Slow Travel With a Baby and a Dog [with Riana Ang-Canning]

Nine months on the road with a five-month-old baby and a twelve-year-old chihuahua is ambitious. Doing it after your carefully planned French long-stay visa is rejected two days before the flight is something else entirely.

In this week's episode, Tracy is joined by travel writer Riana Ang-Canning of Teaspoon of Adventure, freshly home in Vancouver after a slow travel adventure that took her family from Toronto to the Loire Valley, through London and Brighton, and on to Málaga for a first birthday in Spain. It is an honest, practical look at what long-term family travel really looks like day to day.

In this episode:

• Riana's travel background and why long-term travel keeps calling her back
• Deciding to travel during parental leave, older rescue dog included
• Building a base-style route across Toronto, the Loire Valley, London, Brighton and Málaga
• Working around a last-minute French visa rejection and the Schengen 90 day limit
• The packing and logistics of nine months with a baby and a dog
• How slow travel routines make a new place feel like home quickly
• Finding baby-friendly and dog-friendly Airbnbs, and the hard lesson about stairs
• Dividing the jobs on travel days to keep the stress down
• What went wrong with the road trip and the electric hire car
• Budget tips that genuinely help, including 28 day discounts and cooking at home
• Letting go of the pressure to see everything and leaning into local life
• What is next for the family, and where to follow Riana online

⭐️ Guest - Riana from teaspoonofadventure.com
📝  Full links and photos are in the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com/episode-100

If you enjoyed this milestone episode, we would love a quick review on your favourite podcast app, and you can leave us a voice message on SpeakPipe.

Transcript

Plans Fall Apart Before Take Off

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Nine months away from home with a five-month-old baby, a 12-year-old chihuahua, and a plan that fell apart two days before the flight. That was the start of Rihanna's family adventure through France, the UK, and Spain. On this episode, she shares exactly how they made long-term travel work, dog and baby included. This is the Global Travel Planner Podcast, and this is episode 100.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the Global Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world, sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere from bustling cities to remote landscapes, uncover cultural treasures, and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality.

Episode 100 And Meet Rihanna

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the Global Travel Planner Podcast, the show that helps you plan your trip anywhere in the world with people who have actually been there. I'm Tracy and this one is very special because it is episode 100. Thank you so much for being here, whether you've listened from the very first episode or you're joining us today for the first time. To mark the occasion, I am joined by Rihanna Ann Canning, the travel writer behind Teaspoon of Adventure. Rihanna lives in Vancouver and she's just come home from nine months of slow travel with her husband Colin, their baby daughter, and their 12-year-old dog Ellie. They base themselves everywhere from Toronto to the Loire Valley, Brighton and London with a week in Spain for their daughter's first birthday. And along the way, they navigated a last-minute change of plan that sent them in a completely different direction. If you've ever wondered whether a longer, slower trip is possible once there's a little one or a pet in the picture, you're gonna love this. Rihanna, a very warm welcome to the podcast. Let's start right at the beginning. Can you introduce

From Solo Flight Deal To Europe

SPEAKER_01 1:58

yourself and tell us a little bit about your life before this trip?

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, so my name's Rihanna. I'm a travel blogger based in Vancouver, Canada. And I kind of say the trip that kind of like started it all for me was in 2012. I was 19 years old and um a flight deal popped up in my inbox to go to Europe. I was living in Toronto at the time. Um, and I kind of sent it out to all my friends and was like, you know, we gotta go, who's who can come? And nobody could go. So I kind of said, like, well, I guess I can go. Um, so I went by myself. It was my first time to Europe, first solo trip, 19 years old, kind of did, you know, the London, Paris, Barcelona, you know, all the big cities, and just kind of fell in love with travel and seeing the world. And from that point on, kind of just took advantage of every opportunity I could find to travel. So I studied abroad in Amsterdam, um, I did an internship in Southern Africa, I got a job in Tokyo, I volunteered in Peru, like, and that was all before graduating. Um, and then after I graduated, met my husband, and we did some some small and some big trips, you know, lots of stuff around Canada and the US, Mexico, but then we also went to New Zealand, um, Southeast Asia, and then kind of our big, big trip was uh we moved to Prague for a year, um, and that was in 2019. So actually, it was a little shy of a year because we all know what happened in 2020, so we came home a little bit early, but that was kind of our big um long-term stint, like living abroad in Prague for that year, and we traveled all through Europe, and I think that kind of inspired us, you know, hey, we really like this like long-term travel idea, this, you know, having a base, being able to kind of slow travel from there. And how do we how do we do that again? And that has kind of become our our mission, I guess, for the rest of our travel life is how do we keep fitting in these kind of long-term adventures every few years?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

