So the big airlines like to keep the littlies happy!

Their haul so far: secret agent puzzle books, origami game packs, satchels, lunch bags/ boxes, cuddly toys, backpack snugglies, eco-workbooks and in-flight family polaroids. And what do I get? Diddly Squat!

We’re now 5 and a bit months in – It has flown by! Quite literally – with 20 flights under our belts already. We’re all bedding in to this exciting, nomadic existence that throws us new experiences everyday. From getting the balance of sleep, play, learning, 1:1 and  family time and your own space (where); we’re beginning to settle into a really nice rhythm. When planning the WHOLE thing, before we left the UK, we built in almost rest days or stays in towns where we knew we wouldn’t do that much exploring but would use the time to recouperate, rest and catch up on journals, learning and contact with people back home. Up to now it’s working out great. This allows us the odd 1 night stopover, longer drives to become more tolerable and for us all to have the energy to actually enjoy the trip.

Road trip must haves:

Cool bag/ box for lunch, snacks or just to prevent your water from boiling

Sat Nav, Downloaded maps on Google Maps and/ or MapsMe. All work really well for different reasons/ in different situations. WAZE is king in CostaRica though!

Back up, back up, back up! All those pictures and videos will only make great memories as longs as phones and cameras don’t get lost or stolen. Back up everything, ALL the time! Whether that be online storage or using SSD drives like we’ve carried. YES they cost money and the smallest fastest ones ARE expensive but we have copies of copies at the moment just in case and a way to rebuild the laptop if it dies on us. They also allow you to bring music and films that you may want to listen to/ watch on the trip. A large capacity USB drive will play stuff in the car on road trips too! For up to date films either use a streaming/ download service that can be accessed worldwide or any other way you find films online 😉 It’s nice for the kids to watch a latest release that their friends have emailed about back home!

Take the bloody free soap, ‘cos you WILL run out at sometime and it saves trying to find a shop at whatever time of day or night you rock up in a new town.

Use the facilities available: Airbnbs,: washing machines; road trips are much nicer when you don’t all hum! hoovers; clean the car – again, those long journeys are much more pleasant when you’ve not got a sandy crack.

Breakfasts – fill up – in this hot weather most days a good feed first thing keeps us all going until teatime with drinks, fruit/ ice cream as a treat.

Arriving early – Most hotels will allow you to pay for an extra breakfast, check in early and use the pool.

On the subject of Pools, lots of resort hotels open their pools to the public, some for a fee, some free. Eat in their restaurant or drink in their bar and they treat you like any other guest.

Local knowledge from a host or as in Australia, fantastic visitors centers and CRC (community resource centres)

Talk to a local – EVERYONE is interested in crazies travelling the globe

Wifi – use it to the max!  Whenever you have it- Downloads, updates, Facetime/Skype, you never know if your next stop will feel like being on dial up.

Charge EVERYTHING _ ALL the time – even in the car – when you get chance – makes camping stops easier. A power bank is a must if you’re on all day hikes needing to use a navigation app. Ours is a monster, meaning we’ll never be caught without power and have hiked our way out of a scorching canyon (granted via a closed off precipitous pathway but we survived and avoided an unenviable retracing of our steps over the mountainous range we’d wandered onto).

Purchasing – if you see something you REALLY like, just buy it! You may never be back here after all. Haggle where it’s the custom. Keep in mind though that often you’re arguing over mere pennies.

Forget the so called ‘must do/see’ lists. It’s YOUR trip, go see exactly what you want to see, not just stuff that everyone else does. You also need downtime where hangin’ by the pool or watching a movie helps everyone recover from the endless adventures.

Mix it up a bit. No one wants to do hot springs in every destination they go to, seen one, seen ’em all. Don’t get me wrong there’s no harm in doing a couple but be prepared to end up comparing and possibly being disappointed. We hooked onto lots of ‘the locals go here’ places as an antidote to the tourist traps.

Packed lunches, on days out, on planes (short ones), anywhere! Have kids, need an endless supply of food! And just because you’re travelling shouldn’t mean you eat out EVERY day. You wouldn’t do that at home over half term/ summer holidays.

WATER! Stock up whenever you can, it’s not always easy to come by. Make use of free water in all the countries that tap water isn’t potable. It’s an unnecessary expense, uses a dreaded plastic bottle and is a time waster to be seeking out bottled water. Take water purification tablets with you just in case. On flights, after each airport has made you empty EVERY water bottle as you go through security/ passport control due to either a potential water based terrorist attack or protecting the airport retailers’ profit margins!! Get the airline to fill you up. Even the budget flights provide water and all flight attendants are happy to fill up water bottles. You’ve then no need to go looking for water as soon as you get off the plane.

