Travel Archives - Wander & Luxe

Travel Diary | Sorrento, Italy

April 24, 2019

Sorrento Dream Resort, Italy

As a family we almost always travel over the Easter holidays – it is a good excuse to get away for a few days without taking any annual leave. This year we opted to travel to Sorrento, Italy. It has been 10 years since we last visited Italy, and the first time for our daughter. We found cheap flights to Naples so were then tasked with the tough decision of where we wanted to be based for our short vacation. I had heard great things about Sorrento and given its close proximity to Naples, it made it an easy choice to explore this coastal town. Continue Reading

Master Distiller | Distill your own Gin at Spirit of Harrogate

April 16, 2019

Last year I was lucky enough to win Runner-up Best Dressed at York Races – you can read all about that experience in ‘Fashion at the Races – How I (almost) won best dressed‘. The prize was an overnight stay at Hotel du Vin, Harrogate and a ‘Distill your own Gin‘ experience at the Spirit of Harrogate. Given we are living the expat life, we booked in the experience and night away months in advance once we knew my parents were coming to stay and that we would have a reliable babysitter. Continue Reading

Plane Spotting in St Maarten – A Day at Maho Beach

March 27, 2019

KLM A330 on approach to Princess Juliana International Airport

A visit to Maho Beach, St Maarten has been on our bucket list for quite some time. If you have been following me for a while you will know that my husband loves planes, and to be honest I have been quite fascinated with aviation for as long as I can remember. You may have seen the footage on YouTube of the planes coming in to land at Princess Juliana International Airport (airport code: SXM) – they come in low over the water and sand at Maho Beach and people stand on the beach waiting to be jet blasted by the planes engines as they take off. I must say, the real life experience of watching these aircraft in the Caribbean completely lives up to expectation. Detailed below is everything you need to know for a day of plane spotting at Maho Beach – we ended up doing this twice and if we had been staying closer to the airport then I imagine we may have been there every day. Can anyone say plane geek?Continue Reading

Travel Diary | Miami

March 6, 2019

Miami Beach, Florida

Miami, the home of beautiful white skyscrapers contrasted against never ending palm trees, expensive cars and an acceptable dress code of active wear. We were not really sure what to expect on this family holiday, but I must say that we were pleasantly surprised. I expected a lot of tits and arse and drunken shenanigans, and whilst I am sure there is plenty of that in parts of Miami, it is not the version we uncovered during our vacay. I left describing it as the friendly and tropical version of NYC.

It was a short trip with only 2 days and 2 nights on the ground to explore. Tie that in with the essential toddler naps and it meant we didn’t have a lot of time to do everything we would have liked and instead spent plenty of time relaxing on the balcony with a glass of Rose (how terrible!) However, it makes for a good excuse to travel back soon. Here is the down low on our trip to Miami, Florida.Continue Reading

My Top 5 Holidays of All Time

February 18, 2019

Santorini, Greek Islands

I thought it would be fun to share my top 5 holidays of all time and give everyone a little more insight into my travel history. Essentially this list also reflects my fave places in the world, both for what they have to offer but also due to the many happy memories that I have made in each place. So here we go, my top 5!Continue Reading

9 Reasons I Love Living in York

February 11, 2019

York Minster

This week marks 2 years since we started this crazy adventure which is expat life in York, England. It is somewhat hard to believe and it has absolutely flown by. When we first landed in the UK we spent a couple of nights in London to catch up with friends and buy some winter woolies before making the 5 hour plus journey in our rental car to Scarborough, North Yorkshire. A quaint seaside town which was hugely popular in the 70s but is now filled with casinos, arcade games and rock lollies. A great place to visit on a sunny summer day for fish and chips and some ice-cream, but after about 3 days I had seen and done everything there was to do in Scarborough. We started researching online for places to live and we had been told good things about York. I found a couple of apartments which looked fabulous and booked viewings to check them out.Continue Reading

Travel Diary | Margaret River Region

January 21, 2019

Wills Domain Winery, Margaret River

It has been well communicated that we recently traveled to the Margaret River Region in Australia to attend two VIP weddings. Its a truly incredible part of the world – beautiful beaches, a wide array of food options from fine dining to quality bakeries, delicious wines and every type of accommodation option you can think of from glamping to high end resorts. We have been traveling to Margaret River for weekend escapes or a lazy week on the beach as long as I can remember. Actually, the very first little trip that Troy and I took together was to Dunsborough, so it was pretty special to finally take our little girl there. No one could have predicted the adventures we would go on or the things we would achieve together during that first visit – at that point in time we had only been dating for about 3 months. This trip was a little different as we had a toddler in tow and we spent longer there than we usually would. Here is a recap on our vacay to the South West of Australia.Continue Reading

How to Survive a Long Haul Flight with a Toddler

January 7, 2019

Tips and tricks how to survive a long haul flight with your toddler in tow — Recently we traveled from York, England to Perth, Australia to attend two very important weddings. It was an incredibly long journey which felt even longer with a toddler in tow. Pre-baby we would have settled into our seats, watched endless movies and drunk copious amounts of wine to survive the flights. Nowadays we have to stay (relatively) sober and alert enough to tend to our toddler’s every need. Its definitely not ideal flying long haul and across multiple time zones with a toddler – everyone has asked how the flights were and my standard response is ‘it was okay.’ We survived, but it wasn’t great. My personal recommendation would be to avoid flying this far with a young mobile child whom struggles to be entertained for more than 5 minutes if you can. A trip closer to home and in the same time zone will be far more enjoyable for the whole family. But obviously there are many reasons why you might need to, such as two epic weddings, so I have prepared a few tips to help you survive should you find yourself in the same situation.

Travel Diary | Dubai

November 19, 2018

Burj Al Arab – Dubai

I had been eager to visit Dubai for a while prior to my first visit and now somehow we have managed 3 visits in the past 4 years. Dubai is a place that likes to advertise to the world that it is all singing and all dancing – it is a great place for a stop over but it also interesting to see that it is still very much under construction. Our first stay was the final leg of our honeymoon and the next trip was when I accompanied my husband on a work trip in 2016. This year we went for the Dubai World Cup which had been a bucket list item of ours for many years. My parents met us in Dubai (they were en route to England for a visit) which meant they could babysit whilst we had our first baby free outing. Given that we like the heat, this is a perfect destination for us. However, during our trip in June it was too hot, so I would personally avoid the height of summer and especially if you have a little one in tow. Here are the highlights of our visits and some useful information if you are planning on heading there yourself!Continue Reading

Travel Diary | Budapest

November 5, 2018

Heroes’ Square – Budapest

Budapest is the best place in the world to celebrate our daughter’s first birthday, said no one ever. Whilst Budapest is perhaps not your most obvious first choice of locations for a family holiday with a young child, I can highly recommend it. We jetted off to Hungary for my baby girl’s birthday and to celebrate the fact that we survived the first year of parenthood and guess what – we loved it! Its fair to say that it took a few days to find our feet, but once we got into the swing of the city I did not want to leave.Continue Reading