And and the the recent trip that you just took, it it you you've managed to do a fantastic trip, slightly differently, because you had two editions, as well as your husband Colin and yourself. Um, you do we want to talk about who actually went with you on this trip?

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Because this is really cool. Yes, we decided to really complicate things. We brought um our daughter, I call her baby C, um, and she was five months old when we left. And then we also brought our dog Ellie, um, who's 12 years old. So we brought a little chihuahua and a little baby. Um, I think when we left, Ellie was heavier, but then when we came back, our daughter was heavier. She outweighed her by the time we got back uh home. Yeah, so that was nine months with uh a dog, a baby, and a husband.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

That's absolutely fantastic. So it just shows you can you, you know, you can sit down and if you plan it right, you can take some time out from from you know whatever you're doing in your life and just say, right, okay, we've got a baby, we've got a dog, we're gonna go and travel. So let's talk a little bit about kind of making that decision. Did you make that decision before Baby C arrived? Or did you kind of have her and go, you know what, let's let's go and take us somewhere on an adventure?

Choosing Baby And Dog Travel Life

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah, no, we had actually been, I think I first the bug was planted, I think back in probably it was before we left for Prague, so maybe 2018. I had read an article of a couple who did um a much shorter trip. I think they maybe did a month um in Southeast Asia, but during their parental leave, like with their baby, and they kind of said, Oh, we just strapped the baby to our chest and off we went. And that kind of planted the seed for me. I was like, oh, you can do that, like you can travel with a baby. And then I think once we got back from Prague, um, it became very clear that, like, okay, we want to do this, we want to do another, like longer stint abroad, um, but we also wanted to become parents, like we wanted to have a family. So just kind of doing the math of, you know, when those things were gonna happen, it was like, oh, well, you know, when is the next time we're gonna have a big chunk of time to go away? When my husband can, you know, take time off work and his job will be waiting for him, um, when he can get a stipend from the government, like for the parental leave. So literally being paid to be off work uh with his child. And we kind of thought, okay, that, you know, that makes a lot of sense. So we actually started planning the trip and putting money away for it, probably in 2021. Um, and then we didn't have our baby and didn't leave until 2025. So, you know, four years of uh not I don't I think you could go on a trip like this without planning for four years, but um, that we kind of, you know, very slowly put together an itinerary and put aside money and things like that over the years.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah, and I think that's a clever thing to do, to to plan that far ahead. Because this is a it's a big trip that you went on, and also you took Ellie with you, which is kind of an addition. So, what at what point did Ellie come into the equation as like, okay, we'll take Ellie too?

SPEAKER_02 6:23

So when we had lived in Prague, we actually brought Ellie with us that time as well. And that wasn't the original plan. We originally were gonna leave her behind with some family members. Um, but a couple months before we left for Prague, we were in Southeast Asia for a few weeks, and we kind of just got the feeling like, um, you know, we were very sentimental, like, oh, we don't want to be apart from our dog. You know, that was only a three-week trip. We're like, how can we be apart for her from a for a whole year? Um, and then things were kind of falling, um falling up falling apart with our plans to keep her with family. You know, people, I think if if somebody had to take her, they would have, but nobody was really like, oh, we'd love to take the dog, like, you know, please let us have her. Um, and she's a little bit anxious. She's a rescue dog and she's very like attached to us. So we just kind of thought, like, okay, if we if she can handle the travel, then she will enjoy it. Um, and she's so far, she's been such a champ with travel because she's so small, she can fly in cabin with us. So she just curls up in her carrier, goes right to sleep, wakes up in the new place and like ready to go, no problems. Um, so she's she's I'd say she's the best traveler of all of us. Um was very yeah, very happy to be there. So when we started talking about doing this with our baby, um, we kind of knew from the jump, like Ellie, you know, has to come, the dog has to come with us too. And that was sort of the added layer of well, the baby makes things complicated, and then the dog made it more complicated. But that was always the premise when we started out planning of like, okay, how do we make it work for everybody?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

