Murray, the Red Wiggle, and Choice

At the time of writing I just saw Murray, the Red Wiggle, out the front of our neighbour's house. In normal suburban Sydney. Well, I guess he has to live a normal life too... What does this have to do with travelling with kids? Nothing actually, but I was so surprised to see him there that I thought I'd tack it on the front of this post!

My topic for this post actually about the latest issue of Choice magazine - May 2009.

There's an article about international airlines, rating them for criteria like value for money, seat comfort, in flight service, ability to get a convenient flight etc. According to their survey, Singapore Airlines provided the highest overall levels of satisfaction for their survey respondents.

Then there's also an article on travel money, exploring the good and bad points of different ways to pay for things in foreign countries. They look at the pros and cons of credit cards, cash, travellers cheques, ATM and debit cards, prepaid travel money cards, and dynamic currency conversion. They even list one credit card that has NO foreign currency conversion fee!

So, if you enjoy Choice articles, grab a copy of the latest issue of the magazine.

travelling with minor celebrities

John was talking to an acquaintance (Brad) the other night about Brad's family's experiences of living in Ethiopia. When they were last there, their young son was rather pale in complexion (as he's grown older his hair has darkened). Apparently they would have strangers come up to them on the streets and kiss their son, just because he looked so intriguingly different.

We know what this is like.

Bendy has VERY blonde hair, and a very pale complexion. The Bookworm has hair that in some lights looks a little reddish, and again has quite pale skin. We have taken them to quite a number of countries around the world, some of which they blend in like the natives and others where they definitely do not.

In Asia, our children were treated as minor celebrities - which we were completely unprepared for. Australia is a very multicultural place, and we're used to seeing people that look very different to us. In fact, when we were in Asia, I felt much more at home than when in Europe, because I am so used to seeing Asian faces around me in my home environment. However, some of them obviously didn't see us in quite the same familiar way.

We'd have people picking them up and cuddling them, calling their friends over to jointly marvel at them, having their photos taken with them etc. It can feel rather creepy some times, and also by the end of a whole day's worth of it, it can be rather tiresome. And it can make the kids themselves feel extremely uncomfortable, and uncertain. While once or twice can be funny, all day isn't.

Usually its the adults that are the main culprits for this in-your-face-ness, probably because kids are usually a lot more accepting of the way others look. Many of our children's school friends are from Chinese, Korean, and Indian families, so they're very used to kids who look different and have other cultural practices. One of Bendy's best friends at school has very dark African skin, so she just takes such differences in her stride.

So, what can you do to prepare for it? While you can dye hair (which seems a little drastic for taking a 5 year old to another country), there's not much you can do about their skin colour. Probably one of the most helpful things is to make sure the children wear hats, to cover up as much of their hair as possible.

In future, I think that we will warn our children that they might need to expect that others will find their hair and skin colour (and in some places, even their eye colour) interesting. We will need to teach our children to politely say NO when they feel too uncomfortable, and we will need to be careful to read their body language to know when they have had enough, and that it is time step in as their protectors. At other times, I think we'll all just have to put up with it to some degree.

Its made thinking about long term travel a bit interesting for us. We'd very much like to do some volunteering or mission work in another country at some stage in the future. And it is likely that at our destination Bendy in particular could be quite an object of curiosity, simply because of the way she looks. Really, there isn't much we can do about it, but at least we can all expect it to happen, and be pleasantly surprised when it does not.

Do any of you have ways that you have handled such things on your travels?

Going to New Zealand

I was just reading on Gadling about their suggestion for people to visit New Zealand. When I was young my family went on only one overseas holiday, and it was to New Zealand. Dad doesn't like staying anywhere other than in their caravan (because its cheap), so in NZ we hired a campervan. That meant that we could travel overseas without him feeling like he was being ripped off by staying in motels...

Anyway, seeing the post on Gadling reminded me of the wonderful spoof advertisement that they came up with on The Gruen Transfer, which is a fascinating and very funny Australian show about the advertising industry. Each week on the Gruen Transfer, they have a segment called The Pitch, where they get two ad agencies to come up with a TV advertisement to sell the unsellable. The week that I am particularly remembering was when they had to sell the idea of Australia invading New Zealand. It was hilarious.

Now, for something completely new to me, I'm going to try to embed a video here. (Never done this before, and it seemed like a really good excuse to try.) Its the video of the ad that I preferred of the two. You can find the other one pretty easily on YouTube.

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If this doesn't work, you can find the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AIppqNePdM

For the record, I thought New Zealand was a beautiful place. I don't have any overwhelming need to invade it, either, even though I am an Australian. But a visit might be nice!

Favourite places we've visited: Papeete, Tahiti

Tahiti is a stereotypical South Pacific island (part of a larger group, actually) and despite the cliches associated with such destinations it is truly beautiful. Of course, we stayed in a resort - there's not much else for families - and despite this being an uncommon experience (for us) we had a marvellous time. Still, we wouldn't do it everywhere, or every holiday - but a few days here and there are very welcome.

