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Top Tips for Flying Long Haul with a Toddler

We recently travelled from our home in the UK to Australia to visit my family – a 36 hour door-to-door journey, with a 2.5 year old in tow – including two long haul flights.

I was super nervous, as I had no idea how my daughter would cope with the long journey, considering she’d never been on an airplane, or out of the country, before this trip.

I’m pleased to tell you, the transit went way better than I was expecting, and our mini traveller exceeded all our expectations, not just during the flight, but throughout all legs of the journey.

In my last post I shared with you a breakdown of everything I packed in my carry on bag to help the journey go as smoothly as possible for our family, and now I’m going to share with you my top tips for long haul flights with a toddler.

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A Day In Transylvania, Romania

Transylvania often conjures pictures into ones mind of great looming castles and murderous vampires that transform into bats and fly across the mountains.

Well, one part of that is correct at least (hint: It’s not the vampires).

Some people don’t even realise Transylvania is a real place, not just a made-up land from storybooks. However, it is – and until the Romanian Unification in 1918 it was its own province.

The region of Transylvania located in the centre to north west of Romania, and is bordered on the east and south by the Carpathian Mountain Range.

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Bucharest’s secret treats – Romania

Home to around 2 million people, Bucharest is both the capital and largest city in former Communist nation, Romania.

I’ll admit, while I’ve had the urge to explore Eastern Europe for some time now, Bucharest as an individual location wasn’t high on my priority list.

But just a few days in this history-filled city that was once known as “Little Paris” was enough to have me recommending to everyone I spoke to that they give Bucharest a try.

From the expanse of social, political and cultural history on offer, to the friendly people, good food, abundance of beer – especially in the beautiful Old Town area (not that I could enjoy it, as I was pregnant at the time) – and ease of accessibility to get around on foot or subway, there were so many things that made Bucharest a winning travel destination to me.

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Exploring the brauhaus’ of Cologne

 

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Germany is a country well known for its beer, so what better what to enjoy a weekend in the nation by spending some time indulging in local beer at brewhouses?

Dan and I spent a weekend in Cologne recently, a city neither of us had travelled to before.

One of the popular features of Cologne, the fourth most populated German city, is the stunning architecture scattered across the Rhine River-split city, so it’s not all just beers and banter!

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Iceland puts on a stunning show from the air as we say goodbye

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Now I can’t be the only one who feels such an intense, dizzy excitement on the airplane toward a destination, and a deep, sorrowful, pit of despair on the homebound journey.

I’m talking more extreme than just general travel excitement and disappointment when those travels come to an end.

I’m talking a black hole mood that can sometimes show itself despondently, or with a fit of tears.

Post-travel depression is real, people.

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Exploring Iceland’s southern waterfalls and beaches

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With Iceland being a relatively small country in size (40,000 square miles, in fact), many people who visit tend to stay in Reykjavik for the entirety of their stay, only venturing out of the city to visit the Golden Circle.

But if you explore just a little further afield, you’ll find some exceptionally beautiful sights that will take your breath away.

Now, I’m not saying you need to do a month-long intensive roadtrip around the island nation (although that sounds like an incredible time to me!), but I would implore you, even if you stay in accommodation in Reykjavik for your entire travels (as we did, for this trip), take more than just the one day trip outside of Reykjavik for the usual sights of the Blue Lagoon, Gulfoss, Pingvellir, Kerid and Geysir.

We chose to do a day trip to the southern coast to see the stunning waterfalls that can be found there, as well as the popular Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach.

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Not letting the weather dampen our visit to the Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon

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Weather, Mother Nature, the elements – whatever you want to call it, you can’t control it (except for the title you give to it).

Being exposed to varying types of weather is a non-negotiable part of travel, and we must adapt to it, even when it seems inconvenient to our plans.

As I said in my first couple of vlogs from Iceland (Which you can see here, here, and here if you haven’t already), the weather conditions in Iceland were quite snowy and windy whilst we were there.

Oh, go on, I’ll just say it. There were snowstorms. Pretty much daily.

Well, the weather event deepened during our fourth day there – just in time for our day tour to the Golden Circle and the Blue Lagoon – somewhere I’ve been daydreaming about visiting for years.

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Welcomed to Iceland with a snowstorm

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Iceland has been one of those countries Dan and I have been wanting to travel to for a long time.

When we realised we both wanted to visit this Scandinavian bucket-list item, it quickly became our next adventure to plan.

We fell into a burrow of internet searches, guidebooks and travel blogs, finding out all the information we could to plan the trip of our dreams (Well, one of them, at least).

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My first steam train experience at Lake Windermere, the Lake District, UK

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Sometimes the smallest of experiences can make a strong mark on your soul, create the greatest of memories, and give you such a sense of satisfaction – for lack of a better word.

On a day where we didn’t do much in terms of adventure – in fact, we took it quite easy and had a bit of a ‘lazy day’ – it was interesting to note that our day trip to Lake Windermere gave me so many “travel” feels.

I felt such a strong sense of Wanderlust, but also of completion in terms of travel and adventure.

I just can’t quite put my finger on why exactly, but it’s a nice feeling to have regardless.

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