Travelling with kids

Ep #40 - Travelling with Kids (EDITED)

Wed, Feb 21, 2024 6: 55AM • 43:38

Wed, Feb 21, 2024 6: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Wed, Feb 21, 2024 6: travel, finn, cruise, stayed, trip, drove, flight, children, lovely, love, bit, snow, husband, share, sleep, plane, day, uk, emma, hotel

00: 01

00: Do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell show, a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now, I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world. And now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure to it's possible and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams to create a life you love until you get now don't wait for a time and or someday in the future. I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, wins the challenges and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

01: 03

01: I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land waterways and skies where I work live, listen, learn and play. From here on you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present.

01: 27

01: Hello, and welcome to today's episode all about traveling with kids. I know and running a business. So I wanted to share some of my experiences of traveling with a kid. I have one child, he's three, he is my darling thin. And I have traveled around the world with him by myself with my husband, domestically, planes, buses, trains, cars, epic road trips, boats, cruises, we've actually done a lot in three years. So I wanted to share about our experiences. And I know that there can be fear or apprehension around traveling with children. And I don't want that to be the case.

02: 14

02: Even I hope that this episode for someone who hasn't had children yet and is looking to, or who has young children and has put this off. I hope that this inspires you to take on some adventures because the memories that we've created already have been just there just I'll treasure them for the rest of my life. Even on my vision board, I can see there's a photo of us in Adelaide when Finn was four months old, our first plane trip, we went to the business chicks conference. And yeah, he was there and movers and breakers. And then

02: 46

02: we traveled on afterwards and saw friends and their farm and it was wonderful. And then I've also got a photo of us in Italy together for my cousin's wedding, the most beautiful destination and soul dressed up or spiffy in it, it's fabulous. So that's on my vision board just to the right of my desk that I see every day to inspire more travel. But for me living a life I love means getting to run my business a profitable, sustainable business to help others do the same. And to travel the world with my gorgeous family and to have them along for the ride as much as possible. And that's what we're doing. So

03: 24

03: yeah, I think one of the things that I've heard have come up and I get frustrated by is people saying that they're not going to travel till their children are x age or there's no point in traveling with children when they're young. And I just think it's such a misguided sort of

03: 44

03: thing to to one thing that children don't have

03: 48

03: can't gain anything from from that travel, when they're, I don't know, maybe four months old, or eight months old or 12 months old, but also that they're so focused on what the child is doing and not what you're experiencing. It's about actually it's about

04: 02

04: your memories, not potentially their memories. But also, I think travel and experiences stay in our bodies. And for me, having gone to the UK when I was under two years old, and

04: 19

04: having the family connection there but having visited. It feels very comfortable to me and I feel very comforted by it. And my husband was born in Hong Kong, and we went on a big trip in 2018. We went to like seven countries across six weeks. And the last place we went was Hong Kong which is where he was born, but he left when he was like 18 months or two.

04: 43

04: But it was weird. He like didn't enjoy Rome as much and felt kind of uncomfortable and a bit overwhelmed in the city. And we went to Hong Kong which is a huge city. It's so densely populated. It's really intense and hectic and he felt really comfortable there and can feel

05: 00

05: much more comfortable in Singapore and Hong Kong, even India, then he did in some places in Europe, which are more commonly known and used to being traveled in. And I think that is because he grew up his first six years of his life overseas in Hong Kong, in Singapore. But when did you leave Singapore?

05: 23

05: I was five for 25 Anywho, first five years with live in Asia. So my main is recording at home. And yes, so I think that was that's in this body that comes with it. He does remember some things but not everything. And so I think Finn it my son is going to have that in his body this travel in his body because he's been doing it since he was so little. He's been on planes since he was four months old. He went on his first international flight when he was 15 months old, took him across to the US, UK by myself.

06: 00

06: And I think it's, you know, for me, it was those memories that we had all together. And that being away together, that was more important than saying, he won't remember being 15 months old. And I'll tell you what, we went on another trip to the US. This little boy's been everywhere, so much three times he's been to the US and he's three. But when we went last year, one year ago, in 2023, Feb 2023, we went to the snow, and he would have been at the time just gone to.

