FOOD

Food ideas we have used successfully:

Barbeque chickens (either hot or cold)
Fresh bread rolls / baguettes / sliced bread
Salad vegetables, such as tomato, lettuce - things which may not need refrigeration for a day or two if we don't have a fridge
Some just-add-water rice or noodles
Fresh fruit
UHT milk, which doesn't need refrigeration. We spent two weeks in New England and Quebec surviving on powdered milk. By the time we got to our last week in New York we were positively craving fresh milk. Our walk to the supermarket each afternoon for a litre or two was a delicious treat.
fruit juice in resealable cartons or boxes
cheese (it doesn't always need refrigeration. The fromagerie we visited in Paris had hundreds of cheeses, NONE of which were refrigerated)
tinned beans (a cheap alternative source of protein, instead of meat) with ring-pull lid - or you will need to buy a tin opener
breakfast cereal

Sometimes we have purchased items such as yoghurt, fresh milk or ice-cream late in the afternoon - on the way back to the hotel - with the intention of eating it that night for dinner. In Paris, we were fortunate to have a cafe across the street from our hotel, where we were able to buy fresh croissants each morning for breakfast. Be sure to take advantage of opportunities like that!

PACKAGING

Take note of the packaging that your food comes in. Sometimes it can be transformed into something very useful, such as a storage container. We bought some cherries which came in a plastic box with a flip-top lid: and the box became a perfect holiday food storage container after we washed it up.

Obviously, once in the hotel room it can be a bit tricky to prepare all this food. The little writing tables sometimes provided are not designed to be as spacious as your kitchen! If chairs are provided in the room, we usually insist that the kids sit at the table to eat. This helps to contain the mess. Having them eat from plates delicately poised on their laps, or sitting on one of the beds is, to us, just asking for trouble. And trouble is what we try to avoid.

Washing up is done in the bathroom sink. Some hotels provide huge benchtops in their bathrooms. Make the most of these. Some provide little more than the sink itself. Either way, if your kids are old enough, they might need to pitch in to help clean up because there probably won't be room to neatly stack the washing up. Taking a universal sink plug is a good idea. Once we had a hotel room with a plug that didn't seal the hole very well, and found washing up frustrating to say the least. We also use some of the boiling water from the kettle to ensure that the water is hot enough to remove greasy food residue and to prevent bacterial growth on the plates.

Self-catering: Why do we do it?

2009-02-22T07:26:00.000+11:00

There are five basic reasons why we self-cater when travelling with kids.

It is affordable. Restaurants are not usually cheap, and this is compounded when you have to rely on them for most meals. Breakfasts in hotels - even budget, chain hotels - can be quite expensive, though admittedly the convenience they offer is sometimes unbeatable.

It gives your kids a sense of the "familiar", and it can keep fussy eaters happy. If you ever hear “But I don’t like any of this stuff”, you'll know what we mean. In a new country where the food is different, you’re bound to get this with most kids. Give them something they know, and they’ll be much easier to keep happy. That said, we do like to make the effort to eat the local cuisine wherever possible.

Recently we kept the kids happy by choosing an Italian/Portuguese restaurant in Portugal. The kids enjoyed a pizza, and we got to try the delicious local Portuguese food. We also figure that when the kids are older (or when we are older and travelling without them), that will be a better time to sample local delicacies.

It is great when the kids are tired. Dining out with tired, grumpy kids is not fun. In any way, or for anyone. Preparing your own food in you hotel room, at a time convenient to you, takes effort but is actually quite liberating. You can feed them and get them into bed quickly, and not share their little meltdown with the rest of the known world.

It makes dining out less of a chore and more of a treat. We have had many wonderful experiences dining out with our kids. They have (almost) always been made to feel welcome in restaurants. Indeed, some have gone out of their way to make them welcome - provided activities, waiters playing silly games with them, modifying menu items etc. But this is partly because they are not having to endure that environment every night. They can't always be "on show" or "on their best behaviour". But sometimes they can be. We do eat out when travelling - about every third night, or maybe a big lunch.

Almost every restaurant we have dined in has welcomed our kids - and we have to thank self-catering for that, because it becomes a treat, not a chore. I would like to (but won't) name-and-shame a certain restaurant along Brompton Road, South Kensington (between the V&A Museum and Harrod's) for the appalling way we were treated simply because we had a child in tow (and only one extremely well-behaved child, too, not both of them). But in the main, self-catering gives dining out a better chance of being a pleasure.

