How to Ensure You Get Your Bag Intact in the Airport Arrivals Hall

I was chatting to Cath from Passports and Adventures, (on social media of course) about how hard air travel can be with little ones. 

Even without children, one of my biggest worries is arriving at my destination without my luggage. Imagine having to spend your holiday money on essentials and a new wardrobe! Cath had lots of great tips and ideas and I asked her to share them with us.

Cath, Alex and their gorgeous German Shepherd 

Cath is an Irish expat who now lives in Portugal with her husband and son. A former scientist, she gave up working when they emigrated south from the UK. She is a family travel blogger and hopes that, through her blog, they will inspire more families to travel, especially with the toddlers in tow. As a family they love travelling and have started working their way through their family travel bucket list. Cath writes about their family travels and experiences on her blog, Passports and Adventures.

Here are her tips.

A Walk on Brean Down

A Walk on Brean Down

Difficulty - Moderate ascent, easy once up
Parking - £3.50 all day, free for NT members

On a clear day we can see Brean Down from Cardiff. The headland sticks out into the sea which as the crow flies is only 13 miles away. Unfortunately we have to use the roads so it's 63 miles and a toll bridge (return journey only. Tolls are being scrapped from Dec 2018), so is it worth the bother? Absolutely!

A Toddler explores Dan Yr Ogof - The National Show caves of Wales

A Toddler explores Dan Yr Ogof - The National Show Caves of Wales

Last Wednesday, Bee was having his jabs and was with his mummy, so we wanted to take Bear to somewhere special. I wanted to use the opportunity of just the three of us and take Bear somewhere that we wouldn't go with Bee. We chose Dan Yr Ogof - The National Showcaves of Wales.

A Toddler Explores Fforest Fawr Sculpture Trail - Revisited

A Toddler Explores Fforest Fawr Sculpture Trail - Revisited

Since I wrote about our visit to Fforest Fawr a couple of years ago they have added new sculptures. I thought it was time to revisit and find the Three Bears Cave that we failed to find the first time. It should be noted that Bear is not a toddler anymore, but soon Bee will be; so I have kept the series A Toddler explores.

A Day Out at Portmeirion Wales

A Day Out at Portmeirion Wales

Recently we spent a long weekend in Porthmadog, a small town in North Wales. We had been having the warmest summer since 1976 and Porthmadog had hit the headlines as the warmest place in the UK. It reminded us we had a few places near there we wanted to visit - Portmeirion was top of our list.

Forest Farm Nature Reserve- A Toddler Explores

Forest Farm Nature Reserve- A Toddler Explores

We are very lucky to live in Cardiff, there is so much to visit. We love the castles, museums and parks  but it can be months between each visit. We hadn't been to Forest Farm since last Autumn when we took Bear on his bike and he rode off with me running like an idiot behind shouting for him to stop. He did eventually!

"Too fast Nanny!" he explained "bike wouldn't stop".

It was a very cold day a few weeks ago when we decided to go back, this time without his bike!

LEGO Safari Animals at Cardiff Bay - A Toddler Explores

LEGO Safari Animals at Cardiff Bay - A Toddler Explores

It was a freezing cold day in Cardiff on Tuesday, but the sun was shining so we headed down to Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay to see the LEGO Great Brick Safari. It's a free display of wild animals made entirely from LEGO bricks. Some have half a million or more bricks  (yep some have 600,000+), and took hours to build. The display is there throughout half term until Sunday 25th February and definitely worth a visit.

48 Hours in London; An Itinerary for a Quick Visit

48 Hours in London; An Itinerary for a Quick Visit

*Collaborative guest post

With so much to do in London, it can be challenging to plan a two-day itinerary visit that will allow you to see all the good stuff before it's time to leave. Fortunately, with the right route, a solid schedule, and a bit of transportation-related research, you should be able to take in the best of the English capital within the course of a single weekend.

However, if you're not familiar with the area, you could waste a lot of time planning a huge list of destinations only to be disappointed by time constraints. One way to streamline the process of obtaining tickets to each attraction is to use a London Pass Mobile Ticket.

In addition, to help you stay on track and on time, we've devised a quick 48-hour schedule that can you can use as a template to design your own personalised two-day London itinerary:

Cardiff City Sightseeing Bus Tour - A Toddler Explores

Cardiff City Sightseeing Bus Tour - A Toddler Explores

Bear loves buses, I mean he really, really loves buses. We often catch the bus into Cardiff City Centre just for the bus ride. So for ages we have wanted to take him on an open topped bus tour of Cardiff. At the moment we only have Bear two days a week and we have been waiting for some dry weather on one of those days. Today the forecast was dry so we caught the bus into town, and then caught the tour bus.