So what was it about Papeete that we really liked? Well, a couple of things. Firstly, for the kids (mostly) each afternoon our resort had fish feeding in the resort lagoon. One of the resort employees would bring down a bucket load of fish food to attract the amazing tropical fish close to the shore where everyone could easily see them. Anyone could take part - the guy in charge would hand out fish food and anyone could get into the lagoon or feed the fish from the shore. Seeing the fish was amazing, and watching the reaction of the kids was priceless.

The second highlight of Papeete was a mode of transport called locally, Le Truck. For the uninitiated, most Pacific nations are not well off, despite the luxury resorts literally strung along their coastlines. French Polynesia is no exception. Many visitors to these idyllic locations never actually leave the resort, except to go to the airport on their return journey. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find that the towns where the locals live are not at all like the resorts themselves. Papeete is, well, lived in. A bit run down, very casual and makeshift in parts, but well loved by the locals.

For those, like us, whose resorts are on the outskirts of Papeete, Le Truck is the recommended public transport for getting into town and back again. With Le Truck, what you imagine is what you get - they haven't dressed it up with a misleading name. It is a truck, with an enclosed area behind the driver's cabin which has bench seats running down the length of the vehicle along either side, and down the middle. It costs the same no matter where you get on or off - I can't remember how much, but it wasn't much. There are no seatbelts. If you travel with an infant car seat, it would be useless to have it with you on Le Truck!

We managed to get on it alright - it was pointing in the right direction. You pay the driver through the window (or his friend in the passenger seat) and simply get on. There are no such niceties as tickets. You get off where you need to - but there are actual stops on the route. Coming back was a bit more interesting, though. I had to get some baguettes at a shop about half way into town (everything else was closed for Bastille Day), so I got off and Yvette took the kids back to the resort. The girls were worried that they might never see me again!

I bought the baguettes, and crossed back over the street to wait for the next Truck. I was joined by an older Tahitian woman, who asked me (our conversation was a mix of her halting English and my halting French) if I was waiting for Le Truck. I told her I was and we waited. She flagged it down as it approached, I paid the driver and got on. The woman didn't. She picked up her shopping and walked down the street.

I was amazed. She had actually waited to stop Le Truck so that I (clearly a stranger) could get on. Her hospitality was overwhelming and helpful! That's what I remember so vividly about Le Truck, and why, if I returned to Papeete some day I would prefer it as my transport and spurn the taxis every time.

Papeete was beautiful because the people were beautiful. The scenic marvels (coral reef fringed beaches, the spectacular sunset looking out across the water towards the island of Moorea etc.) were the icing on the cake. I think a lot of people get this the wrong way round and go for the natural wonders first. I guess it just depends on your holiday and the experiences that you have while there.

Some of our kids' favourite travel memories

The other day we were talking about eating icecreams. Bendy piped up about visiting an icecream factory. We were surprised, as we visited the Ben and Jerry's icecream factory in Waterbury, Vermont in 2006, when Bendy was just 2 and a bit. Bendy still remembers it. The other strong memory that Bendy has from our America holiday is eating a SpongeBob icecream in Central Park in New York. Bendy actually has no idea who SpongeBob is, as we have no TV, and therefore the only thing she knows about SpongeBob is that he's an icecream character. However, she liked the goofy look of him and obviously its highly memorable for her.

The Bookworm remembers the same day, but not so much in the context of eating icecreams (although she does remember eating the rest of the SpongeBob, because even though it was obviously so exciting and memorable for Bendy, she didn't want to actually finish it!). For her, it was more about learning a bit about the Beatles and John Lennon, in the Strawberry Fields part of Central Park. When they were there, there was a jazz band busking, and the kids really enjoyed listening to it. It took them quite some to get up enough courage to go and put some money in their collection. The Bookworm really didn't want to, but eventually did.

Of course, their other favourite travel memories would have to be from our visit to Hong Kong Disneyland. That will be burned onto their brains and they will never forget it. Indeed, Bendy's new life quest is to visit ALL the Disneylands around the world. Aim high! Just what the Disney corporate executives would want...

When The Bookworm was 20 months old, we visited the UK, Ireland, and Singapore. For a long time afterwards (until the memories eventually faded) her strong memories of that holiday were of the Jacobite steam train on the West Highland Railway in Scotland (also famous as the Hogwarts Express), men on horses in London (the Horse Guards) and a piece of troublesome rubbish that was stuck to the play equipment in Singapore airport. At the time she found this piece of rubbish extremely distressing, and we think that is why the memory stuck with her for so long.

Interesting that all of these memories have strong emotions attached to them. Most were obviously of extreme happiness and even ecstasy, but the distressing ones were equally emotive.

Sometimes people wonder why we take our kids with us on holidays when they are so young. We know that not all the memories that our kids have of their holidays - especially from when they were extremely young - will stay with them forever, but each has a part in shaping who they are. Of course they won't remember things from when they are tiny, but that doesn't make the experiences any less important.

Ladies travelling light packing list

A week or two ago I read an article on the Skyscanner website about travelling light. The author, Sam, wasn't sure that ladies would be able to manage a 3 day weekend with only carry-on luggage. I wrote to him to let him know that of course you can! I sent Sam my packing list, including weights and even some photos.

