US Road Trip Review: Portland

Portland's unofficial motto is 'Keep Portland Weird' and I have to say I found this offbeat and slightly nerdy city utterly charming.
We arrived after a long drive from Seattle (4 hours) and easily made our way to the Hotel Fifty.  This was a cool, boutique hotel with a large room, delicious restaurant and on a great location by the waterfront in downtown.  The only problem is that hotel parking is expensive but we found a cheaper parking lot over the road.  Read my Tripadvisor review here
Portland Activities

• Another great city for kids.  Portland is fairly small so you can enjoy walking the streets with your stroller.  The tram is frequent and easy to use.
• Always check your destination for events.  We were so lucky the Rose Festival was on during our stay, essentially a big carnival with lots of fun rides for our toddler, yummy food and music during the evenings
• Portland has a bustling street food scene, take your kids for lunch at the Food Carts and have great fun picking bits from all over the world for a picnic http://www.foodcartsportland.com/
• Washington Park has a plethora of museums; the Children's Museum was a massive hit with our 2 year old with water activities and a pretend theatre.  We didn't have time to go to the zoo but had a hike around the enormous park
• The guidebooks raved about the Portland Aerial Tramway  We were disappointed with this, yes it was a great view over the city but the journey only lasted about 5 minutes and the start/finish were quite far out of town.
• If you're a fan of Man Vs. Food, sample giant mancakes at the Stepping Stone Cafe.  You might have to queue so make sure you have something to entertain the kids with

Travel blackout blinds

We've just moved apartment and the door of our ensuite has an opaque window - annoying if you're trying to sleep and your partner's in the bathroom. My ingenious husband has solved this by taping some black paper over the window.

I was suddenly reminded of all the hotel rooms and bathrooms where I wish we had blackout.  When travelling with my daughter, we would often park her travel cot in the bathroom for the night.  This is normally a failsafe plan apart from those hotels that have random windows with no blinds in their bathrooms.

There are some products on the market like the Gro Anywhere Blackout Blind that attach to windows with suction cups.
http://www.gro.co.uk/Gro-Anywhere-Blind.html
However, it's still quite bulky although relatively inexpensive at 25 pounds on Amazon.co.uk

If I am organised I'm going to do as my husband and buy cheap black card to pack at the bottom of my suitcase with some double sided tape.  What are the chances of that happening?!

US Road Trip Review: Seattle

As a teenage indie kid I dreamt about hanging out in Seattle with the likes of Nirvana.  Couple that with the prospect of bumping into Seattle Grace's McDreamy and I was very excited about my visit.

We arrived at Seattle train station by Amtrak from Vancouver (4.5 hrs) and were met by our hire car representative who drove us to their office and handed over the keys to our road trip mega car.

I had picked a cool, child friendly boutique hotel which had great reviews on Tripadvisor, the Maxwell Hotel Seattle.  I highly recommend this place - large rooms, walking distance to the Children's and Music Museums, free parking, small pool and gym

Read my Tripadvisor Review here

Seattle Activities with Kids

• This is a great city to visit with lots to do and easy streets to navigate with a stroller. 
• Take the family on a walking tour of Downtown Seattle and Waterfront, ending up at Pike Place Market for lunch.  Be careful around some areas of Pioneer Square, a few wrong-uns lurking the streets.
• Loved Pike Place market, a hive of all things food in Seattle.  We watched fish being tossed around and sampled amazing dishes including the best mac & cheese ever at Beechers
• Seattle Center has a number of museums including the Children's and Experience Music.  Our toddler loved the music museum in particular and had great fun playing on the guitars and drums.  Be sure to check their opening hours before you go.
• Your kids will adore the Seattle Ducks Tour, a bus that turns into a boat!  Book ahead as these tours fill quickly http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/
• If you're a fan of Man Vs. Food then eat at Beths Cafe for huge plates of American diner deliciousness (see pic of Daisy & her milkshake!)

