family vacation – Page 3 – Family World Travel

In Asia with kids

Family travel India- Vashisht (beautiful village, north India)- what can you do there and costs of travel

January 29, 2016 No Comments

Many families that come to north India prefer to stay away from the hustle and bustle of Manalil and old Manali and instead locate in Vashisht. And with good reasons.

In Vashisht there’s no entry to any motorized vehicle. So it’s much easier and safer to walk with the kids in the narrow alleys.
Everything in Vahsihst is cheaper than neighboring Manali, and the quality is the same.
The view is better. In almost every guest house you can find a nice big room with a balcony in the mountains direction.
The hot springs are a daily pleasure for the whole family.
Near the village, a walking distance away, there are a few waterfalls and natural pools. A good way to spend a day. Or at least half a day.
Lessons in yoga, music, juggling, and dancing. Kids are very welcome and usually don’t pay.
Everything is close to home. Grocery stores, internet, restaurants and cafes offering a wide range of foods, and the rickshaw stop. The Ayurveda clinic is of the communal sort and doesn’t require payment (even for the medicines).
The village is small and within a few days everyone will know the kids and will be happy to play, walk, or host them.

prices and costs in vashisht for example:

Natural fruit juice, mixed fruit juice or shake: 40 rupees

Local thali: 80-100 rupees

Average room: 500 rupees

Internet: 50 rupees an hour

Hot spring, waterfalls, crazy view– free !

In How to travel with kids

southeast Asia with kids- food and drinks : safety rules

January 29, 2016 No Comments

A big fear many parents have is about the hygiene of foods and drinks in developing countries. Even doctors specializing in travel medicine recommend to be extra careful with those. I wrote here the ways we deal with it.

Drinks:

Many of the worst diseases originate in water.

2. That’s why I always go under the assumption that the water anywhere is not fit for drinking. Not taking any chances.

3. The most effective way to disinfect water is by boiling.

4. That’s why any dish containing water must be well boiled.

5. Drinking water- you can find different qualities of drinking water anywhere. From mineral water from abroad to locally treated and disinfected. Buy a few types, pick the one you like best and stick with it. And of course, pay attention to the lid signature.

6. Juices- fresh fruit juice is one of the ways to keep the kids healthy. It’s important to make sure they don’t mix it with water or ice. Also, pay attention to how clean the dishes are.

7. Cold drinks- sodas and the likes are perfectly safe to drink.

8. Hot drinks- usually there’s nothing to fear, the water is well boiled and even if they add milk- they boil that too for you.

Food:

The best way to disinfect food is by boiling.

2. That’s why it’s always better to eat food that was cooked in high temperatures, baked or well fried.

3. Meat is one of the biggest sources of disease, that’s why rule no.2 is twice as important if you’re going to eat meat. Don’t eat meat that hasn’t been well coocked!

4. You don’t have to eat meat.

5.Eggs- go under the assumption that the Eggs have been fertilized. If that doesn’t bother you, I recommend you to put Eggs in the same category with meat- make sure all parts of the Egg have been well cooked (I don’t order fried, boiled or scrambled Eggs, I order an omelet and ask it to be well done).

6. The locals prefer to be healthy and know all these rules even better than us. True that their digestive system is designed to those conditions, but they’re not immune either.

7.That’s why the local foods are always healthy and nutritious, while keeping to the hygienic rules relevant to that place.

8.On the other hand, it’s the western foods that are made only for the tourists are those that aren’t prepared properly according the hygienic rules and hence have a higher chance of making you sick.

9. In addition, take under consideration that the local food is what the locals cook best. Western food won’t be ‘like home’, and especially the meat- not always worth the risk (depending of course on the destination of your trip)..

10. In short, it’s recommended to just order the local food.

11. Another important detail- people are always warning of the cooling and keeping conditions of the food, but in local restaurants they never prepare food in advance. They only start to make it when they get an order. It takes a while (take a deck of cards with you J)… but together with that you can be sure the food is the freshest it can be.

Fruits and vegetables:

Fruits and vegetables that were watered with polluted water are not recommended to eat, because their peel is contaminated.

2. That’s why you have to make sure they were properly cooked.

3. Or properly peeled..

4. Or properly washed..

5. If there’s no way to wash/cook you should always pick the fruits or vegetables with a thick peel (Papayas, Oranges, Coconuts, Pineapples, Bananas). And those that grow on trees/bushes and not on the ground.

6. Many restaurants in touristic areas are aware of the problem and clearly mention that they wash their fruits and vegetables with disinfectant (iodine usually). Even with that, I don’t take risks and don’t allow the kids to eat fruits and vegetables that aren’t peeled.