Sam was pretty impressed by the list, but later the same day I received an email from one of the female staff at Skyscanner, noting that I didn't include any make-up, and THAT was the real sticking point for so many of the ladies in the Skyscanner office. Well, personally I don't bother with make-up unless I have teaching engagements, which I don't when I travel internationally. I just think that the people I meet while travelling couldn't care less whether I wear make-up or not - and if they do, that's their problem, not mine!

The follow-up article has now been posted on the Skyscanner website, with a large slab of it devoted to my personal packing list.

The photos haven't been included, so I've got them here for you.

First up, we have the contents of my packing list, all laid out for you to see. For the details, see the article at Skyscanner.

Next, we have everything packed into the bag - very messily, I might say!

Lastly, we have the packed bag, ready to go.


Travelling light, with one bag is completely achievable for ladies. As for the make-up issue, if you're only travelling so that people will see you and appreciate how you look, maybe you've got things the wrong way round? On our last holiday I saw a T-shirt which said something like "Come to play, not to show off your clothes". Amen.

The process of learning to travel with one bag

Our journey from too much luggage to one bag each has taken a long time, not the least because we only heard about the idea of one-bagging before our last trip. We immediately fell in love with the challenge!

But we expect that with each big trip we take, and with the changing needs as our children grow older and larger, that we will change and improve our packing list a little each time. With each trip we have taken, we have learnt something new. With each destination and season we will adjust our packing to suit.

From our first big trip, I learnt that you shouldn't allow your mother and sister ANY access to your suitcase beforehand. As it was for our honeymoon, they thought it would be fun to put confetti in everything. Thanks SO much!

From our second trip, we learned from one of our travelling companions, that a bag weighing 28 kilos is just TOO heavy! Try lugging that up and down steep, narrow stairs... or any stairs for that matter.

From our next trip, we learned that things can easily get crushed in checked luggage. We had a number of plastic items in the bags that got broken or cracked, and therefore were rendered useless. Fortunately this happened on the homeward journey, so we weren't without those things while we travelled.

On our most recent trip we learned that one bag/carry-on/cabin luggage only is the way to go!! I also decided that I would prefer not to have a bag with wheels, though my husband still prefers wheels on his.

So for our next trip, we will certainly take some things off our packing list - at least one of the car seats, for example - and add new things on. We learn a little more each time, and I'm constantly searching forums, blogs etc for new ideas.

So if you've never tried one-bagging before, don't expect that the first time you do it, your packing list will be perfect. We'll be trying to shave off a little more weight and a little more bulk each time.

But you have to start somewhere!

Alternatives to money belts

Money belts are useful for carrying valuables that you don't need to access regularly, such as passports, larger stashes of cash, alternative credit cards etc. Some of the alternatives we have seen include:

• extra internal pockets in clothing
  
• wrist wallets
  
• singlet vests with pockets
  
• socks with hidden zip pockets
  
• clothing belt with hidden zipper pockets

Not all of these, in our opinion, serve as useful a function as money belts/pouches - but they are certainly worth considering depending on what you need them for. The idea of putting a passport into a wrist wallet is just silly, but the idea of having additional internal pockets in clothing is a potential solution if you have sewing skills.

I found that for small, regularly used items (e.g. credit card, small change, transport tickets etc.), a discreet zippered pocket in my shirt was the best place to store things. One shirt had a pocket in the side seam at waist level which was invisible unless you knew to look for it. It was great for ease of access as well as for security of valuables.

Extra internal pockets in clothing

Yvette came across the Instructables website which contains instructions on how to add extra internal pockets into clothing. Personally, I think this is the best option out of all of these alternatives to money belts, however it only works if your clothing already has pockets! And you also need reasonable sewing skills. The advantages include being able to make internal pockets to suit your needs - whether you only need small ones for credit cards etc., or one large enough to stash a passport.

 
Wrist wallets

By "wrist wallet" I do not mean a wallet with a wrist strap. I mean a cuff-like object which has a zip pocket inside it. Here's a link to one variety so you can see what we mean. I like the idea of storing the car keys that way, though not having done it before, it might seem a bit weird at first - and maybe too lumpy. Looks like a great idea for going to the beach or other outdoor environments. If you have the right sort of contents, it wouldn't matter if the whole thing were immersed in water. Here in Australia, our banknotes are polymer so they won't disintegrate if you happen to go for a swim. Metal coins ditto. Credit cards ditto. Keys ditto - but you can't have the automatic battery-operated door opening devices: they'll be ruined. 

Obviously you can't fit your passport inside it, and it might look a little dorky in summer, but could easily be covered by a sleeve in winter. It may also be a bit too visible and hence attract muggers. You could also wear them around your ankle to minimise visibility - especially under trousers or socks.

Singlet vests with pockets
This means "undershirt" not singlet tops as outerwear. Envisage a singlet top (tank top / vest) with a velcro or zipper pocket. Here's a link to a ladies' version.

Socks with hidden zip pockets and Clothing belt with hidden zipper pockets are a couple of other possibilities. Here are a couple of examples of Ladies' and Men's Zip It Sox which have pockets sufficiently large to take even a passport. These would be obviously not much use if it were too hot to wear socks. Another possibility is the "ordinary" clothing belt with a cleverly hidden zipper pocket. Not great for travel documents or passports, I wouldn't think. You'd need a cummerbund for that - perhaps a bit overdressed for the beach?

