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Ready For Adventure! Lonely Planet Kids Book Review

August 7, 2015 / Travel, Travel with kids / 2 Comments

This post is brought to you by Nuffnang and Lonely Planet Kids (all opinions are my own)

The Lonely Planet guides and phrase books have been the corner stone of my traveling life. From my earliest solo travel, the LP books have been the resource I’ve turned to for finding places to stay, things to do and phrases to speak to the locals to find my way around. I have fond memories as a teenager of pawing through my Lonely Planet Europe guidebook to the Paris on a budget section, and begging my dad to call the owners of the French hotel described as “rustic but charming” to secure me a room. I was too scared to make the call myself with my lack of French! The hotel was just as described in the guidebook (maybe more on the rustic, but with definitely charming hosts) – the Lonely Planet books have never let me down.

Lonely Planet have been creating guidebooks for over 40 years now, and their new foray into kids travel books is only a natural progression for them.

I was very excited to receive in the mail a pack from the new Lonely Planet Kids range: Lonely Planet Kids Amazing World Atlas (RRP $29.99), Lonely Planet Kids Adventures in Famous Places (Sticker and Activity Book) ($12.99), and Lonely Planet Travel With Children (RRP $29.99) (this book isn’t a part of the Lonely Planet Kids range, but it’s a great resource for parents).

Lonely Planet Kids Adventures in Famous Places is part of a range of Adventures In … activity books Lonely Planet are producing (other titles in the series include Adventures in Busy Places and Adventures in Cold Places). The activity book has 250 reusable stickers, each designated to specific pages in the book. Each page focuses on a destination like Addo Elephant Park in South Africa.

Kids are directed to find the correct stickers to add to the page, and can then also learn more about the particular area. We learned, for example, that African elephants weigh four times more than a car and move silently thanks to their padded feet.

Cheese, at almost four, is the perfect age for me to assist her with this activity book. She loves stickers and is a giant sponge right now wanting to soak up as much information about the world as she can. As she can’t read yet, she is highly enjoying having me read the fun travel trivia as we work our way through the book.

I’d particularly recommend this book as a travel activity. It could easily entertain kids for an hour or so on a flight. The activity book is recommended for children aged 3 – 5, but I think even slightly older children would enjoy being able to independently complete the activities and read the facts for themselves.

Lonely Planet Kids Amazing World Atlas is a fantastic resource for older children to learn about their world. It includes maps, beautiful photos, trivia and historical info. While this book is currently a bit old for Cheese, we are reading it together.

She particularly enjoys reading about places remembers (“The Sydney Opera House! I’ve been there!”) I can see that the book is going to kickstart many conversations for us and get Cheese excited about our future travel together. An added bonus: you can download the supporting app on your iPad.

Lonely Planet Travel With Children has the tag like “Family-friendly travel without the fuss”, which is exactly our travel mantra. The book is divided into useful sections such as “getting ready to go” (which has helpful tips on things like vaccinations and what to pack), and “during the journey” (with suggestions on different modes of transport and scheduling your trip in accordance to kids needs), but the bulk of the book is dedicated to destinations.

Each location has a double page spread full of really useful info for visiting with children. This book is a bit dangerous as it’s making my travel bucket list grow substantially!

Please check out the Lonely Planet Kids website lonelyplanetkids.com and new social media pages facebook.com/lpkidstravel and twitter.com/lpkids for more info on the Lonely Planet Kids books and app.

Kakadu Dreaming: My Travel Bucket List

August 3, 2015 / Australia, Travel / 4 Comments

With our relatively small population, you could be forgiven forgetting what a big country Australia is. It’s the 6th largest country in the world, about twice the size of the whole of Europe. From hip urban cities to deserts and wetlands, Australia is a country you need a lifetime to explore.