Self-catering allows you to monitor your kids' diets a bit more. Before we took up self-catering, our eldest once lived off hot chips for three weeks. We shouldn't have let her. Self-catering means we don't give them that option every meal.

I don't know whether hotels really approve of self-catering, but I don't really care either. We make sure never to leave a mess, though there's usually a tell-tale food smell. We could just have easily brought a pizza back to our room, so how are they to know the difference - apart from the stuff that's in the bin...

We do it to make life a bit easier all round: easier on the kids, on our sanity, and on our pockets.

Make your own gear: travel clothes

2009-02-21T07:12:00.003+11:00

Sewing is something of a lost art these days, but for those who like me do still sew, it can be frustrating to not be able to easily buy those special fabrics that you want.

When we took our last trip overseas, because we wanted to travel light, we took clothes with us that were specifically designed to dry quickly. (If you take less, you have to wash more often... or just stink.) Now pretty much any nylon or polyester of a light weight will dry quickly, but many will also be like living in a sauna in hot climates, because they often just don't breathe.

There are lots of high-tech new fabrics out there that have been carefully engineered to wick moisture away from the skin - making you feel drier and more comfortable - AND also dry quickly, and with a minimum of wrinkling. These are the holy grail of fabrics for travel clothes.

Of course, you can just go out and buy a purpose-made travel wardrobe, but these items of clothing tend to be expensive. And for kids, the clothing can be almost impossible to find! Sure, you can often get fleece clothing and maybe raingear for kids, but other clothing is a bit harder to come by.

So I solved this by making clothes out of these high-tech fabrics for my kids last time. Sounds simple, but finding the fabrics can be really difficult, especially in a country like Australia. While the manufacturers can easily enough obtain these fabrics, because they buy in bulk, buying these fabrics retail by the yard or metre can be quite hard!

Where to get wicking, quick dry, wrinkle-free fabrics:

Try looking on eBay. This can mean hours of trawling, and its quite difficult if you're not sure what you're looking for. Then once you find something that looks promising, it can be difficult to know exactly what you are getting. You just have to hope for the best sometimes, if you decide to go this route.

I recently purchased some fabric on eBay that was said to be Pertex, which is a breathable DWR (durable water repellant) fabric that I intend to make into windshells. Now apparently Pertex cannot be purchased retail. So I'm not sure where this fabric came from, or even if it really IS Pertex. However, now that I've received it, I've tested it out - I can breathe through it easily enough, and water flicked onto it just balls up and runs off. So whether it is Pertex or not, it does what I want it to, so I'm happy. And it was a good price. :-) I'll get several windshells out of the 10 metres that I bought for less than $100, instead of paying hundreds for a shop-bought top.

For our last trip I bought a load of fabric from Rose City Textiles in Portland, Oregon, USA. They specialise in selling closeout fabrics from large domestically produced sportswear companies. They first sent me a small range of samples which I had chosen from their very large range. Then I evaluated them for what I wanted, and sent in my order. Rose City Textiles were a pleasure to deal with, and my order arrived quickly and in good condition.

There are many other fabric retailers catering mostly to the outdoor/adventure/backpacking type community, that you can also purchase from, though I haven't found any anywhere other than America and Canada. Maybe that's the subject for another post. Australia sorely needs a retailer like this.

If you have had some success purchasing high-tech fabrics for your travel clothing needs, please let me know who you dealt with, and what you liked about them. It would be great to put together a list of these sorts of companies as a resource for all of us.

Happy sewing!

More happiness gained from experiences

2009-02-20T07:08:00.004+11:00

I heard on the radio the other day that a study has been done that shows that more happiness is gained from experiences than from things.

Say you were to receive an unexpected windfall. Don't rush out and buy that new plasma screen TV (there's nothing to watch on TV anyway!) Apparently it will make you happier if you spend your money on experiences, such as a meal with friends or family, a holiday, or seeing a movie.

We have made the conscious decision not to send our kids to private schools (with all their associated fees) so that we can instead take big family holidays. For us, we would much prefer to enjoy travelling with our kids and utilising the education that living life provides. We don't have a TV, we don't have mobile/cell phones. We figure that we would prefer to spend our money on creating fun family memories with our kids.