US Road Trip Review: Amtrak - Vancouver to Seattle

I decided to go by train from Vancouver to Seattle as I thought my daughter would enjoy it, we could relax and enjoy the scenery and it would make the border crossing into the US a lot easier.  Indeed it was all true and she had a great time

Booking the train tickets
I didn't find the website easy to use and after I input all my details the site crashed on several occasions!
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

As this is an international border crossing you need to include your passport details.  I contacted my hotel in Vancouver http://www.sunsetinn.com/ and had the tickets delivered to them by courier

Departure
To clear immigration you need to arrive at the station at least an hour in advance so factor that into 6:40am Amtrak Cascades departure
Don't forget to organize your ESTA (visa waiver program) documentation

Onboard
I paid US$20 extra per seat to go business class.  I think this was worth the little extra for more leg room and a comfier seat.  My daughter loved being on the train and she happily watched her DVDs and stared out the window.
The journey is 4.5 hours and they do have a buffet car onboard.  We stocked up the night before with food suppliers from a grocery store close to the hotel
As you pass into the US, the train stops briefly and immigration officials climb aboard and check your passports

US Road Trip Review: Our starting point - Vancouver, Canada

What a beautiful city!  I fell in love with Vancouver and would return in a heartbeat to enjoy its fresh air and friendly people.  We started our trip here and stayed for 2 nights/3days before taking the Amtrak train across the border to Seattle

Hotel
Found this gem on Tripadvisor: http://www.sunsetinn.com/
Knowing we would be jetlagged, I wanted more of a serviced apartment for our first few nights.  This was a great price, clean and big with separate bedroom, living area and kitchen.  The hotel is positioned in a hip area of town off Davie Street near to lots of restaurants

Activities

• The Vancouver streets are wonderfully stroller friendly
• Took the Aquabus to Granville Island to see the farmers market.  We were incredibly lucky that the Vancouver Kids Festival was on during our stay and they had lots of activities for our daughter.  She also enjoyed the indoor softplay at Kids Market open all year and the parks on Granville Island
• Took a stroll around Stanley Park, one of the largest urban parks in the world.  If the weather's nice they have a heated outdoor pool on the shores of English Bay: http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/index.htm
• Long walks around the city, including ye olde Gastown area
• Enjoy delicious icecream at Marbleslab Creamery by the entrance to Stanley Park
• The city really comes to life during a Canucks Game (ice hockey) at the Rogers Arena so be sure to check the schedule: http://canucks.nhl.com/club/schedule.htm 

http://gocanada.about.com/od/vancouver/tp/topvancouverkid.htm

Kids Market, Granville Island

US Road Trip Review: Vancouver to San Francisco

Last summer we embarked on an amazing 2 week road trip from Vancouver to Silicon Valley, California.  We were visiting friends in Silicon Valley (just outside San Francisco) and knew that would be our last stop.  Having done southern California the year before and much of Northern California in a previous life sans kids, I decided to find a map and conjure up a route

VANCOUVER - SEATTLE - PORTLAND - CANNON BEACH - NEWPORT - BANDON - SAN FRANCISCO - MOUNTAINVIEW

We were traveling with our daughter, who was just over 2 and I was about 5 months pregnant:

ADVANCE PLANNING - MAKE YOUR TRIP EASIER

• I booked 90% of the hotels in advance, direct on their website to obtain cancellable bookings
• Put together my geeky travel spreadsheet detailing accommodation, driving distance, hotel, activities, restaurants (a big driver for our US food trips is my husband's obsession with Man Vs Food and the need to eat at all his restaurants)
• Cathay to Vancouver (hubby flew back to HK from San Fran and I flew on with daughter with BA to London)
• Booked hire car and confirmed child car seat *make sure you have valid drivers licence for US
• Obtained the US ESTA (visa waiver) for the family https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

It was an incredible trip and I will write my reviews of the cities in a separate post

Blog recommendation - Bubs on the Move

I came across a great travel with kids blog, written by an Australian doctor.  I was looking for the ultimate holiday medical kit inventory, which I will return to in a future post....