06: 32

06: And we went to the snow, we were there with our family friend, my dad, my Matthew, my husband, me and pins, five of us. And we would do sledding, and we did a maze. And we would play in the snow. And we stayed in the house. And it was lovely. Matt and I would ski Well, my dad would have him or our friend would have him for a little while or we would take turns but we actually got to ski together as well. So we went on a snow trip in the USA with our baby.

07: 00

07: And there's just been some times even a few months after that he has just gone to where he had a few words, but he said something about being cold. And he was like like the snow, like the no snow.

07: 17

07: Like with Papa. And I was like, oh my goodness, yes, you were in the snow with Papa, he associated being cold, being in a snow being with my dad. That's because we were in the US. And I just didn't think because of a lot of what people say that they hadn't memories. And potentially in the future, he won't bring up that memory. But potentially, he's always going to have an association with snow and snowman. And my dad, because that's where we were together and the tobogganing. And so I just disagree with this point about they weren't remember, because they do remember from a young age. Now, your capacity or your not willingness to travel with them because of how they might behave or how they might be in situations, or finances is a completely different understanding. If you were saying about finances, then the ACT problems 10 More but this argument that they don't remember I disagree with, I think you're also doing yourself a disservice out of all those opportunities and those chances and one thing, when they're under two, they're free, they are free to fly, they have free for hotels, they have free for everywhere, the only thing we have to do additionally, is we get a slightly bigger car and we get a car seat. So I have to pay for that rental or you can travel with the car seat, I don't travel the car seat, it's not carrying around anything, especially when I'm by myself, There's no way I'm carrying that around. But you're free under two. And then, you know, I just think there's there's some really special ways that they view the world, when they're that age when you're never going to have them that age again. So you're not going to be able to have the chance to compare what they were like when they were two or nine or 15 traveling because you haven't done it. But the fear of their behavior, the fear of the tiredness or that sort of thing. I have heard of people saying to me that they just fearful about how awful the flight could be. And so that's why they're not going to do it. I can tell you I probably had one of the worst flights that could have imagined.

09: 25

09: could have got worse but it was pretty bad. My first experience and even though that was rough and I will tell the story. It was only 15 hours of my life 15 hours of my life. And then you know, ended up being 27 hours to travel all up to get to see my cousin who is now 100 years old, my grandmother's cousin who's one of my dearest people in the world. And then to go on another 10 hours to see my from there from the UK, USA to the UK to had a week and then we went on to say my grandmother was 90

10: 00

10: do one at a time and has now passed away, to have those memories, to have those not just the photo, but to have that time together with my son, and these dear people in my life, to have a photo with my mother, and my grandmother and my son, when we live across the other side of the world and have vital for generations. Like I have those memories. She knew my son, she held my boys hand, he walked along by the river with her. He my fin, my fin, my boy knows this man who's over 100 years old.

10: 34

10: He knows his name, he knows who he is, he's spent time with him.

10: 38

10: It's the greatest gift that we got to share that time together. And the only way we could do that is to travel. So for me travel is more than just going on holiday. It's the way that I see my loved ones. I've got family in the US, the UK, the good dear friends in India and Germany and many places around the world. Because I was getting married in Italy, well, I want to go to the wedding. So I'm gonna go

11: 02

11: I think means going with my baby. I mean, it's all the better.

11: 07

11: You just see that you see the experiences completely differently. And I think that will be something sad to miss out on. And so the first flight was was tough because it was just coming out COVID And I was desperate to get away, I would have taken him sooner. Finn was born January 2021. So we weren't actually able to go many places we managed to sneak in we went down to Sydney, we ended up driving, I decided I wanted the car, I wanted our own car, I wanted our car seat. So I felt like it was easier that first trip not to fly. Also, I just was due to COVID, I was a bit concerned about if things got canceled and trying to deal with flights and things like that. If we have the car that it was like if something goes wrong, we can just get in the car and drive back over the border. Because this is the time we were talking about if you remember how delightful that was. But yeah, I drove down with my father in law, we took turns and had fun in the car. And in some ways it was easier because he was very little, I think, yes, seven weeks going on eight weeks.