Without having tested each of these options, my personal preference is for hidden pockets in clothing, maybe in conjunction with a wrist wallet. We'll have to give them a go sometime.

Travel and anaphylaxis

Having recently had some dietary restrictions placed upon me, I got to wondering about what you would do if you were travelling and you or your child had severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions to food or environmental stimuli. I have a friend who has a child with life-threatening food allergies. I asked her how they do holidays.

She said that they generally go to her parents' place (out of town) or other relatives. They did consider a trip to New Zealand (only a few hours on a plane), but she quickly realised that they couldn't even do that. She pointed out that many airlines still serve peanuts, and there would be a very high chance of there being peanut residue in the seat upholstery. Let alone not knowing what ingredients are present in the airline food - even if they brought their own, because those around would still be consuming it, and that's not even thinking about the food or other allergens available in different holiday destinations.

I had never considered this before. I now have great sympathy for the difficulties that people dealing with such allergies have to overcome in order to do a simple thing like going on holidays. If you have succeeded in holidaying with an anaphylactic, please let us know how to do it!

The great regrets

Travel is expensive - but great fun. You go to a lot of effort to plan and pay for what are probably once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and you know that you can't see everything. You have to choose. I know that some people are crippled when faced with such choices - and from time to time I am too: it can be really hard to leave something out of the itinerary that you just can't get in.

But sometimes you are faced with an opportunity to do something, and for whatever reason you choose not to. I don't mean that it comes down to time or cost: the opportunity is possible on both counts. But you just don't do it.

We've experienced this a couple of times, and those experiences have really made us aware of the need to take the opportunities that are presented. On our first trip together, Yvette and I spent a week in Vienna. We had the opportunity to take a day trip to Prague. We decided against it, and instead decided to go out to the Danube River and chill out. It was a decision we have forever regretted. The Danube, as it flows through Vienna, is not picturesque. Upstream, yes, but through the city - no. It is neither beautiful nor blue. We could have been in Prague, but we weren't.

In Scotland, we drove across the highlands from Stirling to Fort William. On our way we stopped for lunch at Blair Atholl - practically outside the gates to Blair Castle, which we decided not to visit. It was only years later that Yvette realised that we should have gone in, that the castle was the home of a magnificent collection of textiles that she would have loved to see. Obviously we didn't know this at the time, but we had the opportunity and failed to act.

In planning our trip last year we originally planned to do a side trip to Tangier, Morocco. We regret not doing that on one level, but on another the idea of taking two small, fair-haired children into a bustling, manic, culturally disorienting North African city just didn't feel right. We don't speak any version of Arabic, and felt that it would have been enough of a struggle to get about as adults without having to contend with the kids as well. We're still planning to include Morocco one day - but we're saving it for when the kids are older.

I guess we're fortunate that our real regrets have been so few, but the advice still stands: seize every opportunity you can while keeping in mind that you can't do everything.

House swapping

Some family members are wanting to spend a couple of months including the coming Christmas, in a particular place in Germany while one of them does some doctoral research. I suggested to them that they should consider house swapping to reduce the costs.

I figured that offering a Sydney house in summer for a couple of months might well be attractive to some people!

They have launched into the process of organising it, and currently have two families/groups interested in swapping with them.

Yesterday I found this article in the Sydney Morning Herald, about house swapping and thought I should mention house-swapping as a low-cost way of obtaining accommodation while travelling with the family.

It could work for you!

Kids and travel diaries

Travel diaries are really important. Especially for kids. I know it's a hassle, and they find it a chore, but you must insist - and you should write your own to model the example to them. Yvette recalls that when she was eight years old, her family went on a four week trip around Australia. Every day her Mum and Dad forced her and her siblings to write in their diaries, no matter whether they wanted to or not. They considered it a bit of a chore. But they each filled an exercise book with daily entries, drawings, stuck in brochures from the places they went to, tickets, etc. Her parents still have the diaries and they are a wonderful reminder of all that they did. Without them, they would remember a lot less.

Since I first kept a travel diary 13 years ago my writing has changed. My first diary was very succinct. Yvette's mum said she could tell that my diary was written by a male. Yvette's diary of the same trip was littered with more experiential stuff, whereas mine read more like a catalogue. To be honest, it communicated what we did and where we went, but it is still not an overly interesting read. Still, it fulfills its primary purpose: to reconstruct memories in detail. For my later diaries I have tried to be less systematic and more descriptive - but I'm finding that as it changes the diaries have become unwieldy in their size.

Our eldest daughter - "The Bookworm" - first ventured overseas with us when she was 20 months old. She has no recollection of that trip (nor would we expect it) and she was in no position to record her own experiences in any way. She did take a small notebook to do drawing in, and from time to time Yvette or I would record simple sentences in it about what had happened during the trip.

