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Elena and Quim have been traveling together for over 20 years, the last seven as a family. They have two children, Lex (two years old) and Éric (seven years old). They enjoy traveling and taking their children on adventures around the world. Their children are inquisitive and eager to learn. They have a lot of fun traveling as a family. You can check out their blog here.
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SUBSCRIBEWe really like to learn about new places and how not to photograph them. We love photography, and Elena is a photographer, so we're always holding a camera in our hands, and Éric is starting to like it as well.
Traveling together was something natural. We have always traveled and, since we have been together, we have taken a few interesting trips.
We travel to a chosen destination once a year and when we do, we prefer to learn about the natural surroundings. We connect with people and try to escape the crowded circuits, although it is not always possible.
We also try to travel outside of peak season to enjoy more relaxed destinations. We're calmer now that we're traveling as a family, and we're not giving ourselves marathon beatings like we used to.
We look for destinations where the entire family can have fun, and depending on the location, we usually stay between 2 and 3 weeks.
We plan trips by gathering information at the destination's tourist office, searching for blogs, and mapping out our own routes.
We also have a small book of activities that we created so that Éric can incorporate them more into the trip, and when Alex is older, he will have his own things.
The suitcase thing is a fight between Elena and me. A lot of things are essential for her and I try to go with as little as possible.
Also, with children, you have to carry more clothes because when they are small, the clothes tend to get quite dirty in a day, even though we usually do laundry during trips. What can never be missing is a toy, stories, and especially cameras.
Our Favorite Travel MemoryA trip that we have very good memories of is Vietnam. Vietnamese are wonderful people and we had the opportunity to speak with some and we ate with a family in Sa Pa. It is a country we would like to return to with our children.
We've visited Argentina, Chile, Vietnam, Cape Verde, Scotland, Italy, France, Portugal, and the list goes on. You take something away from each trip, and so far we haven't regretted any of them. We would even repeat, but there are so many countries we'd like to learn about.
We really want to visit the United States and travel to Egypt and Jordan; there are many other places on our wish list, but it is endless.
Booking, Tripadvisor, Google Maps, and Geocaching are the main ones we use on our trips. We occasionally use one provided by a tourist office.
Our Travel BlogOur blog was born more than ten years ago, initially to keep our family updated on our whereabouts. We noticed that more people were reading to us, so we focused the texts on assisting us in traveling to the destinations that we visited on our own.
Now it is more of a family blog, with content aimed at families who do not yet dare to travel with their children but can see that it is possible and fun. Every week we publish new content and we try to surprise our readers with places that are not so well known.
We try to spend as little as possible, but we also don’t hold back from doing things just to cut down on spending, but it has to be logical of course. There are some activities that you will only be able to do in that country or visit a specific location that you have always wanted to visit. We are in charge of our spending, but it is not an obsession.
In so many years of travel, we have quite a few. When Elena showed her driving license at the Lanzarote diving club that she had not used for 20 years, to do a dive in the Atlantic Museum, they were surprised.
When our friend Nuria tripped and walked into half the bus, about to fall, a whole bus full of Turks burst out laughing; I still laugh when I think about it.
Work prevents us from traveling more. Luckily, we can choose the dates, although our children's school also influences our decisions.
The current challenge is to keep the whole family motivated. Eric is already beginning to want to make his own decisions and we are trying to make him understand that we all have to enjoy the trip. Little by little, he assimilates it. It is also a challenge to keep Elena from packing too many bags.
We don't have much experience in that regard. We have friends who have gone on long-term family vacations. What we do on short trips, we believe, should be applied to long ones. Let everyone have a good time on the trip and have time to enjoy it individually.
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