As a Sydney girl, I’ve seen a lot of the east coast of Australia. I’ve yet to visit an area that is high on my travel bucket list – the Kakadu area in the Northern Territory. Recently I learned a lot about the amazing nature and cultural experience Kakadu has to offer, and I can’t wait to visit when Cheese is a little bit older and ready for the adventure. I’ve put together a bit of information for you to start your Kakadu dreaming, too.

What is Kakadu?
Kakadu National Park is the largest park in Australia, covering almost 20,000 square kilometres. The park includes wetlands and rivers, and is home to around 2,000 plant species and wildlife from saltwater crocodiles to turtles and birds. Kakadu also features Aboriginal rock-art paintings dating to prehistoric times.

Actually, where is Kakadu? How do I get there?
The easiest way is by coach tour or by hiring a car, and traveling from Darwin or Katherine. I just Googled how to get to Kakadu and, as a side note, it’s a 42 hour drive from Sydney, if you feel like an epic road trip.

Where should I go in Kakadu?
The area of Kakadu I’m talking about in this post is called Gagudju. Gagudju Dreaming, part of Kakadu Tourism, is the largest collection of facilities catering to tourism in Kakadu and includes accommodation and various tours and cruises. It’s also an eco-certified ecotourism destination.

Who should visit Kakadu?
Anyone can visit Kakadu, but it’s best suited for adults and families with kids eight years old and older. The adventure tours to see much of the beauty of Kakadu are limited to participants aged eight and over.

What do I do there?
The three big things people travel to Kakadu to see are waterfalls, wetlands and indigenous culture. Yellow Water Cruises operate several cruises a day on Kakadu’s most famous wetland, Yellow Water Billabong, and has been awarded the winner of the 2012 Qantas Australian Tourism Award for Major Tour and/or Transport Operators. Spirit of Kakadu Adventure Tours use a modern fleet of 4WD vehicles for all day off-road adventures to visit the waterfalls, swimming holes and escarpments of Kakadu. Warradjan Cultural Centre gives insights into the culture, history and the effects of white settlement of the Bininj people in interactive displays and exhibitions.

Kakadu Dreaming: My Travel Bucket List via christineknight.me #travel — Gagudju Crocodile Hotel, Jabiru. Kakadu NP accommodation tourism hospitality architecture IHG
Photographer: David Hancock. Copyright: SkyScans

Where do I stay?
While there are several types of accommodation (including Yellow Water Camping and Cooinda Lodge) families will the Kakadu Crocodile Hotel which is, as the name suggests, shaped like a giant crocodile. The hotel has a beautiful outdoor (and shaded!) pool and is the perfect spot to stay while exploring Kakadu National Park. The hotel is a relaxing, air-conditioned place to take a breather after your days out adventuring. Food-wise, you can enjoy modern Australian cuisine in air-conditioned comfort, enjoy a full Australian breakfast, snack and lunch menu, buffet, and a la carte dining.

When should I go?
Kakadu has two seasons: wet and dry. The wet season is November to March and the dry is April to October. Depending on when you go, there are different experiences to try. The dry season is the most popular time of year to visit, when most of the sites are open for tourists. Hotels are more expensive during this season. If you visit during the wet season, you can expect to see spectacular floods and storms with fewer visitors. While some attractions are closed during the wet season, popular areas such as Nourlangie and Yellow Water are open all year round. Plan your itinerary online.

Are you dreaming of Kakadu too? What’s on your travel bucket list?

This post was produced in conjunction with Gagudju Dreaming.

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14 Tips For Travelling With Kids

July 29, 2015 / Travel, Travel with kids / 24 Comments

We just arrived home after our epic around the world adventure with the preschooler. While all of our victories and mistakes are still clear in my foggy jet lagged head, I wanted to write down what I’ve learned about making international travel with a little kid a success. Here’s what I’ve learned after six weeks, four countries, five cities and eight flights with my three-year-old.

