Travel is a big part of our lives as a family, we make memories on holiday that we laugh about all year, and the kids find new independence and confidence with each trip. Whether it be a weekend break where we let them have their own interconnecting hotel room for the first time, or a longer holiday where they make new friends by the pool and arrange to spend time socialising away from us.
Travel gives them new skills and a widened perspective on the world, and over the years I have had the opportunity to introduce my kids to new experiences and different travel companies by working as a blogger ambassador with family oriented travel brands such as Butlins, Carnival Cruise Lines, Canvas Holidays and #InCostaBrava by working closely with the Costa Brava Tourist Board on a series of blog posts about this region. In addition I have partnered with Camp Bestival, the UK based family music festival and also travel brands that support commercial travel, such as Holiday Extras.
To a blogger, partnering with a travel brand can be exciting and a great way to share their passion for travel with the world whilst being subsidised to experience the travel in the first place, but it is more than just ‘getting a free holiday’! Travelling via a tourist board or holiday company means that the very act of travel becomes ‘work’ and must be approached with a different mindset that when you are touring on your own money. It won’t mean a week of relaxing by the pool for a start, although you may get a day or two, depending on your objectives for the trip!
The great thing about being a family travel blogger versus an independent (solo) travel blogger is that we may have more restrictions on when we can travel (school holidays have to be factored in for a start), but we get to combine our work and our family life in a way that you can’t do if you work at an outside job and take vacation time off to go on holiday.
It is true that as the blogging mother of the family, I have to wear my ‘business’ hat as well as my ‘mother’ hat on a trip, so hotel rooms have to be photographed before anyone gets to put a bag down. Meals need to be Instagrammed before anyone gets to eat and day trips have to have the facts noted like prices, times and opening hours before the day can be relaxed and enjoyed, as everything will need writing up later. However I can’t complain about my work – this to me is creative expression and fun. Eleven when I had a corporate job I had to negotiate the daily commute at rush hour each morning and night then try to squeeze in time with my baby before collapsing into an exhausted heap at the end of the day only to do it all again the next day. On that treadmill I could never have envisaged a future where my kids could actually be part of my work and we could go on adventures together to produce blog posts that other family travellers wanted to read to help them plan their precious holidays.
Being able to say you are a travel blogger gives you an aura of ‘cool’ to the world outside of blogging, and many people want to do it, so I was interested to ask a few of the companies I work closely with, what they look for in a good travel blogger. The videos below started off as live Periscopes which I uploaded to YouTube for longevity. Follow me on both channels to get the latest up to date content from each which could include travel commentary or lifestyle features.
Here I’m talking to Stacey Stockwell from Siren Communications about what they look for in a travel blogger to partner with on projects.
This video features Charlotte Mendoza from Carnival and we chat about how they select bloggers to work with.
To read all my travel content on , click here and let me know if there is anything you want to ask about being a family travel blogger in the below. If you are a travel blogger, I’ve love to know who was the best company you worked with or what was your coolest travel project. Feel free to leave your website in the so I can check out your blog! Plus find more content on my Facebook page – just click ‘LIKE’!
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