Escape + Explore – With Australia's Best Family Travel Blogs

The Going Anyway family on the Great Wall of China.

This Friday’s holiday and travel inspiration comes courtesy of some excellent Aussie family travel bloggers. Check out my list below and you will find literally hundreds of ideas, with very practical information for families.

Whether you’re planning to travel round Australia or the world, or you’re just wondering where to go for your next weekend away, there’s plenty of information from these travel-loving bloggers.

And if you’re an Aussie family travel blogger who is not on this list – forgive me! Send me an email via my Contact page and I’ll pop over for a visit.

And what do I mean by Aussie? Australian nationals or residents writing from their worldwide travels, or those of us living here in Australia and wishing we were with them! I haven’t put in any of the travel companies or travel magazines who have blogs as part of their websites- may do a post just on those one day – but these are the personal bloggers.

Boy Eats World

Boy Eats World is a travel and food blog written by experienced travel writer Aleney De Winter, with help from her two young children. Aleney’s kids are really adventurous eaters and apprentice chefs (Raffles ate snails!) I’m so envious as two of my children are such fusspots.

Aleney’s recipes look good and are well photographed. Her writings always clear and entertaining – her experience really shows through. The family review cafes and restaurants in Sydney and wherever they may roam.

My Fave: The International Travel category

You’ll Love: Raffles Reviews Mamak Chatswood

Bubs On The Move

A blog promoting healthy, happy travel with a baby or small child.

Mum of three, Danielle, is a GP and avid traveller. Her blog features posts on North Queensland where the family used to live, and now more from Melbourne and surrounds where they are now based.

My Fave: the Destinations section.

You’ll enjoy: Now We Are A Family Of Five

Get In The Hot Spot

My friend Annabel writes about adventures within and without. Most of her travel stories are adult-focused but there are plenty posts on Get In the Hot Spot about travel with the Candy kids. Check out her Australian and Vanuata stories for travels with the kids.

But then pop over to her other travel writing about Italy, Zimbabwe, Canada and much, much more. Much brain food there for would-be wandering mums.

My Fave: 5 Reasons To Go Back To Heron Island and Turtle Nesting Season on Heron Island

You’ll Love: The Candys in Canberra

Going Anyway

I’ll be bold and say that this is Australia’s most deeply loved family travel blog. In 2011, Chris and Jill packed up their five children and travelled through Asia for a year. The family travelled very mindfully, soaking up the places they saw and celebrating the people they met. The writing and photography on this site is really very beautiful, insightful and perceptive. Read the archives, the posts are a lesson in how to travel well.

The family also travel with their own wheels, a wheelchair in fact, which they adapted for the trip. Their daughter Sparky has cerebral palsy, but they went anyway. The family are living on a bus these days, please blog more, Jill!

My Fave: Our One Wild and Precious Life

You’ll Love: One Year of Travel, One Hundred People

Gourmet Getaway

‘Idyllic getaways, luscious food,’ the tagline of this blog is HIGHLY appealing.

Julie Carlyle is the author of this blog which revels in a mixture of recipes, cafe and restaurant reviews and holiday and travel stories. Julie has a bunch of children and many of her travel articles are about family travel, but there’s adults-only travel too. Quite right.

Julie’s husband is a photographer, his shots (and hers) are terrific on this blog. The couple showcase the best of Coffs Harbour, their local area; great if you’re planning a trip up that way.

My Fave: The family travel stories from Thailand in 2013

You’ll Love: Pizza Supreme Cookies

Holidays, Hellidays And The Journeys In Between

Lydia C Lee blogs intermittently but her content is terrific. Whenever I read one of her destination posts I feel that I could just pack up the kids and pop off there. She gives great information about her travels with her kids aged five, ten and 13 years. Ironically she is terrified of flying, but manages to grit her teeth and get going. Search the archives for great ideas.

