The Chocolate, Cheese and Coffee Lover’s Guide to Zurich

June 5, 201811 Comments

You don’t have to be crazy about all three things in the title to read this post. There’s something for everyone here but I’m not going to lie, the majority of this list does feature them all pretty highly. Because when you’re in Switzerland it’s only fair and right that you eat a tonne of Swiss chocolate. And cheese. Because chocolate and cheese are two of the best things in life, and coffee is just a given, so of course there were going to be a fabulous range of places to sample them.

The fact that so many chocolate treats are called “Schoggi” which is a ‘cute Swiss word for chocolate’ (I googled it and that is literally the meaning!) just made it all so much more tempting and had me wanting to eat it all.

Most of these places are ideal for children too as Zurich seems to be an extremely child friendly city, but whether you have kids with you or not they are all still some of the best places to eat and drink in Zurich.

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The Hotel That Has It All: 25hours Hotel Langstrasse Zurich

May 4, 20187 Comments

I’ve stayed in some pretty cool and quirky hotels in all my travels, from the fabulously over the top Venetian in Las Vegas to a tiny vintage shepherd’s hut in the Kent countryside. But none have been quite as cool as the 25hours Hotel Langstrasse in Zurich where we had the opportunity to stay for a night during our trip to Switzerland.

From the second we walked through the door I knew I was going to love it here. Colourful trinkets filled the shelves in the reception area, the staff looked trendy as hell, and travel paraphernalia was dotted about everywhere with giant globes hanging over the entry way to travel related signs and quotes adorning the walls, which of course had me totally hooked and feeling like I belonged.

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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.

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A Room with a Mountain View at Hotel Continental Park Lucerne

April 10, 20185 Comments

I was a little bit apprehensive about our journey to Switzerland. We’d been up since 3am and even though the flight from London to Zurich was a short one, we still had an hour’s train ride at the other end to get to Lucerne, the beautiful mountain and lakeside city that would be mine, my sister’s and Evie’s first stop on this trip. It turns out I didn’t need to worry at all as, even with a baby, the journey couldn’t have been any easier, and we were walking through the doors of our accommodation in Lucerne before it was even midday.

Just a few minutes walk from the train station and a few minutes more to Lucerne’s Old Town, Hotel Continental Park couldn’t be in a better location and our arrival couldn’t have been any friendlier as we were greeted with refreshing fruit tea while we checked in, which was much needed after our travels, and our room was ready nice and early for us.

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Feeling Like a Princess at Afternoon Tea at the Tea Terrace

February 19, 201814 Comments

I remember the days fondly when I used to get lost in a book on the train to work, carefully paint my nails with colours to match my outfits, and binge watch the latest Netflix series. My Friday and Saturday nights were spent trying different restaurants or sipping cocktails in bars and Sundays were always reserved for a new adventure.

But over the last eleven months or so, my me time has somewhat diminished. Or, to put it more aptly, completely disappeared. Unfinished cold cups of coffee can be found scattered around the house; I have no idea what the latest place is on the food scene (and even if I did I wouldn’t be able to get the dish that I actually wanted anyway because my choices now revolve around the new boss); I’m yet to get through the second series of Stranger Things; and I’m lucky if I’ve rinsed all the conditioner from my hair before I have to dash out of the bubble bath that I’d so lovingly dreamed of all day.

As much as I absolutely adore my little Evie, a baby leaves very little room for time to yourself which is why, when my sister told me she was taking me to a surprise afternoon tea treat for my birthday last month, I cried. Like literally burst into tears. The exhaustion of being a mama combined with the thought of all that cake was just too much for me to handle!

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Getting Festive at Prague’s Christmas Markets

December 22, 201715 Comments

Christmas has always been my very favourite time of year. I love everything about the festive season from the cosy winter nights and possibility of snow to mince pies and mulled wine, but mostly just that happy magic feeling that’s always in the air this time of year. Christmas markets have this in abundance so some of the European markets have always been on my travel wish list as they look even more festive and are just a tad more traditional than the likes of Winter Wonderland – which spending one hour at costs pretty much the same as three nights in Prague. So we went with Prague

Being Evie’s first Christmas we had an actual valid reason to go this year. She adores the twinkling Christmas lights, her whole face lights up when she hears the singing of Christmas carols and I knew it would make our first Christmas with her even more magical. This trip wasn’t for me in the slightest. In fact I didn’t even want to go at all. It’s all totally for her. Yup.

