877-454-3672

Search Tours ▼

Andrea’s heads back to Southeast Asia and shares her top tips for family travel

Posted by Andrea on (Updated: )  |  1 Comment

In today’s blog Andrea talks about heading back to Southeast Asia with her kids to celebrate Journeys Within’s 10th anniversary and gives her top tips for travelling as a family…

IMG_0321

It was the perfect time to head to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia just days after finishing up our 10 year anniversary celebration in the US! Having gone through the photos and been reminded people and places I have visited in the past has been an amazing trip down memory lane. To now be able to pack up the kids and experience it all again is exciting.

On this trip we visited Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang and Siem Reap. We tried out some of our old favorites and experiencing some new tours. I was excited to see our guides and thank them for their hard work and incredible energy over the last high season. I was also very excited to meet some new guides!

Mostly I looked forward to seeing my team and to see my kids back in the area of the world I love so much. My kids have done such a great job adjusting to life in America, but I don’t want them to forget the friends and experiences they grew up with in Cambodia! Since I haven’t traveled with the kids much in the last year it came as a bit of a surprise how much more work it is to prepare three people for travel rather than to just hit the road solo. Packing, prepping and scheduling becomes a lot more intense for a family and it made me appreciate our guests and what their preparations looks like before their big family trips! With that said, we boarded the plane to Asia ready for our adventure.

Here are 5 things I recommend for long flights with kids between the ages of 5 and 10:

1. Tell them where you’re going and what the schedule is. I realized that once I gave my kids the itinerary and explained the plan as well as had them help me pack, they seemed to relax. We forget as adults what a mystery a lot of life is when you’re young. Traveling is a lot more fun when you feel in control at any age!

2. Pack a lot of snacks, including a “meal” for the plane. My kids hate plane food so to help them get through the very long flight to Asia I like to keep them fed. We took Cup Of Noodles on the plane, the flight attendants happily filled them with boiling water and my kids had some comfort food and their bellies full so it was much easier for them to go to sleep.

3. Go to Target or the craft store and have them pick out an activity each. Then it’s new and exciting and keeps them entertained on the plane.

4. Set expectations. I am not the entertainment manager! From when my kids were very small I have explained to them that I am not the activity director on the plane. I will provide snacks and help with any issues, but they have to keep themselves entertained. I’m sure there are amazing moms everywhere willing to play 14 hours of UNO 30,000 feet in the air…I’m not one of them! For the most part my kids respect this and as they get older it seems to be even better! They play with each other, watch movies and play in their activity books and I get to read, watch a movie, or, miraculously, sleep.

5. Be kind. This is our travel mantra. When everyone gets tired and cranky and just wants to get there already kindness helps. Siblings that are at least thinking about trying to be kind fight less and this mantra is probably for me more than anyone!

So with all that in mind we headed off! Our bags packed and each of us looking forward to the adventure adventure and to celebrating our 10 year anniversary where it all started!… Read more »

Journeys Within Boutique Hotel – April’s Review

Posted by Andrea on (Updated: )  |  2 Comments

By: April Cole- US Director of Operations and Tours

I know it may seem silly to post a hotel review of our hotel on here, but I actually do think it’s fitting. The reason why is because Andrea was putting together an itinerary for someone and she said she wanted a “really nice hotel” and I asked her why she wasn’t including Journeys Within? I think sometimes we feel like we’re including the hotel just because it’s ours and not because of the hotel itself and sometimes we actually sell the hotel short. Sooooo, if I want to treat the hotel like any other hotel then I need to review it! Whew! That felt like a ridiculously long explanation!

Journeys Within Boutique Hotel- Entrance
Every room is poolside

The rooms:

I’ve been lucky enough to stay in almost every room at JWBH and I’ve really liked them all. All JW rooms have:

  • Wireless internet throughout the property
  • Netbook computers to use in your room
  • Mobile phone, preloaded with minutes
  • Complimentary laundry service
  • Sodas in the minibar
  • Unlimited filtered water
  • Breakfast each morning, made to order
  • Free tuk-tuk rides to and from town each night
  • Flat Screen TVs

JWBH has a few different room types which are fitting for different travelers.