My Fave: McLaren Vale Beaches and Vineyards

You’ll Love: An Expensive Mistake – A Cautionary Tale

Little Aussie Travellers

An Aussie family of five are travelling full time and sharing the journey as they go. They had been blogging previously as well and their site is large with lots of ideas for family-friendly expeditions, places to stay and things to do. It’s a fun site and well worth exploring.

The Walsh family are Matt, Loreena and Jackson, Amahli & Byron. The children are home schooled as they travel and the site has posts on home schooling as well as travelling. The family are currently touring Tasmania.

My Fave: Eco Friendly Travel: Making Family Road Trips Greener

You’ll Love: The Day It Finally Happened

Little Nomads

Little Nomads is really a travel booking site but it has a blog which has some terrific experiential family travel and holiday posts. The big issue is that there’s no categories system so finding them is hard! Worth a trawl back in time though as there is useful information here. Newer posts are not personal stories, and very general though. The site is being re-launched soon so hopefully there will be ways to navigate the archive.

My Fave: Mixing Chocolate And Horses In The Blue Mountains

You’ll Love: Australia’s Best Islands For Kids – Heron Island

New Life On The Road

David and Lisa Wood hit the open road in a motorhome and have been living in it now for three years. They have five boys, two have left home to join the Navy now. The family is currently living in NSW, but search their categories for stories from around the eastern states of Australia.

Lisa writes about life in the motorhome, she has a fab collection of posts about the south coast of New South Wales, plus information on their experiences of homeschooling, and the odd recipe for heart warming soup too!

My Fave: The posts in The Sunshine Coast category

You’ll Love: Boston Shipwreck Memorial, Basspoint

Our Oyster

Canadian Jade Johnston and her Aussie husband Daniel are passionate travellers, and their son Jakob joined them on the road for the first 6 months of his life. Now back in Australia, the family blog about all matters family-travel related, with an emphasis on the art of slow travel.

My Fave: Our Favourite Camera bag – The Kata DL 33

You’ll Love: How To Tell If You Are A Slow Traveller

Raising Explorers

Lisa writes about sharing adventures with her young twins. You can read about the family’s backpacking trips to Malaysia and road trip to California. Lisa also writes about family life and about adventures in the southern part of Sydney where she lives.

My Fave: The Exploring Sydney section (of course!)

You’ll Love: Warts And All: What It WasREALLY Like Travelling With Kids

Sydney Kids Food + Travel

Yes, this blog! You’re here already! Mostly posts are about exploring the very best of Sydney for kids. Lots of details, the stuff you need to know like how to find parking, where you can get a coffee and whether there’s good shade. Travel around Australia and bits and pieces from our trips abroad too. Enjoy!

Toddlers On Tour

Tips and advice for travel with kids is the tagline of this practical blog. Sally-Anne has been a mad traveller since she was a child and has studied tourism and worked in the travel industry. She shared stories from her own family’s travels around Asia, plus really useful posts on the practical matters that help made family holidays work well. The blog has s shop with handy gadgets and products for travelling families.

My fave: Family Holiday – Busselton With Kids

You’ll love: Choosing Family Accommodation for Kids

Travel With Bender

This Aussie family of four became nomadic in 2012 and have been all over the world since then. They mix destination stories with really useful top travel tips. Have a look through their archives or search country by country. 100% guaranteed to give you itchy feet.

My Fave: Where we Are Headed in 2014 (cos I want to go too!)

You’ll Love: 10 Fun Free Things To Do With Kids In Perth

Where To Next?

New kids travel blog on the block is my friend Deb’s brilliantly named ‘Where To Next?’ I’m sure she will take us to dozens of interesting places. Deb a very experienced travel writer, magazine editor and digital media analyst, so expect top quality posts with detailed information, all with a strong awareness of environmental issues.

This is the only Australian blog or website that I can find which has a focus on travel with teens. Good idea, Deb.

