Little Footsteps in the Big World

Our first-born had a one-week long carnival holiday at the end of February this year, and we thought we could go somewhere warmer than Belgium, so I started looking for (cheap) flights and ended up buying our tickets to Rabat. We knew we'd have fun there, but we didn't have any expectation. Two questions asked mostly when we told our friends about our plan were: "why would you go to Morocco with kids, isn't it unsafe there?" and "surely you'd be in some resort there?". Soon, there we were in Morocco with the kids. No resort. We stayed in Riad el Idrissi, a typical Moroccan bed and breakfast inside a fortress (Kasbah des Oudaias) in Rabat. We enjoyed it so much! The kids loved Rabat, they liked it a lot that we cancelled our plan to go to Casablanca on the third day to basically stay in Rabat for our 5 days in Morocco. Here is the list of fun things we did in Rabat. And despite the fact that I lost my iPhone there (it was found and returned to me la...

One of the things we were most looking forward to when moving to Brussels was the fact that it's a really good base city for many day-trips. The city is surrounded by many other beautiful cities reachable within two-hour drive by car (or train, if you fancy). The obvious destinations from Brussels are Paris and Amsterdam, but we decided to first explore Belgian cities before going to the surrounding countries. 1. Ostend and/or De Haan Distance from Brussels: 111 km. Duration of travel: 1 hour 15 minutes by car, or 1 hour 11 minutes by train  Our first day-trip from Brussels was to Ostend, at the Belgian coast. It was a sunny but chilly September, but wasn't cold enough to prevent our kids from bathing. In the freezing North Sea. There's no tolls in Belgium, which makes road-trip easier and cheaper. Long, wide, smooth sandy beach. Kids' paradise. Our kids loved this place. We spent hours building sandcastles, running away from waves and picking shells before headin...

When we were negotiating with our firstborn about moving to Belgium, one of her two conditions for moving was that we take her to Disneyland Paris (I know, right, what a parenting fail!). Therefore the Disneyland trip had been carefully planned since we came to Brussels. I did think to book a whole Disney weekend (meaning 2-day park tickets and 1-night hotel stay at Disney hotel) but that just came out way over our budget. So we agree to simply do a day trip. It's only a three-hour drive from Brussels anyway. A good friend of mine took a family trip to Disneyland with two kids recently so I asked her for tips and tricks. Now with her tips, and our own experience, hopefully these tips will make your Disney experience even more magical than it already is! 1. Choose a good day, and a good date   Everyone loves Disney. Whether it's Snow White or Pinocchio, Starwars or Indiana Jones, Sleeping Beauty or Pocahontas, Disneyland has something you might like. And therefor...

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 days! So while it's fresh in my memory, I'd sum up our experience and write down tips of camping with kids. We've camped with the kids for a music festival before, but this is the first time we stayed for so long, and we took a grandma along. To be noted though, these tips are for camping in a tent. So if your family opt for an RV (camper van, mobile home or caravan) or a glamping tent, probably not all of the tips make sense. What to do before you go: 1. Don't save on equipm...

I had seen this place virtually so many times before. Travel blogs, sites, magazines, everywhere I looked, I'd end up reading about this place. Usually on some high ranked position in the list of "the most unique lodging" or "the best glamping place" sort of articles. Garden Village Bled , that's the name of the place. It's a small resort near Bled lake in Slovenia that offers unique lodging experience in pier tents on the river, tree-houses and glamping tents with personal Jacuzzi. I told my husband about it and he was down immediately with a weekend getaway. I booked a pier tent for a weekend in June (it's €120 a night during high season including great breakfast, although the price is lower during low season). Tree-houses and glamping tents were too big and too expensive for us, so I checked with them on the phone and they say it's okay with them that we take pier-tent (normally for two persons) for us with two small kids. That Saturday we h...