The original rooms:

I stayed in these rooms on my first trip to Cambodia four years ago. I loved them then and I love the upgrades they’ve made to them now.  Like all JW rooms they are styled with a touch of Khmer design but not overdone. When you step into your room you really feel like you can relax as the rooms are spacious and well appointed. We stayed in a room with a king sized bed and had a baby cot and still had plenty of room for our luggage and for our little one to play. The upstairs rooms each have a balcony overlooking the pool and the bay window looks out on the village area behind the hotel. The down stairs rooms have a patio with pool access. The original rooms are perfect for couples as they are quiet since the bungalows built as separate units.

Room 1- Buddha Bungalow
Room 2- Bamboo Bungalow
Room 3- Discovery Den
Room 4- Rattan Room

The Ramayana Retreat:

The original family suite that was designed for longer stays as it has a relaxing resting area upstairs and a usable living area downstairs complete with a full kitchen, bathroom with shower, and a pull out couch for extra sleeping space. The upstairs living area is an absolute oasis. The king sized platform bed is like sleeping on a cloud. The upstairs room has a sitting area with a bay window overlooking the village area behind the hotel and, of course, the room has the classic JW spa rain shower.  I love this room for a couple who is looking for a large suite with extra space, those who are staying for a longer time, or families with tweens or teens. The pull out couch is usable, but isn’t ideal for extra adults as it’s on the smaller side. This room would have been wonderful for my husband, me and our son as our son would have hung out in the downstairs living area, but my wild 18 month old daughter would be climbing those stairs non-stop, so I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is traveling with a little one who isn’t sturdy on their feet on stairs.

Room 5- Ramayana Retreat (downstairs)
Room 5- Ramayana Retreat (upstairs)

The new family suites:

We recently stayed in the new family suites and I couldn’t have been happier with the room. After having kids and traveling as a family, my husband and I always book a suite, preferably a two bedroom suite, so the kids can go to sleep and we don’t have to sit in the dark and be quiet at 7pm ; ) ! I am not being biased when I say these were the best family suites we’ve ever stayed in.  You have two full rooms which sit side by side and have a connecting door. The “kids” rooms are set up with two full sized beds, lots of play space, a bay window and a desk area. The connecting “parent” rooms have a king sized bed, bay window and desk area as well. The rooms are the same layout as the original rooms with the exception of being built next to each other so they could be connecting rooms instead of only separate bungalows. I was very pleased at how quiet the rooms were. We had a family with two young kids staying in the units above us and we only heard them when they went up and down the outside stairs. I also liked that the rooms got really dark when you closed all the curtains – if you’ve ever tried to get a little one to take a mid-day nap while on vacation I’m sure you’d appreciate this fact too! It was a great set up for us traveling with two little ones and I would highly recommend the family suites to those traveling with kids or teens.

Room 6- Brodal Bedroom
Room 7- Sita
Room 8- Neak
Room 9- Srey

The Kids Klub:

The Kids Klub is a great space for the younger ones to have supervised play while you enjoy a quiet meal on your own or while you head out to the temples. The staff is friendly and I felt like my children were not only having fun but that they were really safe. My kids read books, colored, played with blocks and even played Wii – while we had time to have breakfast, while I attended work meetings, and while my husband and I went out on a date!

My little one loving Kids Klub.

Sabai Sabai Restaurant:

First of all I love the name- Sabai Sabai means ‘Happy Happy’ in Khmer, and Sabai is the name of one of the staff’s daughter – and she is just about the sweetest, happiest little girl you’ve ever met.  Understandably, I instantly loved the name just as I love baby Sabai. The restaurant is gorgeous. It was originally designed to be open air but it just didn’t work out as Cambodia can get really hot and really rainy – so they ended up building it with glass walls so you felt like you were outside, but had the creature comfort of AC (a must in Cambodia!).  I was pleasantly surprised to see that even though a full sized restaurant was being built, the quality of the food is as good as it’s always been at JW. I highly recommend the Pumpkin Curry Soup and the Mango Salad. If you’re feeling adventurous, take a look at the pool menu. From the pool menu you can order crickets and frogs, true Cambodian delicacies. I will admit, I wasn’t feeling adventurous and kept to the main restaurant menu during my stay. Also, if you’re traveling with kids, they do have a kid friendly menu!

