Tips and Tricks

  

Taking small kids to big sport events: 5 tips! 

To start the new year, my husband convinced me that we all should go watch the Croatia-Serbia match at the European Handball Competition. When we learned that the very match was being held in Szeged, in Hungary -just two hour drive away from Belgrade- we decided to give it a go. Now, if you've been following our journey, it's not the first time we take the kids to big sport events. We took them to Zagreb indoors tennis... (read more)

5 Tips for guilt-free mom trip (and London itinerary, too)

As we realized I was turning 30, my husband asked me what I was planning to do for my 30th birthday. I immediately said I'd like to go on a weekend trip, without him, without the kids. I might go alone, or I'd take friends along. Destination didn't really matter. At the time of my birthday, our firstborn was 4 and our younger just a little over 1. I immediately texted my good friend (I'd call her Poppy -although that's not... (read more)

10 tips for camping with kids

Yesterday we got back from a 9-day camping holiday with two kids under five on the coast. The excitement is still here, the kids are still on the campsite in their minds. They were outside 24/7, sleeping under the stars, being in the sea all day, playing with pine cones and stones, getting together with other little campers, muddy and sticky at the end of the day, eating picnic on the ground, and basically, having time of their lives. After a long time, they were TV/monitor/cartoon free for 9... (read more)

Do a weekend trip with 6 kids. Because you need chaos in your life.

At the end of last year my husband and I were talking about Metallica concert, they're doing a 2018 world tour. He asked me one brief question: "they'll be performing in Vienna and Milan. Which city would you prefer?" My answer was sure: "Vienna. We can do the zoo too with the kids. They've been dying to see giant pandas". "Alright, Vienna it is" he added. Then we realized that Metallica would... (read more)

 

Cruising on budget

On my previous post about our story of cruising with little kids, I promised to write a separate post for tips and tricks for cruising on budget. I mentioned how we took the cheapest cabin available in the ship. The price also covers all meals and access to most facilities like pools, gym, theater, library, etc. Of course, you'd have to pay extra for spa and its services like massage. The good news is, kids don't pay... (read more)

I wish there's cure to jet-lag

Some people are not affected by jet-lag at all, no matter how many time-zones and how many oceans they just passed by. I'm one of those who are severely affected by jet-lag. And so are my children. In this trip to Indonesia, we went from GMT+2 (Zagreb) to GMT+7 (Jakarta). After 30 hours of flights and layovers, we arrived in Batu, East Java, at around 11pm local time, meaning 6pm in the place of origin (Zagreb)... (read more)

 

I'm about to fly alone with two kids and I'm nervous

In a few weeks we'll be flying to Indonesia so my parents see their new grandchild. We haven't traveled with two kids yet, but I don't think two adults traveling with two kids is a big deal. However, my husband will be coming back home by himself earlier, and I'll be staying with the girls a little longer, and finally, coming back home alone with them. The first leg of the flight would be around an hour, then two or three hours of layover, then a second leg of flight of around twelve hours, another... (read more)

   

 

Travel-related holiday gift ideas

The holiday season is here! I bet you're as excited as I am! Christmas is just around the corner and 2017 is coming real quick. As there's a huge chance I might be staying in the hospital during Christmas day (I'm due to give birth on Christmas eve), I decided to get my holiday gifts for the loved ones early this year. We don't usually exaggerate on Xmas gifts in our family, we exchange pretty little things, most of the times personalized... (read more)

It's not all roses on our trips

Is there a moment, when you look at your social media timeline and see pretty pictures of your friends on vacation, then you thought, wow, they look like they're having the time of their lives! And then you think, if I were going to vacation like that, with my child, there is no way it's going to turn out to be THAT fun, it's just gonna be a catastrophe! For some reason of course I also just post pretty pictures to my social media... (read more)

Summer vacation with a toddler

Most Europeans spend two or three weeks on their favorite coast for a relaxing summer holiday. This year we decided to break our summer vacation to three parts because we wanted to "save" vacation days from work and spend as little paid-vacation-days as possible. This way, my husband could stay longer (probably three weeks) when I give birth in the end of this year. Our summer vacation this year looked like this... (read more)

Family trips on budget

There are so many places in this world that my husband and I want to visit and experience. But like other people, we have our limitations. Mostly, financially. Sure there are stories of travelers who work and earn on the road, living for and from traveling; but we never actually plan to live that way. We have steady jobs and don't plan to leave. Traveling is not cheap, but let's be honest, it's never been more affordable. Plane tickets... (read more)

Cloth-diapering on the road

When I was pregnant with baby girl, we decided to cloth diaper. It was a decision my husband and I made together. People around us thought we were crazy when they heard about this. But we simply didn't want the 2,000 kilograms of diapers our child would generate to be still present on earth in 2260 in the same form as they were disposed. Long story short, we've been successfully cloth-diapering for two years... (read more)

Getting 'em used to road-trips

My husband and I had loved road-trips before we were blessed with baby girl, and her arrival wasn't going to stop us from driving. But then we had problems. Although she had been flying since birth and loving it, she wasn't loving her car-seat and wouldn't stand driving in the car for more than three minutes in her early days. By the time she was around eight or nine-month old, she started to not to mind driving... (read more)

Destinations for traveling with children

Whether it's weekend getaway, city break or longer vacation, sometimes we're not really sure which kind of place are good enough for a family trip. We keep questioning ourselves if the kids will enjoy the environment of the next destination we've picked for the upcoming vacation, if the hotel we booked is child friendly enough, if the local food will be appealing for them. Our baby girl is, luckily, not too picky. She enjoys almost everything so we don't really think about picking a destination to match her needs and interests. But if you don't know where you should go, these are my tips based on our family's experience... (read more)

Why you should take free stopover tours, with your child

Many major airports in the world, the home of the biggest airline companies, offer free stopover tours for their loyal passengers. In cooperation with the national government, they give their transit passenger a compliment while promoting their own tourism, which, is kind of smart. A lot of people... (read more)

Flying (long-haul) with infants: the basics

We fly often, and we always have. Not always long-haul, many of them are also short flights. But they're the same thing, aren't they? Packing, sorting liquids in small bottles, getting a cab ride to the airports, checking in and getting your luggage rejected because you didn't pack too well (it gets better over time), taking off the belts and the watch and the shoes for the scanner, getting laptop, tablet and phones from the bag -once I even had to turn on my laptop at a security check in Singapore's Changi airport! Then the waiting for gate opening, waiting for boarding, the delays, more waiting, the cancellation of the flight.. Then if you're lucky not to be cancelled, there is still the turbulence, the bad coffee in the plane (or no coffee at all), the bumpy landing... (read more)