Traveling with kids

We have been traveling with our kids since they were babies but we really started traveling with them once they were out of diapers and could carry their own backpacks! (woot woot!)

Our first really big trip with the girls was to the North Island of New Zealand in 2010. After that long flight, we decided we could travel with them anywhere!

We’ve gone on so many wonderful adventures together, as a family. It has really been amazing and we feel so lucky!

It’s never to early to take your kids with you on big trips! If you can find a way to swing it, just do it!

The earlier they experience long flights, time changes, hotel rooms, trains, boats, taxis, big cities, small towns, different foods, cultures and religions, the better! The easier it gets for them and for you and for your entire family.

As long as you try to maintain some kind of routine, keep them full, bring a favorite toy and stuffed animal, they will be OK.

The occasional bribery of ice cream helps as does a fun new activity for a long plane ride. Our girls used to love the Usborne Sticker Dolly Dressing books and as they got older they loved Thinking Putty !

International travel helps you become a citizen of the world. You learn to look beyond your house, your circle of friends, your school, your job, your neighborhood and your community. You grow, you learn and you change. This can happen if you are an adult or a kid!

Home and community are very important, but the world is so much bigger than that.

You can see first hand, the effects of war, traffic, pollution, poverty and the struggle for basic things that we take for granted like shelter and clean water. You can never get the same education from seeing these things on TV.

And you realize that there are so many things that we all have in common!

In my opinion, this early exposure helps you become more tolerant and open minded to different religions, political views and cultures and that is something that benefits us all. Peace!

TripIt, TripIt Good!

(Did you get my Devo reference? )

trip

So, what about my really long travel itinerary that I created? How did I put that together?

Well, I made that in a very cool app called TripIt . It is a travel itinerary app that organizes all of our travel plans. Yes, I did actually print it out and it was 32 pages.

Of course, being that I like to read reviews, I first read reviews of several other travel apps before I decided to go with TripIt.

TripIt didn’t have perfect reviews, but overall they were quite positive. I can use it on my laptop, iPad or iPhone although I have the most control over my itinerary from my laptop. I’m really not very technically savvy either (luckily, I have my awesome hubby to help me!) so I liked that it is very simple to use!

TripIt easily imported our flight information, train tickets, hotel and Airbnb reservations from my Gmail account and put it all into a nice, tidy format. It has room for me to type in my own notes too.

But, there have been things that I have manually put into this huge itinerary because I could not get them to import into TripIt automatically. That has been very time consuming. For example, I manually input all of our tours that we are taking as well as random things like ground transportation details from hotels. I also looked over each entry (multiple times) and made sure it had all of the details that I wanted, like I said…travel planning is very time consuming!

I also downloaded the Google Trips app on my iPhone. Although I’m not using it for my itinerary, it magically and automatically pulled most of my trip information from my Gmail so I can use the “Things to Do” part of the app if I need it. I’m still playing around with it so I may or may not keep the app….I haven’t quite decided yet.

Bottom line is that I used to type our travel itineraries in Word so this is a HUGE improvement and overall, I am very happy!

We also like to use some low tech planning in our house-obviously the travel books-but we also have a big world map on the wall. There are push pins stuck in our travel destinations and a string running between our destinations. It’s fun to have something on the wall to look at and to show our curious friends and family.

I know that many people travel the world very differently and without a lot of plans. They might be the “fly by the seat of your pants” type. I’m sure they are very content with their way of travel. Good for them! To each his own! Live and let live!

Not me though! I am definitely Type A, I hate surprises and I like to be in control. Thus, the very detailed and anal retentive planning!

I do know that things will go wrong when traveling, in fact, I expect it. So, as long as it’s not catastrophic, we can deal with it. I don’t have to like it though…

Update May 2021-Still using TripIt Pro and still loving it! It sometimes notifies us of gate changes and flight changes before we get notifications from the airlines. It’s worth every penny!

Update May 22, 2018-we’ve been using TripIt Pro throughout our travels -numerous flights and 6 countries so far. The airline updates are well worth the money!

