Planning a family gap year, where to go, destinations, costs, ideas, saving for travel, budgets and our experiences of being on a family gap year. We sold everything to travel the world with kids then aged 6 and 8. We never went home. We have a wealth of information to share with you below. Our […]
Sadly, travel is off the cards for most of us right now. For homeschoolers our usual, parks, museums and activities are out too. Even the school kids are coming home in droves as more and more schools close their gates. What to do? As a very, very experienced homeschooler, we’ve done it from birth to […]
The internet is packed with awesome online education sites and resources and over the years we’ve tried many. Some are free, some paid, some we buy for a month, some we subscribe to for years. Below we share our favourites for any age group. In a world with so many kids off school because of […]
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Getting a Traditional Thai Sak Yant Tattoo in Bangkok
I've got my traditional Thai tattoo, it's hours old and I love it. It's about hand-sized, in the middle of my back and it holds a deep meaning. It was created by a master Ajarn - Ajarn Neng- with a traditional metal spike. It hurt, only a little. Want to know more? There is a lot more to the experience than just turning up at a tattoo shop and picking your design. Sak Yant, the ancient tattoos of Thailand and nearby parts of Southeast Asia, should be more special than that. This is how I got my traditional Thai tattoo in Bangkok. Mine was given to me by a master, with a personal consultation, blessings and prayers. I'll tell you how you can arrange one easily too. I'm a 50-year-old … read full post...
How to Make Money Travel Blogging ( From Someone Who Does)
I'm asked all the time so here are my best tips on how to make money travel blogging. Blogging funds our life, 2 adults, 2 kids now almost grown, full-time travel. Travel blogging and running this travel blog allowed us to see the world. We're 100% legitimate and the money comes from the blog, not selling courses. We genuinely love travel and sharing the world with our readers, we're going to continue to be travel bloggers not course sellers. So here are some pointers and tips to help you make an income from your blog or website. These tips aren't in any particular order and not in huge detail because I'm not writing a book here, but I hope you find these useful. Our story is simple, … read full post...
Best Anti Theft Travel Bags – (2019 – 2020 new)
When choosing a bag ( a handbag, travel purse, daypack or backpack) for travel or city use most people will give some thought to security. It makes sense to buy a bag that makes a bag snatcher's or pickpocket's life as hard as possible. We've taken a look at the best anti theft travel bags for travellers, the ones designed to keep your passport, cash and other travel essentials attached to you. These anti theft bags work just as well for daily use, anywhere in the world. In my personal experience as a global traveller of many years, a small cross-body handbag or travel purse is extremely useful. You don't always want to carry your day-pack, backpack or suitcase if you're just going out … read full post...
Best Places To Visit in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful and culturally rich places on the planet. It's one of my personal favourites of the 50+ countries we've visited and I can't recommend it highly enough for your long-term travel or holiday vacation. This post deals with best places to visit in Sri Lanka, the best attractions and historic sites. We have a Sri Lanka travel home page that can help you with all aspects of travel in Sri Lanka including health, visas, practicalities and so on ( click through on the link above) this post is just about places to see and to visit. One of you, our readers, asked me to write this post for them. I don't mind doing this at all, so if you have any questions … read full post...
London With Kids
Of all the cities in the world, London is my top pick for children because of the wealth of things to do in the UK's capital, many of them free. Of course London can be expensive too, be ready for that, but the devalued pound and good exchange rates could help foreign visitors a lot. Flights to London have also become more affordable lately. Some ideas, tips, reviews and guides on London with children, 2019 updated, some are my own childhood favourites, some are things and places my kids loved in London. Visiting London with children by a Londoner, a local mum, a returned expat and a full-time professional traveller. We returned to live in London for 8 months as part of our … read full post...
Travel Essentials I Couldn’t Travel Without 2020
It's been 8 years on the road now, what are our travel essentials and what should we have left at home? I spent 12 months thinking about what to pack for this, now epic, RTW trip. I wrote a few posts about travel gear and what I was probably going to pack as a way of getting it straight in my head and curing my terrible packing anxiety. When crunch time came I took a lot less stuff than I had planned. We were packing for world travel, but the same items are essential no matter what kind of travel you're planning. We hope our experiences learning what's essential, what's not, are helpful to you. We were travelling without my husband for the firsts 6 weeks of our trip so I had to fit … read full post...
Thailand With Kids. No Worries!
Are you worrying about travelling to Thailand with kids? We can help you with that. If you'd like to dip your toe in the water of Asian family travel, taking kids to Thailand would be my top recommendation. We have been to Thailand 20+ times, each trip has been fabulous and problems have been few. Hopefully we can help you get your family to Thailand. First let me say hi, my name is Alyson and I've taken my kids to amazing destinations on every continent bar Antarctica. Sometimes I write guides and how-to pieces, sometimes travel stories, sometimes I'm a travel consultant, sometimes just a mum. Have a look around our site when you're done with this Thailand with kids blog and sign up to … read full post...
