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Weekends Away with the Kids: Holidays near Heathrow

February 1, 2013 in Travel with 0 Comments

“This is a sponsored post from Travelodge. When I travel with my family I often mix up where we stay for better value, access to sights or just to keep us exploring.”

Is there anything worse than travelling for hours, into London, with youngsters in the car? No matter how much preparation you do, and no matter how many sticker books you pack into the back, it always seems to become a stressful experience.

After ten rounds of sensible, adult-led games such as eye spy and word connect, it is never long before the boys start giving each other a dead arm on the sight of any yellow vehicle and your youngest has some issue surrounding travel induced bodily fluid complications.

There has to be a better way to do it! And flying from Manchester, Edinburgh and other far-out UK destinations – in less than an hour – could be the answer to your prayers. Staying at Heathrow Terminal 5 hotels, outside of the city centre, will also ensure you pay a low price for your weekend away, especially if you choose a family room from a budget company.

Heathrow is well connected to central London, by underground (at Terminals 1, 2, 4, and 5), as well as the Heathrow Express from Terminals 4 and 5, which transports passengers into the city centre in less than 15 minutes.

The attractions and entertainment within the city are endless. Every type of trip is catered for in central London. Those looking to see the traditional sites of ‘Old Landan Town’ can add Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament to their itinerary.

Tower of London

Alternatively, a child friendly museum tour in the capital will leave you spoilt for choice. There’s also a huge number of contemporary attractions on offer including the London Eye, Madame Tussauds and the recently reinvented, London Dungeons.

One of the most convenient aspects of staying out of the city centre is that you are close to some of the out of town attractions, which can really make a family getaway.

Windsor and Eton railway is just six miles away, and a truly beautiful day out. As well as visiting Windsor Castle, why not catch the bus service from the centre up to the LEGOLAND theme park? The rides and LEGO mini land are bound to keep them thoroughly entertained. Whether you choose to call a taxi, or take the train from Heathrow (with just one or two changes), you can be at LEGOLAND in well under an hour.

LEGOLAND

Those with tweens and teens in the camp may prefer something a little more adrenaline packed than the wonder of LEGOLAND. If this is the case, Thorpe Park is a fabulous day out for your family. Extreme rides include THE SWARM, SAW, Stealth and Colossus. You can book 2013 tickets online now, for the price of 2012 passes.

The most important factors to a family break are keeping costs low and cutting the stress. Forget driving across the country, make the holiday magic happen and catch a flight. In less than an hour you’ll be checking into your budget Heathrow accommodation ready and set for a wonderful weekend with your nearest and dearest.

 

A day at the tennis – fun for Dad and the kids

January 20, 2013 in Inspiration, Sport with 0 Comments

Roger Federer returning against Evgeny Korolev...

I love the big Grand Slams, and have been lucky enough to have gone to each of the Big 4 at least once, and having lived in London 10 years and Melbourne a few years to Wimbledon and the Australian Open many times.

I want to expose my kids to the international atmosphere, the buzz of the crowd and the excitement of watching the worlds best play for the ultimate prize.

Thus this is the second year I’ve taken all 3 of my kids to the Australian Open.  We buy a family ground pass (about $90), take the day off work during the first week of the tournament and then spend the day from opening at 10am till dinner time at 6/7pm.. the kids can get tired by the end as its a full day.

And the Aussie Open makes a real effort to make the tournament kid friendly.  Case in point the excellent kids fun day on the Saturday before the start of the tournament – which my kids loved – is now firmly on our calendar.

Things my kids loved definetly included

Sponsors giveaways – from chocolate milk (off the train on the walk to the gates), Ski yogurt tubs to Cadbury chocolate getting little treats is a kid favourite

Giveaways

Sponsors games - RFID enabled smart cards are now mainstream  and we kept them around our necks to checkin to activities from Kia’s racecar simulator to Optus’s speed serve.  The kids also loved the studio in a box approach that seemed to be everywhere having their photos taken on court, at locations around Victoria..etc

Winners trophy?

Minicourts - for having a hit. Tennis Australia is making a big push to get more kids into the game and so had a few courts set up for quick 4 minute hits.  My mini Federer and Williams had a ball. And the sand court was  a bit of fun as well.

Beach tennis?

Player favourites - my seven year old son was keen on Andy Murray for the first half the day, had a photo in front of a poster of Andy to seal it until he found David Ferrer in a practice session and changed is number one status… Andy is now no 2.