Buying snacks or packed food:

One thing you have to remember: pay attention to the expiry date. If that’s not written, or if it’s expired, DON’T BUY!

Eating at food stands:

Usually their food is very fresh (and tasty!), they always make it that same day.

2. In large, the rules are the same rules, don’t forget them.

3. Pay attention how many locals eat from that stand. Don’t buy from an empty stand.

4. Pay attention to their utilities and where they sharpen their knives (there are stand owners that sharpen their knives against the sidewalk..).

5. Don’t forget to ask a number of times ‘not spicy’.

6. Or come with a ready-to-pull bottle of waterJ.

7. It’s best to come with your own disposable utilities.

8. And yet, I wouldn’t eat meat in stands.

General hygiene:

The utilities are washed with regular water, usually with soap..

2. They have a different way of washing dishes: they soak the dishes in a big bowl full of water, then scrub with soap, wash and leave in the sun.

3. Their use of the sun is not only to dry but also to disinfect.

4. They serve the silverware on a plate.

5. Table cleaning: oh well, it’s usually not very clean. You can ask them to clean, you can use a wet wipe yourself, or you can simply not mix the silverware with the table.

6. You don’t have to use glasses, drink straight from the bottle..

7. You can buy a packet of straws and drink through them for maximal hygiene.

8. Remember to wash your hands before every meal.

Bottom line:

Wash your hands before every meal.

2. Prefer local foods.

3. Cooked in high temperatures.

4. always suspect the water. Drink only purified water/fresh juice/sodas/hot drinks

5. Check the date of expiry on all packaged snacks.

It looks complicated but within a few days you get used to these rules and they become habit. Even the kids learn fast and the rules become a part of their life. they don’t even think about it anymore.

In Asia with kids

China with kids- 15 tips I wrote down for you all, after our visit to china

January 29, 2016 No Comments

1. because China is a bit different than what we’re used to, it’s important to make sure the landing is as soft and as easy as possible. Especially when traveling with kids. The most important thing to make sure of is a good hotel or another place that can give you information in English.

2. In China there is a network of youth hostels that provide everything the western traveler needs. Rooms with a great price range- from the cheapest (a bed in a dorm with shared bathrooms and showers) an up to the expensive intimate rooms. And the staff is made of Chinese youth (most are working there as a part of a student program) and western youths, studying Chinese volunteering there to brush up on their Chinese. They help with everything you need. They helped me buy a local sim card, book bus tickets, organize a birthday party for my daughter, they wrote a note with Chinese sentences I asked them to, explained to me how to get everywhere and much more. In every hostel there’s a common room where there is a bar, a small restaurant, a few strategy/thinking games (the staff is always happy to play with you, or at least teach you how to play), art materials, computers, books, sometimes table-football or a snooker table or a tv room with loads of movies for you to choose from. Within a day or two the staff knows all your names.

3. in short- I warmly recommend you to book a room with one of the youth hostels spread across china, they’ll make your trips that much easier, especially in the first few days after landing.

4. don’t come to china without an app that translates words and sentences to Chinese, preferably one that also sounds the words, and that doesn’t require internet.

5. anyway it’s recommended to buy a local sim card on the first chance so you can use the internet comfortably on your phone.

6. that way you could also use maps and navigate in busy streets, whose names are written in Chinese.

7. the taxi drivers in china are very strict on the max number of passengers- four. So anyone going to china with three or more children is going to have a problem. To find a taxi, especially in the big cities, especially in the tourist centers, is not an easy task, and finding two is a nightmare. Easier to find two rickshaws or deal with the public transportation.

8. If you chose to walk notice that the green light for the crosswalk is very short and there’s an arrangement with the two-wheelers so warn the kids.

9. and about the public transportation: in China there’s a very wide range of buses and trains. From old trains, stuffed so full of people that you can’t breathe, sweaty and sweltering, through to a relatively comfortable sleeper trains all the way to express trains that look like they’re taken straight from a futuristic film. The same goes for buses.

10. in the sleeper trains they lock the bathrooms in the morning long before you actually get to your destination. Just so you know.

here you will fond a special route for nature loving families traveling to china

11. the Chinese, even those that speak good English, tend to get confused between the ‘teen’ numbers (11, 12, 13…) and the whole numbers (20, 30, 40…) it’s best to always make sure exactly what they meant. There is a big difference sometimes. (how many hours is this bus drive? 40??? Ahhh 14.)

12. in restaurants and street foods they use a lot of tasting powder (msg). you can tell them “no msg” and most will understand.