Should you hire a tour operator for your vacation?

Maybe…

This is where you really need to do your research.

I prefer to book trips all on our own. We haven’t used tour companies to plan out the trips for us. This is because we like to be on our own and because we like to spend a minimum of 3-4 days in each city that we travel to. And, because we are pretty good at planning! But that isn’t for everyone…

You might consider booking a tour that will take care of everything for you. The tour operator may book your flights, coordinate your transportation, book your hotels, tell you where to eat, what cities to visit, plan activities and have local guides for attractions. Some people love traveling this way. These tours might be especially good options for inexperienced travelers, people who want to visit many cities in a short period of time, single travelers or people who don’t enjoy the planning process.

The benefit with traveling with a group like this besides convenience, is that you have their experience and their trusted local guides. Plus, they might be able to show you things that most tourists don’t see or know about.

I have read great things about certain tours and some of them look tempting to me.

Of course, there is Rick Steve s, you might have heard of him! He has fantastic travel guide books with lots of terrific tips and advice and he includes interesting history of the various cities that he travels to. I’ve never taken one of his tours but I have taken his advice! In fact, on a trip to The Louvre in Paris, we probably saved an hour of waiting in line by using his tip on a little known side entrance. It was awesome! He has tours all over Europe and tours specifically for families.

I also follow Adventures with Sarah on Facebook. She works with Rick Steves. I’ve really enjoyed looking at her posts on her trips to Italy as well as Thailand and Cambodia. She also gives great advice on packing light. Plus, she just looks like someone that would be really fun to hang out and have a glass of wine with!

I follow a luxury travel group and many members have said amazing things about Adventures by Disney. They have tours all over the world including South Africa, Australia, Peru, Ecuador, China, Italy, Spain, Greece, Iceland and North America, just to name a few.

If you are planning a trip to the Galapagos Islands, you might consider Metropolitan Touring -operating in the Galapagos since 1969. Their reviews are fabulous and the Galapagos is on my short list…hum?

Here is a link to Travel & Leisure’s Magazine’s article on the Best Tour Operators of 2017
http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/tour-operators

And another link to Conde Naste best of 2017
http://www.cntraveller.com/article/best-tour-operators-2017

And finally, there is a website called Stride Travel. It’s like TripAdvisor but instead of hotel reviews, you can read hundreds of tour company reviews.

What is involved with planning a trip around the world?

A whole ton of stuff!…

First up is money (decide what your budget is) and then time (how long can you be away from home?). After that, start doing your research! You also need the motivation to make the trip happen!

Once you really get started, you will need to tackle this list:

-Decide on your Round the World ticket provider (we are using Star Alliance)
http://www.staralliance.com/en/round-the-world
-Choose if you want to travel West to East or East to West
-Think about the weather in different locations
-Figure out the logistics of getting from country to country as well as various cities within the same country
-Make reservations for trains and flights
-Make hotel reservations or other housing
-Get immunizations
-Check the Center for Disease Control & Prevention website:
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel
-Check individual countries for travel warnings:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html
-Visit your doctor for travel meds (antibiotics, anti-nausea, malaria etc.)
-Apply for foreign visas
-Make sure that your passport is good for at least 6 months after your final travel date
-Get travel insurance
-Check on your international medical coverage
-Take pictures of your passport and other important documents. Travel with them in case yours are lost or stolen. Leave a copy of your itinerary and important documents at home or with a trusted friend or family member -bring 2 extra copies of a passport photo for visas upon arrival
-Put your mail on hold
-Ask your awesome friends and neighbors to check on your house (thank you!)
-Clean out the fridge and pantry
-Clean your house
-Make sure that it looks like someone is still living at your house (put lights on timers, consider having a landscaper clean up your yard)
-Pay all of your bills
-Turn off the gas
-Turn down the water heater
-Put all of your travel plans into an online travel itinerary like TripIt
https://www.tripit.com
-Pack!
-Plan more and then go over your plan again!