If you think about it, it does seem to make sense. When we buy something new, like a new computer, a new car, a new item of clothing, it usually only holds our interest for a period of time before it becomes outdated or obsolete, or just doesn't "do" it for us anymore.

Shared experiences, on the other hand, provide special memories. Memories last a lifetime (except when we forget them...!)

Its nice to see that perhaps we are on the right track - indulging in experiences is likely to provide our family with much more happiness.

make your own gear: luggage without wheels

2009-02-19T07:03:00.002+11:00

On our last trip we adults took a wheelie bag each, that converted to a backpack. I find that having a backpack is essential when travelling and needing to hold children's hands. Sure its great for stairs and things like that, but my prime love is for how it helps me maintain my children's safety.

I have been thinking that I'd like to ditch the wheels.

I walk everywhere when at home, and I always carry a backpack on my back. This is a product of pushing a stroller for many years - a backpack just suited me best for carrying things.

So I've been thinking that if I want to reduce the weight of what I take on holidays with me (and I certainly do!), one big way to do that is to lose the wheels, because in so doing, you don't only lose wheels but the whole handle structure of the bag that goes with them. That certainly reduces the weight.

I've been looking at bags. One website that I have been particularly taken with is Tom Bihn Bags. I love the look of their Aeronaut bag. It seems to me to be fabulously practical. It has a main central section and two separate end sections. It can be hand held like a normal suitcase, used with a shoulder strap (I cannot fathom why you would do this - it would be dreadful for your back!), and when the stowable backpack straps are whipped out, it can be carried like a backpack. This is what I would do. I like the way it has inbuilt sections. This would help to stop all the little "bits" falling around in a bag that is anything but completely full. I don't want to have to travel with my bag full, so this is a consideration for me.

However, it is TOO big for me. I often travel with Virgin Blue (an Australian airline) when I travel for business, and the Aeronaut is way too big for their maximum carry-on size. Of course, I would not be wanting to check my bag if at all possible, so this too is important to me.

There are a couple of other changes I would prefer to be made to the lovely Aeronaut, to suit my needs too. Like it would be good if the compartment sections could be zipped down to fold them out of the way if you did want to use the bag as a one or two compartment bag - if you had something long to carry, for example. And it would be interesting to see whether one of the end sections could be collapsible, for the sake of travelling on Virgin Blue with its very short maximum length.

But I really like the functionality of their design. And they look to be exceptionally well made.

I am quite handy with fabric and a sewing machine (in my work life I am an embroidery designer) so now I am considering designing and making my own bag just for me and my personal requirements. My brain has therefore been working overtime on this little design dilemma (a good dilemma though!)

I have looked and looked at all the bits I would need. Things like fabric, zips, buckles and attachmenty sorts of things. I can get everything locally except for water-resistant zippers - IF I decide to go for water-resistant zippers. And if I don't then I still want YKK zips because apparently they are the BEST, and I still need to find them locally.

And all for a lot less than it would cost me to import one of the gorgeous, luscious Tom Bihn bags. Of course their bags are designed and constructed by people who have been doing it for years. They have knowledge and expertise that I don't have. No doubt they have made and fixed lots of mistakes to come up with the designs that they now have. I don't have the luxury of all that, but still, I reckon I can make a sturdy, well constructed bag that suits my needs.

I'm certainly willing to give it a go.

Driving and kids

2009-02-18T06:55:00.000+11:00

So here in Australia we drive on the left. Sensibly, they do so in the UK and Ireland - so it isn't that challenging to make that transition.

Much of the rest of the world drive on the right, with the car steering wheel on the left, and the gearstick on the right of the driver, and the windscreen wiper and indicator levers switched over. This takes some getting used to. Driving straight ahead is fine, but turning corners (at intersections) is a major intellectual challenge to prevent turning onto the wrong side of the road. Learning to drive a car in "mirror image" is enough of a challenge without having to deal with kids as well.

On our trip to the USA and Canada, I drove from Albany in New York State to Quebec City, Canada through Vermont - and back. I picked up the car at Albany airport and it was pouring with rain. We also pretty quickly faced the horrific "spaghetti" of the freeways on the fringe of the city. Not a great start for basically a jet-lagged learner driver with two kids in the back. So how do we manage it?