13. public restrooms: I have to say that the public restrooms in China were the most disgusting I ever saw. But really. Those on the roads, in between, at bus stops during long drives. They were actually a long narrow hall, with an open draining tunnel (sewage) and two long boards on the sides, to step on. Everything is open, without even partitions. There are places where this even costs money.

For few more extreme experiences in china click here :-).

14. the rumors that the Chinese are not nice proved entirely false. The Chinese people we met, almost all of them, were simply charming, and sometimes really went out of their way to help us any way they could. Even those that didn’t speak a single word in English.

15. the Chinese, like the Indians, and a few more, have a favorite hobby. They love taking pictures with tourist. Especially with kids. Especially those that don’t look like them (=curly hair for example). Sometimes, and in very touristic places, you need a lot of patience to take pictures with all of them. Prepare the kids.

To find a youth hostel to your taste you can begin with this link

Or simply google ‘youth hostel’ in whatever specific destination you have in mind.

OR- you can take a look at Our favorite hotels & guest houses in china.

before going to China, try to learn some mandarin. it will be very beneficial!

In Asia with kids

China with kids- Our personal experience

January 23, 2016 No Comments

China is a destination on which opinions divide. Especially when thinking about China with kids, if you ask around you’ll get more than one opinion. Before I went there I got a confusing shower of information, ranging from ‘don’t ever go there for any reason’ to ‘my sister went there with her four kids and they had lots of fun’.

They told me it’s impossible to find bread. They told me the Chinese don’t speak a word of English, and even the way they count to ten isn’t the way we know. They told me they have pastries filled with sweet green Beans and that it’s a delicacy. And that they eat Pig’s tails. They told me that the views are incredible but the people aren’t nice. They told me the south is awesome. They told me the north is awesome. A couple I met in a guesthouse in Pokhara (Nepal) gave me a Hebrew-Chinese dictionary and out of genuine concern warned me not to go there. Anyway..

I was thinking whether to go to China or India. But I’ve already been to India (three time) and the tickets to China were really cheap and I had to escape the monsoon in Nepal and anyway I’ve been meaning to go to Mongolia and China is really just on the way…so should I give it up??

No. so I went there.

And I was terrified. Alone with three kids in a country where no one speaks English. Where they eat pig’s tails. petrifying.

We landed in Chengdu where we spent two weeks including a trip to the panda reserve and a five-day trip to Jiuzhai valley and a visit to two national parks: Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong. A trip that was breathtaking in its beauty. As well as a meeting with a fascinating Tibetan populace that was entirely different from anything else we’ve seen in China. From Chengdu we journeyed a few days to Beijing. A journey that included all different types of buses and trains.

We started the journey in Xian, a city whose main tourist attraction is the Tera Cota warriors.

From there we moved on to Ping Yao, an ancient town that is amazingly well preserved. We spent a few days there walking among the ancient alleys, staying in a guesthouse that used to be a traditional Chinese home, with a charming open courtyard and stunning woodworks that covered the whole front of the building.

The town is surrounded by walls and has in it a lot of interesting building with huge historical and cultural value. It was very interesting to travel in its streets and enter ancient temples, tea houses, castles. Chinese style gardens, tall heavy wooden doors.

The food was very different from what we’ve had so far. But just as spicy.

We fell in love with that small picturesque town and decided to stay there longer than planned, and give up on a few more stops on the way to Beijing.

And so we found ourselves one sunny day, torn away from the feeling of being a million years ago and getting thrown right back into the 21^st century in a ride in a cool express train that got us to Beijing in only a few hours.

I felt like I was in an airplane.

We had three days to spend in Beijing. We walked on the great wall, of course. With mixed feelings. Because the story of the wall isn’t a simple story. A lot of people died building it, and were buried underneath it. The weather was hot and humid. And of course, the thousands of other tourists that also came to walk the wall haven’t really improved the experience.

We went to the forbidden city, but after three hours waiting in lines in the hot sun we decided to give up.

We took part in a traditional tea ceremony, which was very nice and educating (and delicious).

We took photos with the ‘bird’s nest’.

The local food in Beijing was tastier than anywhere else that we’ve been to in china. In Chengdu for example we avoided local food and made do with more western alternatives- Pizza Hut and Starbucks to begin with and afterwards we found a small Sushi place, cheap and excellent and ate there all the time (and laughed that we went all the way to china only to eat SushiJ). In fact, it’s only in Beijing that we found good Chinese food.

click here for a post with many lesser known great attractions in Beijing

After three days we took a sleeper bus, 17 hours to the border town Erenhot. Everyone says that it’s a boring town lacking charm, but I actually liked it.

And at the end of a full month in China, we crossed the border to Mongolia, to an experience, that while we didn’t know it yet, would be one of the more amazing ones we’ve been through.