Her next overseas jaunt was at age 5. Still a bit young for a travel diary, I created a "travel guide" for her. It was a little booklet full of activities (e.g. colouring-in; dot-to-dot etc.) which had a story (which I wrote) as its main theme. The basic premise was that there was a fairy which was trying to recover a host of treasures that had been stolen from fairyland, and she needed our daughter's assistance to find them. The things to find were located at various sights we were going to visit in New York and Canada. It worked brilliantly. She didn't complete everything (it wasn't meant to be "homework", after all) but she did try to find all of the sights in the treasure hunt. Some of the "missing fairyland treasures" included a crown (on the Statue of Liberty); a winged beast (Assyrian sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art); a castle (Chateau Frontenac, Quebec); and a unicorn (the tapestries at The Cloisters, New York).

At seven, The Bookworm kept her own written diary, though it was more difficult to motivate her to write than do a treasure hunt. In addition, we bought her the cheapest available digital camera and a large capacity memory stick for the Christmas prior to the holiday. She took about 900 photos - some quite amazing, others barely distinguishable - as a means of recording what she saw. Yvette and I tried hard not to direct her as to what she should photograph, and as a result she got an eclectic photo gallery of things which she viewed as important. Sometimes we had to remind her to take the camera out, or that "now" might be a good photo opportunity, but often she did it on her own. As well as the photos taken by the adults - all carefully planned and framed etc. - we have a lovely record of incidental things overlooked by us, including floors, walls, fish in ponds, and the chandeliers at Versailles.

Our youngest daughter - "Bendy" - did a colouring-in book to remember various parts of the holiday - though whether she actually will remains to be seen.

For the adults, Yvette kept a hand written diary. I knew I'd be verbose, and to keep our weight limit down I used the tiny Asus computer we took away with us. I managed to type about 40 pages in three weeks - most of which I'd have not bothered to write if I had done it be hand. 

I also purchase a blank art book (spiral bound, with blank A4 size pages) and stick in all the tickets, brochures etc. collected along the way (arranged in order). These form a sort of visual diary of the trip to accompany the written diary. Despite all the wonderful experiences that travel brings, it is amazing the details that you forget as time passes. Keeping a diary re-ignites those memories, and can help you to recall those experiences with greater clarity in the future. With kids it is vital. They simply won't remember it all - just the best bits, or those things which impacted them the most. A diary will record their perspective long after it has faded from their minds.

Self-catering: Why do we do it?

There are five basic reasons why we self-cater when travelling with kids. 

1. It is affordable. Restaurants are not usually cheap, and this is compounded when you have to rely on them for most meals. Breakfasts in hotels - even budget, chain hotels - can be quite expensive, though admittedly the convenience they offer is sometimes unbeatable.


2. It gives your kids a sense of the "familiar", and it can keep fussy eaters happy. If you ever hear “But I don’t like any of this stuff”, you'll know what we mean. In a new country where the food is different, you’re bound to get this with most kids. Give them something they know, and they’ll be much easier to keep happy. That said, we do like to make the effort to eat the local cuisine wherever possible.
   
   Recently we kept the kids happy by choosing an Italian/Portuguese restaurant in Portugal. The kids enjoyed a pizza, and we got to try the delicious local Portuguese food. We also figure that when the kids are older (or when we are older and travelling without them), that will be a better time to sample local delicacies.


3. It is great when the kids are tired. Dining out with tired, grumpy kids is not fun. In any way, or for anyone. Preparing your own food in you hotel room, at a time convenient to you, takes effort but is actually quite liberating. You can feed them and get them into bed quickly, and not share their little meltdown with the rest of the known world.


4. It makes dining out less of a chore and more of a treat. We have had many wonderful experiences dining out with our kids. They have (almost) always been made to feel welcome in restaurants. Indeed, some have gone out of their way to make them welcome - provided activities, waiters playing silly games with them, modifying menu items etc. But this is partly because they are not having to endure that environment every night. They can't always be "on show" or "on their best behaviour". But sometimes they can be. We do eat out when travelling - about every third night, or maybe a big lunch.
   
   Almost every restaurant we have dined in has welcomed our kids - and we have to thank self-catering for that, because it becomes a treat, not a chore. I would like to (but won't) name-and-shame a certain restaurant along Brompton Road, South Kensington (between the V&A Museum and Harrod's) for the appalling way we were treated simply because we had a child in tow (and only one extremely well-behaved child, too, not both of them). But in the main, self-catering gives dining out a better chance of being a pleasure.


5. Self-catering allows you to monitor your kids' diets a bit more. Before we took up self-catering, our eldest once lived off hot chips for three weeks. We shouldn't have let her. Self-catering means we don't give them that option every meal.
   

I don't know whether hotels really approve of self-catering, but I don't really care either. We make sure never to leave a mess, though there's usually a tell-tale food smell. We could just have easily brought a pizza back to our room, so how are they to know the difference - apart from the stuff that's in the bin... 

We do it to make life a bit easier all round: easier on the kids, on our sanity, and on our pockets.

make your own gear: luggage without wheels

On our last trip we adults took a wheelie bag each, that converted to a backpack. I find that having a backpack is essential when travelling and needing to hold children's hands. Sure its great for stairs and things like that, but my prime love is for how it helps me maintain my children's safety.

