Hey Reader When we first arrived in Latin America, we thought we'd keep things simple. Just use roaming. Job done. No researching SIM cards. No comparing providers. No figuring out which network worked in which country. It felt like the easiest option. The problem? It was also the most expensive. At first, we didn't think much about it. A few pounds here. A few pounds there. But over time those charges started adding up. A quick Word from our sponsors And because we were travelling long-term...
14 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Before we left for Latin America, we spent weeks worrying about what to pack. Extra clothes. Extra shoes. Extra medicines. Extra "just in case" items. Like most families, we were trying to prepare for every possible scenario. The funny thing is, the more we packed, the less confident we felt. Every item seemed important. Every gadget felt essential. Every extra jumper somehow became a necessity. Then we arrived and realised something. Most of the things we worried about bringing...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, We massively overpacked. Like… embarrassingly so. At the start of this trip, we had bags full of “just in case” stuff. Extra clothes. Backup shoes. Things we might need. And within the first couple of weeks, we realised: We weren’t using half of it. The worst offenders? Jeans. They’re heavy, slow to dry, and take up way too much space. We each packed a pair thinking they’d be useful. They weren’t. Same with extra shoes. Each of us had more than we needed, and they just became dead...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, After a few months of traveling like this, one thing has become pretty clear. There isn’t one big change that makes everything easier. It’s not: finding the perfect place booking everything at the right time or having some kind of ideal plan It’s smaller things. How the day flows.How much you try to fit in.Whether things feel rushed… or not. We’ve had days in amazing places that just didn’t land. And other days, somewhere simple, that felt exactly right. That difference started to...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, When we first started traveling, we packed like we were going on a short holiday. You know the thinking. Better to have too much than not enough.Just in case.We might need it. So we brought more than we needed. Extra clothes.Extra “options.”Things that felt useful at the time. And for the first few days, it didn’t seem like a problem. Then reality kicked in. Moving between places.Packing and unpacking constantly.Trying to keep track of everything. And then the extra costs started...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, We used to just turn up to places and figure it out when we got there. Sometimes it worked. Other times… it didn’t. Standing in line with kids is one of those things that feels fine for the first few minutes. Then it drags. Everyone gets restless.You’re not really enjoying anything.And you start wondering if it was even worth it. We had a few days like that early on. Nothing major went wrong, just time slipping away in places we didn’t expect. Queues. Waiting around.Moving slower...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Car rentals always seem straightforward when you’re booking them. Pick the dates.Choose the car.Price looks reasonable. Done. That’s what we thought at the start. But one booking almost caught us out. Everything looked fine upfront. Until we got closer to the actual pickup and started looking properly at what was included… and what wasn’t. Insurance wasn’t as clear as it seemed.Extra fees started appearing (Double the amount of the car cost)And suddenly the “cheap” option didn’t...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, One thing we nearly didn’t bother with before this trip was travel insurance. It felt like one of those “we’ll probably be fine” things… especially since we weren’t doing anything extreme. But once we actually started traveling with the kids, it started to feel a bit different. Delays, getting sick, plans changing—it doesn’t take much for things to get complicated quickly. So we ended up looking into it properly and comparing a few options. I wrote up what we found (and what we...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, The first time we landed somewhere new, we didn’t think much about data. Phones turned on.Signal came through.Everything just worked. So we carried on using it like normal. Maps. Messages. A bit of browsing here and there. Nothing excessive. Then a few days later, we checked the bill. And that’s when it hit us. It wasn’t one big charge. Just lots of small ones adding up in the background. The kind you don’t really notice until it’s too late. After that, we kept it simple. We...
3 months ago • 1 min read