What was fun for me and the kids in china:

♦ The Chinese people were a pleasant surprise and in fact most of the people we’ve met were exceptionally nice. Even if they couldn’t understand a single word we said.

♦ The trip to the national parks was the highlight. We’re talking a work of art by mother nature. As Wonderful and as breathtaking as only nature knows how to make.

♦ The Panda reserve in Chengdu was nice, to see the Pandas living their lives, the cubs playing and roughhousing- it was an exciting experience.

♦ The express train was really fun.

♦ The small town, Ping Yao, was a tasty treat.

What was less fun for me and the kids in china:

♦ The food. We definitely couldn’t get along with the food.

♦ Communication problems made everything feel difficult and heavy… even in hotels in Beijing, where you’d expect at least a bit of English- they couldn’t answer me when I wanted to know how to get to the great wall.

♦ And that’s also how it was with getting public transportation tickets. If we didn’t get along with some nice locals, there’s no way we could even buy bus or train tickets or even understand where they’re going and where they stop and when do we need to change and when to get off.

♦ The big cities are very modern. It’s nice- in China there’s everything, everything is huge, everything is spectacular. But to find places a bit more ‘Chinese’ you have to work hard.

♦ Anyway, in Chengdu for example there are a few nice gardens good for a walk, to sit in tea houses and watch the locals play their Chinese games that now everyone is downloading to their smartphones…

Sources worth checking:

The national park that is also a world heritage site and part of the biosphere plan:

In Travel budget

How to travel the world with kids without paying for accommodation. Or at least.. Paying a lot less.

January 21, 2016 No Comments

And no, it has nothing to do with volunteer work. It’s really a regular trip with hotels or apartments or rooms. Just for free.

do you know this website ( www.airbnb.com) ?

It’s one of the biggest and best website there are for finding accommodation at prices that fit everyone.

Not long ago i got an email from Yossi (i swear that’s his name), he asked me for a recommendation for cheap accommodation in Florence. And me, what do i know. I don’t remember where we booked that apartment we stayed at 3 years ago in Tuscany, and anyway we became friends with the owners and from the three weeks we stayed there, we only payed full price for the first one..

So i went to this website, and I did some research for Yossi. I searched ‘Florence’ without high expectations. Florence, after all, is an e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e city. Truth be told, i was surprised to discover it’s possible to find beautiful apartments for very low prices.

So i sent Yossi there.

The reason i searched in this specific website, is that just a few days beforehand i searched for myself cheap accommodation on the beach in Vietnam. And when i typed ‘mui ne rentals’ this is the website that gave me most cheapest, most diverse options. And when i entered this website, and i saw it’s name, i suddenly remembered that a few years ago a friend of mine told me she only books accommodation there. And i remember trying to remember the name of the website, and i even asked her about it a few times, because she travels a lot, this friend, she knows what she’s talking about, she was even in the Brazilian jungles. So of course i could trust her.

And after recommending it to Yossi i thought why not write about it in my website?

So i went and did a bit of research for you too. First i typed ‘Italy’. I found a lot of results for surprising prices, starting from a room for 10$ and through to a whole house on lake Garda, with a swimming pool (!) for 42$ a night. I moved on, and saw another house with a swimming pool on lake Garda for 61$ a night. Ok. But this is Italy, supposedly, i don’t know, something is going on with the economy.. The prices are low.

Then i checked the mother of all expensive destinations and typed ‘Tokyo’ just to see what I’ll get. I Found an apartment with park view, Internet and everything, for 422$ a week. Meaning less than 61$ a night.

I continued to Paris. Actually had me interested. Because living in Paris for a few weeks is a dream of mine. It was a bit more difficult there but i tried to be ‘large’ and searched for whole apartments, big ones, with a kitchen and everything. The price per night (even in the good quarters) was 100$-250$.

Why am I telling you all this? First of all- because if you’re looking now to travel anywhere in the world, and it doesn’t matter where or for how long- you should check the offers on this website. If you book through the link in my website you’ll automatically get 35$ free to book with.

But more importantly: this website has an amazing ‘referrals’ plan. According to it, the more friends you send to use this website, and the more people book through you- the more money you’ll earn. 35$ per booking, 65$ for anyone that offers his property for rent.

So it’s not really cash but more of coupons you can use on the website. And that’s why the title says ‘how to travel the world without paying for accommodation’. Because that’s exactly what you can do!

Think about it: say you’re planning a family trip to Italy in the summer. Or in Christmas. Or any holiday. It doesn’t matter. If you register now to the referrals plan, and make sure to tell everyone, within a few months you could earn enough to pay for all your accommodation! Or at least lower them drastically. Worth it isn’t it?