She has lots of top tips but I particularly enjoy her insight on travel health:

http://www.bubsonthemove.com/category/travel-health/

Ideas for weekend away from HK: Seoul Part 2: Things to do!

• Gyeongbok Palace is great for kids. It’s a huge palace complex in front of the mountains, with lots of courtyards to run around in, and big stone steps to clamber up to peer into the inner chambers. My eldest son was a little disappointed that we didn’t find the King’s bedroom, but other than that they really enjoyed it. If you can time your visit to catch the changing of the guard it is worth it, as the guards have fantastic bright robes and strange musical instruments. If you’ve ever seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, this may seem like a somewhat slovenly affair in comparison, as the guards shamble rather than march in time, but it’s great fun guessing whether their beards are real or stick-on. There is a lovely lake with a banqueting pavilion in the middle (for the Kings) and a cafe overlooking it (for us). Definitely a must-see.

• From the palace it’s a short walk until you reach Bukchon Village where the streets are full of Western and Korean cafes and lovely trendy little boutiques. The traditional Korean lunch we had was reasonably priced and the children enjoyed sitting on cushions on the floor rather than chairs.
• The vibrant Hongdae area of town around the university is fascinating for an evening wander: packed with bars, barbeque joints and boutiques that spill out onto the streets selling the most beautiful shoes which I could never fit my big Western hooves into, but lovely to look at all the same. It was refreshing to see a lot of street art and very well received street performances.
• My blonde boys did get a lot of unwanted attention from Korean ladies, and quite a few tried to grab their arms and faces, which they hated. The attention seems entirely friendly, but overwhelming for little ones.

Ideas for weekend away from HK: Seoul Part 1- hotel & flights

My friend Franny has just come back from her minibreak to Seoul, South Korea with her 2 kids and here's her trip report.  It's fairly detailed so I'm splitting it in 2 posts:

While it wasn’t top of my list for a weekend break from Hong Kong with two kids, my brother has been living in Seoul for 4 years now and our excuse for not visiting him of having two small boys is wearing a bit thin (especially as we will quite happily skip down to Malaysia or Thailand on a whim).

So we took a four-day break the first weekend in June. 


BOOKING
We flew with Cathay, and although there were Cathay hotel deals available, we found booking a hotel separately worked out a lot cheaper for us this time, mostly as we were quite picky about the location being quite near my brother’s flat.


FLIGHTS
Finally we seemed to have cracked the flights. Hong Kong to Seoul is a 3.5 hour flight (maybe why it seemed quite so easy after all the long-haul we’ve been doing recently). We chose our flight times very carefully, leaving Hong Kong at 9.30am on the way out, and leaving Seoul at 3.15pm on the way home. We took quite a few small toys with us, as well as stickers, magazines and a couple of books. Getting our 3-year-old to carry these in his new backpack helped a lot! But TV and snacks remain our lifesavers on any flight.


HOTEL

We were travelling with a 3-year-old and a 17-month- old, and it took some time to find a hotel that had one room that big enough for an extra bed and a cot at a reasonable price. Hotels in Seoul don’t guarantee cots for children over 12 months, so we had to bring our own travel cot. We stayed at Hotel Lotte City in Mapo:

http://www.lottecityhotelmapo.com/main/main.asp

It was great for our needs with a pool and a decent breakfast buffet (but no room service), but there are definitely better hotels in terms of location and facilities if you don’t need to be in that part of town.


GETTING AROUND TOWN

We used both the subway (excellent but a LOT of steps, so not good for buggies) and taxis (cheap) to get around. Seoul is pretty easy to navigate as long as you give taxi drivers very precise instructions in Korean. We didn’t find one who spoke English, and had to rely on directions written down from the hotel and my brother’s Korean to help us.


TOP TIPS

We had absolutely perfect weather for our trip in early June. It was warm, sunny and dry and a very welcome escape from hot and humid Hong Kong. The summer in Seoul is very wet and warm, the winter is freezing, so the autumn/spring months are definitely the best choice for a visit.