1. Take a stroller
Unless your kid is a strong walker, bring a lightweight umbrella stroller. We thought our 3-year-old was done with a stroller, but we didn’t take into account that we would be walking an average of 10km a day, and that our child would be battling jet lag as well as over stimulation in a new environment. She was exhausted. I cursed myself for giving away our trusty Uppababy G-LUXE that we’d use for previous trips, and got their lightest model, the Uppababy G-LITE, to make our trip easier.

2. Pack well for flights
Be prepared to battle hunger, thirst and boredom on long flights. Take an empty water bottle and fill it when you get through security and pack dry snacks and liquids up to 100ml like yoghurt sticks. Security will allow small ice packs to keep dairy cool. Take lots of pairs of underwear, wipes and a spare set of clothes, plus some small new toys and activities that your child will love. Hand out the toys one at a time when a meltdown is imminent. Charge up the iPad with new shows and games. A flight is not the time to limit screen time.

3. Break up flights
We slowly made our way around the world in short flights to make it easier for our daughter to handle the travel. At the end of a five-hour flight she would be itching to get off and no iPad on Earth could placate her.

4. Fly during the day
This is a big time waster if you only have a short time period to be away, but we found it really helpful in getting over the jet lag faster. We planned our flights to arrive at our destination and then go straight to bed. As a result, our daughter would wake up a few hours earlier than normal, but more like 4 or 5am rather than 1 or 2am.

5. Pack well for the kids
Things you should pack lots of: underpants, lightweight tees, shorts/skirts/dresses. Light is key so you can wash clothes and have them dry overnight hanging up in the hotel bathroom. I always pack travel detergent so I can wash clothes in the sink, and stain remover because I use it on my daughter’s clothes pretty much every single day. Clothing-wise, I prefer items that cover more skin over her chest and shoulders rather than strappy singlets or dresses to give her more protection from the sun. I never travel without sunscreen, either. I take a few small ones for my handbag as well as a larger one to leave in the hotel. Shoe-wise, even in summer I pack a pair of closed toe shoes for my daughter (which she wears on planes), as well as shoes that can be worn in water, such as Saltwater sandals. Always pack a small medical kit in case of scrapes, blisters, cuts and so on. We include child pain relief, mosquito repellant and stop-itch creams in case of bites.

6. Leave stuff at home
Anything fancy you don’t want stained or ruined on the trip, for both you and the child. Heavy clothing that takes days to dry. New shoes that haven’t been worn in. Delicate clothing. Expensive handbags or jewellery.

7. Choose your locations wisely
We chose to visit cities that had lots to do within walking distance of our accommodation, or a short train ride away. After all of that flying the last thing you’d want to do is arrive somewhere and then have even more travel to do to see the sights.

8. Weigh up pros and cons of apartments vs hotels
We stayed in both apartments and hotels on our trip, and there are pros and cons to each. Hotels were great in areas where we wanted to be close to everything, such as Barcelona and London, where the apartments were a bit far to then commute each day around the city from with an already tired child. We all ate dinner together each night and pretty much went to bed at the same time too – it was a bonding experience. In New York we stayed in an apartment for two weeks that was central and found it the best of both worlds in terms of location and amenities. My preferred option would be a centrally-located apartment so we can do our washing and make basic food.

9. Get hotel inclusions
Try to get breakfast included so you can fill up and grab some fruit and pastry for later, and make sure wi-fi isn’t an added charge. We stayed at Grosvenor House in London and had an amazing breakfast included (pictured above) but not wi-fi, which was a big, unexpected charge.

10. Plan less
Your itinerary with a little kid should list one single thing to do each day. Plan to spend more time doing that one thing, and getting to and from there, and don’t try to squeeze in single thing you want to see. You’ll be so tired you don’t enjoy it. The journey is part of the fun for kids, so allow time for taking a look at parks, buildings and trains on route to your actual destination.

11. Allocate down time
What worked for us was going out in the mornings to see and do something, and then returning to the hotel or apartment after lunch for a rest before heading out for an early dinner. We all needed the siesta!