*by the way, if you have a property you can rent out you can even make some real profit. Jusy saying.

What do i need to do?

Enter the website.

You’ll get a small window where you’ll need to fill email and password or login directly through Facebook. And that’s it.

Email confirmation will be sent within seconds and once you confirm your registration you’re signed up.

After registering you’ll automatically see your namw on the top right cpenre of the page. Scroll down until you see “travel credit”.

Click on it. You’ll get many different ways to refer your friends- through their email, through your email, through Facebook, Twitter, or through your personal link.

And that’s it.

You don’t need to book through the website or even know it to be it’s ‘referrals’. All you need is what I wrote here.

It’s all so very simple it’s really a shame to pass up the option to make your trip so much cheaper.

We have been saving hundreds of dollars using this program. Just recently we stayed at Singapore, Vietnam, and Bangkok for few nights at a time, absolutely free!

My new ebook is now available on amazon. click here, and find out how to travel the world with your kids for less then 1400$ a month (while staying at nice hotels, eating great food and forgetting all about laundry :-)).

In Asia with kids

Vietnam with kids- things you should know before setting off

January 19, 2016 No Comments

Whether you’re already traveling in southeast Asia with your kids and whether you’re looking for to change something and go to a different destination than the one you usually go to, here are some tips that will help you travel with kids in Vietnam:

Vietnam visa– very simple. You can make it online from anywhere in the world. The websites i checked (and there are loads) all look legit. I chose one where I could pay using PayPal and even though it was a bit more expensive, i felt safer. You give them the details, pay, and within two days you’ll get a signed confirmation letter to present at the airport. Price: 20$-25$ per person for the letter and the service (for a visa of a month/three months).

With the letter you go to the visa counter in the airport (visa upon arrival). It’s important to get there as fast as you can 🙂 so you won’t stand in line for so long. There are forms to fill but the Vietnamese are very considerate and let you fill just one form for the whole family (very rare, in other countries you have to fill a form for every person… Exhausttiiiiing). You present it at the counter together with your passports and a passport photo for each person and wait.

You need to prepare the visa payment in advance. It’s 45$ per person for a one entry three months visa.

There is an ATM machine there. Only it doesn’t always work…

It takes a bit of time until they’re done making the visas. In that all you do is sit and wait. It’s not always easy after a long flight. I recommend to make sure you have at least a water bottle and maybe something for the kids to do.

They’ll call your name (pay close attention, it’s very hard to understand what they’re saying…) to go to the counter and take your passports with the visa signed off. Pay them and you’re done. With the passports you go to the immigration counter to get them stamped.

tip: if you are with kids you’re allowed to go to the shorted lined VIP counter. Don’t stand in the long line.

(what’s written here stands for the airport in Ho-chi-minh. I haven’t been to the other ones)

The ATMs when you exist the airport are especially nice and allow you to pull a larger sum than most ATMs everywhere else and they do it for the same fee. Take advantage of it.

Health and Clinics in vietnam:

network of excellent modern clinics managed by an Israeli doctor: Family Medical Practice.

Vietnam is cleaner than Thailand and has a lot less mosquitoes. Especially on the beaches. It seems an irrelevant detail but when i go to choose our next destination that detail plays an important role. The mosquitoes in southeast Asia can carry diseases.

Television: in most hotels there is a TV. The main kids’s channels are Disney and cartoon network. Both in English (in many countries the programs are in the local language but not in Vietnam!). Also, in Vietnam there are no TV commercials.

The Vietnamese love kids. They just look a bit cold. But if you’re nice, you’ll immediately find out they’re warm, charming people that are always happy to help.

Motorbikes: The amount of motorbikes and scooters is just huge. I highly recommend you show your kids where the exhaust pipe is in a two wheeler and warn them to stay away from it, especially when working your way in between the dozens of parked bikes..

passports policy: In Vietnam they take your passports when you check into a hotel. So should always have photocopies of your passports and visa.

To travel with kids in Vietnam is an amazing experience. It’s a very diverse country, it has indulgent beaches, beautiful well developed cities, treks, rice fields, culture, language, flavors. It’s crowded sometimes and completely crazy but also calm and luxurious. That’s it’s charm. Don’t be afraid. Go along with everything Vietnam has to give.

you might also be interested in:

Our Favourite Guest-house in Saigon

In Amazing family vacations

Family vacation- Recommended hotels in Mui Ne, on the beach in Vietnam

January 18, 2016 No Comments

Mui Ne is a wonderful stretch of beach in Vietnam, sweet and relaxing. i like to stay there with my kids for few weeks at a time, every chance we have.

