A Norfolk Staycation with Kids

February 8, 2021February 8, 20212 Comments

It seems 2021 will be the year of staycations and so I thought it was about time I shared our wonderful trip to Norfolk last summer for those wondering where to go this year. North Norfolk is home to miles of beautiful sandy beaches, some surrounded by woodland and sand dunes, some easily the most stunning beaches I have seen in the UK. I found everywhere to be so family friendly – and also doggy friendly too if you have a pet you like to take along on trips! There is so much to do with kids with lots of natural outdoor places to explore and miles of untouched sandy beaches that we could have easily spent longer than a week here. Cornwall always seems to be the most popular place to go for a UK summer staycation but Norfolk is much less crowded and seems to be a little peaceful corner of the UK that no one yet knows about. I am even considering going back again this summer myself!

So here are all the best things to do in Norfolk with kids (there are many) along with the best places to stay in Norfolk.

Continue reading →

48 Hours on the Suffolk Coast with Kids

August 24, 20203 Comments

Our holidays this summer are a little different to usual seeing as we can’t go abroad, but going on a UK staycation and exploring more of our own country has been a really wonderful adventure. Our roadtrip took us from Kent all the way up the coast through Suffolk and onto Norfolk. I don’t like being stuck in the car for too long when it’s just me and Evie (there’s only so much playing eye spy and listening to the Frozen soundtrack I can handle), so Suffolk was added into our itinerary as a brief stopover on our way up to Norfolk. But we ended up having so many fun adventures here that I hadn’t even anticipated for that I even changed some of our plans to stay in this part of the UK for a bit longer.

The coastline has some stunning child friendly beaches and traditional seaside towns as quintessentially English as can be. There is also the countryside to explore with its many farms, wildlife, nature walks and fields of gold to frolic in, as well as plenty of entertaining attractions for the whole family.

So here are my recommendations on what to do on the Suffolk coast with kids if you only have a couple of days:

Continue reading →

Glamping along the Garden Route with Africamps

May 7, 20192 Comments

I’d road tripped along the Garden Route several years ago and fell in love with its rugged natural beauty back then, so I couldn’t resist seeing it again on our recent visit. This stretch of wilderness along the South African coastline east of Cape Town is full of wildlife, lush green national parks and pristine beaches. Here, you can get away from the noisy city, towering buildings and the plush hotels of Cape Town. We would be getting out into nature so it only seemed fitting that we should stay in a more rural style of accommodation to match our surroundings.

Africamps offer glamping in several working farms in South Africa, providing guests with a completely natural setting but with the benefits of a boutique style of camping. As we were road tripping along the Garden Route over several days, we stayed at two of Africamps locations during our trip – Plettenberg Bay and Wilderness – both wonderfully peaceful retreats that gave us a true feel of wild Africa. The accommodations are down winding gravel tracks, far away from the road and civilisation with no chance of traffic noise – or noise of any sort for that matter except the tweeting of birds and the chirping of crickets.

Continue reading →

Child Friendly Wine Estates in the Cape Winelands

April 1, 20192 Comments

Yes, you read that title right! There are a huge amount of wine estates in Cape Town and the surrounding Winelands, and clearly they know that parents ~~want~~ need the occasional glass of wine as the majority of them cater so well to children and families. So of course we had to include several in our itinerary and our road trip through the Winelands became one of the best parts of our trip.

South Africa’s Winelands are just beautiful, all with spectacular mountain backdrops and lush green vineyards that fade off into the distance. Even if you’re not a wine drinker I would still highly recommend visiting at least a couple – for the picture perfect views as well as the variety of other attractions that can often be found on the estates aside from the wine tasting. I didn’t used to be much of a wine drinker but then I had a baby who turned into a toddler so now I am very fond of a glass (or two)! Travelling with an almost two year old I did wonder how well she would fare while us girls were all enjoying our wine but everywhere was so completely child friendly that actually the wine was just one of many reasons to visit. Each wine estate we stopped at had so much more to offer providing copious amounts of fun and activities for children, from playgrounds to animal parks and even non-alcoholic tastings for the little ones and those who don’t drink

Continue reading →

Exploring Island Life in Boa Vista, Cape Verde

February 15, 20197 Comments

Our trip to Cape Verde was a year ago now so I thought it was about time I finally wrote about it seeing as it’s one of the places I get asked about most often. A lot of people have either never heard of this small collection of islands dotted just off the coast of West Africa or they don’t know much about the destination. In all honesty I didn’t know much about the islands either and was under the impression that it was just a relaxing holiday destination with large all inclusive resort hotels and not much else to do.