12. Find fun for everyone
We planned activities that gave everyone a chance to enjoy themselves. We visited cathedrals, playgrounds and also had a fancy high tea. With all of our needs being met, all three of us enjoyed the trip. My husband and I were happier to spend time doing “kid” things like the said playgrounds when we knew that we were also going to be able to visit amazing places like Sagrada Familia, too. Taking our daughter to places we wanted to see for ourselves also taught her to put up with doing things that made other people happy even if she personally didn’t care for it. This was a moderately successful lesson that we are still working on. We were actually pleasantly surprised with how she enjoyed a lot of “adult” sights, such as the Familia. I have a beautiful memory of my daughter dancing in a rainbow shining through the stained glass windows inside the cathedral that will stay with me forever.

13. Stay longer in less locations
We thought we had planned well with a week or two in each location along our trip, but it was still a lot of travel – too much. Next time, we will stay even longer in one place, like a month, and go at an even slower pace as our 6-week trip left us all exhausted.

14. Break routines
At home I have a strict schedule for our daughter, especially with dinner and bedtime. No late nights, very healthy food, designated meal times. On our trip, however, we put the enjoyment of our trip before our daughter’s schedule to make life a bit easier. We ate out every night. Our daughter was in bed late and slept in. She ate way too much pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches. Bending the rules was fun for us all. Has anything changed now we’re home? Nope. We are back, without fuss, to our schedule, family rules and diet. Holiday success.

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Pros And Cons Of Travel With Little Kids

June 24, 2015 / Travel, Travel with kids / 8 Comments

As we’ve done a lot of travel with Cheese since she was only 3 months old, this is something I get asked a lot. We travelled for necessity – from New York back to Australia and Hawaii to see family, and to Canada to get our visas renewed. If we hadn’t needed to travel so much we would have probably been too scared to do so, as Cheese was a really tough baby, toddler, and, let’s face it, a tough preschooler. Being forced to travel was actually great because it made us get out and experience the world and create wonderful memories instead of staying home and just keeping to local, easy experiences. I wanted to share a few pros and cons of travelling with little kids.

PROS:

You still get to travel
My husband and I love travelling passionately. It’s an integral part of who we are. We were determined that when we had a kid that our travel would resume as soon as possible. We didn’t expect parenthood to be as hard as it was, but we are getting on with the difficulties while still seeing the world. We don’t want to wait until Cheese grows up to see everything we want to see – we want to experience as much as we can while we are also still young and fit enough to enjoy it. As I write this, we are in Barcelona, about to head out for tapas lunch. Travelling with a little kid is obviously a lot different than pre-kid (goodbye lazy mornings and romantic nights fueled by sangria!) but it is still incredibly enjoyable. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t do it. Adapt to the changes and travel is still wonderful, with kids of any age.

Your kid grows up a world citizen
Cheese is an American and Australian citizen. As well as significant travel in these two countries, she’s also been to Canada, Mexico, Spain and soon London. And she’s only 3. She already adapts to different cultures easily and speaks handfuls of Italian and Spanish. She understands what different languages mean and is able to confidently interact with people no matter what they look like or what language they speak. She is already a world citizen.

The memories are priceless
The years we spent in New York are among the best in my life. Each trip we have taken has been challenging, but has created memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Cheese at 1.5 yrs stroking a dolphin in Hawaii. At 2.5 yrs dashing down a beach in Mexico. At 3.5 yrs dancing in a rainbow inside the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Young kids are cheap
The younger your kid is, the cheaper it is to travel with them. Babies are free for everything, and kids up to a certain age get free transport/entry/hotel pull out beds. This trip to Barcelona, we’ve only had to pay for Cheese’s flight and food.