Uber, Lyft, PickMe, Grab. Use them all depending on destination. For airport transfers they beat the taxis hands down for cost and hassle. It’s a pain being confronted by dozens of people wanting to get you into their cab. As soon as you show the slightest interest they’re on you so best to be able to glide past them with confident and firm ‘no thanks yous’! Sorting out a shuttle/ pick up or drop off via your accomodation is even more stress free. It can be a bit of an adventure in itself; in South America, Uber drivers are chased off by taxi drivers so you end up meeting in the car park or across the road from the terminal building.

SIM Cards. You don’t always need a country specific SIM nowadays. Most airports, accomodation, cafes, metros and public spaces have free WiFi. 3 mobile has a SIM that’ll allow you to use your phone as if you’re at home in 71 countries (not all ours we’re covered), we just switched mobile data off completely in these countries and got by without. Google Maps and MapsMe will both work with offline maps downloaded prior on WiFi, Messenger and WhatsApp can be used for messaging/ texts without a SIM too. We got by no problem. We had the odd occasion where lack of mobile signal or data meant Uber couldn’t be accessed but a cafe, gallery, library, museum or suchlike always provided us with the WiFi needed. YES, sometimes the Uber driver would contact you to say he was around the corner and we wouldn’t get the message but you do have the car model and reg so they’re easy to track down.

XE – currency converter app. A MUST HAVE! makes it easy to work out if you’re paying 30p for a coffee or £30!

Banking apps make it so easy to keep track of the spend whilst also keeping an eye on whether a credit card has been compromised. Various banks offer free foreign transactions AND no fee cash withdrawals

CASH is STILL KING! Well in South and Central America it is anyway. Whilst you can still use a credit card, in Argentina some places will charge you a transaction fee though and you’ll always need cash for local traders. In Argentina, USD are useful to have for exchanging for Arg Peso as ATM fees at the Argie end are a silly, £7.60 each time you withdraw and the limit is 3500 Peso per withdrawal (£112). You can’t buy Arg Peso outside of the country either. Thailand was similar at £5 per withdrawal, so again you tend to max out each withdrawal rather than getting a tenner out at a time. Costa Rica ATM’s will let you withdraw USD or Colones and most places will offer you a good rate if you want to pay in the $.

For altitude sickness, travel sickness pills help, as will headache tablets if one arises. In Chile, a tea of Coca is just the thing. Locals KNOW, ask your host.

Go with your gut, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If a wander in the city takes you to a spot where it just doesn’t feel right, get outta there, the ‘must have’ picture ain’t worth it if nobody gets to see it! Your safety must come first!

Baggage – Go light! We are always underweight and we even posted a box back home. There’s only so many outfits you can wear and it’s not a bloody fashion show! We brought a mini suitcase full of toys and ‘things to do for kids’ – we haven’t needed half the stuff, forget it. Kindles, a pack of cards, journals and a football are all we need! Get good at packing. Doing it every few days has seen us hone a finely tuned system, from the stuff that you’ll immediately need on arriving at your new place to the things that can only go in carry on bags.

Finally – TAKE THE KIDS! ( I know, I know, if you’ve got kids you’ve no choice, although it’s surprising how many people when told of our travel plans asked, ”what, all 4 of you are going?” Duh, nah we’ll leave the kids at home for 9 months shall we!). So many people talked about us being ‘brave’ or asked if we were worried about travelling with the kids. 5 months in and I honestly think having the kids with us has made the trip SAFER, not just due to the decisions we make but in how people respond to us as a family. I just know we wouldn’t have been welcomed as heartily, treated as kindly, fairly and honestly, and in some ways protected or looked after as we have been. Yes it’s non stop 24/7 parenting, educating, negotiating and organising but we love our time together and the kids have actually made it easy. Yes if you want to go out partying and late night cocktails or week long mountain climbs, your gonna struggle to do it at YOUR pace but if you’ve had kids, life’s no longer just about YOU anymore and you either embrace it or live a disappointment. And if you can allow yourself to tune in to how they see the world, your own sad presumptious, pretentious version of how world travel should look will be well and truly put in its place!

Finally, finally! How on earth do you hold off the inevitable holiday weight gain!?? Well, we figured avoiding all you can eat or all inclusive hotels would be a good start. Apartments allow you to cook for yourself and regulate intake a bit better. But the short answer to this is to just look at the kids! Not being sat on their arse in a classroom for 6 months has seen them not stop moving (more so than us). If you can harness this never ending source of energy, you’ll never get fat on holiday. For us it is harder! Less regular running or cycling have us both gain weight but again you just have to reset and regulate. AND not have an ice cream EVERY day! Flights and road trips are the hardest what with being waited on or having a car full of snacks to chomp on. AND those countries where bread was with everything! Oh for fresh fruit and veg when you finally find it! Hike’s and treks around cities found us eat much better and only what we need, keeping hydrated was much more important! we’re looking forward to getting back on it when we get back home. For anyone who rides a bike regularly, most hired bikes will just feel like an ill fitting disappointment compared to your own steed!