My Fave: How To Avoid Single Use Plastic on Holiday

You’ll Love: Snow monsters, sashimi and thigh-deep powder: reasons to ski Shiga Kogen

World Travel Family

Alyson, James and their boys D and Boo are travelling around the world ‘indefinitely and one the cheap.’ Their journey so far covers Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka, the UK, an Atlantic crossing cruise and now the USA, Canada and Central America. They had lived in Port Douglas for seven years prior to heading off.

There are lots of informative and practical posts on this blog, on destinations, travel with kids and homeschooling and more. I love the joie de vivre they have, and the great passion for adventure and family.

My Fave: Breakfast Around The World or maybe Will Travel Blogging Fund Long Term Travel?

You’ll Love: Finding Cheap Cruises

yTravelBlog

yTravelBlog is the biggest and best of all the travel blogs. Whilst the majority of the posts are not specifically family-focused, many are and the newest posts certainly are as Caz and Craig and their two young daughters are on a road trip right around Australia.

yTravelBlog is huge, you can simply search for a destination you’re interested in, or get to know the Categories section on the right hand side of the blog posts.

My Fave: The Family Travel Accommodation section

You’ll Love: 19 Tips for Travelling To Thailand with Kids

Deborah Dickson -Smith of Where To Next? hard at work – honest!

Families on The Road On Facebook

New Life On The Road has a post sharing the Facebook pages of many families who are travelling around Australia. Check it out here.

And here’s a brand new blog …

Smiths Holiday Road

Say hello to a very new blog, just two weeks old. Bron and her family are setting off soon for a European adventure. She’s just started a blog to record their adventures. Go the Smiths!

Hope that you enjoy this little tour around Australia’s family travel bloggers. Now who’s been missed out? And should I put in photos of each one? I did think it’d be good too but then thought that the post would go on forever if I did.

family-travel-collage-3236287

Blogs That I Just Heard About And Need To Write Up

I’m just adding a little collection of new blogs to write up here. I’ll be adding in more information about them when I update this post next year.

Happy Travel With Kids

http://www.happytravelwithkids.com/

http://campertrailertravels.com/

http://www.getawayguru.com.au/ Leanne Anderson’s site with lists of apartments in France and Italy owned or managed by Aussies, plus her travel blog.

http://www.ourtravellifestyle.com/ An Aussie family who’ve been on the road for 4 years… and they also run http://www.vagabondfamily.org/

Together We Roam Lisa Young and her husband have visited 70 countries, and now live n Brisbane with their two young children. On this blog Lisa shares their travel philosophy, destination information and advice.

http://www.wheressharon.com/ Sharon and her two young children are based in Australia but have travelled to the US, Caribbean and Asia already – heaps for me to read there!

http://happyfamilyholidays.wordpress.com/ Lisa and her family are writing about their holidays here.

http://www.escapewithkids.com/ A brand new blog from Kirralee Baker about travel with kids and style – good luck with it Kirralee.

http://havewheelchairwilltravel.net/ is a travel blog inspiring people to travel, with wheelchair or without! Just newly redesigned, I know I am going to love reading around this site by Julie Jones.

http://xpatriategames.blogspot.com.au/ Free range human Sophia Brady travels with her husband and tween daughter. They’ll show you are around their home town of canberra, as well as taking you with them on their travels.

http://www.geeyourebrave.com/ Gee Your Brave, life and tales of travel and real adventures from a family of four, who are about to relocate to Melbourne.

Home

www.wheressharon.com

Home

http://www.happytravelwithkids.com/

http://www.suitcasesandstrollers.com/

http://www.mammalovestravel.com/

http://walkandwines.com/

http://letsgomumreviews.com.au/

http://lovetoexplore.com.au/

Aren’t Fridays just the best days for some armchair escapism.

I might be sitting here in the deepest, darkest suburbs of Sydney, but my mind is wandering this beautiful planet we share.

Happy travels!

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