1. The driver makes the rules, and all the passengers follow. The first rule (for the first day at least) is: no talking until I say so. That way I can concentrate on reading signs, taking directions from the navigator (a person that is, not a piece of electronic equipment) and generally finding my way. If travelling through the countryside, I tend to relax this rule after a little while - once I'm a bit more relaxed. But even then, talking must be quiet - and definitely no bickering or whingeing!

2. Have something for them to do. We pack a small bag of activities for them to do for the aeroplane, and this doubles as in-car activities. Books to read (though be wary of car-sickness), colouring-in, puzzle books, soft toys for imagination games etc. all make great diversions.

3. Towns and cities need concentration, especially when searching for accommodation or trying not to get tangled in the maze of streets that make up every medieval walled city in Europe! Kids need to understand that they are being helpful if they are quiet at this time, and that things will go much more smoothly if they co-operate. Our kids were extremely helpful in this regard when I got entangled in the streets of Seville and took ages to find my way out. They knew I needed to concentrate, and were extremely helpful in keeping the noise down in the back seat so I could get out of the maze.

4. Take breaks. This is as good for you as it is for the kids. Driving is tiring - Australians know this because we are accustomed to driving long distances. Get out of the car. Get some food. Find some grass or a park and let the kids run around. Kids cope with long drives so much better if they can have time to run around, rather than being cooped up in a car for hours and hours. If you are getting at all frustrated (whether because of the kids or some other reason), you need to take a break for your own sanity and driving safety.

5. If they're old enough, have the kids follow the trip on a map. They might like to work out how far there is to go, and be able to identify the towns along the way. They might be able to work out where you need to turn off the freeway in order to enter a town. Have them look out for parking spaces too - these can sometimes be difficult to find.

6. Try to never drive in really horrendous cities. That's why we picked up the car in Albany, and not New York City. Nor did we drive in Paris. We've driven out of Rome once, and into London (to drop off the car) on another occasion and learned from both experiences: just don't do it. It is not worth the stress. If you do, try arriving on a weekend. We serendipitously found ourselves driving into London on a Saturday and found the traffic - though bad - was better than it would have been during the week.

7. Learn to drive before you go. I drive a car with an automatic transmission at home. In Rome, we hired one with a manual transmission (to save money). In retrospect, I should have spent the extra and saved myself a huge amount of angst. I bunny-hopped that car out of Rome (with the police behind me laughing at my driving), and took 17 changes of lights to get it moving through one set of traffic lights in Tuscany. And I got it stalled under the toll barrier on the autostrada. Memorable experiences, but highly stressful.

8. Hire the smallest car you can for the number of passengers and luggage you have. It will be easier to find parking spots for it, and will most likely be more fuel efficient. A big 4WD or SUV is completely inappropriate in Europe: you will get stuck in the towns.

And if you're still not game, book organised tours - or get yourself a chauffeur!

Why take the kids: the expanded version

2009-02-17T06:13:00.001+11:00

We choose to travel with our kids for all sorts of reasons. We've done three long-haul overseas trips from Australia since the eldest was 20 months old, and we're not about to give up now. So why do it?

1. To see the world. Yeah, I know the world is full of pretty grim news. There are major crises, wars, disease, social ills of every kind, but the world is also a beautiful place. The natural world is awesome, the cultural world rich beyond description, and people everywhere are worthy of appreciation and respect. We have been shown tremendous kindness as visitors to other places by complete strangers, and this inspires hope in us that the world is not yet ready to blow itself to bits. The world is inherently interesting: socially, culturally, artistically, naturally.

2. To build our family. Travelling with our kids forges strong shared memories, and shared memories are one of the building blocks of family stability. Even long after our return from overseas, one of us will come across a picture of a place we have visited, thus setting off the "We've been there..." and "Do you remember when..?" reminiscences.

3. To show our kids that not everyone is like us, nor is everywhere like Australia. We have to face the fact that our little corner of the world is pretty good. Socially, economically and politically stable, with more than its fair share of affluence. We want our kids to grow up knowing that it is a privilege, and not a right, to grow up in our society. We want them to understand that not everyone has what we have, nor do they think the way we think. In fact, they might hopefully learn that less economically fortunate places have advantages that our kids will never have at home.

