Travel Hacks for your family vacation
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Travel Hacks for your family vacation

Organizing a Beach Day
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Organizing a Beach Day

Safety at the Beach
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Safety at the Beach

Tips, for when you finally reached your destination
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Tips, for when you finally reached your destination

Travel hacks for flying with babies and kids
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Travel hacks for flying with babies and kids

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Travel Hacks for your family vacation

Travel Hacks for your family vacation

 

3. Ask for the baby bed

Long-haul flights may be difficult with a baby. Especially because you will not have space to relax even a few minutes. It sounds as a little joke but I am serious! Most Airlines (expected low-cost) offer for all booking classes special baby beds and baby food. The point is, that the amount is limited and you have to reserve one as early as possible. Call again one month in advance to confirm the bed. Remind the flight crew while boarding of the pre-booked bed. Ah, and usually they are even for free, great isn’t it?

Enjoy your flight.

 

2. Prepare your in-flight entertainment in advance

On a long-haul flight, it might be a good idea to download some of your child’s preferred series. Do it in advance to not be in a hurry while waiting till it’s downloaded and you are able to leave home. Mind that most earbuds don’t sit well in little ears. It is a good option to buy your little one over-the-ear headphones – your seat neighbour will be thankfulJ

 

3. Use tape to keep liquids from spilling in your baggage

Put a piece of tape around the lids of your toiletries. It doesn’t only prevent them of spilling out but it will also prevent a lot of hassle

 

4. Do not forget the favourite blankie!

Probably every child has its favourite blankie. When I was a toddler, without my blankie, I wasn’t able to fall asleep. Be sure to pack the one of your child – it will make much things easierJ

 

5. Forgot your Wall plug-in or Adapter?

If your hotel room provides a modern flat screen TV, then you’re lucky! Usually there are several USB ports.

 

6. Backup set of clean clothes

Sometimes it happens that you end up at your destiny without your baggage. To make this a little bit easier, cross pack the clothes a little bit. Like that, you’ll have at least a few clean clothes until the baggage finally arrives (several days later…). If you have still space left in your hand luggage, it might be a good decision to pack stuff like toothbrush into the hand luggage.

 

7. Headphone splitter

Some toddlers like to listen to the same music with their parents. Or your children share one tablet to watch the same movie. In this cases, a headphone splitter will be pretty cool. Sharing will never be as easy.

 

8. Bring a daypack with you

Sightseeing with children means to carry a lot of stuff with you. Do not forget a comfortable and well-fitting daypack for your holidays. It’s worth to invest a little bit more money for a good one.

 

We hope, this 8 travel hacks will help you through your family vacation and avoid some stress 🙂

 

Enjoy your holidays
Ben & Emma

 

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Organizing a Beach Day

Organizing a Beach Day

A day at the beach can be such a good and memorable day for the whole family. And that you are well prepared, we invested some time to find the best tips and tricks to make the organization even more comfortable. Everything you have to know about organizing a beach day, you’ll find below. Have fun.

Let’s go:

 

1. Pop-Up Tent or Shelter

When going to the beach, it can be a big challenge to find a shady and sun protected place for your family. And it is important to not stay in the sun the hole day. A pop-up tent or a shelter is a pretty cool gadget and not expensive at all. It will provide you the protection from the sun as we as a cool place in the shade. Look for one with a built-in UV protection. If you want to read more about sun protection, click here.

 

2. It’s the early bird that catches the worm

Usually children wake up early in the morning. Take this chance and arrive early at the beach. There are several advantages why it’s a good decision to arrive early. First of all, you will get the best place for your family (maybe even with a tree*_*). Secondly, the beach will not be overcrowded. Thirdly, and the most important is that the sun isn’t very strong in the early morning. Around lunchtime, your children may be exhausted, so it is the best that they sleep one hour in the hotel room – when the sun is the strongest. The easiest sun protection ever 🙂

 

3. Good Trick: How to De-Sand your Baby

If you are at the sandy beach, your baby or child will be completely sandy. But a baby powder will help to de-sand your baby without an exfoliating scrub. Especially for babies it may be a bit painful with all this sand…

 

4. Lunch at the beach

Bring your own food with you. Children tend to be very hungry at the beach and they will like a self-made lunch much more than a restaurant one. Moreover, usually food in beach restaurants is overpriced and is not very tasty.

 

5. Pack the food in different containers

All sandwiches in one big container? This might be a bad idea. If the sand finds a way into the container, all sandwiches will be crunchy… So, we recommend packing them in different, smaller containers to be sure.

 

6. Freeze the drinks

To keep everything cool is difficult, but not impossible. If you have the opportunity to freeze your drinks (e.g. water), do it! Pack your cool-bag with all food etc and on the side pack the frozen drinks. You will be surprized how long everything stays cool. And cold water on the beach – just great!