Europe Travel Blog, Guide & Tips 2019 – 2020
Europe travel tips, destinations and guides. Collected blog posts on travel in Europe, from living in London and Romania and driving the full length of Europe, often. Also from visiting the tourist hot-spots of Europe that we'd stop at along the way. What about you ? What are your Europe plans ? Are you just starting to consider a first time visit to Europe or will this be a return trip ? Do you live in Europe and want to see more of the continent of Europe ? We hope to be able to help you with any aspect of travel in Europe, from this page. You'll find Europe travel tips and ideas below as well as more detailed information on some of the best places in Europe for you to see. This … read full post...
Best Travel Drone. Which to Buy & Drone Travel Tips
When looking to buy a travel drone you'll soon realise that there are numerous choices ranging from $50 through to $2500. Obviously drones vary in quality and performance. Cheap drones are more like toys and maybe won't give travel photography results you could use professionally, on a travel blog or Instagram account. Likewise you may not need to get the full professional $2500 drone if you're not a professional photographer looking to sell your footage or use it for commercial purposes. We found that we needed to spend around $1000 to get a drone that would do what we wanted in terms of great photography and videography, was easy to operate and safe to fly. We look at choosing the … read full post...
Vietnam Travel Blog and Guide
Vietnam is one of our favourite countries, packed with history, stunning landscapes, cultural highlights and amazing food. It's one of the most exciting destinations in South East Asia.We visited back in 1999 for the first time and recently we headed back there to create this Vietnam Travel Blog section for you. We had the luxury of time and 2 x 3 month visas to really get to know Vietnam and share it with you. In this post we'll look at places to go in Vietnam, itinerary ideas, where to stay and how to travel in Vietnam. Links here will take you to more detailed posts. We hope you find our Vietnam tips and guides useful in planning your travel, vacation or holiday in … read full post...
Breb Maramures. Our Incredible Village in Romania
In the far north of Romania, nestled in a valley below a long-extinct volcano, lies the little village of Breb Maramures County. We first came to Romania, Maramures and Breb in May 2015 and fell in love. Today, we are still unable to fully call it home due to visas and officialdom, but to us, it feels like home. It's the place that after 50+ countries and 6 years of full-time travel, we really want to be. So here, a brief glimpse of life in Breb, 2 Easters, 2 Christmases, 2 harsh winters and 2 glorious summers, absorbing the stunning countryside, the way of life and the traditions of the village of Breb. Breb Maramures Maramures is a magical county, it's famously home to the "last … read full post...
5 Best Portable Battery Packs for Travel
With more and more travel essential gadgets requiring charging, it's little wonder that people are turning to portable battery packs to help fill the power gap when travelling. Be aware that not all battery packs are created equal in build, quality or price. Below I've listed 5 of the most common and widely regarded best chargers on the market at multiple price points. We carry several portable battery packs when we travel, including traditional and solar powered types. We use them for charging phones, Kindles, Nintendo DS, even laptops on the road. If your travel plans involve long journeys or locations and countries where power availability will be an issue, you should most certainly be … read full post...
We Are a Full Time Travel Family – How?
This is the post that has to be written, how we get to travel full time or even permanently, as a family. We're not unique, there are plenty of other globe trotting full time travelling families on the world circuit, but to the vast majority of people what we do sounds far from possible. But we do it, and we've been doing it for almost 5 years. It's time to explain how we went from family gap year travellers to nomadic. But is this travel lifestyle really so great? What are the pros and cons and is it as much fun as it looks? What's hard, what's easy, and of course the big one. How do we pay for it? . How We Became a Full Time Travel Family We never set out to be … read full post...
Travel Insurance for Extended or Open Ended Travel
World Nomads is the insurance company we use and wholeheartedly recommend. It's often the only travel insurance company suitable for our style of travel. We can tailor our cover to our destination and ever-changing plans any time we like. It's the travel insurance company most serious, long term, flexible or nomadic travellers use because it's the only one we've found that is suitable for our style of travel. So if you're looking for nomadic travel insurance, open-ended travel insurance or travel insurance after you have left home ( buying travel insurance abroad), try putting your details into our search tool below. We are a family, so for us, this is the best family travel … read full post...
Kids Travel Safety Tips. Child Safety Wrist Straps, Harnesses, Wristbands and Tattoos
Readers and consult clients are forever asking me how to make sure kids are safe on the road. I don't pretend to be a parenting expert but I am a travel with kids expert so I'd like to share with you some tips, devices and ideas for sensible child safety measures while travelling or during outings to crowded places. There are all sorts of fears in the minds of anxious parents, what if kids get lost? How will they find us again in a foreign country? Could the kids be kidnapped or snatched? What if they get diarrhoea, malaria, sunstroke or ebola? I can't offer all the answers, but I can tell you that my kids, at 12 and 10, are still with me and absolutely fine after almost 50 countries, … read full post...