How did we come up with this crazy idea to travel Around the World?

It started small!

The idea for our trip of 10 countries in 100 days actually started as a much smaller idea for our next adventure. My husband and I were talking, over cocktails, (which is how all of our travel planning gets started!) and we were discussing where we wanted to go in 2018.

We have been going on an international trip almost every year for the last few years and loving it so we knew we wanted to go somewhere!

He said he wanted to go to SE Asia. I said that I would love to end up in Spain for our 20th wedding anniversary. And even though we wanted a predominately warm vacation, we agreed that we should return to New Zealand (during what would be their fall season) to tour the South Island. We also decided that if we were going to be in New Zealand, then we would only be a hop, skip and a jump from seeing my cousin and his family in Australia…and so on and so on and so on!

Well, next thing you know, we were ordering tons of travel books and mapping out possible routes around the world. I am an equal opportunity travel book lover! I don’t discriminate. I love DK Eyewitness Insider for their beautiful pictures. I love Rick Steves for his history and “best of” information. I love Lonely Planet even though I am not a young backpacker-it has great tips. I also love Foder’s and National Geographic.

We also ordered a couple of big, beautiful coffee table books filled with amazing pictures to inspire us. I really liked National Geographic Worlds Best Travel Experiences and Lonely Planet The Travel Book . Another fun and popular book is Atlas Obscura -if you are looking for strange and different things to see all over the world, this book might just be for you!

We kept thinking maybe this was a really crazy idea but then we just kept coming back to the fact that the timing in our lives was actually perfect for a trip like this. So we went for it!

After a few months of talking and reading books and blogs and travel forums, we had a pretty good idea of our plan. Now we just needed to put our destinations into the Star Alliance Round the World website and see what happened. (we did look at a few other airline Round the World plans but Star Alliance ended up being the best match for what we wanted to do.) It took a few weeks of planning and reworking our itinerary to coordinate the locations that we wanted. We played around with dates and figured out how much time we wanted to spend in each location.

So, after multiple tries of mapping out our route, we had our plan! Holy smokes! Our crazy idea was becoming a reality!

Totes, an Obsession

Obsession:

If you have an obsession, you’re totally fixated on something and unhealthily devoted to it. Some common obsessions include fantasy football leagues, celebrity gossip, and Elvis memorabilia. -taken from Vocabulary.com

Well, I’m certainly no fan of fantasy football or Elvis memorabilia (although my husband and I did renew our vows in front of Elvis for our 10 year anniversary…hum?!) but I am obsessed with the totes!

I think about tote bags a lot. Especially at night, right around 2AM when I can’t sleep. I log into my Zappos.com account and I take a look. Then, if I’m still awake I move to Amazon.com and maybe even ebags.com. When I’m feeling really sassy, I get onto Flyertalk.com-love those forums!

I have so many questions so I dive into the many detailed reviews. How much can I really cram into this bag? What are the pockets like? Are there padded pockets specifically for electronics? Is there a spot for my water bottle? Is there a pocket or a strap to attach the tote to the handle of my carryon? What are the exact dimensions? How much does it weigh? What is it made out of? Is it easy to clean? Will it fit under the airplane seat?

My heart is racing just thinking about…

Wait a second! I’m going to review the bags I already have. I don’t need anymore (for now!).

First up, the Longchamp le pliage tote-size large. It seems like everyone has this bag. OK, maybe not everyone but lots of women have this bag. It’s super lightweight, easy to clean (A bird pooped on my bag in Greece and the poop wiped right off with a wet wipe!) and it folds up nice and small. It also comes in lots of exciting colors. I have both Black and Gunmetal. (not that exciting) The downside- there is only one dumb and pretty much useless pocket inside. (but this is why it folds up small!). This bag has traveled with me a lot and it gets the job done but I wonder…is there something better!

