17/04/2026
This is the comment I get all the time when we travel, especially after this 10-country Balkan trip.
A mix of disbelief, a bit of admiration, and then people writing themselves off straight away.
But the truth is, I wasn’t always like this.
My first trip alone with Stella was Disneyland when she was 3, and I was terrified. I thought something would go wrong at every turn.
What’s changed isn’t that I suddenly became super organised or amazing at planning, because I’m not. My timekeeping isn’t great, I don’t plan everything in advance, and half the time I’m figuring things out as I go.
What has changed is confidence.
Each trip builds on the last, and you start to realise that travel is more flexible than you think. Miss a train, there’s another one. Don’t have everything, you’ll manage. Kids adapt. They cope. They actually thrive in it.
And the biggest thing is that if something doesn’t go to plan, it’s not the end of the world. There is always a solution.
So if you take anything from the past few weeks of our travels, let it be this.
You don’t need to be fearless to start. You just need to be willing to try.
Follow for daily parenting and child friendly travel inspo ✈️🌍✨