The main thing we found with this city break is that we really needed to slow down! We headed back to the hotel for downtime in the afternoons, and took a lot of cafe breaks in order to avoid meltdowns, which we managed pretty well.

Last Minute Hotels - Latestays.com

My husband's colleague takes her passport to work every Friday.  She then rocks up at the airport, buys a cheap flight and books a lastminute discounted hotel room through http://www.latestays.com/

Now don't worry folks, you don't have to be that spontaneous (impossible with 2 kids).  You actually have 28 days as these are the best available room rates from Latestays.com hotel suppliers within a 28 day time period.  Latestays.com has numerous destinations across Asia Pacific and if you're in Hong Kong, don't forget you could use it for cheap accommodation in Macau.

I had a play around and looked at room rates for Sentosa in Singapore next weekend.  Amazing deals are there for the taking, the http://www.thesentosa.com/ is practically 50% off!

It's a shame I'm moving apartment next weekend, I think I'd rather go to Sentosa....

I want this! - Superlight carrycot

My friend Claire showed up with this amazing carrycot from Itsimagical here in Hong Kong.

 Gorgeous Tobias was happy to chill in there for hours!

I was very impressed by how lightweight it was and easy to pop up.  It also comes with a cute mobile, mosquito net and all the fabric is UV protected.  Although the packaging says up to 2 years old, I don't think there's any chance you getting a 15 mth+ in there.

It retails HKD $699 and you can shop online or in Itsimagical's 3 stores in Hong Kong.

For a full spec, here's the link:

http://www.itsimagical.hk/51752/ecommerce_1/51752

A girl's best friend: Her travel agent

As a travel blogger, I feel it's only fair I share with you one of my favourite resources.

In Hong Kong, travel agents will often be a great source of advice, package and lastminute deals AND save you trawling the internet for the cheapest prices. One of the most amazing things they can do is put your name down for flights that you don't have to pay for until a few weeks before - hence why flights in HK always get booked up in advance.

So... with reluctance... here's my man:

Daryl Bending at Concorde Travel

daryl@concorde-travel.com

Please don't rush to him at once or I will never be able to book my holidays!

Hotel Review: Shangri La Mactan Resort & Spa, Cebu

Here's my Tripadvisor review of our Cebu stay:

“Facilities amazing, rooms let it down slightly”

Reviewed April 6, 2011

If you are looking for a great holiday with kids then this is the place. The facilities are absolutely outstanding from numerous pools, well stocked gym, kids club, beach, lawns etc. The staff are exceptionally helpful and friendly and even though the hotel is enormous you don't feel overcrowded.

Where this hotel lets itself down is on rooms in the main wing. Although nice, I would certainly not rate them 5 star so as long as you go on with this expectation you'll be fine. I believe the Ocean Wing has rooms that have had a more recent lick of paint.

Breakfast is good but the buffet dinner at Tides was average and Cowrie Cove had a great setting but again average food.

The spa is outstanding!

Weekend away from HK: Cebu, Philippines

Less than a 3 hour direct flight away from Hong Kong is Cebu, a group of islands in the Philippines.  If you're looking for a sunshine beach break from HK then Cebu is worth a visit.  There's not much going on so I would recommend a 3 to 4 night stay.

With kids, the Shangri La Mactan is the hotel for you.  Don't count on designer bedrooms and top quality nosh but do enjoy the kids haven of numerous pools, white sandy man made beach, swings, ice cream shop, expanse of grass to run around on and softplay.  I'll post my Tripadvisor review next.

We booked a Cathay holiday package and got a reasonably priced deal for 3 nights.  The hotel babysitting service was great (nothing worse than depressing nights spent sitting in the dark after your kid has gone to sleep!) and we left relaxed and recharged.

If you're looking for a slightly more upmarket room, treat yourself to one in the Ocean Club (still not 5 star standard I don't think).

Whilst the Shangri La offers you very average food, venture out to the Abaca Boutique Resort for a delicious dinner.

The driest months are mid Feb to April.  We went end March and enjoyed stunning weather