large

Next, the Longchamp le pliage expandable tote. This bag is really, really, really big. I have not attempted to use this as my “personal item” although I have read some reviews from women who did use it as their personal item and they said they totally stuffed it under the airplane seat. Of course, they are talking about when the bag was NOT expanded. The cool thing about this bag is that you can buy lots of stuff and then carry it on and store it in the overhead bin. I checked this bag once after a trip to NY and it held up well. This is also a great bag for road trips! (In this image, it’s fully expanded)

expanded

Next up is the Baggallini Avenue Tote. This is a nice size bag and someone clearly thought a lot about how it was going to get used. It has a padded inside pocket and a fantastic outside pocket that unzips to slide over your luggage handle. It is easy to carry, even when packed. It comes in many colors and has contrasting colored lining inside. This bag is a great choice for airline travel. I wish it came in a size just slightly bigger for my around the world adventure though. That’s why I had to order a few other bags!

This Briggs & Riley Baseline Large Shopping Tote is the bag that I will travel around the world with. (I’ve been very happy with the Longchamp tote on past trips but since I downsized my roller bag a bit for this adventure, I wanted to increase my tote bag size.) With the exception of the Longchamp Expandable, this is the biggest tote bag of the bunch. You can fit an absolute ton of stuff in here…water bottle, hairbrush, jewelry and hair accessories, makeup bag, toiletries bag, liquids bag, iPad, small purse, a few travel books, travel journal, passport holder, scarf, light sweater, slippers, snacks, wet wipes and a bag of cords and chargers. I could actually cram in a bit more too! I love the amount of interior pockets plus it as a little detachable pouch that I use for my jewelry. It has nice exterior pockets as well as an ID tag. The best part is how it easily slides over my luggage handle.

The Sole Society Mason Weekend Bag.This is a cool bag and it’s different from most of my other totes. It is “fake” leather, which is great for animal lovers. What I absolutely loved about this bag was the clever zippered shoe compartment on the bottom of the bag. I packed that spot with shoes, a raincoat, travel book and a small umbrella when we traveled to Amsterdam and Paris in the fall. I did not like that the bag got a bit heavy when fully loaded and I really didn’t like that it was missing a sleeve to fit it over my luggage handle. The handles did begin to fray after a couple of trips. This is a fun bag for short domestic travel or road trips!

sole

Last up is the Baggallini Gold International Laptop Tote. This bag is very similar to the Baggallini Avenue Tote bag. It is a bit shorter in height though. I do really like the gold accents on bag but it isn’t quite big enough for me and I like the Avenue better for my travel tote so it was returned. I do have the matching purse though, just in case you were wondering, and that little purse is traveling around the world with me in my Briggs & Riley tote!

norway 1 baggallini-gold-international-provence-crossbody-basket-weave

Next up…what’s involved with planning a trip around the world?

Lightweight carry-on bags

Updated May 2021!

I still really like the Tom Bihn bag but it’s too hard for me to consider carrying a bag without wheels. However, my husband loves his bag still! He added the Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30 (a bit smaller) to his collection and the Pilot laptop bag as his personal item. These bags have been to multiple countries, traveled thousands and thousands of miles, fit on board just about every airline and have held up extremely well being checked when we felt like checking bags!

I am now thoroughly convinced that I’m a Lipault Lady through and through! (at least for now!). I have been traveling with the Lipault Plume Avenue Spinner in Black with gold zippers and I love it! I also have the matching duffel bag. My daughters are loving the Lipault bags too and using the spinners in Plume Avenue and City Plume models. All carry-on size. They also have coordinating tote bags and backpacks. I think they look pretty snazzy!

Lets take a look at some of my favorite carry-on luggage. For my requirements, it has to be very light-preferably under 5 pounds while empty and it needs to be approved on international carriers as well. You will also notice that I favor two wheels rather than spinners. I feel that the spinners take up too much space and are just a piece of luggage that might snap off but that is just my personal preference. I also don’t like how people push their spinners along in airports without really holding onto the bags-it just irritates me. No real reason why.