12: 09

12: His first interest rate estate trip was when he was three weeks old because we live one hour from the border. So we went from Queensland, New South Wales so that my husband could get a tattoo, the thing to do, and so then the drive was not terrible. 10 hours we did. And then coming back, my husband, Matt flew down and we drove back together.

12: 30

12: But yeah, we did that. And then his first flight in Australia was to Adelaide, in the May 2021. For the conference, which was wonderful. I had my first night away from him

12: 42

12: two weeks before, again, through business events. So sometimes that pushes and motivates me because the dates are there, you've got to go, I want them to be part of it. I don't want to be away from fear. And so I made it work. That's that was my thing. It's like my friend said the other day, it's like separation anxiety, but it's not. Maybe it is I just love seeing and I want to see him as much as possible. So I don't want to be away from him for a week. And why wouldn't we just spend a little bit more money booking a flight. So at the time only booking a flight for that we had the hotel, we had the car, I had to pay for those things anyway, why not enjoy them together. So we did just made it a little bit longer so that we could actually have a holiday. But anyway, then, then the borders shut. Queensland or the state borders shut. Sydney, New South Wales went on a really strict lockdown for six months. And unfortunately, it meant I couldn't see my family, my parents, because they were in New South Wales, and we were in Queensland. So that was a rough time not being able to travel. And at that time, still not being able to travel internationally. So as soon as things opened up, they were opening up around January 2022. But my relatives said it was too cold, they didn't really want us going there. And it was still quite strict. So we ended up booking for April, or May, April, May end of April, May, because even though we had the wedding in August, I just when you're dealing with a 91 year old and 99 year old, I don't think time is really on your side. And I couldn't risk not having those meetings, it meant too much to me. And so I didn't even think about the flights. To be honest, I was just so fixated on whether I'll be allowed out of the country. There were so many record options and so many things I had to do, I had to get a COVID test on the day. And if they said I was had COVID Then I wasn't allowed to travel. So that was up until three hours before I didn't even know if I'd be going It was very stressful. So then once we got through, I was like oh my gosh, going on an international flight. I just hadn't thought about it. And so just me and Finn, and we got in the bulkheads set which is good. I was right at the front of the plane new business class. But unfortunately I was sitting next to a lovely man he was a lovely man but

14: 55

14: it was just a bit not ideal the seating arrangement

14: 59

14: but we

15: 00

15: Whatever.

15: 01

15: And then thin slept from the time we took off for about the first three hours, which was fantastic. And then he had a bit of something to eat and drink, and then he threw up a lot. So I had brought change of clothes, I've got changed clothes and changed myself and changed him and Okay, he's okay. And then I was a bit worried that I was okay. So I'll try and get him some medicine. Maybe he's a bit, I'm feeling unwell, he'd been Oh, he'd had some sort of almost had conjunctivitis, we'd been giving him some things. So he was definitely something was going on.

15: 35

15: And then I tried to give him some more drink. And I gave him the medicine any throw up again, but like a lot. And we're like in the air, and so maybe you don't know. And, again, went all over me. That was my change of clothes gone, changed him again. And then the CO manager came to see me and I was like, I don't know what's going on. And then she said, Do you want us to do a call for a doctor or nurse or someone on the plane. And so they made a page across the plane?

16: 02

16: To sort certain emotional, it was like, I didn't have Matt there to bounce off. And I just felt so overwhelmed. Like, oh, my gosh, this is so serious. And a lovely midwife came to see me and explained, you know, and even the cabin manager said that the altitude can affect them, and it just affects their nasal, you know, everything that is get blocked. And yeah, it just can make them it's quite common that they can throw up. So there you go. If she child is quite small, under two, they might throw up on a plane.

