Happy New Year! Just like that we've completed our first full year of travelling with a baby - 2 bucket list campervan road trips, 5 countries, 7 United States and some really fantastic press trips and travel brand partnerships. Lets recap!
We travelled to 5 countries!
No new countries this year as we found our feet travelling with baby Jamie, but we still made it to 5 destinations, exploring England, Wales, Ireland, France and the United States. We ticked off two incredible bucket list road trips: Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way (in our van Osprey) and leaf peeping in New England (with Escape Campervans), spent 4 days exploring Normandy on a press trip with Normandy Tourism, visited a Welsh village world famous for its outrageously long name and took Jamie on some fantastic English
city breaks.
January: Baby's first English holidays.
While we waited for his passport to arrive, when Jamie was 6 weeks old we took him to beautiful Brancaster on the North Norfolk Coast, and then on a city break to Oxford. He did so well staying in his first hotel and visiting the museums with us! We also teamed up once more with City Sightseeing Worldwide to explore Oxford on their Hop on Hop off red bus.
February: Cambridge
Having visited Oxford, it seemed only right that we took Jamie to "the other place" - beautiful Cambridge - for a pram push along the Backs and lunch in Fitzbillies.
March: Southampton
Heading further afield, we travelled down south to explore Southampton, best known for being the departure point for the Titanic's disastrous maiden journey. We teamed up with SeaCity Museum to cover their Southampton's Titanic Story exhibition, and wrote this blog about a self guided walking tour covering all the key buildings and memorials related to the famous ocean liner.
April: Ireland and the Wild Atlantic Way
With Jamie's passport in and we finally left the UK and headed across the water to Ireland for a bucket list road trip along the Wild Atlantic Way. We also stopped in the cities of Cork and Cobh where we partnered with The Titanic Experience Cobh to review their exhibition. Cobh, or Queenstown as it was known then, was the Titanic's last port of call before its fateful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic Experience Cobh is based within the original White Star Line ticket office where all 123 passengers, the very last to join the Titanic, would have passed through on April 11th 1912. You can read more about The Titanic Experience Cobh and 5 other key museums around the world, each boasting a unique connection to part of the Titanic's story, in this blog.
May: Colchester
Baby J ticks off another city: Britain's first - founded by the Romans not long after their conquest of Britain in AD43, Colchester (or Camulodunum) was the capital of Roman Britannia until it was burned to the ground by Boudicca and the Iceni in AD61. Today Colchester remains a treasure trove of historic sites, from its dramatic ruined priory to a Norman castle (now a fantastic museum) to Britain's only Roman chariot racing circus, and you can plan your own visit with our one day Colchester itinerary. You can also find our blog featured on the Visit Essex website!
August: Bury St Edmunds press trip
We enjoyed a press trip in this fabulous historic town, planned for us by the Bury St Edmunds Tourism Board. Choc full of over 1000 years of history, home to an 11th century Benedictine abbey (one of the richest and largest monasteries in Europe and a major pilgrimage site due to St Edmund's shrine), Bury also boasts a magnificent cathedral, a Tudor queen, a historic town centre choc full of independent shops, eateries and architectural gems and the smallest pub in Britain. You can read our Bury St Edmunds itinerary here.
While we were exploring Bury St Edmunds we were hosted for 2 nights in a lovely eco cabin by Outdoor Inns. They describe themselves as "a new type of retreat that celebrates the great outdoors and the essence of British pub culture" (yes please!) and you can read all about our stay here. We created an Instagram post and a reel for Outdoor Inns which you can watch here.
September: Normandy press trip and NYC
Reuniting with Normandy Tourism, we spent 4 days exploring this gorgeous part of France. From historic Bayeux to arty Honfleur, we also visited numerous D-Day sites including the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mere Eglise, Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and the British Normandy Memorial. Finishing the trip in Cherbourg, we ticked off another of the Titanic's destinations and walked through a nuclear submarine at La Cite de la Mer! You can read our 4 day Normandy itinerary here.
On this trip we were hosted by Hotel Reine Mathilde in Bayeux, and Domaine Utah Beach just outside Sainte Mer Eglise and we had an article published on the Cotentin tourism boards website.
Once back from France we flew to New York City where we used Go City passes to tick off lots of top tourist attractions including Ellis Island, the Top of the Rock, a cruise of the Manhattan skyline and the Museum of Natural History. You can see what we got up to in this reel!
October: Our Fall Foliage road trip through 7 United States.
This bucket list road trip as been on the cards for a really long time (but you know, Covid...) and were so thrilled that 2024 was the year it finally happened.
After our NYC city break, we picked up a campervan from Escape Campervans and set off through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and New York for some serious leaf peeping. Trip highlights included Cape Cod, Boston, Acadia National Park, the Kancamagus Highway and Montpelier.
We worked with 15 other brands throughout the year
Our very first collaboration of the year was with Bumbleride, who very kindly gifted us an amazing all terrain Speed pram and bassinet, or as we've come to call it, the Action Pram. With 3 chunky wheels and springy suspension, the Speed has become our go-to outdoor hiking pushchair for Jamie and we've used it since he was 2 weeks old. So far we've taken it to Ireland, France, the US and all over England. Sand, snow, mud, grass: it copes with them all brilliantly. Here's one of the reels we created for them.
2024 also brought another couple of collaborations with Yorkshire outdoor-wear brand Tog24 - they provided some new sweaters and coats for our trip to Ireland, and gilets and fleeces for our New England adventure. You can see Instagram posts we created for them here, here and here!
For Mothers Day, we teamed up with Monos to promote their beautiful luggage, and April saw the first of several sponsored experiences with Get Your Guide - throughout the year we explored caves in Ireland, had afternoon tea at the British Museum, sailed London's historic Docklands in a hot tub boat (hilarious) and enjoyed a scenic lunch cruise on the Thames. Here's to more in 2025!
June brought Jamie's first press invite, to Frameless, a glorious immersive art exhibition in London with four gallery rooms exploring impressionism, surrealism and loads of other famous paintings on a massive scale. Wall to wall, floor and ceiling, you are utterly surrounded by art and music. It's absolutely fabulous and Jamie ADORED it.
June kicked off a particularly busy summer for us with lots of London press visits. We ticked off a bucket list item walking the glass floors at Tower Bridge , visited one of London's most unique museums, Handel Hendrix House and reviewed the Six Lives exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and Barbie: the Exhibition at the Design Museum. Jamie had another press invite, this time to try out London Museum Docklands' pop up sensory space: Seaside in the City.
London foodie fun came through collaborations with Champagne et Fromage (reel), The Chocolate Cocktail Club (reel) and Swiss Butter, and we had a fantastic time reviewing Gourmaze's viral food treasure hunt (reel).
The year wrapped up with Tesalate sending Jamie is very own (dinosaur print!) beach towel,
and we teamed up with Red Letter Days to promote their Black Friday sale, having dinosaur themed afternoon tea in South Kensington and a trip to SEA LIFE London Aquarium.
And this year? Here's our travel wish list for 2025:
We're kicking off the year with some January beach time in beautiful Cape Verde - Jamie's first African nation and 3rd continent! David and I are both actors, and from February - August we will be on a UK theatre tour, so will be able to cover a lot of the country! We're planning another trip to Normandy with family this summer and in September we're hoping to FINALLY get to New Zealand after years of planning (continent number 4 for Jamie). Hopefully we can squeeze in a couple of European city breaks as well... Tallinn has been on our bucket list for a long time! We also have 2 more collaborations with Red Letter Days lined up for early this year so keep your eyes peeled for those!
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