Travelling with kids: tips from Stubborn Mule

When you love travel (as I do) and when you like to test exactly what travelling you can do with kids (as I also do), you always have half an eye out for a kindred spirit.

I’ve found them in other fabulous family travel bloggers I’ve encountered, I’ve found them on our travels and now I’ve found someone who’s made a career from it: Liddy Pleasants, who founded Stubborn Mule, a company tailor-making family adventures in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East.

Having spent six months cycling around South East Asia with a two and five-year-old, she knows what she’s talking about. So I decided to get her tips.

We went on to travel with Stubborn Mule twice after writing this post – first to Cambodia then to Oman…

What would you say to people who think you can’t travel with kids?

That they are wrong, wrong, wrong! I made the mistake of putting a post on a travel forum asking people whether they had any advice when we were trying to plan our cycling trip.

Almost all the answers were from people who told us it was a terrible and selfish idea and that we would be putting the safety of our children at risk.

Needless to say, there followed several sleepless nights when I questioned our motives and sanity, but thankfully we ended up ignoring this advice, doing it anyway and it was amazing.

Children are the ultimate ice-breaker. Everywhere we went the locals were so thrilled that we were visiting their country with our children in tow that they would bend over backwards to assist us.

Of course, when you are travelling with children you have to do things slightly differently. You need to build in frequent rest stops. Fun modes of transport are also a hit, whether this is boat rides, overnight trains, horse carts, donkeys or camels. But children are incredibly flexible.

What’s your top tip for family travel?

If you are going for a short period of time, plan your route carefully to ensure that the itinerary isn’t too manic as children will need the occasional afternoon pottering and relaxing by the pool.

That said, don’t pre-plan every minute of every day, leave enough flexibility to see where things take you.

What should you always pack on holiday with kids?

– Hand sanitiser and apply liberally!

– A secret stash of sweets or lollipops that can be produced when children are flagging. A cola lollipop was a lifesaver on a hike in Burma.

– A scrapbook/notebook, some glue and a pair of scissors. Younger children can be kept very happy waiting for food in restaurants by keeping a diary.

They won’t always want to write something but if you have scissors and glue you can stick in entrance tickets, information leaflets etc.

Where was your favourite family holiday?

Tricky but I would say the time that we spent cycling through Laos. It is such an incredibly beautiful country [I agree!], the people are lovely and there is so much to do.

Where would you recommend for families looking for more adventure but nervous of going too far off the beaten track?

Sri Lanka would be my top recommendation. It is small so the driving distances aren’t too long, the people are delightful and speak excellent English and there is an amazing variety of things to see and do.

You can track leopards in a remote wildlife park, cycle around ancient ruins, dodge the monkeys as you climb to hilltop temples, go snorkelling off idyllic beaches, hike through tea plantations and much more besides.

Thailand is also great for families and Costa Rica has fabulous hotels, lots of activities and the most extraordinary wildlife you can ever hope to see.

Don’t forget to look beyond the most popular spots when you’re planning too – there’s a huge choice of Thai islands for example, so check out the best areas to stay in Koh Lanta as well as better-known places such as Koh Samui.

As I’m off to Burma myself, what tips have you got for me?

Top of the list would be the Green Hill Elephant Camp in Kalaw, you can spend a morning helping look after the elephants, including getting into the river to bathe them…

Bagan is wonderful and the key is to ensure that you have enough time. There is no point trying to drag the children around all the temples in a day as they will mutiny.

We would spend a couple of hours sightseeing in the early morning and late afternoon when it wasn’t too hot, then have the rest of the day by the pool.

When in Mandalay look out for the Nylon ice-cream bar which has more varieties of ice-cream than Baskin Robbins. Try the durian for comedy value (it’s gross) but other flavours are delicious.

One of my biggest challenges is travelling with a fussy eater – any advice?

I am a real expert in this particular area, having spent months in South East Asia with two children who wouldn’t eat rice or noodles.

I discovered first hand that the old saying ‘they will eat if they get hungry enough’ is absolutely NOT true! My children would be famished but would still resolutely refuse to eat a bowl of noodle soup.

I think that the key is to be realistic: hungry children are not happy children so you need to find something.

What works for us is that we go to local restaurants that my husband and I want to eat at but we let the children choose whatever they want from the menu.

Usually there is something along the line of fried chicken and chips and I pretend not to be disappointed that they haven’t chosen fried ants with rice like truly intrepid children would. If it means that they don’t get their five a day, it’s not the end of the world for a week or two.

Where’s still on your family bucket list?

Hmm, where isn’t?! We are off to Vietnam for a couple of weeks but after that Cuba is probably top of the list. Tanzania is also pretty high up there but perhaps we need to wait another few years until our youngest (now three) is old enough to realise he can’t jump out of the jeep to pet the lions.

Too many places to go and too few school holidays!

Get more of Liddy’s tips on Facebook including on getting kids to take malaria tablets

Compiled in association with Stubborn Mule*

 

Images courtesy of Liddy Pleasants/Stubborn Mule Travel

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