CONS:

It’s exhausting
I won’t lie, it’s really hard work travelling with a little kid. Jetlag is a killer – the first few mornings in Barcelona we were all up at 4am. Having a little kid means there is no such thing as a relaxing time either, it’s constantly go go go to keep them entertained.

You see and do less
Travel with a little kid means changing your expectations of what you’re going to see and do in any location. Less galleries and historical walking tours and more playgrounds and kid-friendly outings like castles.

All in all, it’s worth it to us to travel while Cheese is still young. We have such itchy feet that we can’t seem to live any other way.

What about you? Do you travel a lot with young kids?

There And Back Again, An Ex-Expat’s Tale

June 12, 2015 / Expat, Travel / 5 Comments

It’s a year since we uprooted our lives and moved back to Sydney. The year has been so hard, like I wrote about here for the WSJ, but it’s also been rewarding.

I haven’t written much about our move because at the time it was too painful. My dad suffered a sudden fatal arrhythmia at the end of January, which landed him in the ICU without much hope of recovery. We received the call in the middle of the night in New York and jumped on the first plane home. The two days we had in transit were hell. All I could think of was that it had been two years since I’d seen my dad, and two years since he’d seen his only grandchild, and how neither of us might ever speak with him again. On a guilt and remorse scale, I was at 100 out of 10.

Back in Australia, my dad made a slow, miraculous recovery, and we decided that our family needed to be together, for all of our sakes. For my parents to develop a close relationship with Cheese, and for me to spend as much time with them as possible, too.

Leaving behind a life I loved with my whole heart was difficult, but I was lucky to have another life to go back to that was in a safe, beautiful country, and filled with friends and family. So really, it wasn’t a hardship to anything other than my wanderlust.

A year in, and we are happy. Cheese and her grandparents are close. She loves spending time with them. Nothing makes her happier than when she asks what we’re doing that day and I say we’re visiting Nana and Pop-pop. Her little face lights up and she dances her way down to the car with joy. This is why we made the sacrifice. The most important thing in life is what’s best for our child, and being with loved ones. I might regret leaving behind the life I’d always dreamed of having in New York, but that’s nothing compared to what we’ve gained by being back in Australia, and how much I would have regretted not moving back.

Life as an expat is exciting. It’s a life-changing adventure that is hard to say goodbye to if you’re not ready. What I struggled with the most with was finding a place where I belonged back in Australia when my heart was in New York.

A year in though, and things are good. They’re more than good – we are happy. I’ve found a new blogging community, reconnected with old friends and even made some new ones. Cheese is loving preschool and being able to run around outdoors every day of the year (ok, except for the torrential tropical rain days we occasionally get in Sydney).

I look back at my time in New York as some of the best years of my life so far – and I expect of my entire life. I’ve been away long enough to appreciate the good and bad in both countries, and to love both my homes. The energy and thrill of life in New York, and the natural beauty and warm climate of Australia. Both homes are beautiful. I am blessed.

That’s the thing about being an expat. When you get attached to your new “home”, what does that mean for your old one if you do go back? I like to think that we have two homes, and that home is where your heart lives, not just your shoes. New York will forever be our home. It’s where Cheese was born. Where I was born again as a mother. It’s where I struggled with the hardest year of my life with a new baby, and came out the other side a stronger person. And yet, Sydney is forever my home too. My place of birth, where I spent my entire childhood, where my family and majority of friends all live. And my ties to Sydney go even deeper, still. I feel a connection to Australia that runs in my blood. A pride of my homeland and a sense of belonging, no matter how long I travel abroad. Two homes. Will there be more?

We are heading off on Saturday on an around the world adventure, including our first trip back to New York after leaving. I’m excited and a little nervous. How will it feel to be back? Will it be hard to leave?

What To Pack When Flying With Kids

June 5, 2015 / Travel, Travel with kids / 2 Comments

I’ve racked up a lot of flights with Cheese – we’ve done over 10 long haul flights with her (over 10 hours each), and a bunch of shorter ones too, so we have flying with a little one pretty much down pat. As she gets a bit older, I adjust what we pack for each flight to compensate for her growth and changes in interests, but the core items remain the same.