Court time - I won’t lie and say sitting to watch matches is my kids favourite.  They’ll watch for bursts of 30 minutes at a time but then having an ipod/games and some snacks on hand is the only way to get through a whole set for us. While I love being on some of the main courts for first day singles we’ve found outside courts and doubles matches also allow the kids to make a bit more noise and feel like they have a bit more scope to move around (my kids have troubkle with the keep quiet during play and luckily tennis stands are now much louder than they use to be)

Sunny in the stands....

Food - while like any sporting event the food is likely to be twice as expensive and half as good as what ou can get outside, we pack a picnic lunch to be eaten in the stands while play is on (and a kids mouth chewing is pretty quiet) supplemented by sponsor snacks and buying an icecream on a hot day.

Have a great day at the tennis!

Really – I won’t need to bring US$ cash to travel in Myanmar

November 20, 2012 in Travel with 0 Comments

I’m in Myanmar and I brought with me crisp freshly minted US dollar notes to exchange for the local currency KYAT and pay for accommodation, entry to key sites…etc

While in Myanmar I’ve made a few discoveries

- while crisp notes are better, I have exchanged some with folds, creases so as long as they’re not torn or battered its ok.

- the exchange rate at the bank is pretty good (around $ = 850kyat) which is better than hotels (~800) and although worse than the black market (~900) from the horror stories I’ve heard it’s not worth the trouble – yes I’ve met people who paid really close attention during the transaction and still got ripped off (for 100′s of dollars)

- I’ve spoken with many travellers about how fast the country is changing and it must be less than 6 months from being able to use ATMs and credit cards.

And on reading the local English paper today discovered its not 6 months away – the first step happened a few days ago with foreigners being able to withdraw money from Cooperative Bank ATMs starting November 15. Point of sale (POS) transactions with credit cards at hotels and shops will follow quickly as will access in other banks.

So you’ll need to bring US$ for a little while longer for convenience with some payments but the days of global transactions and money access in Myanamar are now here

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1032am-147pm Circle line train theatre of local life in Yangon

November 16, 2012 in Culture, Everywhere, Travel with 0 Comments

If you like watermelon, laughing or napping and have 3 hours spare then hop on the train and keep reading….

Any waste gets thrown off the train….

If you’re selling watermelons, bread, cigarettes,…you hop on, sell and then move to next carriage at the next stop….

Guys smoke cigars, friends chat, mothers and children eat snacks and look out the window.

Or if tired take a nap…

It’s a cornucopia of life…

The carriage door and windows frame the world outside the train as you pass by. Locals working, cleaning, playing, waiting…..and the stray dogs and cats abound.

Random stops, delays are just part of the fun. It’s never dead quiet – somewhere there is hammering, idle chatter, and the distant play of children.

Over the three hours peanut shells hit the ground, big baskets for transport come on, betel nuts are chewed, naps are taken, big smiles abound and it goes on…

The most chaos happens 90mins into the journey, at Mingaladon station, the furthest from central station. Baskets and bags of goods – fragrant spices, plants – it gives the carriage a food smell – are thrown on to the train – through windows, doors, it’s first in to get the floor space as it is covered in minutes. Cries, grunts, and then laughs as relief sets in as your spot on the train is secured.

Close to the end a group of young kids hop on, goofing off, posing for photos, thats cool they say as they look at my phone. And on way off at next stop they sing it’s gangum style – just like my kids are singing at home – there is no escape – the song is everywhere!

It might be the best $1 you spend in Myanmar for 3 hours of street theatre, on the move. And its the part of Yangon that is not changing!

How – leaves from Yangon central railway station several times a day in either direction for us$1, you can hop on and hop off if you want to explore some distant local suburbs. My train was scheduled to leave at 1010am.

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I’m too too late (to see Rangoon as it was)

November 12, 2012 in Everywhere, Travel with 0 Comments

Its been 4 hours since my Air Asia flight arrived in Yangon, Myanmar and i’m staying in a hotel (Hotel Pho Sein – pretty good actually) north of downtown in the area Tamwe. Not exactly the centre of things but from the drive in an walking around its clear if you come you’re visiting the new Yangon, not old Rangoon.

Since opening up to foreign investment in the last year things have clearly changed. Plenty of new cars, coloured lights in the street, coca cola at restaurants, counterfeit DVDs for sale at street stalls, the wifi works in the hotel….. It feels like anywhere in Asia – I could imagine myself in Vietnam, Thailand or any tiger country.

I’ll be in search of old Rangoon tomorrow, I’m hoping taking the circle line train will help show how most of the locals still live.

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