Make Money From Amazon Affiliates
I told you I was going to tell you how we made the leap to Living Differently, and Amazon is part of the secret. No paid courses here, no e-books, I'm just going to tell you, for free. I've been dabbling with Amazon affiliate marketing for over 8 years now, earning a little here, a little there, but it's only in the last few years that it's all started coming together. This site is actually way past the $1000/ month mark now, I'm finally doing it right. I'm more than happy to share some tips to help you bypass the early stages of trial and error and jump you straight into making real money from Amazon Associates accounts adding to your diverse patchwork income from travel … read full post...
Best Travel Organisers
Travel organisers are lifesavers. I don't carry much gear for a professional full-time traveler, but I saw the Bubm organisers on Amazon and had to have one I've carried it every day since. When looking for the best travel organisers I picked the Bubm below from a competitive market. I was sick of passport, documents, leads, cables, plugs, adaptors, phones, power packs, memory sticks and electronics debris hanging around in my bag along with tiny crumbs of chocolate, crisp fragments and sticky sweet wrappers (let's mention too, the wet wipes, mosquito repellent, sand and hand gel) constantly threatening destruction. Travel organisers come in various types and styles, some are just for … read full post...
How to Travel With Carry On Only
If you've been following us right from the start, you'll know that I always said I'd never travel with carry on only. I even wrote a post about why we'd never travel light. We just had too much stuff as long-term travellers and the children were too small for their own, decent sized, packs. Well that was then, this is now and lately we've turned to flying carry on only and become quite proficient as our circumstances have changed. These days we're more like you, we're taking shorter trips and we have our home base in beautiful Romania to stash the toys and school books along with the all-weather travel gear. We no longer need to carry everything, everywhere and that's a relief as … read full post...
How to Travel the World for Free
Travel doesn't have to be expensive. We all know the old mantra, travel is cheaper than staying at home, and it's absolutely true, but who doesn't want to minimise travel expenses to get maximum mileage from their dollar? We've been doing just that for years, supporting our travels on very little cash. These days there are many ways to travel the world for free, or at least ultra cheap. We give you several ideas on how to travel the world for free in this post. Some you'll know about, some you won't. Lets take a look at working your way around the world and more, for free or super budget. Travel for Free Free here means, cash-free, of course, you're going to have to exchange … read full post...
How to Save Money on Flights with Skyscanner – But Should You?
Of all the tools we used for finding bargains in the travel world, Skyscanner was number 1, until the day we found ourselves at the check in desk with non-existent tickets. That update and scam warning is further down the page. Our tips on how to save money still stand and are here for you to use. Skyscanner is a great tool, but beware certain 3rd party ticket vendors - Skyscanner have contacted me and this vendor was removed from its databases. So go ahead and open Skyscanner USA right here, ( in a separate window - if you're on mobile you'll need to grab the Skyscanner app, also from the link above.) I'll give you some tips. Through using Skyscanner and the tips here we saved … read full post...
Free Things to Do in London With Kids
Readers have been asking me for London itineraries for kids, some sort of plan to make best use of limited time in my home city. I can't really do that, the amount of time you'll want to spend at each attraction will vary enormously and the ages of your children may limit the amount of pavement pounding you can do. What I can do is give you a few suggestions, let's start with free things to do in London with kids, ideas for the most mind-blowing and London-y places you can take your young family. Hopefully, all these amazing free things to do will compensate for your hotel expenses.Ouch! We've been travelling full-time with our kids since 2012, London really hurts our wallet, but we … read full post...
Christmas Gifts For Kids and Families Who Travel
If you are keen world travellers or you know a travelling family, you'll like our ideas for Christmas travel gifts for kids and families. In this post we include travel-related gifts, often educational, as well as small gifts to pack in a suitcase or backpack for children and families on the road. We have practical, fun and useful gifts for kids who travel or love to travel. I miss those long lazy lunches on Ko Phangan with our favourite book. If you find our book in Thailand, let us know, we left our name inside. See it, and others in the series, further down this page. Buying travel gifts for kids on the move is tricky, will they take their gift with them, or leave it at … read full post...
Dubai Travel Blog and Guide
It was love at first sight for us in Dubai. From the moment we left the airport, Dubai was one big wow. We posted about our fantastically fun camel-riding, belly-dancing, dune-jumping adventure in the desert. We've told you about the cultural heritage tour that took us beyond the glitz into the living heart of Old Dubai. I may have mentioned, more than once, what an incredible experience seeing the dancing fountains at the Burj Kalifa was. Now some tips, guides, things to do, places to stay and more on our Dubai travel round-up and blog page. Welcome to our Dubai travel blog and guide. We like Dubai a lot, it's different, interesting. We hope you enjoy it too. The problem … read full post...