10 Essential Items For Walking In The Mountains In South Wales

We have lived in Cardiff for over 40 years and have walked most areas of the Brecon Beacons, The Black Mountains and The Black Mountain. 

We have walked the mountains in fog so thick we couldn't see each other and in snow that was two feet deep. We only got lost once. In the Black Mountain on a beautiful sunny, summers day that rapidly turned nasty despite the favourable weather forecast. We had a new GPS, maps and compass but we both needed glasses to read them and we couldn't read any of them in the fog and blinding rain. There are no paths or landmarks. It was scary but we navigated our way out and lived to tell the tale.

10 Fun Ideas for Free Days Out in South Wales - perfect for the Summer Holidays

10 Fun Ideas for Free Days Out in South Wales - perfect for the Summer Holidays

The Summer holidays are here soon and we will all be looking for fun places to take our little ones that do not break the bank. Everywhere that charge an admission raise their prices  during the holidays and that can be expensive if you have multiple children. Here are a 10 fun free ideas for days out that we love. These are based in South Wales, within an hour of Cardiff but I am sure you will have similar near you. Although these are all free to visit there may be a parking charge.

Cardiff Castle - A Toddler Explores

Cardiff Castle - A Toddler Explores. We have been to lots of castles but always forget the one on our doorstep. We put that right the other day and had a very quick visit. What did Bear think?

#Blogtober16 Day 20 Five Super Cool Things About The Place You Live

#Blogtober16 Day 20 Five Super Cool Things About The Place You Live. When this challenge came up I thought, only five! I live in a really cool city, Cardiff. So here's my five best things about Cardiff. Just remember I am a Granny, if you are younger then there is no way you could limit it to five.

City Of The Unexpected - Cardiff Celebrates Roald Dahl

City Of The Unexpected - Cardiff Celebrates Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff 100 years ago and to celebrate Cardiff put on a spectacular event, City Of The Unexpected - Cardiff Celebrates Roald Dahl. The details were kept quiet and no-one knew what to expect. We just had to go into the city centre to find out. Unfortunately 35,000 other people thought they'd go too. The buses were overflowing and the traffic at a standstill. The events run late so children were stood in the heat crying and bored. When it did start we couldn't see because of the crowds.

Despite all this we actually really enjoyed it. We had no children or dogs with us. What is it with dog lovers that they bring their dogs into the city centre, amongst huge crowds on a boiling hot day?

We found calm and peace in some pubs and chilled. We did lots of people watching and got stuck in some horrendous crowds too. Thank goodness we didn't have children is all we kept saying as we sipped our ice cold lager in the blistering heat.

So for those of you who didn't go or did go and saw nothing here's my gallery of what we captured.

Crowds in St Mary Street waiting for something to happen. Some had been here an hour or more

Places To Visit In South Wales With A Toddler

Here is a list of places we have visited with Bear, our very own discerning toddler. All are within an hours drive of Cardiff so not too long in the car. We go out every week, rain or shine and we always manage to find somewhere for Bear to explore. Sometimes it's the local park and sometimes a Stately Home.
Grandad and I bought National Trust and CADW membership to make our days out more affordable so we visit lots of Castles. We would love to visit more National Trust places but there are so few close to Cardiff.

I've called this Places To Visit In South Wales With A Toddler  but it does include some places in England and bigger kids can enjoy them too. Each heading is a clickable link to our review with more information and lots of pictures. As we visit more places I will add them here.

Mini Break in Weston-Super-Mare and Den Building

Mini Break in Weston-Super-Mare and Den Building

We didn't have Bear this week we had a week off. The plan was to catch up on all the little things that need doing around the house and garden. The weather put paid to the gardening, it rained a lot so we decided to visit Weston Super Mare for the day. That turned into an overnight stay and before we knew it the week had gone. Time really does fly past.

I couldn't go a whole week without seeing Bear so we popped over for lunch on Tuesday.

Bear was surprised to find this huge ball in his garden

10 Things To Do Near Aberystwyth

It was my birthday at Easter and we had booked to go to Aberystwyth. Then as the Easter weekend got closer storm Katie was forecast.We were a bit unsure whether to travel but decided the worse that could happen was we'd have to spend the weekend in a pub somewhere so feeling optimistic off we went.