16: 32

16: Good to know, especially for the packing top tip, always take three sets of clothes for them, and through to at least two sets of changes for you. That was my lesson learned. And so

16: 44

16: they said just not to give him too much water and not to worry about the eating, their appetite gets affected and just no more sort of medicine or whatever. Just, he'll be alright. And they gave us some ice chips and things like that. But then I was like, Well, I'm covered in yuck. And I said, I know that you're not supposed to do this. And I know that they're for business class. But if there's any chance you have spare pajamas, the cornice pajamas, I know you have them, can I please have some because I have no clothes. So they kindly gave me those and they kindly gave me a business class blanket as well. So maybe we got a perk out of it. And despite all of that, I mean, say 15 It was 13 and a half hours thin slept for like eight or nine of them. So that was fine. The other difficult thing about him being so small and being by myself was that I had to take him to the bathroom every time so even if he was sleeping, I had to carry him if I needed the loo

17: 36

17: to that was and he did sleep on me. He didn't want to sleep in the bassinet. So we had that available but didn't want it. Again, the man next to me is very nice. People around me were very nice. And the crew were lovely on cuantas. So but not ideal. And so then we got to La Bella, okay, then I felt like the ground was shaking. Like just so tired. Because by that time was one and unfortunately was a day flight. So I hadn't slept Finn slept I didn't. And then we had to get a four hour flight. And we both just passed out the two of us for slept. My 15 month old and me passed out all the way to Chicago. And we landed in Chicago, and he throw up again. I think there was definitely the cabin pressure as well as that he was unwell. We got to cover you that was everything I wanted more. And then he went to sleep. I put him down normally got myself to bed as early as I could. And about one hour into my sleep. He woke up and I was like, I don't think I can do this. But we did. And we managed it and it was challenging. The nights were hard. The days are wonderful. So I would sleep in as long as I could catch up as much as I could. But unfortunately, I think he was just unwell. So that made it harder. And then I thought that we had done it once. So that would make it okay, but going to the UK unfortunately the way you're going around the world. The jetlag was just as bad in the UK. And so that was pretty brutal facing it again.

18: 57

18: So when I went with Matthew, and we could take turns, it was like nothing. It was totally fine. So he was incredible. Finn was incredible during the day, it's just in the night he just was wide awake. It wasn't doing anything. He was just awake. It was a little bit sick and upset in the US but I realized now he was probably hungry as well because his body clocks way off. So I think if you can anticipate and expect the worst you can only be positively and pleasantly surprised.

19: 26

19: And it's just that kind of not overloading the schedule and that was a good thing that I did get didn't. I've learned with traveling with a kid we just do not plan a lot of things like if anything it's one thing a day a lot of space in the travel now when we go to the US we always plan one night as soon as we get there we don't keep going on to Chicago we stay in LA or whatever is the first port of call. We just stay there for the night. give ourselves a night. When we got to London, just have nothing on that night get straight to the hotel straight to the family member's house and just have a night

20: 00

20: It just really tried to build in a lot of space, which has been a good lesson for me.

20: 06

20: My name is Emma Walkinshaw. I'm a transformational coach, I run the embody confidence program. I'm an author and I also run retreats for women here in Australia. And now internationally. Thanks to Emma Lavelle, Emma has been absolutely phenomenal in planning my up and coming retreat to India. She has helped me with the itinerary, the transportation, the hotels, the whole flow of the retreat, am I am so grateful. I'm also grateful because this retreat is profitable. And that is a wonderful feeling. I also thank Emma for spending the day with her learning about retreats, you've opened my eyes to what's possible, and I'm so excited for the future, Emma, thank you.

20: 54

20: But yeah, traveling, then as a family as the three of us has just been fine, because I've kind of gone through the thick of it.

21: 02

21: Sometimes, you know, there's then our negotiation together. And I know that gets more stressed with flying and the travel. And so then again, I just tried to make that as spacious as I can. And we did have a really challenging, interesting time on our recent trip. So I will just name the trips that we've done. I think we're gonna lose count, we I can't count how times we've been to Sydney, we fly up and down a lot, a little bit less now that we have to pay for a seat, but we still go, we've driven down to Sydney when then we've driven on to, to Thredbo to the snow by Canberra, we've done that trip we've driven to, we're so driven a little bit up north we've been to I've driven to Harvey bay by myself, I drove to Tamworth by myself, don't recommend won't do that again.