No, that's perfect. So, so let's let's have an overview of a kind of a whistle stop kind of tour about what what what did you do? What did you where did your journey take you?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Sure. So uh

The Route Through France UK Spain

SPEAKER_02 7:56

first stop. So we are from Vancouver, so our first stop was just a week kind of here in BC, catching up with family, that sort of thing. Um, then our next stop was Toronto. So we were in Toronto for 10 weeks and we stayed with my parents. And I kind of call that like easing us in to travel because, you know, we were still in Canada, we got to stay with family, we got to use their car, you know, that sort of thing. So it was kind of our first taste of like, can we do this with the baby and the dog? You know, that they were helping us. Um from there we flew to Paris. And then from Paris, we took the train down to Orléans in the Loire Valley, and we were there for six weeks. Um, and then we made our way up to the UK. So we took about two weeks kind of doing a bit of a road trip through northern France, um, all the way up to Calais, which is kind of the northeast corner of France, and then we took the um, it's not the it's not the channel, not the Paris-London train, but the other, I think it's called like the Le Shuttle or Euro tunnel, something like that, little train. The Eurosta? Eurosta. I think, yeah, one of it's not the Paris London one, it's the other one. I don't know. Uh okay. It's it's got, I don't know. There's another way, but we took that over to the UK. Um, and then we were based there in London for about a month, Brighton for two months, and then back to London for the last month. And then somewhere in there, we also flew to Spain for a week for our daughter's first birthday.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Oh, whereabouts did you go in Spain? We were in Malaga in Andalusa. Oh lovely, lovely. So, what time of year did you do this trip?

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yeah, so we left here, uh we left Vancouver at the end of June 2025, and then we got back to Vancouver March 2026.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

And so you were away quite a long time from your home, which is in Vancouver. So obviously, logistically, you're traveling with a baby, and I remember when my my daughter's now 30, but I do remember when she was little, the amount of things that she came with when we went anywhere was was ridiculous.

Packing For Nine Months On The Move

SPEAKER_01 9:41

So, how did you how did you start sorting out what you could manage to take in terms of your luggage allowance?

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Yeah, so that was uh and then changed actually quite a bit throughout the trip. So when we left from Vancouver to Toronto, that first big flight, we had three checked suitcases um and then a couple backpacks. And then we always traveled with, we always had her travel stroller. Um, we had the car seat, and it was the kind that you could like clip into like it fits in a plane, you can bring it on board. And we actually did get her her own seat on the plane, even though everyone says, like, oh, and they're babies, they fly free. Um, but they're long flights, and I didn't want to hold a baby, especially on the way home. She was like 15 months old. I was like, I'm not holding a 15 month old for 10 hours on a flight. No thank you. No, no, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

I couldn't imagine anything worse. No, thanks.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