 

7. Be careful with the waves

Some babies / children just like the water. Doesn’t matter if a pool or a bath – they are water-lovers. The ocean might be different. Waves may scare them. So, be careful and do not be too fast with going into the water. If so, and they are too scared to go into the water with you, play first a bit with them near the water. After a certain time, they will lose automatically the fear and they will look forward to discover with you the pleasure of the ocean. Please mind the danger of water. You’ll find more information about safety at the beach in this blog post here.

 

8. Buy them protective clothes

Protective clothing isn’t only about sun protection. It can also protect the skin from irritation from all the other elements e.g. sand, boogie boards, beach soccer etc. We have currently two bikinis, which have an integrated SPF 50+. You’ll find them here and the second one here.

 

9. Respect the schedule

Children love their schedules. Of course they will never tell you that but it’s just a simple fact. So if you have special things on your usual daily schedule, e.g. naps, try to combine them with your beach day. Eventually, this will be an ace-in-the-hole happy day!

 

So now it’s time to leave the hotel room and go to the beach. We hope, our “organizing a beach day” post made the preparation a bit easier 🙂

Enjoy!
Ben & Emma

 

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Safety at the Beach

Beach safety for your family

Holidays are coming and the beach vacation sounds like a lot of fun and relaxing. We sadly every year read about tragic accidents where children drown due to a strong current or imprudence of parents. We think, this can never happen to our family, right?

The reason of this heart-breaking problem is, that people tend to become more careless while relaxing on the beach and they forget to seriously think about the beach safety of their children.

To minimize this risk, we want to give you several tips on how to take care of your children in an easy manner.

Explain your children the dangerous situation at the beach

Children, as adults too, do sometimes not care about rules when they don’t understand the sense of it. Explain your children why the ocean is dangerous and what can happen (not that they die but that e.g. they could get hurt). Talk in advance about the behaviour you expect from them and which limitations you have. And keep a constant eye on them. Emergencies happen in the blink of an eye.

Do not hesitate to have a talk with the lifeguards

We all see them during our vacation. Young lifeguards where we sometimes might be suspicious if they aren’t too young for this important and difficult job. But these lifeguards often have been swimming in exactly this ocean since they are able to walk. Being lifeguard is not only about education and ability to swim, it’s more about experience and the understanding of the currents and the situation on the beach. So do not hesitate to ask a lifeguard for information about currents and other dangerous places on the beach and the general beach safety there. They are happy to assist before an emergency occurs.

A lifeguard is not the same as your babysitter at home…

When a beach has its own lifeguard, it doesn’t mean that you can just relax and do not have to watch them. Maybe you know this kind of overcrowded beaches, right? Then you also know that one lifeguard has to look for several hundred people swimming and playing in the water. So the lifeguard is NOT a babysitter for your child and not a guarantee that nothing bad can happen. Be aware of your personal responsibility. Beach safety is the responsibility of parents.

Further, it’s not only the ocean which is dangerous. It’s also scary when your child just walks away on the beach because he/she sees something interesting. Because when you’ll lose them on the beach, you do not know if they went into the water, far away, or they are just playing and building castles in the sand.

Sun Care

Sun protection is something enormously important. Your child’s skin is more vulnerable than your own skin. As this topic is huge and needs deeper explanation, read our blog only about sun protection. Just click right here.

Rip Currents

The quote “silent waters run deep” fits well here. Even when your beach might not have big waves, the rip currents are the most forgotten danger on the beach. Do you remember this feeling when you got caught of a rip current yourself? And how difficult it was to leave this current?

Now imagine what happens with children, which do not realize or realize too late the danger of this currents.

Rip currents are fast moving, narrow channels that are most powerful at the surface of the water where the waves break on shore and they sweep out to the sea. If this happens, do not panic, simply swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the current and then swim back in to land. Educate your children on rip currents and when you visit the beach, ask the lifeguard where they are most prevalent in the area. Read more on NOAA.

Recognize if somebody is drowning

It sounds like a joke. But in fact, most people drowning do not yell help. Mostly it happens while playing or in overcrowded areas. So stand up while watching your children and watch them carefully.

 

We wish you a sunny & fun beach vacation. Be safe.
Ben & Emma

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Tips, for when you finally reached your destination

Parenting Hacks, for when you finally reached your destination:

 

When you finally reached the hotel, the biggest part of the journey is done . But there are some more parenting hacks for being in a hotel. Here we go:

 

  1. Be carefull with tap water

If the tap water isn’t safe to drink, you’ll need to boil, filter or sterilise your own or buy bottled water. If you plan to use bottled water to make up formula feeds, aim to get the lowest mineral content you can. Make sure the children don’t drink from taps, including when brushing teeth. Keeping a bottle of drinking water by the sink is a helpful reminder. Drinking water from the tap can cause serious illnesses in some countries. Talk about this with your children.

 

  1. Eating out

When eating out in countries with poor sanitation and hygiene standards, always eat at busy places where the turnover of food will be fast, and avoid buffets: they’re notorious for harbouring the bugs that cause diarrhoea. Listen to your instincts if you are not sure about a place!