21: 58

21: Just

22: 00

22: that was That was rough on me. But that was a good lesson. So try to get somebody along for the ride. And if you're doing it as a couple, I just think there's no problem, are doing it with a friend or family member just to have someone who can help them if they need it. Or when you're on your own and your child's under four or five in the backseat. There's nothing you can do to support them in your automated road.

22: 26

22: That's very challenging. So there were some lessons I learned. Whereas in Australia, we've been to Adelaide and Melbourne on flights together.

22: 36

22: We have been overseas we've been to we went USA UK when he was 15 months old. Few months later, when he was 18 months old. We went USA, UK, Italy and Malta.

22: 48

22: Then that was the three of us. Then we went in February 2023. We went he was to we went to the US. We went to Phoenix, San Diego, LA and

23: 04

23: Colorado, the snow. And as I say we went skiing. And then we were just recently went to nine countries. In three and a half weeks.

23: 18

23: We went by Singapore and we went to the UK, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Albania, Belgium, Luxembourg, back to the UK, India. And then the boys flew home via Singapore. I stayed on for an extra 10 days to host my retreat. And that's that's an that's first international first to international flights within solar.

23: 43

23: You can tell you're leaving them at the airport or leaving the house to go to the airport, I was devastated. And I was so focused on them and their travel that I actually took myself to the wrong terminal.

23: 55

23: Had to get from the Mumbai domestic terminal in like 20 minutes apart. And I made it but it was very stressful. And so it was definitely that oxygen mask on first. And that did awesome. So I need to trust that they're going to be fine. And they'll figure it out. And if they don't, they'll figure it out. So I've done my bit so that was that. And then most recently, we went on a cruise just out to international waters from Sydney, we went on the Disney Cruise,

24: 24

24: which I did a whole episode on so I won't talk too much here. But I don't want this to be too long. I just wanted to share some points.

24: 32

24: So yeah, the last trip the not the second to last trip the nine countries was a lot. We also went to Wales because we could we were at the wedding 45 minutes from the border. So we drove into Wales went to an abbey beautiful historic site and drove back so I've been to Wales now. Which is a separate country, but it is part of the United Kingdom so un wise it only counts as one. I do have a mission to visit every un

25: 00

25: actually nice country in the world, which is 193. And I'm up to about 57. So I'm on my way, but that one didn't count. So

25: 10

25: the trip in Montenegro, Croatia, Albania and Bosnia, we did five nights for countries. And we drove a big sort of loop de Loup. And the car rental was brutal. in Montenegro. We blew it higher in Bosnia.

25: 28

25: We had lovely people help us in Croatia with that, I think, got a penis infection in Bosnia. So we had to go the doctors in the hospital,

25: 37

25: you are beautiful and so helpful and wonderful.

25: 41

25: We ran out of money in Albania, we didn't run out of money, we didn't have any local currency. And there were no ATMs in the town we stayed in. And so luckily, our hotel person came and found us in the street in the town and gave us money and put it on our bill, to pay by credit card.

25: 58

25: To Yeah, that was a lot and a lot of driving. And we knew it was going to be a lot.

26: 06

26: And it was meant to be a 10 day trip. But when I found out my cousin, my 100 year old cousin was going to be in Europe at the same time in Belgium and Luxembourg on World War Two trip, which is a whole new podcast on its own. I couldn't miss that opportunity. And we both agreed that so we knew the itinerary going in, but it was just too much. And hadn't ever really looked at cruises in Europe. But when we were in Croatia, and it's being poured, I just Googled some and I can tell you the next time that we do that part of the world, it's going to be by cruise because there is nothing that up. And I think people are quite surprised that I'm a cruise person. But there's nothing better than putting your bags down in one room unpacking for the for however long. And then just having a base and being transported while you sleep to your next destination. And although you only get one day and each destination, we were getting like four hours because of how much driving we were doing. We obviously saw a lot of the country and I think it was really interesting. And it was really cool crossing the borders. But it just would have been nice to take our time. And Finn was amazing, but at times, it's still challenging. And we all had our moments. So I think doing it by cruise would be a really lovely way a really cost effective way to because the challenge around the itinerary was adding up three people's flights, three villas flights, the car is great, the hotel is great, because you divide the cost amongst three, but the flights you can't get around. And even looking at trains, you couldn't, they wouldn't have to pay per person as well. So a cruise getting to the number one this to the if your main destination, whether it be Rome or Venice or somewhere that you leave from, and then that's your transport the whole time it makes it makes it really cost effective. Even when you're talking in the 1000s. Like I'm looking at a cruise that's 10 days, $8,000 you go, Oh my gosh, I mean 5000 For internal 8000 external balcony, which we prefer.