4. To help them appreciate differences in culture. Language, food, customs, beliefs, artistic and musical traditions, history, geography, climate, ecology. You name it, it's going to be different despite the best efforts of a certain superpower to create a global monoculture.

5. To challenge ourselves. In the first instance, we wanted to see if we could do it and survive. Now we do it partly to challenge ourselves to make the next trip a little better than the previous one - for us and the kids.

6. To introduce our kids to the iconic places and milestones in our own cultural heritage. Western culture comes in for a bit of a hiding from the media, but whether we like it or not it is the cultural heritage tradition to which our family is connected. This gives a not-very-politically-correct Eurocentricity to our heritage, despite living across the globe from Europe. But the roots of our culture, our laws, religion, art, music, language and history come from thousands of miles away in places we have - mostly - never seen. We are newcomers to Australia - arriving here a little over 200 years ago. Being proudly Australian I still want our kids to know our roots since it is patently false to claim that our roots are "from here".

7. Because there is so much to learn - and experience is a great teacher. Sure, we could stay at home and pore over glossy art books to get a sense of art history, or go to Virtual Pompeii on the internet, but there's nothing like reality to inspire and teach. I own dozens of books, on all sorts of subjects, but there's nothing like standing in a place and thinking, "Now I know what this is really like". Books, TV and the internet are great tools, but real life experiences can't be beaten to teach a kid (or an adult!) something.

8. Because our kids are part of our family, and are therefore our responsibility. Just because we're going overseas doesn't give us the right to abrogate our responsibilities for looking after them completely or farm them out to relatives. We have an obligation to include them in our family experiences, and that includes the big travelling trips. They are not our "optional extras" or "accessories".

9. Because sometimes they are useful to take! Everything from skipping queues in customs because of a screaming child to the fact that our then 7-year-old read important information on a sign in Hong Kong airport about baggage security that neither of us adults saw!

So, if you can manage it take your kids with you. Travelling with them IS different to travelling just with adults, but there is a lot to be gained by doing so.

Kids and the Louvre: a survival guide

2009-02-16T06:04:00.000+11:00

The Louvre, or any other major museum (the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum etc.) need special thought when taking the kids.

These places are packed. Packed with people, and packed with things to see. The crowd in front of the Mona Lisa is ridiculously large all the time, and overwhelming for adults let alone the children.

Before you travel, visit the website for any of these museums, and identify all of the exhibits that you really want to see. The websites usually have floorplans, so use them to map out the location of these exhibits. There are often online "collection highlights" guides so you can see what the best exhibits are - particularly useful if you know nothing about the museum before you go.

Aim to see the exhibits on your list, but keep an eye on the ones you pass on the way. These will be bonuses you can add to your experience. We had a very small 'hit list' for the Louvre, despite being art-aware: the Mona Lisa (a bit cliche, I know, but it was our first visit), the two Slaves by Michelangelo, and the Nike of Samothrace were the top three. Connecting them, however, we discovered the Coptic Gallery, the Greek red- and black-figure vases, ancient sculptures, and European painting from the Renaissance.

The Louvre contains many other glorious exhibits worthy of further exploration, but we saw those things most important to us, got in a few bonuses, and got out with no complaining from the kids.

A similar technique worked well at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but we failed to use it at the Natural History Museum and boy did I pay for it with the whingeing...

Wandering aimlessly, especially with kids, is a certain path to mental instability. It might start out as fun, but it won't end that way.

Normal is what you make it

2009-02-15T06:41:00.001+11:00

When we travel, we expect to do a lot of things that we don't do at home. Otherwise there is little point in going. And we expect our kids to join in as well. This applies to eating "foreign" food, visiting museums/galleries/historic buildings, walking lengthy distances, travelling quietly on aeroplanes and in cars (so as to not distract the driver in the car) etc.

Many people say that you can't expect to take your kids to a whole heap of museums or they'll be bored.

Codswallop.

If you've always done it, it will be normal for them. Whenever you do it, they learn how to behave in such environments (e.g. not touching displays) and it is amazing at just how engaged even very young children can be in galleries and museums.

You generally just have to find something that they can relate to. Read the guidebooks or websites of the attractions and anticipate some things you are likely to see. I once created a treasure hunt booklet for our eldest daughter (then aged 5) so she could find particular things in various New York galleries. She loved it.