I have been thinking that I'd like to ditch the wheels.

I walk everywhere when at home, and I always carry a backpack on my back. This is a product of pushing a stroller for many years - a backpack just suited me best for carrying things.

So I've been thinking that if I want to reduce the weight of what I take on holidays with me (and I certainly do!), one big way to do that is to lose the wheels, because in so doing, you don't only lose wheels but the whole handle structure of the bag that goes with them. That certainly reduces the weight.

I've been looking at bags. One website that I have been particularly taken with is Tom Bihn Bags. I love the look of their Aeronaut bag. It seems to me to be fabulously practical. It has a main central section and two separate end sections. It can be hand held like a normal suitcase, used with a shoulder strap (I cannot fathom why you would do this - it would be dreadful for your back!), and when the stowable backpack straps are whipped out, it can be carried like a backpack. This is what I would do. I like the way it has inbuilt sections. This would help to stop all the little "bits" falling around in a bag that is anything but completely full. I don't want to have to travel with my bag full, so this is a consideration for me.

However, it is TOO big for me. I often travel with Virgin Blue (an Australian airline) when I travel for business, and the Aeronaut is way too big for their maximum carry-on size. Of course, I would not be wanting to check my bag if at all possible, so this too is important to me.

There are a couple of other changes I would prefer to be made to the lovely Aeronaut, to suit my needs too. Like it would be good if the compartment sections could be zipped down to fold them out of the way if you did want to use the bag as a one or two compartment bag - if you had something long to carry, for example. And it would be interesting to see whether one of the end sections could be collapsible, for the sake of travelling on Virgin Blue with its very short maximum length.

But I really like the functionality of their design. And they look to be exceptionally well made.

I am quite handy with fabric and a sewing machine (in my work life I am an embroidery designer) so now I am considering designing and making my own bag just for me and my personal requirements. My brain has therefore been working overtime on this little design dilemma (a good dilemma though!)

I have looked and looked at all the bits I would need. Things like fabric, zips, buckles and attachmenty sorts of things. I can get everything locally except for water-resistant zippers - IF I decide to go for water-resistant zippers. And if I don't then I still want YKK zips because apparently they are the BEST, and I still need to find them locally.

And all for a lot less than it would cost me to import one of the gorgeous, luscious Tom Bihn bags. Of course their bags are designed and constructed by people who have been doing it for years. They have knowledge and expertise that I don't have. No doubt they have made and fixed lots of mistakes to come up with the designs that they now have. I don't have the luxury of all that, but still, I reckon I can make a sturdy, well constructed bag that suits my needs.

I'm certainly willing to give it a go.

Why take the kids: the expanded version

We choose to travel with our kids for all sorts of reasons. We've done three long-haul overseas trips from Australia since the eldest was 20 months old, and we're not about to give up now. So why do it?

1. To see the world. Yeah, I know the world is full of pretty grim news. There are major crises, wars, disease, social ills of every kind, but the world is also a beautiful place. The natural world is awesome, the cultural world rich beyond description, and people everywhere are worthy of appreciation and respect. We have been shown tremendous kindness as visitors to other places by complete strangers, and this inspires hope in us that the world is not yet ready to blow itself to bits. The world is inherently interesting: socially, culturally, artistically, naturally.

2. To build our family. Travelling with our kids forges strong shared memories, and shared memories are one of the building blocks of family stability. Even long after our return from overseas, one of us will come across a picture of a place we have visited, thus setting off the "We've been there..." and "Do you remember when..?" reminiscences.

3. To show our kids that not everyone is like us, nor is everywhere like Australia. We have to face the fact that our little corner of the world is pretty good. Socially, economically and politically stable, with more than its fair share of affluence. We want our kids to grow up knowing that it is a privilege, and not a right, to grow up in our society. We want them to understand that not everyone has what we have, nor do they think the way we think. In fact, they might hopefully learn that less economically fortunate places have advantages that our kids will never have at home.

4. To help them appreciate differences in culture. Language, food, customs, beliefs, artistic and musical traditions, history, geography, climate, ecology. You name it, it's going to be different despite the best efforts of a certain superpower to create a global monoculture.

5. To challenge ourselves. In the first instance, we wanted to see if we could do it and survive. Now we do it partly to challenge ourselves to make the next trip a little better than the previous one - for us and the kids.

6. To introduce our kids to the iconic places and milestones in our own cultural heritage. Western culture comes in for a bit of a hiding from the media, but whether we like it or not it is the cultural heritage tradition to which our family is connected. This gives a not-very-politically-correct Eurocentricity to our heritage, despite living across the globe from Europe. But the roots of our culture, our laws, religion, art, music, language and history come from thousands of miles away in places we have - mostly - never seen. We are newcomers to Australia - arriving here a little over 200 years ago. Being proudly Australian I still want our kids to know our roots since it is patently false to claim that our roots are "from here".

7. Because there is so much to learn - and experience is a great teacher. Sure, we could stay at home and pore over glossy art books to get a sense of art history, or go to Virtual Pompeii on the internet, but there's nothing like reality to inspire and teach. I own dozens of books, on all sorts of subjects, but there's nothing like standing in a place and thinking, "Now I know what this is really like". Books, TV and the internet are great tools, but real life experiences can't be beaten to teach a kid (or an adult!) something.