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A Girly Getaway to Clavertye Shepherd’s Huts

November 6, 2017September 13, 201818 Comments

It’s no secret that I love a road trip and when we’re not travelling abroad I like to make the most of exploring a bit closer to home. Even though I passed my driving test well over ten years ago I have only just got my very own car last month and this was just the excuse I needed to plan a mini adventure with just me and my girl.

Clavertye Shepherd’s Huts was the perfect place. Set on a huge farm in the countryside near Canterbury just over an hour from home, meant that it wasn’t too far for me to travel alone with a (possibly screaming) 6 month young baby. Luckily for me Evie slept away soundly in the back of the car for the entire journey so when we arrived at the farm nice and relaxed and I spotted our tiny little hut far away in the distance at the top of the valley, I knew this was going to be a wonderful getaway.

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A Blissful Baby Friendly Holiday with Tots To Travel

September 22, 20176 Comments

Going away with a baby was always going to be more stressful and manic than when it was just the two of us and even though we’d already taken Evie to Paris when she was just nine weeks old, our trip to Mallorca would be her first flight, her first beach holiday and her first taste of the summer sun.

I’m not usually much of a worrier but it can be a bit daunting when you have to remember to pack different factor sun creams for all three of you, swimwear for every occasion (one to keep baby warm, another to keep baby protected from the sun and one to keep any leaks out), plus a pram, travel cot, car seat and the kitchen sink.

Enter Tots to Travel who seriously made our trip so much smoother and stress free, not only by sending us to a brilliant baby friendly destination (although it was still hard to pick where because they have so many dreamy ones to choose from) but also by providing anything we could possibly have needed when going away with a little one.

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8 Reasons to Visit the Island of Mallorca

August 15, 2017August 15, 201725 Comments

I will fully admit that I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to travel. I hate touristy places, big resorts full of English people eating all inclusive food, and beach promenades lined with shops selling tacky souvenirs and giant pool floats. This is what I imagined Mallorca would be like which is why it was never somewhere I had pictured myself going.

But now that Little Miss Ayla is in the world, while we’re still travelling as much as we used to pre-baby, our style of travelling has had to change a slight bit. It’s now less about the challenging hikes and full on sightseeing itineraries and more about the I-have-a baby-to-look-after-every-day-at-home-so-on-holiday-I-just-want-to-chill-the-F-out!

So Mallorca it was! I found us a gorgeous and secluded place to stay in one of the most rural and scenic parts of the island, far away from the touristy towns and the all inclusive resorts – which I will of course write about soon. Magaluf aside (let’s just stay as far from that corner of the island as possible!) what surprised me the most was how stunning and traditional the majority of the island really is. I guess I shouldn’t be so quick to judge a place so here are 8 reasons why you should visit beautiful Mallorca.

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Adventures in Paris With a Baby: Evie’s First Trip

June 28, 2017June 28, 20179 Comments

Having had some serious travel withdrawals due to not being away since September, I was desperate for a break as soon as our little adventurer arrived. Plus I think it was well deserved after, ya know, pushing a tiny human out!

For our very first trip with our little adventurer we wanted somewhere that wasn’t too far away which was easy to get to, and so Paris seemed like the perfect choice. Despite it being so close to London we hadn’t been in 12 years and it’s somewhere I had been wanting to return to for such a long time. The bonus of taking the Eurostar over flying sealed the deal, so we took the plunge and booked our first trip for when Evie was just 9 weeks old.

So many people had told us this is the easiest time to travel with a baby, when they’re tiny and can’t walk around yet and don’t do much apart from eat and sleep, and they were totally right. But a lot of people had also said that Paris is not a good place to go with a baby and hopefully this post will prove that I don’t agree with these people at all! Paris is a great idea with a baby!

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