Me being me, I obviously looked into what there is to do on the island because there’s only so long I can sit on the beach or around the pool before getting bored and I always like to get out and explore somewhere new. Boa Vista literally translates as “good view” in Portuguese so it only seemed fitting that we venture outside the resort in search of these good views.

Continue reading →

A New Year of Adventures

January 4, 20197 Comments

2018 was a bit of a mix for me. On the one hand it was a really tough year learning how to be a single mama, raising an extremely demanding (but also incredibly cute) toddler mostly alone, and being the most exhausted I have ever been in my entire life. I also learnt that mums can in fact function on only a few hours’ sleep every night and that coffee is a very loyal friend.

But despite the low moments it was also an amazing year full of travel explorations and exciting adventures. We travelled 8 times during 2018 visiting Cape Verde, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Ibiza, Sardinia, a road trip in Kent, and the Edinburgh Christmas markets. That’s 4 new countries for me and 6 new countries for Evie – making Evie’s total number of countries visited 13 before she’s even 2 years old.

But it’s not the country count that matters, it’s what we actually did and the memories we created that made the year so special. There are so many highlights but here are a few of my main ones:

Continue reading →

A Return Visit to Our Favourite Staycation Spot

October 17, 201810 Comments

It’s not often that I return to somewhere I’ve visited previously, but Clavertye Shepherd’s Huts is a place that I just couldn’t get out of my head from our girly getaway last October. So as autumn started creeping up on us again this year, I couldn’t resist planning a trip back.

This visit would be slightly different to last year though when Evie was just a tiny seven month old baby who didn’t do much more than sleep, giggle, try new foods and sit nice and still for all the photos mummy wanted to take. Whereas this year my extremely active little toddler is now walking, talking and has a huge personality that never stops.

Continue reading →

4 Fairytale Day Trips from Munich

June 28, 2018June 28, 20188 Comments

Apart from being a wonderful city in itself, one of the things I liked most about Munich is that there are so many other incredible locations close by that make easy day trips if you want to get out of the city and explore the region a bit more.

Bavaria is a beautiful part of Germany – so beautiful it makes me wonder why it took me so long to visit! The south eastern part of the country is full of traditional pretty little towns, picturesque mountain landscapes, lush green countryside and magical castles. Every place we visited just made me fall in love with this part of the country more and more so here are some of the best day trips from Munich that will have you feeling like you stepped straight into the pages of a fairytale.

Continue reading →

A Winter Wonderland Adventure to the Top of Mount Pilatus, Switzerland

April 26, 20188 Comments

I’m not going to lie, our trip up to Mount Pilatus, one of Lucerne’s most popular and highest mountain peaks, did not go quite as we had hoped. We only had two days in Lucerne and being able to see the very top of the snow-capped mountain from our hotel room at Hotel Continental Park had made us super excited, but of course we had to pick the day with the worst weather (cloudy, rainy, couldn’t see further than a few metres in front of you, etc.) which did not bode well for an adventure to the top of a mountain.

I’m fully aware that people do go up snowy mountains in the depths of winter to ski but we are not skiers and I don’t ever intend to be one thank you very much. I’m more likely to roll head first down the side of a mountain than I am to successfully ski down one so we did the wise thing and stuck to the mountain for the non-skiers.

Continue reading →

Cruising With a Baby

January 22, 201814 Comments

I’ve always been a bit unsure about cruises. Having been on a few over the years, from luxury Caribbean cruises to mini cruises around the Mediterranean, I absolutely love that you get to explore so many different places in the space of just a few days. Sitting on a different glorious white sandy beach every day? Yes please!

But on the other hand having only a day, or half a day really by the time you’ve got on and off the boat, isn’t really long enough to properly explore somewhere in depth. When I travel I like to do things off the beaten track, meet the locals and get lost trying to find the best eatery, but you just can’t do that on a cruise.

For a taster of a few different cities or beaches it is perfect though so we decided to give it a go with Evie. Our week’s cruise visited several places in Southern Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Morocco and I never would have guessed how seriously brilliant a cruise is with a baby. So here are just a few reasons why we loved cruising with Evie so much and, if you’re a bit unsure yourself, why I think a cruise with a baby is the most perfect holiday.

Continue reading →