I recommend it to any family or couple or really anyone looking for a welcoming place, where he can live like a millionaire (literally), and pay fair or even low prices.

Amazing hotels, excellent beach front restaurants, an atmosphere of freedom, bars and night-life, some water sports and bicycles. And everything is clean, air conditioned and has decent internet.

And here are some recommended hotels you should check out if you plan to travel to Vietnam with your kids:

Coco Beach Resort– a charming hotel, prices starting from 140$.

Saigon Mui Ne Resort. one of the sweetest places.one of our personal favorites. Prices starting from 75$ a night.

Casa Beach House costs 100$ a night for a family room, including breakfast. With a lovely beach, a special atmosphere and all the extras you can think of. Very warmly recommended.

Herbal Hotel & Spa Mui Ne– a wonderful hotel, in an excellent location with excellent service.

Two places I come back to every time I visit:

Shades Resort Apartments Mui Ne-. a breathtaking apartment hotel, with a charming view and wonderful atmosphere. Great fun. The apartments themselves are indulging, they have everything you need and the price includes laundry services! Prices starting from 65$ a night for a whole apartment

Tien Dat Resort– we like this hotel very much, the clean rooms, the amazing shower, the fun swimming pool (with a slide straight into the water) and mostly their breakfast, which is the best we got anywhere. There are all sorts of little things, like free bicycles the guests can use, a trolley that takes you back and forth, a bar on the water and more. we even shot one of our videos inside this hotel’s pool :-). prices starting from 40$ per room per night.

My new ebook is now available on amazon. click here, and find out how to travel the world with your kids for less then 1400$ a month (yes, even when staying at those really nice hotels :-)).

Want to keep looking yourself? You’ll probably be interested in this post: how to look, find, and book a hotel online -simple, easy and cheap.

And you might also be interested in this article:

Vietnam with kids- things you should know before setting off

And if you are a sexy plus-size woman, check out this shop, to show some beach hotness.

In Amazing family vacations

Family vacation- Recommended hotels in the Philippines

January 18, 2016 No Comments

In the Philippines there’s everything a dream vacation has to offer. There are amazing beaches, sun and great weather, nice people, crazy hotels and shopping centers, loads of good food and juicy fruits and all at unbelievably cheap prices.

There] is also the option for a more extreme vacation, that includes treks, various views, Jeep journeys and diving with sharks.

There’s the option for a relaxing vacation on a beach with soft white Sand, breathtaking clear Ocean, clean well-furnished hotels, snorkeling, Dolphins.

And of course anything in-between :-).

Here are some of the hotels we recommend on ,in different parts of the Philippines:

Boracay:

Two amazing hotels, located in one of the most beautiful spots in the world:

Anahaw Studio Suites– rooms for 50$ a night- a minute from the beach, in a comfortable location. Kids up to 10 years old stay for free, and there’s even a small kitchen.

WaterColors Boracay Dive Resort– private beach, charming rooms, a clubroom for kids, every service you could possibly want. The rooms cost from 100$ a night, including breakfast.

Bohol:

Astoria Bohol Resort swimming pool, private beach, beautiful rooms, and an excellent location in one of Philippines’s more interesting islands. 120$ per night, including breakfast.

Bohol Beach Club Resor t -private beach, swimming pool, and you can even bring your dog. Costs 120$ a night, including breakfast. Kids under 10 years old stay for free

Cebu:

Quo Vadis Dive Resort– private beach, a nice clean swimming pool, diving courses, bungalow style rooms, good food. Kids under 12 years old free, price per room- starting at 25$ a night. The hotel is located on a small island right off the shore of Cebu (you drive there from Cebu). Personally I wasn’t there, but my kids spent a wonderful two weeks there and insisted that I recommend it.. :-).

Crimson Resort and Spa big beautiful rooms, private beach, a huge swimming pool with a bar, a games room. Kids under 12 years old stay free. A 5 star hotel for 150$ a night :-).

Plantation Bay Resort & spa- THE-best hotel (in my opinion). With the most amazing swimming pool I ever saw, where you can also dive, kayak, do SAP and even go fishing! A private beach, charming rooms, game rooms, Bicycles, Sauna, climbing wall and so much more. In short- simply an amazing family vacation. A 5 star hotel, costing 190$ and upwards. Kids under 17 years old stay free.

Palawan:

The Funny Lion Inn a hotel in Coron with excellent reviews, a swimming pool and nice rooms. 85$ a night including breakfast.

Qi Palawan Resort-. a hotel of only 7 (huge) rooms, a private beach, swimming pool, and all needed services. 210$ a night, that includes breakfast and all drinking water. Click to see the special price and the showers :-).