28: 04

28: If you knew 10 days probably need, but

28: 07

28: when you break that down at $800 a day for the three of us, and that's your food, your transport, your entertainment, your accommodation, the only thing you'd be spending is spending money if you go and do activities, or if you buy some souvenirs, or maybe you buy lunch off the boat, but that's going to be minimal. It's actually a really, actually cost effective way to travel as a family that I'm starting to see. And so I'm now got my eyes on and I don't know, my husband's on board yet. But there's like 32 Day cruises and some of those across the world from Australia all the way across the world to European so you just get your flight time. And even those I've seen those for $8,000 or 30 days, which is like crazy. But you have to like the boats and you have to be on board for the boat. So maybe we'll try a 10 day one before we try 32 Day one, but I'll report back. Anyway, so some of the points for traveling with little people and I only have a three year old so I can talk and I haven't don't have multiples. But if they're under two, they're free. So if you've got it until you're old milk that as much as possible.

29: 15

29: kids stay free. Look at hotels where children's like children are included. They're not covered in the past

29: 23

29: and cots and etc are free. Try and find those family friendly ones. We have had the most wonderful Airbnb and hotel people who have helped us so exponentially and been so kind even more kind because they know that we have a child and so having a little look to see how child friendly they are. That can help you a lot.

29: 44

29: Two bedroom apartments were possible especially in Europe, because the rooms are quite small. The beds are quite small. So where we were able to have we at least had always multiple beds. But where possible we had like separation in the room even in in the London we had like a

30: 00

30: townhouse the sort of thing. So it just means that if somebody has disrupted sleep, your child and whoever sleeping with them, then the other person can have a break. And it was that was such a huge benefit.

30: 13

30: If you want to save money, take your car seat with you. But do consider the fact that you have to lug that around. There people use when the planes I haven't done it, so I can't speak for it. If you need a pram, potentially look at

30: 28

30: buying one when you get there, we borrowed from family and friends. The first time I didn't take a highchair or pram, I asked local friends and they gave it that you could potentially look at going to like an op shop, or even buying from say a Walmart or Target or those sorts of stores. If you're going to somebody that's like, you know, more Western, buying in and donating it when you leave, because taking them on the planes is a bit of a hassle.

30: 56

30: If you can get a travel one because then you can take it on the plane, there'd be nothing worse than losing your, you know, house was like $1,400 I did not take it, I would not take it like there's no way I'm checking that and losing it so and you always have to wait for oversize as well. So

31: 12

31: I loved having my hacker Lily hips surfer. So I traveled with that last year 20 Children, it's up to 15 kilos, but you could probably stretch that. And my friend has even heard stories like four, four and a half and she still uses it. So if you are having to carry a child around a lot, and you don't want to take the pram, the hip surfer so they can sit on you it's not a baby carrier. It's like a seat like a bum bag with a seat. That was a game changer in the US last year. And then in Europe again this year.

31: 44

31: Both of them last year sorry.

31: 47

31: But else kids fly free kids eat free kids stay free. Look for those deals I'm so all about when a Bali or Fiji or something like that comes up soon. Just to go, I'm just going to be out, like let's go and let's enjoy. I definitely am looking at Bali and Fiji and some of those countries because they do have kids clubs and babysitting and things like that. That was such a benefit on the cruise as well. Cruises always have kids clubs, and things now old enough, but they also had a nursery. So that was fantastic just to have that, that you can have some time as well.