The same goes for eating out. If your kids do it from a young age, they will know what is expected and behave accordingly. Encourage, but don't force, your kids to eat the local cuisine if they really don't want to. Giving them a bit of your dinner might suffice to broaden their culinary experience - but don't just give in to fast food. We have forever regretted having dinner in McDonald's in Quebec City, despite there being several more-than-adequate kid-friendly eateries across the street. And when in the UK, our eldest daughter survived on a diet almost completely consisting of fries - we shouldn't have allowed that either.

Don't forget that the kids are still kids. Try to find some special treats just for them - a park, a visit to the ice-cream factory, Disneyland, the beach or whatever you find.

Don't expect too much. It's one thing to extend their cultural experiences, but quite another to expect things which are way beyond them.

The pleasure is in the planning...

2009-02-14T07:45:00.002+11:00

Travelling takes planning. Travelling with kids takes even more planning. I know some people will just cringe at the thought of meticulous planning - it does lack the sort of spontaneity that many travellers enjoy. But with kids, planning can avoid wasting huge amounts of time in queues, travelling between sights and other frustrations.

I love planning the holidays, almost as much as taking the holiday itself.

Here's (roughly) what I do.

1. We decide on a destination. Our current thinking is Greece and Turkey - whittled down from an epic journey through most of Eastern Europe.

2. Then we make a list of all the most worthwhile places to visit. As a guide, I use the UNESCO World Heritage List, and a couple of excellent books: 1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die and 1001 Natural Wonders: You Must See Before You Die. We add to this anything of personal interest - for example, I have made a point of trying to see as many of Michelangelo's works as I can. I think I've only got four to go. We try to get a mix of natural and cultural places so that there's a good balance. We add to that any places that look interesting or unusual from our travel guides. The DK guides are great for this as they are pictorial as well as textual.

3. Get a map, and locate them all on the map.

4. To minimise travel, we find a centrally located cities and towns to form as a base. Sometimes, you just have to drive each day to get around the places you want to see. For example, we stayed in Seville as a base and travelled to Granada and Cordoba as day trips. It just saves repacking the luggage and hauling it around every day, and locating the new accommodation every day.

5. Join the dots. Link sights to their closest base town and estimate how many days will be required in each location, and how much time will be needed to travel between base towns.

6. We often do a lot of tweaking at this stage: trying to re-order the sequence in which we visit sights, or changing the route or direction of travel so that we spend the maximum time seeing the sights and less time on the road (or train / plane etc.)

7. Be prepared to leave something out if you just can't get it in. You will need to prioritise which sights are the "must see" ones, and which are a bonus.

8. Plan "vacant" days. You'll never know what you stumble across once actually travelling. In Quebec, we took an unplanned trip out to Parc Nationale de la Jacques Cartier and had a wonderfully relaxing day walking some of the trails and picnicking by the river.

9. Sometimes you're just going to have to drive (travel by train, etc.) to see those things you want to see. In our planning, we seem to have the uncanny knack of having "must see" sights which are located at the furthest extremities of our destination!

10. Map out the whole trip, including timing for travelling and every sight you want to see.

11. Check the opening hours, times and days for every sight. This is REALLY important so that you know you can actually get into a particular place on the day you are there. Sundays in Europe can be a bit tricky, and watch out for museums closed on Mondays (though some have different closed days).

12. Take into account what your children can cope with: jet lag at the beginning, general "down" time, sleeping, rest times and their walking limit.

13. Book ahead where possible. This limits time in queues - thus minimising fuss from the kids, and you get more time actually enjoying the sights. Where you cannot book ahead (such as the Eiffel Tower), plan to arrive before opening time. We had breakfast at the base of the Eiffel Tower and were first out of the lifts at the top. No fuss for us or the kids. Some useful "book ahead" ideas:

City Passes (e.g. Paris Pass - www.paris-pass.com) if you're wanting to visit a lot of museums etc.
Individual sights (we prebooked the Alhambra Palaces in Granada)
Ferries, especially car ferries (we prebooked the Stranraer - Belfast and Wexford - Fishguard ferries)
Tours which take in a number of places of interest to you
Hotels / B&Bs / Accommodation if you have special requirements, such as cots, family rooms etc.
Any shows you might want to see
Trains which require reservations. We have no experience using Eurail, so I can't comment on that, but we took the New York to Albany Amtrak service and we needed to travel at a specific time so prebooked tickets reduced stress and hassle

14. Map your driving meticulously. I have successfully used Google Maps for driving in Spain and Portugal, and MapQuest for the UK, USA and Quebec. Google Maps was very reliable for driving directions, though it does take a bit of time to figure out the street numbers, names, and scale of distances on the ground. Have a print copy for ease of navigation, and use a tiny font size to keep the whole document as small as possible.