8. Because our kids are part of our family, and are therefore our responsibility. Just because we're going overseas doesn't give us the right to abrogate our responsibilities for looking after them completely or farm them out to relatives. We have an obligation to include them in our family experiences, and that includes the big travelling trips. They are not our "optional extras" or "accessories".

9. Because sometimes they are useful to take! Everything from skipping queues in customs because of a screaming child to the fact that our then 7-year-old read important information on a sign in Hong Kong airport about baggage security that neither of us adults saw!

So, if you can manage it take your kids with you. Travelling with them IS different to travelling just with adults, but there is a lot to be gained by doing so.

The pleasure is in the planning...

Travelling takes planning. Travelling with kids takes even more planning. I know some people will just cringe at the thought of meticulous planning - it does lack the sort of spontaneity that many travellers enjoy. But with kids, planning can avoid wasting huge amounts of time in queues, travelling between sights and other frustrations.

I love planning the holidays, almost as much as taking the holiday itself.

Here's (roughly) what I do.

1. We decide on a destination. Our current thinking is Greece and Turkey - whittled down from an epic journey through most of Eastern Europe.

2. Then we make a list of all the most worthwhile places to visit. As a guide, I use the UNESCO World Heritage List, and a couple of excellent books: 1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die and 1001 Natural Wonders: You Must See Before You Die. We add to this anything of personal interest - for example, I have made a point of trying to see as many of Michelangelo's works as I can. I think I've only got four to go. We try to get a mix of natural and cultural places so that there's a good balance. We add to that any places that look interesting or unusual from our travel guides. The DK guides are great for this as they are pictorial as well as textual.

3. Get a map, and locate them all on the map.

4. To minimise travel, we find a centrally located cities and towns to form as a base. Sometimes, you just have to drive each day to get around the places you want to see. For example, we stayed in Seville as a base and travelled to Granada and Cordoba as day trips. It just saves repacking the luggage and hauling it around every day, and locating the new accommodation every day.

5. Join the dots. Link sights to their closest base town and estimate how many days will be required in each location, and how much time will be needed to travel between base towns.

6. We often do a lot of tweaking at this stage: trying to re-order the sequence in which we visit sights, or changing the route or direction of travel so that we spend the maximum time seeing the sights and less time on the road (or train / plane etc.)

7. Be prepared to leave something out if you just can't get it in. You will need to prioritise which sights are the "must see" ones, and which are a bonus.

8. Plan "vacant" days. You'll never know what you stumble across once actually travelling. In Quebec, we took an unplanned trip out to Parc Nationale de la Jacques Cartier and had a wonderfully relaxing day walking some of the trails and picnicking by the river.

9. Sometimes you're just going to have to drive (travel by train, etc.) to see those things you want to see. In our planning, we seem to have the uncanny knack of having "must see" sights which are located at the furthest extremities of our destination!

10. Map out the whole trip, including timing for travelling and every sight you want to see.

11. Check the opening hours, times and days for every sight. This is REALLY important so that you know you can actually get into a particular place on the day you are there. Sundays in Europe can be a bit tricky, and watch out for museums closed on Mondays (though some have different closed days).

12. Take into account what your children can cope with: jet lag at the beginning, general "down" time, sleeping, rest times and their walking limit.

13. Book ahead where possible. This limits time in queues - thus minimising fuss from the kids, and you get more time actually enjoying the sights. Where you cannot book ahead (such as the Eiffel Tower), plan to arrive before opening time. We had breakfast at the base of the Eiffel Tower and were first out of the lifts at the top. No fuss for us or the kids. Some useful "book ahead" ideas:

• City Passes (e.g. Paris Pass - www.paris-pass.com) if you're wanting to visit a lot of museums etc.
  
• Individual sights (we prebooked the Alhambra Palaces in Granada)
• Ferries, especially car ferries (we prebooked the Stranraer - Belfast and Wexford - Fishguard ferries)
• Tours which take in a number of places of interest to you
• Hotels / B&Bs / Accommodation if you have special requirements, such as cots, family rooms etc.
• Any shows you might want to see
• Trains which require reservations. We have no experience using Eurail, so I can't comment on that, but we took the New York to Albany Amtrak service and we needed to travel at a specific time so prebooked tickets reduced stress and hassle

14. Map your driving meticulously. I have successfully used Google Maps for driving in Spain and Portugal, and MapQuest for the UK, USA and Quebec. Google Maps was very reliable for driving directions, though it does take a bit of time to figure out the street numbers, names, and scale of distances on the ground. Have a print copy for ease of navigation, and use a tiny font size to keep the whole document as small as possible.

Our last trip to Paris, Spain and Portugal was planned in great detail before we left. Some people wouldn't be comfortable with this, but we found that it worked brilliantly. It reduced our stress over unexpected inconveniences, and made travelling with kids inherently enjoyable. The kids appreciate the element of predictability that planning gives. We felt confident in what we were doing because we didn't have to do any planning on the run.

learning (at least some of) another language

On our most recent trip we travelled through three different languages: French, Portuguese and Spanish. In Australia, none of these languages are routinely taught in schools. In high school you might do one semester each of a few languages compulsorily, but other than that, languages are electives. Some primary schools offer a language as a pull-out subject. However most Australian schools do not have compulsory long-term learning of any language (other than English!).