Experiences of Travelling in Asia During the Coronavirus Scare
We had flights booked for Bali in January 2020 and a plan to travel around Southeast Asia for a few months. We'd spotted a little bit of fuss about some virus in China in December 2019 and we were keeping an eye on it. A few days before we were due to depart the thing suddenly became big news. Cases had been reported in Thailand, it was Chinese New Year and China was out there travelling. We were due to arrive in Bali during New Year and planned to move on to Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia once the seasonal flight price hike had played out. Those flights were booked and paid for too. We were travelling with kids, so we did consider cancelling our trip. No parent would ever knowingly want to … read full post...
Getting From Colombo to Galle, Sri Lanka
Colombo, the busy and often chaotic Capital of Sri Lanka is most people's arrival destination by air. While there are a few sights to see in and around Colombo you'll soon want to head out and one of the more popular routes is from Colombo to Galle. On the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, Galle is the provincial capital of the aptly named Southern Province. A longtime popular destination for Dutch, Portuguese and British explorers and traders it has found renewed fame with tourists. The edge of Galle Fort Looking back at the lighthouse. There are multiple ways to get to Galle from Colombo, including bus, train, and road, we look at how to get to Galle, costs and where to stay in Galle … read full post...
Swayambhunath – The Number One Must-See of Kathmandu
The Swayambhunath Stupa, an icon of Nepal, is an ancient religious structure on a hilltop in the Kathmandu Valley. It stands about 3 kilometers west of Kathmandu City and is a must-see for anyone thinking of going to Nepal. This has to be the most famous and beautiful temple in Kathmandu. The Monkey Temple or Swayambhu are other names for Swayambhunath. Beautiful Swayambhunath. We hope you find our guide useful. From the Swayambhunath stupa, you will have an amazing view of Kathmandu and the valley. Apart from being a very popular site for tourists to visit, it’s also a place of pilgrimage and prayer for followers of both Buddhism and Hinduism. Because of … read full post...
Danang to Hoi An Vietnam
The best way to get from Danang to Hoi An is by road. Most travellers will stay in Hoi An, the picture-perfect UNESCO Heritage-listed town but will arrive in Danang by air or rail. This is because Hoi An has neither a railway station nor an airport but don't worry it isn't far and below I'll cover the quickest, cheapest, most luxurious, budget and comfortable ways to get between Danang and Hoi An. Danang to Hoi An, Vietnam- Video Most holidaymakers or backpackers heading to Hoi An will have to arrive via Danang, either from the airport or train station. This post aims to make that journey easier for you. Getting to Danang from Saigon ( Ho Chi Minh) is easy, there is a sleeper … read full post...
Kuala Lumpur With Kids – Guide, Tips and Things to Do
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia is a busy modern city bursting with things to do with kids of all ages. Choose between cultural experiences to educate and broaden young minds, attractions designed purely for child-friendly fun, nature and wildlife experiences, plus more. KL with kids really is a dream. Kuala Lumpur is easy to get around, relatively safe and affordable, so how will you keep your kids happy in KL while enjoying seeing KL yourself too?We have a few ideas. Kuala Lumpur was our first destination when we set off on our 8-year round the world travel adventure with young kids. They were just 6 and 8 years old back then. We've been back many times since and this city is honestly one of our … read full post...
Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An, Vietnam. The Three Best Ways
Ho Chi Minh is about 930Km from Hoi An by road and is the largest city in Vietnam. The fastest way to get from Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An is of course, a direct flight ( approx 1.5 hours) but there are cheaper and arguably nicer and more eco friendly ways to make the journey. Unfortunately flying isn't direct, neither is the train, both terminate in Danang. Ho Chi Minh was the old capital of South Vietnam during the American war. Back then it was called Saigon and the center of the city is still referred to as Saigon. Hoi An is a small UNESCO listed city located along a river just south of the DMZ and Da Nang, Vietnam's third-largest city. Few people visit Vietnam without visiting Hoi An and … read full post...
Bun Bo Hue – Bún Bò Huế – What is It?
Bun bo Hue originated in the beautiful ancient city of Hue in Central Vietnam. Like the more famous Pho Bo, it is a beef noodle dish but is distinctly different due to history and origins. Geographical origins and climate invariably affect flavour and ingredients found in classic Vietnamese dishes but pho bo, unlike bun bo Hue, has a French influence. Hue was long known as the cuisine capital of Vietnam and saw the creation of many signature Vietnamese dishes. For over a century and a half. Hue was the official capital and seat of power for the ruling Dynasties. Hue cuisine is Royal cuisine, the food of kings and emperors. What Is Bun Bo Hue? A dish of Bun Bo Hue at a simple … read full post...