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Adventures of the Wests, Brighton and Hove (2025)

15/09/2025

This is how we (almost) travelled for free last year - by Airbnb-ing our home.

It’s honestly one of the best hacks we’ve found to fund more adventures, and here’s everything I learnt along the way 👇

Getting started

Before you do anything, check the boring-but-important stuff:

Tell your home insurer (some policies need an add-on).

Check with your mortgage provider (sometimes there’s a small fee/approval and not all providers will agree).
It’s worth sorting this first so you know you’re fully covered.

Where does all your stuff go?

We don’t stage our home like a rental, we list it as our home. That means:

Clearing just enough space for guests.

Tidying away personal bits (bathroom cabinets, bedside tables etc).

Locking away valuables/important things - we use our garden studio.
It’s actually a nice excuse to declutter before each trip!

Setting up the listing

Airbnb makes it really easy to get started. You can:

Control your own calendar (we only open dates when we’re away).

Add photos (natural light works best).

Guests love the fact they’re staying in a real home.

Safety

This was big for me, I tried to think like a guest:

Smoke detectors + CO2 alarm are must-haves.

A simple house manual with WiFi, oven instructions + nearest shops.

Fire blanket + first aid kit (tiny cost, big reassurance).

The numbers

We made £11884.25 last year, which helped cover a number of family trips.
It honestly felt like turning our home into a little travel fund.

Why it’s worth it

It’s not just about the money, it gave us the freedom to say yes to more adventures, without feeling guilty about the budget.

Save this post if you’re tempted to try it and follow for more ideas to travel more for less ✈️

14/09/2025

Our kids missed 67 days of school last year (between them). And I know most families in the UK couldn’t even dream of that without fines, stress, or pushback.

We’re hugely privileged - flexischooling, a very supportive school, and the way our work is set up made this possible. But here’s the thing: children don’t stop learning when they step outside a classroom. They learn through food, culture, mountains, quality family time, languages, confidence, curiosity.

What if the government saw positive stories of families travelling and learning, instead of assuming kids are “falling behind”? What if education policy supported different ways of learning, not just one rigid route?

Our boys are thriving - not in spite of travel, but because of it.

This isn’t a call for everyone to do what we did. It’s a call for wider recognition that learning can look many ways.

Would you like to see more flexibility in how kids are allowed to learn?

This post was inspired by 💛

13/09/2025

Who is Adventures of the Wests?

We have been meaning to share one of these since so many new followers joined us (over 50k since last winter ski season). So here’s a bit about us and why we do what we do.

We’re Hannah & Simon (plus Caspar & Otis 👦🏼👦🏼) - a family who met working a ski season back in 2011, Simon and I bonded instantly over mountains, travel and adventure, and have been chasing those ever since.

When the boys came along, we knew we didn’t want to stop exploring but we also knew travel can be expensive and overwhelming as a family. So we made it our mission to keep adventuring together, finding ways to do more for less, and proving that family trips don’t need to cost the earth.

In 2023 we started sharing our travels online. We knew from the beginning we needed to take this seriously if we wanted to turn it in to a full time business so every night after work, we were creating content, improving our editing skills , and spending hours honing our social accounts, all alongside full-time (self employed) jobs and family life. Two years of consistency later, Adventures of the Wests has become our biggest passion, and something we’re so proud to now call our main focus.

Our drive is simple: we want to inspire other families to adventure more - whether that’s a weekend camping trip close to home, a long-haul adventure, or discovering a budget-friendly ski resort you might never have heard of. We love showing how to make travel affordable, real and doable, while sharing the honest ups and downs of doing it all with kids in tow.

Thank you for being here - your support means everything, and we’re so excited to keep sharing our adventures (and hopefully inspire a few of your own). 💛

10/09/2025

Your reminder that family hikes don’t have to look perfect to be worth it 🥾

Our hikes often involve refusals to leave the house, blackberry-stained hands and clothes, thorn bush accidents, sibling snot (yes, really 🙃), and more than a few grumpy faces in the photos.

But in between the chaos? There are those little moments of connection - lush chats with the kids, moving our bodies, and being reminded that nature has a way of resetting everyone even if Otis refuses to believe this at the start!

So no, it’s not always picture-perfect (far from it 😂). But it’s always worth it.

✨ Follow for more real-life family travel + adventure inspo - the messy moments included and let us know which of these you can relate to the most.

09/09/2025

5 Family Camping Hacks You’ll Actually Use ✨

We’re definitely not hardcore campers, we don’t have fancy kit or the space to store it all! But over the past few years, we’ve found some simple hacks that make camping trips so much easier with kids.

These little things have made camping so much more comfortable without any big expense.

Got your own go-to camping hacks? Share them below 👇 (we’re always learning!)

And don’t forget to save this post for your next trip & follow along for more family travel + adventure ideas. 🌿⛺️

01/09/2025

4 weeks road tripping the Alps as a family of 4 🚐⛰️

Total spend: £6,312.46
👉 But with our home Airbnb’d while we travelled… it actually cost us under £800 🤯

Family road trips don’t have to break the bank and we really splashed out on food too! here’s how ours added up:
💸 Travel: £678
⛺️ Stays: £2,307
🍴 Food: £2,538
🎢 Activities: £762

Save this if you’re dreaming of your own summer alpine road trip ✨

30/08/2025

Our full summer alpine road trip route 🚙 🇫🇷🇨🇭🇮🇹🇩🇪🇱🇮

This route worked really well for us with boys who are 8 and 10. Rather than trying to see as many places as possible, we made sure to spend a good amount of time in most areas we stopped so that we could have time to chill, do activities and get a proper feel for the place we were staying.