Snacks
I never take my preschooler ANYWHERE without snacks, and air travel is no exception. On long-haul flights, it really pays to have these Thermos containers to keep food and drink at the right temperature. My faves are the Thermos FUNtainer Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Food Jar for food like fruit and cheese (keeps food cold for up to 7 hours) and the Foogo and FUNtainer Stainless Steel Vacuum Drink Bottles with silicone straws – both of which keep contents cool for up to 12 hours (I use ours for milk and water). These containers are all leak-proof so I don’t have to worry about the contents spilling all through our bags. If you run out of milk, the airline staff will usually refill it for you. I also love these Tupperware snack cups and fill them with things like rice crackers.

Entertainment
I always pack a few new things that Cheese hasn’t seen before, plus a couple of favourites that I can count on to occupy her time. This trip, I’m relying heavily on magnets to keep Cheese busy, particularly these T.S. Sure Daisy Girls Mermaids, Alphabet and Numbers and Princess and Fairies Magnetic Tins from Bobble Art. What’s great about them is they have their own containers to keep everything together, and hey, they’re magnetic, so it’s harder to loose pieces. A little blank notebook, pens and stickers (these are from Pipsticks), some mess-free colouring books and a blind Palace Pets toy bag (top right of the picture) complete our pack of fun new things. My strategy is to take out one thing at a time when she starts getting particularly fussy, and to try and drag them out for as long as possible so the entertainment value lasts longer.

These are two of Cheese’s must-haves for basically leaving the house. The iPad (loaded up with brand new games for our trip) and a dolly for her to engage in imaginative play. The cute doll in the picture is a Tiger Tribe “Ava” Rag Doll. Cheese loves having a soft doll to take with her to be her little buddy and loves to play with her particularly on flights and in hotels. Along with the iPad we are taking these kid-friendly headphones by Nabi.

Comforts
I always pack my daughter’s favourite blanket, which is a Dream Blanket by aden + anais that she has had since birth. It keeps her warm on flights, isn’t covered in other people’s germs like the ones provided by airlines, and also gives her the familiarity of an item she loves from home when we are travelling.

Practical
We love the Trunki for travelling with Cheese – having her pull her own case and then sit on it while we pull her along is vastly easier than having to carry her now she is basically out of the stroller.

Now Cheese is almost four, I’m also packing on this trip a Trunki BoostApack, which is a backpack that turns into a car booster seat. Cheese JUST makes the height and weight requirements, which I’m thrilled about, as we no longer will have to book cars with car seats on our travels when we have this booster seat.

24 Hours Kid-Free In Canberra

May 27, 2015 / ACT, Australia, NSW, Travel / 5 Comments

Canberra is often overlooked as a quick weekend away from Sydney and surrounds. Once known as the place you visit on school excursions, Canberra has come along way and is now alive with innovative art exhibitions, hip restaurants and spectacular scenery.

I usually make trips like this as a family, but on this occasion I was desperate to see an exhibit that I knew my preschooler wouldn’t be keen on, so my parents kindly watched her for a night so the husband and I could skip on down to Canberra and check out the James Turrell exhibit at the National Gallery of Australia. We only had 24 hours to spend in the city, we had a tight itinerary that allowed us good food, nature and culture.

Lunch: Silo Bakery
This little bakery is so popular that bookings for lunch are advised, and if you’re dropping by for one of their famous pastries, get there early or you’ll go home empty handed. The bakery is on the pricey side (our meal of two dishes, two tarts, two coffees and a tea came to $66), but the food is absolutely delicious – making it worth the money especially if you’re not in Canberra very often.