Our last trip to Paris, Spain and Portugal was planned in great detail before we left. Some people wouldn't be comfortable with this, but we found that it worked brilliantly. It reduced our stress over unexpected inconveniences, and made travelling with kids inherently enjoyable. The kids appreciate the element of predictability that planning gives. We felt confident in what we were doing because we didn't have to do any planning on the run.

more on bottle bags

2009-02-13T07:33:00.001+11:00

I have been corresponding with the nice people at Sea to Summit about bottle bags (see earlier post) that hang from your shoulder on a strap rather than clipping onto your (in many cases non-existent) belt. They were so very kind to point out to me that Nalgene has a range of bottle bags already in existence.

Never having seen them in any Australian store that stocks Nalgene products, I headed over to Amazon to check them out, and see if there were any reviews. There are 4 different Nalgene styles with straps that you can see on the Nalgene website.

A look on Amazon showed that of the four that I could see on the Nalgene website, only one, the Nalgene 32oz Bottle Carrier with Big Pocket, is listed. Of the two reviews, one said it was no good for jogging - well I wouldn't have expected that as it would bounce around terribly. And the other said that it was bulky and not easy to use.

They are a little more substantial than mine, which has good and bad points. I do particularly like how lightweight mine are, and kids do like to carry as little as possible generally! However, theirs are more likely to be able to take a beating! One thing I do notice about them is that the strap attaches to only one side. That seems to me like it would make the thing hang a little funny, with weight going to one side. One thing about my design was because the straps went to both sides, it hung evenly.

Then I found another bottle bag - not Nalgene brand: Mesh 22 oz. Water Bottle Holder And there were once again two reviews, one of which found it terrible for jogging (well, yeah!) and the other which loved it. This one looks like it has the straps going from the top of each side, which will make it hang more evenly. It looks as though it would be much lighter than the Nalgene one too (Amazon says 1 oz as compared to about 6 oz for the Nalgene carrier). The shoulder strap isn't padded, which is a minus.

Then, there was another one that looked pretty good too, the Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottle Shoulder Sling (27-Ounce Bottles). You're supposed to use it with a Klean Kanteen bottle (forgive me for never having heard of them...) but as one of the 31 reviewers for this product said, they'd been using other bottles in it quite successfully. Its a little heavier than the mesh one above (at 1.6 oz), and again doesn't have padding on the shoulder strap. The Amazon reviews are quite mixed, and actually a lot of people seemed to be reviewing the bottle, not the sling itself. Many found it very difficult to insert the prescribed bottle in the sling.

So, for all you people who don't have the skills to make your own, there are some shoulder bag style bottle bags already on the market. However, it seems they still may have a way to go before they are as good as we might hope.

Of the three reviewed above, my personal recommendation would be for the Mesh 22 oz. Water Bottle Holder.

kids travelling with a (small) friend

2009-02-12T07:09:00.000+11:00

Particularly for small children, travelling to unknown places can be rather disconcerting and unsettling. Despite the fact that we espouse the idea of travelling light, we believe that favourite soft toys and blankies are really important.

If your child is going to be in new surroundings their best soft toy friend or blankie from home can be a real comfort. It provides familiarity when all around seems alien.

We have a few rules:

the child may take only one “friend” and it must be small.
the owner is responsible for that friend at all times.
when leaving a plane, car, train, hotel or other accommodation, the child MUST be able to tell you where Bunny/Blankie/Dolly is at that moment, and preferably be able to SHOW you that it is in the luggage.
if we are heading out on a day trip, Bunny must stay at the hotel, to look after the bags. Bags can get very lonely... If it is a long drive in a hire car, Bunny may come, but has to stay in the car.

