Our Family Travel Review of 2018
It’s the end of 2018 already and wow, what a year it’s been! This year alone, we travelled as a family to 6 countries visiting multiple locations in each country. Also in 2018, I launched World for a Girl family travel blog and…then completely stopped posting 😕
This complete lack of blogging since September 2018 wasn’t because we stopped travelling… as if…
No, the truth is that I volunteered full-time for a term in a Malaysian preschool and no matter how much I wanted to keep the blog up to date I was utterly exhausted! Two small children, a full-time teaching role all in a new city where we were still finding our expat feet was all a bit too much. I dropped a few plates and travel blogging was one of them.
Back to the travelling.
2018 was an awesome travel year for us as a family. Not only did we move to a new country, Malaysia, but we got to spend 2 and a half months on the road! Yay!
So here’s a quick summary of what we’ve been up to this year. If you missed our blog posts about any of these destinations just click on the links and find out what we got up to. Yep, some are missing and it’s my January resolution to catch up with them.
Here’s to unachievable New Year’s resolutions!🍻
Ninh Binh, Vietnam is a tranquil, relaxing place and was one of our favourite destinations in 2018
Our family travel adventures in 2018.
January and February 2018 were spent packing up our lovely London home and saying goodbye to all the wonderful people in our lives. We miss you all!
February was the 100th anniversary of (some) women getting the right to vote in the UK so, in between packing, I wrote about how to teach your kids about London’s Suffragette History as well as creating a Family Friendly Women’s History Walk through Central London. Designing the walk was a great way to say goodbye to some of my favourite London landmarks as well.
March 2018
In March, we left a cold and drizzly UK for our new life in 80% humidity. Our first stop was Kuala Lumpur, our new home-city, where we spent a busy week finding an apartment, a preschool for the kids and getting Rhino’s work papers in order.
After a week of stress and excitement, we flew to Southern Thailand where we relaxed on the beautiful beaches of Ao Nang and Koh Lanta. Then we left the tranquillity behind to spend a few days exploring vibrant and bustling Bangkok.
Wat Pho in Bangkok was very different to the Grand Palace and is definitely worth a trip. A lot fewer tourists too!!
April 2018
April saw us relaxing on a beach in Mae Pim and the delightful town of Chanthaburi in Eastern Thailand before taking a controversial trip to Pattaya with the kids. How did a travelling family fare in Thailand’s seediest city? Read one of our most popular posts to find out.
H and I loved clambering over rocks on this wild trail, with Z not far behind.
Later in the month, we packed our bags again to explore Vietnam with the kids. I still have a few posts to finish but we had an excellent time in Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Hue, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City. Follow World for a Girl on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to stay up to date with our latest blog posts or subscribe to our newsletter.
May 2018
We hit the lights of Hong Kong and wow, what a city! This post about our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids is by far and way the most popular blog on World for a Girl so it seems that families agree with us that Hong Kong is a great place to visit with young children.
Hong Kong’s Zoological and Botanical Gardens were a glorious place to escape the hectic city.
Next, we flew to South Korea. A lesser-known tourist destination South Korea is a brilliant country to visit with kids. I taught English there years ago and it was a privilege to be able to share my experiences with Rhino and the kids as well as catch up with old friends. We did a whistle-stop tour of Suwon, Seoul, Gyeongju, Cheongju and Jeju Island. I also got to visit the powerful and inspirational War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul.
Our visit to Stone Park Jeju was watched over by hundreds of stony eyes!
All are links to our posts from May:
The ancient observatory in Gyeongju, South Korea. A great family travel destination.
June and July 2018
Finally, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur (again) our new home.
To be honest, we were pretty relieved. Life on the road with two preschoolers had been exhausting and expensive! We quickly settled into a new preschool, new jobs, a new apartment and a new way of life. It was great to see the children settled and making new friends.
We never stopped exploring though using our weekends to visit Batu Caves, China Town and many more sights around Kuala Lumpur.
August 2018
August is holiday time in Malaysia so we took the opportunity to fly up to Langkawi, Malaysia’s most famous beach island, for a week of sun and sea before school started again. The children enjoyed the beach and us adults the cheaper beer than the mainland! We have some top tips about travelling to Langkawi with kids and a blog post on the way. Sign up to the World for a Girl newsletter, Twitter or Facebook if you’d like to be notified about new posts.
September 2018
September is full of long weekends in Malaysia so we took the opportunity to drive across to the East Coast to Kuantan and Cherating. Unfortunately, the holiday wasn’t quite what we were hoping for due to bad weather and Rhino having to work late into the night. So we did something very unusual for us and left early. Our change of plans did mean that we got to visit the Malaysian National Elephant Sanctuary at Kuala Gandah which was fantastic. The kids loved getting up close and personal with these huge endearing beasts and it was a highlight of an otherwise disappointing trip.
October and November 2018
With my folks who were visiting from London, we made a long weekend of a trip to Malacca. An interesting Malaysian city with a mix of Portuguese, Dutch, British and Peranakan heritage as well as nationally famous cuisine and night markets.
The kids posing by a statue of one of Malacca’s heroes!
December 2018
Perhaps our favourite family travel adventure of the entire year was our Christmas holiday to Myanmar. A controversial family travel destination in 2018, we did have reservations about visiting Myanmar with kids but as soon as we arrived the amazing sights, friendly and kind people (in the East) and beautiful scenery blew our doubts away. Three posts on our family trip to Myanmar are already scheduled to be posted next week so follow World for a Girl on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or subscribe to our newsletter to follow our adventures through 2019 and beyond.
Where are we going in 2019?
In 2019, we’re looking forward to exploring much more of Malaysia. There are so many family-friendly places very close to Kuala Lumpur that we’d love to explore as well as the possibility of heading over to Malaysian Borneo and down into Singapore. In February 2019, we’re off to Penang, Malaysia and I can’t wait to see how much the island has changed since our last visit 8 years ago.
We’re not one to make too many plans but due to commitments with family and friends, we have trips to Greece, Wales and London planned. We’re also considering some more adventures in Asia possibly Taiwan and Indonesia.
No time to read now? Pin it to read later!
I’ll be spending most of January trying to get up to date with our posts from 2018 and writing new material.
Let me know what you’d like to read about. Do you have any concerns or questions about family travel with young children? What family travel advice or inspiration are you looking for in 2019?
Remember to follow World for a Girl on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or subscribe to our newsletter to follow our adventures through 2019 and beyond.
Yay! You got to the end… Thank you for reading and Happy Travelling in 2019!
One Comment on “World for a Girl – Family Travel Review 2018”
Very interesting read, great tips