What this means is that many Australians who are not immigrants and whose parents are not immigrants, do not speak any other languages other than English. Some will have a smattering of high school French or German or Japanese.

However, it is common courtesy to learn at least a little of the languages you will encounter on your holiday. My husband took several terms of French lessons at our local community college to revive his (actually excellent) high school French. Because of his efforts in French we were treated with great courtesy in Paris - even though Parisians are notorious for being rude and aloof.

We and our kids learned "please", "thank you", "hello" and "goodbye" for each language we encountered. We encouraged our children to use these words in the local language at every opportunity.The locals really appreciate people making an effort to speak some of their language.

In parts of Europe you can often find someone who will speak some English, but you can't count on it! Why should they speak English when it isn't their local language? They certainly don't have to! I can't really imagine what it would be like to come to Sydney from a French-speaking country and hope that you'll be able to converse in French. Its just not likely to happen.

It does also say a lot about language teaching/learning in Australia that it is such a low priority for us to learn other languages...

So, before you go, or even as you travel (if you have lots of different languages that you will encounter along the way) learn the basics and teach your children. The best way to learn another language is through immersion, and the best place to do that is a country where it is the local language.

Getting your kids to choose what they want to see

I found a fabulous article on getting your kids to choose what they want to see.

The $ signs keep flashing in my head, but I REALLY like the idea of getting your kids involved even in the planning stages.

wish list: digital travel guides

Our favourite travel guides are the Eyewitness Travel Guide series by Dorling Kindersley, probably because they're very visual, and so are we. The problem with these (and all other brands) is that they're so heavy. Who wants to lug around a whole heap (depending on how many countries you're going to) of heavy travel guides with them?

With the amazing uptake of netbooks over the past year or so (apparently about 1 in 10 laptop sales in Australia are now netbooks) when are DK going to release digital versions of their books so that they can be used on the computers or PDAs that people are taking travelling with them?

If they did release digital travel guides, it’s highly likely that we would end up buying both the paper version and the digital version. We'd use the paper one at home to browse through and use for armchair travel, and the digital one we would use on location.

On our last holiday we had just entered a new country with a different language and needed to find somewhere to buy some lunch. It was a Saturday afternoon in the country and it seemed like nowhere was open. We went to the tourist attraction that we planned to visit that afternoon, hoping that they might have a cafe (they didn't). Try as we might, we just didn't have enough of the language to communicate to the staff that we wanted to know where we could buy some lunch. We raced back to the car and started up the computer. We pulled up the file containing a scan of the phrasebook pages of one of our guidebooks. We were able to piece together enough words to communicate successfully what we were after.

Our computer saved the day, and it confirmed for us how useful digital guidebooks would be.

Other times, it would have been great to pull up detailed maps of where we were, or information about the place that we were visiting at that moment. Internet access isn't available everywhere, so having it all on tap would be great.

So DK, how about it? Eyewitness E-Travel?

Travels with your kitchen scales

Travelling around the shops before you go, that is - don't take them on holidays with you!

In our quest to travel to France, Spain and Portugal with cabin luggage only (and 2 children in tow) we needed to plan ahead. The first rule is to know the weight limit set by your airline. These vary enormously, but are usually around 7 kilograms, which includes the weight of the bag itself.

To maximise our 7kg limit, we travelled around to various stores with our kitchen scales in hand, and we weighed EVERYTHING. We set up a spreadsheet listing the 4 bags, their contents, and the individual weight of every item in every bag to ensure we complied (yes, it's a bit obsessive but it worked for us).

One of the criteria we used to choose our luggage was weight (along with size, practicality etc.). Once we had our bags, we knew how much weight remained for us to fill with our belongings.

In taking our kitchen scales everywhere from adventure stores to supermarkets we encountered many quizzical looks from staff and other customers. We just smiled and ignored them - sometimes explaining if they actually asked what we were up to. We found out that the cups in K-Mart weigh at least 2 grams more than those from the adventure store, for example. Eight grams (total from 4 cups) counts when you need to travel light! But K-Mart had the lightest weight umbrellas for the size of the canopy.

When we did eventually check in at the airport, we found that the bags were pretty much exactly the weight we had calculated. One was slightly overweight, but one was under. Both were allowed, probably because we had no checked in luggage.

So what can be packed into 4 x 7kg bags? A surprising amount, actually! Apart from clothing, toiletries and camera, a few of the surprising items included:

• two car booster seats for the kids
• a laptop computer (one of the tiny netbooks with a 7 inch screen)
• plates, cups and plastic cutlery (cheap enough to be confiscated at customs if they had a problem with it)
• nappies (diapers)
• a swimming bubble flotation device
• battery charger (for camera batteries)
• books and games to occupy the kids

It is amazing what can be achieved with a lot of forethought and planning - and a reliable set of kitchen scales!