The alps is such a fantastic place to go with kids in the summer being at altitude means temperatures aren’t quite so scorching as the rest of Europe. There’s also so much to do with lots of areas offering guest cards to make activities and travel cheaper and often free.

Let us know in the comments if a road trip like this is on your wish list, this is now my plan for every summer, it was the perfect family holiday.

We’ve shared so much info from the trip on our page so take a look if you would like more info or ask any questions below.

18/08/2025

5 family camping hacks 🏕️

As a family who would say we’re not campers, we’ve done a lot of camping over the past couple of years. We’re not into buying all the fancy gear (or do we have anywhere to store it all!)

I know that there is some awesome camping gear out there that can make a tent almost feel like a home but if like us you just want to dip your toes in the odd camping weekend these camping tips can help make it as easy and fun as possible without spending a fortune. I hope this helps and feel free to add any other tips to help too in the comments.

If you found this video helpful we’d love it if you would give us a follow for more family adventure and travel content.

06/08/2025

Why Les Gets is your next family summer holiday destination 🇫🇷

Les Gets is a fab ski resort for families but it’s also a great summer holiday destination too. We loved it so much, we stayed here for 7 nights on our 4 week family summer road trip round the alps and its obvious why.

Where we stayed - in town for 2 nights - a lovely, great value chalet spa hotel (prstay), then 5 nights at the most gorgeous campsite - Camping Le Frene. We’ve done a full video review of both of these accommodations on our page if you want to go check them out.

What we did - used our multi passes to ride a number of cable cars and do some gorgeous hikes on both sides of the valley, visited the lake for the Wibit inflatables (our boys LOVED this), went on the luge (also a winner with the kids), went swimming in Aquariaz, watched a 4x4 event (crazy but so fun!) The boys biked on the various pump tracks, and sooo much more!

The multi pass - costs 15e per person per day but if you are staying with one of the official accommodation providers, you can get this discounted to 3e per person per day. You do however have to take it for the duration of your stay and for a minimum of 2 days. It’s great value if you’re going to be taking the lifts and doing all the above activities.

Has this made you re asses your summer holiday destination?

24/07/2025

Is this the world’s best kitesurfing spot yet no one knows about it? (Morocco)🇲🇦

Dakhla was unreal, but as beginners we didn’t realise how good we had it until everyone in the know told us what it’s like elsewhere. Its natural lagoon isn’t just beautiful, it’s what gives this spot some of the best kitesurfing conditions in the world.

Not only were the kitesurfing conditions just perfect, the area was stunning and so was the centre we stayed at. (booked through ). This was a prstay but if you’ve followed us for a while you know how much we love this company for excellent value adventure holidays both in the summer and the winter, we can’t rate them enough.

If you’re looking for the perfect adventure holiday drop KITE in the comments and we’ll send you the link.

14/06/2025

3 week Philippines Itinerary with kids🇵🇭

After our 3 week family backpacking trip around the Philippines, we wanted to share our itinerary as it worked really well for us with our two boys who are8 and 10. I was so indecisive about where to go when there’s so many options here but I wanted to make sure this family holiday was kid friendly so we decided on this route.

We would have made some small changes (had we not left it to the last minute to book our internal flights) and would have loved to have stopped in Port Barton on Palawan too but other than that, I think this was a great 3 week family backpacking trip with kids.

That doesn’t mean there’s not loads more places I would love to explore in the Philippines another time hopefully. Follow for more family adventure holiday ideas and save this one for later.

10/10/2024

A last minute family weekend away to the Amalfi coast, Italy 🇮🇹

Last weekend we decided to book next day flights to wherever was the cheapest location using the anywhere feature on flights. Naples was cheaper than everywhere else from the UK, we’d been before and had a great time and knew it would be fairly inexpensive when we were there. The boys would love eating pizza all weekend too. Being out of season, we were able to stay in a gorgeous location at a lush hotel for a fraction of the peak costs and despite being October, the weather was mostly great with highs of 22 degrees and we spent a lot of time by the gorgeous outdoor heated wellness pools at our hotel.

1. Enjoying the heated pools at our hotel in October!
2. Exploring the streets of Vico Equense after some delicious pizza
3. Perfect, joyous family time 💛
4. Exploring the crazy gift shops of Naples
5. The gorgeous Marina of Seiano where we stayed for the 3 nights
6. Caspar loving life, eating all the pizza
7. Coming across a gorgeous couch where a wedding was happening
8. The boys persuading me to go in the not so heated pool
9. The bay of Seine from Vico Equense
10. Otis living his best life eating all the prawns

Follow for more budget travel inspo 👍🏼

Adventures of the Wests

15/09/2025

14/09/2025

13/09/2025

10/09/2025

09/09/2025

01/09/2025

30/08/2025

18/08/2025

06/08/2025

24/07/2025

14/06/2025

10/10/2024

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