32: 24

32: Highly recommend traveling with family, maybe not the whole time, but going to visit family in the US going to visit family in the UK.

32: 34

32: Again, the nights were hard. If I'd been with my mom, then maybe you'd like I would have been able to handover. And I think if I had a really asked, I probably could have asked my aunt but I've wanted to be with him. But having family who can just they will just take over and play and support you. That was a huge help.

32: 53

32: Being at the snow with my dad and our family friend and having them be able to take fins so that we could go to the snow was just incredible.

33: 01

33: They pay paid their own way, we all pay our own way we split things and shared it but um, you know, inviting family members, if you have a good relationship or a really good friend, I'm looking at inviting some friends to India, at times if Matt can't come just to give me an extra pair of hands and extra support

33: 19

33: and share in the experience. So it's not all on me. So if you're a single parent, potentially that's a way to do it. Or I know that my cousin when she was a single parent, raising her daughter, she and a friend who both had five year olds went on a trip together. They went to Thailand. And so you know, it's the two parents, the two children. And then you can sort of give each other a break. I think having the break is probably the biggest thing and travel like having some time out for yourself. And yeah, I think that's needed.

33: 53

33: So I've decided to I've said all these things, and I've given my tips and advice. I'm sure there's more that I could have actually written down before, but I decided

34: 03

34: my husband Matthew has been home today. I don't know if he could hear me talking but he's probably thinking lots of things that I'm not saying. So I decided to invite him on to share

34: 16

34: his opinion of travel with children. Matthew, what do you think of child travel with children? I would not recommend

34: 28

34: Okay, so that's not an option in this household. So what are your tips for that you've experienced from like, what are the good things from traveling with a kid? I'm getting to share things with Finn that most people don't. That's huge. You pretty pretty amazing.

34: 50

34: Really bad. It

34: 52

34: was one of your favorite places that we went together. Oh

34: 58

34: skiing because I

35: 00

35: Oh my God I had we had been skiing in ages.

35: 03

35: And yeah, being able to

35: 07

35: share that with him was pretty amazing. But also having the assistance of, you know, other people to care for him boys helped as well, like your dad and your friends.

35: 19

35: I think for us the best trip, like the best snippet that we've had was Malta.

35: 28

35: Yeah, we went to Malta for four days, we wished we'd probably stayed a little longer, but it was kind of the perfect thing. But I think the hotel, the location, the support the activities that we did the amount of activity that we did versus not doing things. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, don't overload and activities in that kid. That was so family friendly. Like everybody was so willing to help. And so lovely. And he ate the food. And I don't know, we went on this boat trip out onto the on this old Turkish boat. It was pretty cool. Swimming with him in the open ocean. He was his mom was not happy about.

36: 09

36: But like, and he was like dancing on the deck. It's like after on the way back, they like put on dance tracks. Like I bathe install tunes, and fins just like grooving away. And then that made other passengers come and talk to us. And it was like this lovely connection, wasn't it?

36: 24

36: That was really fun. I think India worked really well. We were only there for four days. But yeah, yeah.