So far Bunny (below, aged 3 - still slightly pink - now nearly 8, and no longer pink) has been to 11 countries apart from Australia and is still with us.

learning (at least some of) another language

2009-02-11T16:09:00.001+11:00

On our most recent trip we travelled through three different languages: French, Portuguese and Spanish. In Australia, none of these languages are routinely taught in schools. In high school you might do one semester each of a few languages compulsorily, but other than that, languages are electives. Some primary schools offer a language as a pull-out subject. However most Australian schools do not have compulsory long-term learning of any language (other than English!).

What this means is that many Australians who are not immigrants and whose parents are not immigrants, do not speak any other languages other than English. Some will have a smattering of high school French or German or Japanese.

However, it is common courtesy to learn at least a little of the languages you will encounter on your holiday. My husband took several terms of French lessons at our local community college to revive his (actually excellent) high school French. Because of his efforts in French we were treated with great courtesy in Paris - even though Parisians are notorious for being rude and aloof.

We and our kids learned "please", "thank you", "hello" and "goodbye" for each language we encountered. We encouraged our children to use these words in the local language at every opportunity.The locals really appreciate people making an effort to speak some of their language.

In parts of Europe you can often find someone who will speak some English, but you can't count on it! Why should they speak English when it isn't their local language? They certainly don't have to! I can't really imagine what it would be like to come to Sydney from a French-speaking country and hope that you'll be able to converse in French. Its just not likely to happen.

It does also say a lot about language teaching/learning in Australia that it is such a low priority for us to learn other languages...

So, before you go, or even as you travel (if you have lots of different languages that you will encounter along the way) learn the basics and teach your children. The best way to learn another language is through immersion, and the best place to do that is a country where it is the local language.

Getting your kids to choose what they want to see

2009-02-10T15:26:00.000+11:00

I found a fabulous article on getting your kids to choose what they want to see.

The $ signs keep flashing in my head, but I REALLY like the idea of getting your kids involved even in the planning stages.

Our top ten reasons to travel with kids

2009-02-09T06:24:00.005+11:00

'Sisters' Batalha, Portugal.

I think that we could probably say that our kids are our very favourite travel items! There are many reasons why we choose to travel with our kids rather than leaving them at home with carers.

They are part of our family and we love to be with them.
We love to create shared memories to make our family strong.
They are cheaper to take when they are little, and in some places such as some hotels and museums, they are free!
They are such sponges for information, and what better way to learn about the world than by experiencing some of it?
While they may not remember everything they saw or did, all the experiences will add to their knowledge base and be something to build other information on.
They see the world differently to us, which can add to the richness of our experience.
In many parts of the world, kids are more highly valued than in our culture, adding to the richness their of experience.
Its always great to have your most special people with you when you experience amazing things.
They can get you through customs quicker - customs officials often like to get families through quickly.
Its great to be able to show your kids that the world is bigger than your own backyard - it broadens their horizons.

wish list: digital travel guides

2009-02-08T07:57:00.000+11:00

Our favourite travel guides are the Eyewitness Travel Guide series by Dorling Kindersley, probably because they're very visual, and so are we. The problem with these (and all other brands) is that they're so heavy. Who wants to lug around a whole heap (depending on how many countries you're going to) of heavy travel guides with them?

With the amazing uptake of netbooks over the past year or so (apparently about 1 in 10 laptop sales in Australia are now netbooks) when are DK going to release digital versions of their books so that they can be used on the computers or PDAs that people are taking travelling with them?

If they did release digital travel guides, it’s highly likely that we would end up buying both the paper version and the digital version. We'd use the paper one at home to browse through and use for armchair travel, and the digital one we would use on location.

On our last holiday we had just entered a new country with a different language and needed to find somewhere to buy some lunch. It was a Saturday afternoon in the country and it seemed like nowhere was open. We went to the tourist attraction that we planned to visit that afternoon, hoping that they might have a cafe (they didn't). Try as we might, we just didn't have enough of the language to communicate to the staff that we wanted to know where we could buy some lunch. We raced back to the car and started up the computer. We pulled up the file containing a scan of the phrasebook pages of one of our guidebooks. We were able to piece together enough words to communicate successfully what we were after.

Our computer saved the day, and it confirmed for us how useful digital guidebooks would be.

Other times, it would have been great to pull up detailed maps of where we were, or information about the place that we were visiting at that moment. Internet access isn't available everywhere, so having it all on tap would be great.

So DK, how about it? Eyewitness E-Travel?