I really do love the Tom Bihn Aeronaut 45 bag! It is an amazingly awesome design. It’s lightweight, converts to a backpack and you can stuff a ton of clothes and shoes in it. Tom Bihn also makes awesome little organizers for the bag, like the “snake charmer” for my cords and chargers and the “311” toiletry bag. The only bummer about this bag is that it doesn’t have wheels. (but this is why there is so much internal space!) This well traveled bag has flown on many domestic and international flights and has been stuffed to capacity. I’ve never had a problem getting it in the overhead compartments.

IMG_0252 (1)

On our last international trip to Greece, I decided to try a bag with wheels. I used the Travelpro Maxlite 4 expandable 22 inch. This was a great, well made and durable suitcase. However, after all the ferry rides and stairs on the trip, I was wishing I had Tom Bihn backpack instead. But, this really was a trusty suitcase and I would totally use it again for domestic travel. This was the heaviest of all the bags that I am reviewing but to be fair, it’s still quite lightweight-about 6 pounds. We were asked to gate check my bag on one flight…I’m pretty sure I have could have made a stink and brought it on but gate checking was fine with me.

This next bag is a nylon roller bag. It’s the Osprey Ozone 22 inch bag. It’s really lightweight, about 4 1/2 pounds and it comes in this cool blue color. (I got this bag for my mom simply because of how light it is and for the color!) It also comes in red btw. It has compression straps-always good for the over packers (me!) and I really like the 3 pockets but especially the pocket located on the back. The only downside to this bag is how the telescoping handle takes up space internally. You really need to roll your clothes cleverly around the hump to maximize the space. This bag is about to embark on a tropical Hawaiian vacation. Lucky bag!

I’ve put all my eggs in one basket, or suitcase, with this next nylon roller bag. It’s the Lipault Pliable Upright 55/20 (a 21 inch bag). I decided that my daughters will take this bag as we travel to 10 countries in 100 days. This bag will get the ultimate workout! (I think a review after the trip will be in order!)

My girls have traveled with the Travelpro Maxlite in the past but for this trip, we will be going through numerous airports, including flying on some smaller planes, on and off of trains, boats and who knows what other forms of transportation! So, we downsized. This bag is really light-about 4 pounds and it’s really only a 20 inch bag, however, the soft, padded handle counts towards the total inches. Cons-I’m not in love with the outer front pocket and I wish there was a back pocket. Both of my daughters will use this suitcase in purple.

I was convinced that I would take my Tom Bihn bag around the world until I thought of all the hours I would be rushing through airports…then I changed my mind and decided that wheels would be best for this trip. The bummer is that this bag really does not hold as much and I was forced to cut 3 dresses and 3 tops from my suitcase. Major bummer for this over packer but I’m sure I will still have too many clothes!

Coming soon…tote bags!

Traveling with only a carry-on bag

I’ve ordered so many lightweight bags that I’m actually embarrassed when our UPS driver, Bruce, shows up at our house!

I am convinced that taking only a carry-on bag along with your tote bag or backpack is the only way to travel! However, I am not yet convinced which specific bag is the right one for me. So, I like to try other bags on for size.

I was so happy on a recent trip to Paris and Amsterdam that we weren’t hauling our huge checked bags everywhere. (Like we did in Italy and we only needed half of what we packed) And nowhere was more evident than on those European trains! I saw tourists struggling with their huge coffin sized suitcases and I felt sorry for them. They are so heavy to drag up the train stairs and you have to put them in a “big bag” storage area so they might not even be in your possession or sight. No thanks.

For that trip, we traveled with the Tom Bihn Aeronaut 45 bag and it was great! My husband carries his with the shoulder strap and I use mine as a backpack.

https://www.tombihn.com/products/aeronaut-45?variant=16381010567

Honestly, I think packing all my stuff in a carry-on bag is totally challenging and I don’t enjoy it. But, the pain of waiting for your luggage, the additional time it takes, the chance that it won’t even make it to your destination and the fact that items might be missing from your bag make it worth the agony over deciding which dresses and tops to cut from my little bag.

Next up…some thoughts on my favorite carry-on pieces.