Here you can read more about how to get your children trying new food!

 

  1. Fix a meeting point in advance

In each new place, do not forget to fix a meeting point in case anyone gets separated from the group. If it’s likely you’ll be in really dense crowd, promising a reward for staying together works as a good incentive. Another idea is to write your mobile number on the arm of your toddler while visiting busy and overcrowded places like Disney Land.

 

  1. Give your Child Control

Sometimes it can be a great idea to give your children control of their own immediate environment. Sometimes something as simple as giving your child a specially designated camera to let them document their holiday, can help keep them distracted for the duration of your trip. It can cause a level of pleasant distraction that will take some of the pressure off your shoulders and it will also gift your children a feeling of independence that they often crave.

 

  1. The days may be too long for your child’s feet

A buggy can be useful on holiday even if your child is already walking like a little champion. Because when heading out for sightseeing on a enormously hot day it might be more exhausting for your little one then you think. The buggy will provide you with a less stressful day! If your destination is unlikely to have paved paths, it may be worth investing in an all-terrain version.

 

  1. Creating Memories which will remain

Apart from taking photos, there are many ways to help your children preserve memories of your trip. When they are older, let them choose a postcard for every destination and write one memory which is special to them on the back side of the card. For younger one it might be a pretty cool idea to collect small things like stones on which you can write what they liked the most.

 

  1. The + Point for your toddlers which they tend to remember for a long time

Local toys are often worth seeking out, and make great gifts to take home. Apart from the novelty value, kids tend to like playing with the same things that local children have, and it can help them making friends.

 

Enjoy your family vacation with our parenting hacks and have a nice time.

Best wishes
Ben & Emma

In Activities, Baby, Mum's, Newborn, Relax, Tips, Tips, Tips, Toddler, Uncategorized0 Comment

Travel hacks for flying with babies and kids

Travel hacks for flying with babies and kids

 

Flying with a baby and / or child can be a nightmare – but it does not have to be! Read our travel hacks and enjoy your flight.

 

  1. Electronical devices and Magazines

We do not support excessive use of electronical devices but while on 30’000 feet it might be an easy choice to bring an electronic tablet with apps for children and / or movies with you, there are also some better options like magazines where they can do drawings, solve riddles and other fun stuff. Our experience is, that children stay calm for a long time, when preoccupied with these kind of magazines.

 

  1. Big Pillow

Okay, it might seem awkward to carry a bigger pillow with you on your journey but as your toddler / baby might not be tall enough to look out of the window, it could actually be a great idea. Additionally, between take-off and landing, your small one is able to sleep comfortable with this fluffy pillow.

 

  1. Lollipop for take-off and landing

We all have experienced problems with our ears while take-off and landing. Help your children to equalize their ears easily. While you can give your baby the bottle to equalize the easiest, a lollipop for your toddler is a similar thing. Be aware to pack a sugar free version with you, because otherwise they might get a bit hyperactive – and that may be the only thing you do not want to happen.

 

  1. Bring your own food with you

Flying means for your child that it has different sleeping patterns as at home, different food and a lot of new things to see. And it also means that you will be waiting for a long time for your food. Adults do not have a big problem to wait patiently (there are exceptions) but your toddler will be more emotional about this topic. So it is always a good thing to carry a little amount of food with you to give it to your toddler while waiting.

  1. Watch out of the ‘Aeroplane Police’!

A clever trick is to warn young children of the “Aeroplane Police” who are looking out for badly behaved children as they are not allowed to fly. I am not suggesting you scare them out of their wits. However it always seemed to be an easy trick to keep them more calm. And if they behave very good, you also could give them a small gift to show them that this is the right way to behave.

 

After all this travel hacks, we want that you always remember the following:

 Don’t Apologise for your Child just being a Child!

 

In the newspaper, you might have read about parents travelling with children, which prepared small gifts to say sorry for their children – in advance. One thing you have to remember is just how draining and stressful long journeys can be at times. At the end of the day your kids are exactly that; kids. If they’re moody, don’t feel as if you have to apologise to the people around you. They clearly have never experienced the stress of travelling with children. And if they had, they will completely understand this stressful situation! If you see people on planes, in trains or in restaurants rolling their eyes, don’t be insecure. It is a part of a child’s personality and to be fair, these are the highs and lows of a family holidays. And by the way, people who do not want to hear a crying baby will definitely buy some ear protection in advance.

 

Family holidays are often stressful but an incredibly worthwhile experience. There is a lot of trial and error involved when it comes to finding your comfort zone for travelling with children. But is this different to every other day? You just cannot send them to their room. That’s the difference.

To summarize in one sentence: It depends on you how stressful and moody behaviour of your child will be. Take it easy, do not think about others and focus on your family!

If you have any other travel hacks, we would like to read them in the comments.

 

Enjoy your flight!
Ben & Emma