36: 33

36: But again, that sort of it helped when i in terms of travel stress, for me, having carers at the at the friend's house, we were staying out. So when we're home, he was being entertained, and we were able to rest. We stayed in an apartment with our friends, it's three bedroom apartment, generally, it's just the wife and the husband there. But they had their daughter visiting. The grandmother was there, the aunt came to visit three cousins who Finn was just in heaven. And they also had play equipment. They had a little garden play equipment, so he could go down to the play equipment. And then he loved you know, and I think things are quite cheap there. So if we needed anything we could have paid for it getting around, rickshaws or Ubers. Were happy to pay for and we stayed in a really fancy lovely place. And even that's quite reasonable and that we're again wonderful with the children so and we were gifted the hotels with a pool anything with a pool. That was your top tip actually always have a pool. Oh, yeah. We stayed in Luxembourg. And accidentally, there was a pool there. I sort of knew there was but like, accidentally booked a Wellness Spa, well known Wellness Spa. And having that pool area inside in winter was November. That helped a lot. So Matt's like, we just need to have a pool at any place. We stay. And I was like, Yeah, thinking like Central London and like some, some places like Chicago middle of winter. I don't know if that's but potentially some places have indoor pools. So there we go. So must have pool. Top tip. Bring the grandparents. Yeah, yeah. But then, you know, caveat if you get on with your family, and we have had your mum and dad come when we're to the Sunshine Coast, and they come around here, but like, yeah, having dad come away with us and have that extra help is in them. We had mom in Italy, and all the other we had all my relatives, so aunts and uncles and cousins and plenty of people who wanted to play with him. So yeah, sharing in the wedding as well, having people sharing the experience with you. I think what we're looking at next is group holidays. So we have some lovely friends that we've connected with and looking at maybe some cruises or caravan parks or things like that. One of the great trips we did actually was when we went to the snow, which you were dreading a little bit. So when we drove from Sydney, up from Brisbane Gold Coast, stayed just outside of Sydney, to Canberra and then drove to the snow

39: 08

39: over two days, and then we stayed with friends, but there were seven adults and for children. And the children went from feeling that youngest 18 months to 12 years old. And so actually, they all know MCDU everyone helped and we're we're actually able to enjoy and switch off and again. My friend's sister was lovely and had Finn while he napped and Matt and I got to ski together. I think I think shared holidays. I think that's probably the biggest tip I have is it. If you're apprehensive about travel.

39: 39

39: Do it with another family or with family members? Like more? More adults? What adults?

39: 48

39: Yeah, outnumber the children. That's the thing outnumber adults, teenagers to help with little people because the little ones are going to be that's going to be the hardest time you're going to travel with them. So in

40: 00

40: To the top tip smaller.

40: 02

40: Where are we going next

40: 04

40: Shrike or India again? Yes.

40: 10

40: Isn't that it?

40: 14

40: Thank you can go love you.

40: 20

40: I couldn't resist the urge to, or that opportunity to get my husband on. That's his first podcast on this fine. He's been on my other podcasts, I will get him on to do an episode about what it's like to travel with me the real story.

40: 34

40: But yes, obviously, we have different approaches to our travel. But we make it work. And I'm very grateful for that. And I love traveling with my baby and my husband, and I can't wait to do more of it. And even on business trips, the more I can incorporate them, and the more I can have them along with me, where it's especially before thing goes to school, which will probably have another three years to two to three years, we'll see how that goes.

41: 01

41: We want to get in as much travel as possible, because we're not limited by the school holidays and by the timeframe. So that's, I guess one more top tip is, that's the benefit of traveling while they're younger. But I'm not opposed to in the future, taking a term off or something like that, so that we can have some bigger travels and we're just warming up and practicing for it now. So I'd love to hear your thoughts here if you agree, or if you absolutely disagree. I feel like this one can be polarizing. I hope you've learned something. And it's been helpful obviously yes, I'm, I'm I have a child who's under three or three I've been traveling since he was under three. I've traveled since day dot with ill as close to done as I could.

41: 45

41: But I obviously will share over the years. Because I plan to this podcast and for many years. What that looks like is that changes. And I might also do another episode specifically about and have talked about it on another episode about my Euro trip about what it's like managing the business and the travel and the child same time. So I didn't really cover that here because it was enough to cover that we'll talk about what it's like working whilst overseas with a child

42: 13

42: or traveling full stop going to conferences, etc with a child.

42: 18

42: That's it for today. It's a long one. It's always a long one when I'm on my own. Thank you for being here. If I can help you in any way, if you'd love to do this, but you're not sure I do offer coaching, business travel coach, and business travel life coach, if you want to talk about any of these topics in detail, that's what my hour of power is for and I would love to connect with you more. You want to learn more about me and all the things I offer head to Emma lovell.au And I hope to see you next time hear you next time

42: 50

42: on the next episode.

42: 53

42: Thank you for listening lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au The same as my website. But all the details are in the show notes lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking Now go out there and live a life you love