We ordered: Jamon, squid ink salami & tomato bread ($24), Tarte Flamiche ($20 Flemish-style leek & cheese pastry on an endive salad), Rhubarb pastry, Banana Carmel Tart.
Silo Bakery: 36 Giles St Kingston ACT 2604. Hours: 7am to 4pm Tuesday to Saturday

Afternoon stroll: Walk around Lake Burley Griffin
We stayed in a central hotel, just a short walk from Lake Burley Griffin. Our hotel also had free bikes for customers to use during their stay, which would have been perfect to ride around the lake. We walked instead, and enjoyed the late autumn colours, the swans and generally peaceful stroll around the lake as we walked towards the National Art Gallery.

Cultural visit: National Gallery of Australia
I love art, so it never seems like an odd thing to do to drive down to Canberra just to see an exhibition. The National Gallery of Australia gets a lot of spectacular exhibitions that don’t come up to Sydney, such as the current one, James Turrell. The National Gallery also has a great permanent collection worth seeing, with an impressive Sidney Nolan collection, as well as modern art works by masters like Degas, Monet and Dali. The permanent collection is free to see, as is the sculpture garden outside. The Turrell exhibition we saw, his retrospective, was nothing short of spectacular.
National Gallery of Australia: Parkes Pl, Canberra ACT 2600

Dinner: eightysix
This little restaurant is so hot right now that by 6:30pm it was jam packed (highly suggest you make a reservation). The food is upscale modern Australia, with innovative dishes like the Daffinois & Dukkah Wafer, $6, Steak Tartare with Wasabi, $24, Duck Bun (with hoisin & hot sauce $8), Pumpkin Tortellini with Rocket, $30. Delicious food, excellent service. Not cheap, but high quality and worth the splurge. The cocktails were magnificent – my $30 Honey Blossom i had was so potent I had a slight buzz the following morning. We stayed for dessert and had the Margarita, $14, (which was a sour sorbet and meringue piles on top), and the Banoffie Pie, $17, which was the perfect mix of sweet pie crust, caramel and whipped cream, interestingly topped with pretzels.
eightysix: 11 Elouera St, Braddon ACT 2612. Hours: Mon 6pm-10pm, Tue-Sat 12pm-2:30pm, 6pm-11pm, Sun 9am-3pm, 6pm-11pm

Accommodation: East Hotel
We stayed at the East Hotel in Kingston. It was very well located, modern and clean. The hotel had fun touches like complimentary bikes, refreshing lemon water and jelly snakes in the lobby, and a variety of family-friendly amenities like Xboxes and boardgames – it was unfortunate we were travelling minus the child and didn’t need to use them. Each room at a small but functional kitchen area, so you could stay here longer and buy groceries to cut down the cost of eating out.
East Hotel: 69 Canberra Avenue, Kingston ACT Australia 2604

Breakfast: East hotel
We were going to head to a different cafe for breakfast, but were short on time so had breakfast at hour hotel. It turned out to be a good deal. As guests of the hotel it cost us $15pp to have a hot breakfast including made-to-order eggs, baked beans, hash browns, bacon, sourdough, coffee, tea, pancakes. The food was fresh and delicious, and it was so easy that we were happy with our decision.

Disney Into The Woods Movie Blu-ray Giveaway

May 21, 2015 / Disney Travel, Giveaway / 10 Comments

I love a good movie night. If you do, too, then you’ll love this giveaway I’m running with Disney this week. FIVE readers will have the opportunity to win a blu-ray copy of the Disney movie Into The Woods. This giveaway is open to Australian residents only (sorry US peeps!).

Into the Woods is a funny and warm musical that follows classic fairy tales with a twist – they’re all tied together by an original story about a baker and his wife. Some big names star (and sing!) including my personal favourite actresses Emily Blunt and Anna Kendrick. I really enjoyed the new additions to traditional tales, and the wonderful singing.

A big thanks to Disney for giving me FIVE copies of Into The Woods for this giveaway (RRP $49.95). To enter, fill in the form below and tell me what your favourite fairytale is.