Just another delicious meal at Sabai Sabai Restaurant
Great food only comes from great staff

For more information about our boutique hotel, please visit our hotel website here: http://www.journeyswithin.com/… Read more »

A Bumpy Start

Posted by Andrea on  |  Leave a comment

Our Vietnam guide training got off to a bumpy start this year. As Brandon pointed out, the positive side was we got to check out the response to an accident at the Siem Reap airport and we got to try out the SOS clinic in Hanoi, the negative side was why we got to try these out.

We arrived at the Siem Reap airport nice and early for our big trip. We loaded up the luggage carts and I checked us in while Narla and Brandon got ice cream with the kids. As I was paying the departure tax Callie came running up, singing her “we’re going to Vietnam” song. She grabbed the back of our luggage cart and swung. With all the luggage now out of it and only hand luggage on the top basket it was top heavy and crashed down on top of her. I was there first and pulled the cart off her, only to see blood everywhere. My heart literally stopped. I grabbed her and immediately put pressure on her eye where most of the blood seemed to be coming from. Narla, was right behind me and had a small towel in his fanny pack which he gave me. I was able to push this on the cut and slow the bleeding, but I had seen how deep the cut was, just above her left eye. In the meantime Callie was screaming, I mean really screaming, she has my low pain tolerance and that, coupled with the blood everywhere, was just too much for her. I sat down in the middle of the airport with her on my lap and held her as tight as I could. Even Brandon, who is always calm in situations like this, looked scared. We started to discuss who was going to stay and who would go, but neither of us wanted to be the one that left her. Meanwhile the airport had called their EMT crew and Narla had gone to get me some ice. The EMT crew was fantastic. They helped stop the bleeding and then put a cleaning solution on the cut (they will forever be known as the mean men with the spicy stuff). Callie had calmed down slightly and the bleeding had stopped so we were able to get a gauze bandage over the cut and Brandon and I decided that a clinic in Siem Reap and one in Hanoi were going to be about the same so we might as well just get on the plane. We were escorted through security and then taken to a private medical room while Narla (on his first trip out of Cambodia) got all our passports through immigration. Poor Callie was still pretty upset, but was pulling herself together. We were able to get on the plane and she seemed to forget about her boo boo for a while.

In Hanoi we were met by Van and Loan, our Vietnam directors and despite it being 8pm they kindly went with us to the SOS clinic. In my years here I have recommended this clinic to a couple of guests who got sick in Vietnam so this time I got to really inspect it! The doctor was great and all the nurses were really kind. They couldn’t give her stitches because the cut was too close to the eye so they said they wanted to glue it. They said she would have to hold still for 2 minutes while they held the cut closed and the glue dried. I tried to explain that under the best of circumstances Callie didn’t hold still for two minutes and that pain actually would make it the worst of circumstances. I asked if there was anything they could give her and they agreed they could give her some valium anally (forever knows as the tickly in my booty). The valium took a while to kick in, but finally she was asleep on the table. They bundled her in a sheet and the doctor leaned over to put the glue on. That first drop hit and Callie was up. It took three nurses and Brandon to hold her down and still the doctor couldn’t hold it for the full 2 minutes. At the end of it the doctor just shook his head and said, “you right, she an active one”. He told me not to get it wet or let her run around…I asked if I could take a tub of valium to go, he didn’t get it.

We went back to our hotel and Callie was like a little drunk person, trying to walk and falling down. She was having so much fun on the valium I finally had to just hold her on my knee, turn all the lights off and not let her go until she was asleep. Inevitably the glue came out, I couldn’t stop her from bouncing and it’s Asia, we all sweat, so it ended up getting wet too. The scar isn’t too bad and as everyone keeps pointing out, at least she’ll have a good story. We went to pick someone up at the airport the other day and she kept her distance from the luggage carts! All in all it was a horrendous experience, but from the EMTs in Cambodia, to SOS in Hanoi we couldn’t have asked for better help so at least I can go on with my recommendations feeling secure that I don’t just know ‘of’ the clinic, I know it well!

… Read more »