Italy’s best kept secret…. Puglia

This is the heel.  The bottom. The forgotten land. Puglia, a destination rarely on the typical Italy sightseeing itinerary.  This is the striking land protruding between two seas; a land of violet sunsets with hues of cyan, amber, magenta and daffodil combined.  If you can, arrive at sunset.   The arid vegetation of this place is striking; almost

Travel packing….with kids

So how old was my daughter when she went on her first adventure? 3 months old to Turks and Caicos. And her second trip? 5 months old to Italy. By the age of 2 she had been on most continents and about 22 countries because it was free to travel under two years of age.

A country never on my list

The Netherlands was one country I never wanted to visit. Although I was fascinated with tulips as a child, somewhere along the way, I lost all interest in anything Dutch.  For a person who lives by “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list”, my lack of desire to visit the Netherlands says a

Half price Bora Bora took my breath away

Yes, you read it correctly, half price Bora Bora… but, how exactly? 😊 I am almost certain that Bora Bora is a bucket list destination for most people and it was certainly on my “must see list” for a long time before I actually made this dream come true. With a price tag of approximately

Lush Sri Lanka

They call it the teardrop island as it lays in the shape of a tear at the foot of India.  Perhaps most of us associate it with the Civil War or with the origin of cinnamon, but for a tea lover like myself, Sri Lanka’s tea plantations were a must see.  Sri Lanka was our

82 countries later, my favourite country is…?

I get asked this question a lot. It is a very difficult question to answer because I think every place is beautiful in its own way. I love some places for the people, other places for the beach, some places for the food and some areas for nature. “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on

Incredible India

Sugar and spice and almost everything…. nice. India’s slogan of “Incredible India” could not be more accurate in describing this country; you have to see it to believe it. As someone with a passion for discovering the world, I have to say that India for me was the “final frontier”. We embarked on our Aeroplan

Rewriting magic, reliving Africa with a five year old

Once up a time, in a land so far away, there lived thousands and thousands of wild animals in their own habitat, planet earth.  A place like this still exists and it’s called Africa.  If you have not yet been there and dream of going, I hope your dream comes true, because I promise you,

Bucovina, you stole my heart

Rarely has any place surprised me, perhaps due to the high amount of research I do beforehand or partly due to my preconceptions of the world around. This is not to say that places like the Maldives haven’t taken my breath away, or that Italy is not my favourite overall country; I am referring solely

Compassion by example in Ecuador

I want to lead by example with my daughter, so I started early. It started as early as our first vacation, with leaving her clothes and toys behind in the places we’d visit. As we normally travel to less fortunate areas, our small gifts are always appreciated. Children grow so fast that some things they

Machu Picchu with a toddler

As featured on https://havebabywilltravel.com/machu-picchu-with-a-toddler/ Machu Picchu for us was a long time dream, a dream we knew would have to wait with the arrival of our baby. I imagined it, I visualized it and I even researched it for years, yet when I became pregnant, I knew instantly that it would be even longer before I

Chaotic and delicious Vietnam

In the quest of discovering yet another culture, we were off to Hanoi, Vietnam, where we were perplexed at the horrific traffic and yet mystified at how everything makes sense for the locals.  That was the first shock with Hanoi, were there any traffic rules and what were they if they did exist? Each intersection

Balinese flavours

Still on a different time zone, early morning we returned to the airport for our departure to Bali, a place I had longed to visit for years.  The unorganized airport in Bali already had us feeling we had arrived on an island, and we were on “Island Time”.  One can recognize island time instantly upon

Temples and typhoons, Cambodia and Thailand

Crossing over Siberia and Alaska even from the airplane always gives me the chills. The thought of the barren cold beneath makes flying for me even more stressful than it already is. Though I have flown the world over numerous times, turbulence seems to be tougher on me since my daughter was born.  Arriving in Seoul, South

Maldives and dreaming in blue

Descending from the airplane onto the tarmac, I was blinded by the ocean colour which appeared to have been blended by a colour expert to ensure that hue of turquoise.  The splendor of this paradise engulfed me from the moment I set foot in it.   Each hotel has its own island in the Maldives and

The Masterpiece that is Australia

Dreaming might be the paramount flight to endless destinations, but Australia was not a dream; it was a dream come true. The drive from Adelaide to Brisbane was detailed with unforeseeable pleasures of the gaze to delight our senses. Australia was nature at its finest masterpiece, to a point that I could not distinguish the

South Africa, an African gem

Being up close and personal with a pack of lions during an afternoon safari in South Africa was an unforgettable experience. Nine lions approached our safari jeep and swiftly passed by as we tried to avoid gazing into their nocturnal green eyes. Pilanesberg National Park is one of a number of malaria free game viewing