An ever curious traveler with a passion for making memories with my family. I give families the tools to experience the joys of travelling, no matter your budget. Through quick, practical solutions. Join me if you'd like to make more memories confidently travelling with your kids, without straining your finances, going into debt, or feeling like you'd have to sell off a kidney to fund your next vacation.
βοΈTravel Talk Tuesday & Europe Beyond The Crowds
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Hey Reader, Hello from the rainy west coast of Canada! It has been a minute since I last sent out a newsletter. As a quick personal update, we recently landed back in our hometown after travelling South East Asia for six months. Us adults would have gladly continued on longer, but Miss S, our 12 year old had other ideas. So we are staying with family here for the school year while we figure out our next move and I handle some not so fun aging parent realities. For the new year, we are planning an adults only trip to Las Vegas to see Cyndi Lauper's residency (aging myself), and a family trip to Sweden in the summer, as my partner wants to attend an open air Metal music festival. I will likely skip the festival and just explore the area. What trips are you planning for 2026? β π» Community UpdatesI have been shifting a bit of my focus on our packedforlife.com site to include another one of my passions.... It now encompasses my love of creating memories with my family through food AND travel, preferably at the same time. But as we are choosing not to travel full time at the moment, I am sharing easy family recipes as well, created by real people (not AI). I'll send out an email soon letting you choose which content you want newsletters on, as I don't want to spam you with content you aren't interested in. I hope you'll stick with me until then (it's the holiday season, and the first time we're home for Christmas in over 10 years, so we are in the thick of all things family). β POPULAR POSTS THIS WEEKIn the meantime here are a few of our favorite posts people have been visiting on our site: The holiday music and movie season has begun, and here are a few of our most popular Christmas snacks on our site this week:
Then head over here to start dreaming about the best Vietnam destinations to visit. Vietnam was a surprising favorite for us...the food, the people and experiences wormed their way into our hearts. And we talk about going back ALL the time. β βοΈ In the News | Around the Webβ β β Ok, that's all for today. As always, if you have any questions, or something travel related you'd like to see more of, hit reply and send me an email. I personally reply to every one. Journey On, Donna β P.S. Planning a trip to Europe? ββπ Join the waitlist here for the FREE DIY Trip Summit: Europe Beyond the Crowds. Get ready to learn from the 30+ travel experts who will share their best tips, hacks, and strategies for making the most of your Europe or UK trip in 2026 and beyond. β . Emails may contain affiliate links. If you sign up or buy something through an affiliate link, I may get a little commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you! This helps support my family & supports me to make free resources available for everyone. |
Packed for Life | Family Travel
An ever curious traveler with a passion for making memories with my family. I give families the tools to experience the joys of travelling, no matter your budget. Through quick, practical solutions. Join me if you'd like to make more memories confidently travelling with your kids, without straining your finances, going into debt, or feeling like you'd have to sell off a kidney to fund your next vacation.
Hey Reader, Europe is not my speciality, but I know so many of you have European travel on your radar for 2026 and beyond. Which is why this is the email you NEED to read. One of the best ways to make the most of your trip AND stretch your budget, is to learn from others who've been there and done that..... .....So you can skip the mistakes, and go right to making amazing memories. Thatβs why Iβm inviting you to join 30+ trusted travel pros for the DIY Virtual Trip Summit: Europe Beyond the...
Hello Reader from super sunny Thailand, After our wild Bangkok earthquake experience, we didn't end up doing too much over the next few days. However, Miss S. and I did take a super fun Thai cooking class. I highly recommend this easy & fun class (they even train professional chefs upstairs). Everyone got to choose their own 5 dishes to make, plus they gave us mango sticky rice for dessert. She did amazingly well, as we each had our own cooking station where we did all the cooking ourseslves....
Hello Reader, We were in Bangkok, Thailand for the earthquake. First of all we are ok. The airbnb we were staying in was a low-rise apartment, thankfully. Yikes. Not on my radar of possible things to happen during our 6 month trip, as Bangkok hadn't ever really experienced one like that in most people's lifetimes. In fact, we didn't realize it was an earthquake at first. I thought Derek was moving the bed around as a joke, until he said I think it's an earthquake. The lights were swaying, and...