Entry open to Australian residents only. The most creative answer will win. This is not a game of chance. Competition is open Friday May 22nd 2015 to 11:59pm Thursday May 28st 2015. For full terms and conditions click here.

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The Launch Of Qantas’ Joey Club With The Wiggles

May 3, 2015 / Travel, Travel With Kids News / 16 Comments

We had a very exciting Sunday when we celebrated Qantas’ launch of their new Joey Club program with a special concert by the Wiggles. The Wiggles are Cheese’s favourite group at the moment, so she was pretty over the moon to see the Wiggles live and up close.

Cheese met Emma Wiggle and was pretty much speechless.

The reason for the pop up concert at Sydney’s Qantas Club was to announce the launch of Qantas new program for their junior flyers, Joey Club.

According to Qantas, children are currently the fastest growing segment of the Qantas Frequent Flyer membership base, with some parents signing up their children from birth. (Cheese was signed up last year!).

The new Joey Club initiatives include:

A Qantas Joey Club novelty passport for new Australian-based Frequent Flyer members (aged 3-10 years old) where they can record details of their flight.
Special dedicated kids menus in domestic lounges, including made to order sandwiches in animal shapes, fresh fruit and snacks such as popcorn and sultanas.
Larger investment in the children’s inflight entertainment channels. There is a dedicated children’s movie channel with 21 hours of content (with latest releases screening on board shortly after their cinema release, as will happen with the upcoming Frozen 2) and a dedicated TV channel with 28 hours of TV shows, with The Wiggles and Peppa Pig.

Another piece of exciting news is that, from June 2015, all new Australian-based Frequent Flyer members between the age of three and ten years old will receive a special Joey Club kit when they join the program. To celebrate the launch of Joey Club, Qantas is waiving the normal join fee of $89.50 to offer a complimentary join for children at qantas.com/kids until 31 December 2015, so now is the time to sign up your kids!

Qantas already has a number of family-friendly initiatives in place, such as dedicated kids zones across the Qantas domestic and international lounge network with iMac computers, children’s furniture, toys and books.

Qantas Joey Club Launch With The #Wiggles via christineknight.me

Other existing family-friendly initiatives include:

Infant meals (up to 2 years of age) – provide a range of top brand baby food, milk, baby bottles, cereals and rusks.
Kids meals in-flight (over 2 years of age).
Priority family boarding (staff on hand at the boarding gate ready to collect the stroller and to further assist with pre-boarding the aircraft).
Additional Baggage Allowance* (include a collapsible stroller or push-chair, collapsible cot or bassinet; or car seat or baby capsule.

For more information on Qantas’ programs for kids, see qantas.com/kids.
*May vary according to destination – see qantas.com.

Adventure, Baby! was a guest of Qantas.

Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast

March 31, 2015 / Cheese, Disney Travel, Family, Kids / 0 comment

A few weeks ago Cheese and I attended a special screening of Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast.

Cheese loves the Tinker Bell movies (and so do I!), so it was a lovely way to spend the morning together. The movie was really sweet, focusing on the fairy Faun rather than Tinker Bell and a creature she finds in the wild (the “NeverBeast” from the title). The Tinker Bell movies are so cleverly made. They appeal to kids with their bright, sassy characters and beautiful animation, and also to adults with their well-written female characters and heart-warming morals that underpin the stories.

The moral of Tinker Bell and the legend of the NeverBeast is you can’t judge a book by its cover. Faun has to decide if she can to trust her own instincts and to go against all of her fairy friends to do what she believes is right. The message to be brave and follow your heart is a lovely lesson for little people to learn (and for big people to be reminded of). The movie was a touch scary for Cheese, but she still told me afterwards that she really enjoyed it.

After the movie, we were interviewed on camera to give our opinions. It was both of our first time being interviewed on camera (she was fine, I was nervous). What do you think of Cheese and my film debut?