Manila:

Studio Unit at Princeton Residency an apartment with a bed, living room, dining room, and a kitchen. In the apartment there is air conditioning and a fan and even a swimming pool. A guard and reception counter in the entrance to the building. Price- 30$ a night, kids under 7 years old stay free.

Max Pavilion Boutique Serviced Suites a 5 star suites hotel for under 100$ a night. Luxury rooms, spacious, with all the new technology and facilities. Pick up directly to or from the airport.

Siquijor:

Salamangka Beach and Dive Resort a 5 star hotel that costs 70$ a night. Right on the beach with a wonderful swimming pool and perfect diving equipment for rent. Very good review ratings.

Coco Grove Beach Resort a hotel on the beach, swimming pool, offer a variety of water sports, a good place for snorkeling. 80$ a night including breakfast.

Route recommendations or travel planning, recommendations for other interesting places, important tips and more- you can get from me personally. Contact me.

In Amazing family vacations

Exotic vacation- a tropical beach with kids

January 17, 2016 No Comments

The ultimate vacation. There’s nothing quite like sitting for two-three weeks on a beautiful tropical beach full of coconut trees and soft white sand. In those moments, where i lay, wet and relaxed, on a tanning bed, drinking coconut milk, put on my earphones and do some bonding with the sun, i feel the full extent of the good life.

There are loads of places in the world where that dream can come true and in ridiculous prices. So if you haven’t watched the waves rolling day after day in a long time, everything that’s left is choosing the destination that fits you, and promise the kids a lot of sand castles..

♦ When you go to choose your tropical beach, pay attention to the seasons. double check from a few different sources. Tropical weather isn’t at all like weather anywhere else. The rain in R-A-I-N and the humidity can teach Tel-Aviv at summer what humidity really is.. Check the average days of rain in the month you’ll visit in, the humidity percentage, the average hours of daylight. At the end of the day the weather is the most important factor in a beach vacation..

☂And pack an umbrella.

♦ Most of the tropics, sitting on both sides of the equator, are home to some very unpleasant diseases. Check the disease situation in the places you’re planning to visit. Especially mosquito transferred diseases. Visit the consultation center in a traveler’s clinic and get updates and recommendations for your destination. If you’re afraid, do some research and you can easily find some places where there aren’t diseases, or at least very little.

♦ Take with you some mosquito repellents, but don’t put them in your carry on bags on the plane. It’s just so you won’t have to search everywhere for them when you get there. And anyway know that anywhere touristic has a wide range of repellents.

♦ While on the beach- first put on sunscreen then the mosquito repellent.

♦ Check what kind of sand the beach has. If it’s a reef, a rocky beach or soft clean sand. Gear up properly. Special swimming shoes will protect the kid’s feet from sharp corals, crabs or sea urchins.

⛱ Don’t take with you all the toys for the beach. They take up too much space in the bag. Buy some after you get there and leave it there, for whoever comes next.

♦ Also, check the water level at the time of your trip. There are beaches that look amazing some times of the year and very bad in other times.

♦ Take with you small bag for the shells collection the kids will have after every visit to the beach..

tip: Try to eat lots of ? Tomatoes and foods with tomato sauce (Ketchup also works). Let the kids go wild with French fries, Pasta, shakshooka…it’s best to start a bit before you leave and continue throughout the whole stay at the tropical beach. In Tomatoes there’s something called Lycopene that functions like a natural sunscreen.

That of course doesn’t mean you should’nt use sunscreen. Although, a moderate sun exposure is healthy. Put sunscreen on the face, shoulders, back and chest but leave the arms and legs to soak all the good the sun has to give (of course, not overmuch)

♦ A bit before you leave expose the kids to as many kinds of seafood as possible. Clams, Squids, Shrimps. Some people are sensitive to those foods, and it’s better to find out about your kid resistance before you leave and prepare accordingly. That also goes for tropical fruits (especially Mangoes..).

? If you’re already at a tropical beach, and the Coconuts are so tempting and easy to get, don’t be shy getting them. Let the kids enjoy the clear drink straight from the nut. It’s very healthy and low in calories!

♦ There are places where it’s best to avoid any drinks with Ice. Up to you. You can always take a few Bananas and freeze them in the mini Fridge in the hotel. That way the kids canÂ freeze their throats, as kids do, and you can count a few less Popsicles for each kid daily..

♦ Don’t immediately go and purchase tour packages of the area. Wait a bit. Most likely you’ll find a fisherman who’ll take you around in his boat or you’ll find lots of nice places nearby you can visit without any need of a travel agent. Small natural gems can be found in any beach or tropical island. So you can keep the guided tours to a minimum, and still get to know the place and offer the kids enjoyable activities.

♦ Beware of motorbikes. Both on the road and when you’re riding them. And be even more careful of schemes by the Merchants that rent you the bike or any other equipment.

♦ Choose the hotel and room type based on the age of the kids. If the kids ate very young- you shouldn’t take a room with too easy an access to the swimming pool or the beach. You came here to rest, not to chase the kids and be on guard all day… And if the the kids are older- take a room with a view and close to the beach and the pool. That way you can sometimes go swimming alone (or as together â¤) without being worried.

♦ A hotel with Breakfast and a restaurant is always preferable to one without. That way the kids can eat alone and you can keep sleeping..

♦ And bring a walkie-talkie with you. That way you can easily communicate with the kids even if you are laying with a book on the beach while they are busy somewhere else.

? Swim a lot, eat well, drink a million shakes and go back tanned and healthy!

Check out two of my favourite places for an exotic beach vacation with the kids: muine, Vietnam and bohol, Philippines.

In Home

Our Story

January 14, 2016 No Comments

My name is Haleli Smadar. I am a writer writing about family journeys as well as other things. In September 2010 I left Israel with my husband, my three children and my dog to a journey in the world.

The first thoughts I had about traveling came to me in a very difficult time in my life. My father was very sick, and my daughter was just a baby. This daily contact with both ends of life led me into some very deep thoughts about life. About life in general and my life in particular and how I want it to be. Not in forty years and not for a week or two, but today, now, every day.

we left everything. Sold, donated, gave away. And off we were. To taste as much of the world as we can, on a (very) low budget but a with very happy soul.

This is how we looked like back then:

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We started with a bit of Europe, and from there moved on to southeast Asia. We traveled and lived in Nepal and in India. In the beginning we lived on what little money we had saved and in the meanwhile we devoted our resources to learn how to combine traveling with work. The beginning wasn’t easy.

In the end of the first year my husband and the dog went Back to Israel.

I continued to travel with the kids, by myself. Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal (the stay in Nepal is so comfortable and easy that we go back there every year for few months), a bit more of India, china, Mongolia…

The passports filled up with stamps until we had to make new ones ? but that’s nothing compared to the amount of deep and meaningful experiences that come with a lifestyle like this. The kids grew. Learned to speak English, Nepali and Hindi fluently. Gained hours of trekking, rivers, camping, journeys in trains and buses and planes. Met hundreds of people and heard dozens of languages.

They experienced life in remote villages without electricity or running water, experienced 6 whole weeks in a tent in wild Mongolia and also lived a life of luxury in hotels on the beach with a swimming pool and fruit shakes. They met cultures, tasted foods and saw things that very few their age get to see.

Roni’s and Gali’s favorite food is sushi (they say that the best sushi they’ve had was actually in China ?), Joe’s favorite is Vietnamese food, and I can eat Chapati with butter for the rest of my life.

They rode horses to the Siberian border and met the reindeer herders. And petted the deer. They surfed down rivers in Nepal. Climbed to high altitude (5600 meters/18,500ft) in India. Rode bicycle in Vietnam. Did shopping in Thailand. Ate pan baked bread with yak butter in Mongolia. Celebrated a birthday in china and mostly met a lot A LOT of love and happiness. A million.

In the summer of 2013 me and my husband decided to make our separation official.

The separation set me many challenges. Physical, mental and emotional. It sharpened my need of total economic independence that isn’t depended on anything but my abilities. And as of today I am focusing most my energy on creating as high as income as possible. All that along educating and raising my kids in our amazing lifestyle.

It’s been 7 years now. During those years I wrote and worked on this website, and made it into a place anyone can come and see how to make their dreams come true. Today I am a very experienced traveler, both as a woman and as a mother. On my website and on my Facebook page I share the huge experience I gained, on a daily basis, writing about specific destinations we’ve been to and about our lifestyle. And of course I support and consult anyone that contacts me personally through email.

I published many articles in Israeli magazines and web sites, was interviewed several times and every year, when we come to Israel for a visit I give one or two lectures.

I published my first ebook two years ago, and the second one was just published recently.

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Many families set out themselves after exposing themselves to the options showed on the ebook and in this website, options they never even considered before. I am proud and grateful to have taken a part in making the dreams of so many people come true.

Want to consult with me? Need a recommendation to a specific destination you’re planning to visit? Want my help in planning a trip to southeast Asia? Want to know costs?
Contact me.

And check out my Facebook page.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didnâ€™t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~Mark Twain[metaslider id=2008][metaslider id=2008]