And especially with because we have the dog in cabin with us, she has to go at our feet. So, you know, my husband and I are fairly tall people. So we'd have like two of us, a baby on our lap, and a dog at our feet. And I was just like, no way, we need one more seat. So we brought the car seat. Um, and we actually brought our crib. So we had a travel crib. It kind of packs up, it actually goes into a backpack so you can wear it on your back. Um, and that was her crib. It's actually still her crib. She still sleeps in that today. And she had that kind of from birth, so it just came with us on the road. Um, but we downsized quite a bit. So we had the three checked suitcases, like the large suitcases, to Toronto. And then when we left from Toronto to go to Europe, we downsized to two um checked suitcases. So we were able to send one home. Uh, my mother-in-law came out to visit us, so we sent her home with a suitcase of just like summer, you know, summer clothing, and we had gotten a lot of gifts for the baby, so a lot of just sort of downsizing our own, like, okay, we don't need all of this. And then, even, you know, through Europe, we kind of switched, okay, this backpack became a suitcase, this suitcase became another suitcase, that suitcase broke, replacing things. Um, but the actual travel days were always a little bit of a of a hassle, just even reducing the luggage as much as possible. It was tough.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, I always say that the more luggage you have, the more stressful it is when you're moving around, whether whether that's flying or whether that's taking a train, however, you're doing it. It's always the more luggage, the more stress. It's it's a direct correlation. Yeah, absolutely. I have to ask this because it's just crossed my mind. But um, did Baby C start walking while you were away? Because that one has changed things slightly.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, she did. Yeah, she started walking. Uh she took her first steps in Brighton uh when she was just a year old, and then she sat down for the next month. Like she did eight steps and was like, Okay, I'm done. No more of that. Um, but then when we were in London, kind of our last probably couple weeks in London, she started to really like that was you know more of a thing for her walking around. But now, you know, she's about 18 months now and she's running. And I and I already am like, what this would have been such a different trip if she was, you know, as active as she is now. Like that would have the the flight alone would have been a whole nother story running up and down the aisles, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Oh, absolutely, I can imagine. Um I I was a bit of a chicken. I didn't take my daughter on any long haul flights until she was five. And then I was alright, okay, we'll do it now. I was like, no, don't fancy it. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So now okay, you've so you you you kind of were planning the trip. And so how did you decide about the different bases that you're going

Schengen Limits And The Visa Pivot

SPEAKER_01 12:48

to? So obviously you came back over to Europe. Um so was that based on places that you've been before and you wanted to spend more time in, or was it just kind of places that you thought, oh no, these would be really cool places to to kind of base ourselves?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Yeah, so we decided kind of on Europe as a whole because we did have that familiarity with it. Like my husband and I both traveled there a lot. We lived in Prague for a year, so we kind of felt comfortable with, you know, we know it's safe, we know how to, you know, get help if we need it, that kind of thing. Um, and then in terms of the actual like cities that we chose, so our original plan, we had applied for these uh French long-stay tourist visas. And long story short, a thousand dollars later, they did not come through. Um we got rejected and they just told us insufficient information. So we have no idea what was missing or what was wrong. They were, you know, French bureaucracy very vague. Um, and we actually didn't get our passports back until two business days before our flight. So it was very scary times in Toronto before before we set off. Um, but we basically had to pivot quite uh quite drastically from there because the plan was really to spend most of the time in France. Um, so that's kind of how we ended up adding in the UK, because then we'd be out of the Schengen zone and you know, we didn't have to worry about visas or anything like that. But in terms of actually picking um the cities themselves, we weren't too fussed about, you know, if we'd been there before or anything like that. But we were really looking for places that were, first of all, easy to get to. So we knew we were, you know, flying into Paris and we wanted to be able to just take a train from Paris, not be, you know, spending lots of time trains, buses, planes, taxis, all that stuff. Um, and then we were also looking for places because we were gonna be there in each base for I think four to ten weeks was kind of our range. We really wanted them to be cities that had a lot going on, you know, lots of amenities, lots of things to do, groceries, restaurants, shopping, um, day trips, activities, galleries, museums, that kind of thing. Just because, especially with the baby and the dog, you know, we're kind of limited for how far we can go. So when we were living in Prague, you know, it was, oh, let's go to Rome for the week, let's go to Morocco for a week, you know, it was very easy to kind of bounce all around Europe. Whereas this time it was like, okay, we are, you know, we're in Orleans. What are the things we can do in Orléans? Or if we get on the train for half an hour, you know, what can we do in that kind of general region? So it was really important to us, you know, we didn't want to rent a car, we didn't want to kind of be stuck anywhere. We really wanted to have um exciting cities to kind of base ourselves in. So I think that was kind of our main uh criteria. Easy to get to, um, and then yeah, lots going on.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Yeah, lots to do and easy kind of access to different things that you want to see. So that also makes sense as well. So obviously you're saying you spent sort of from four weeks onwards um basing yourself on the place, which is it is nice, uh kind of slower travel and be able to kind of immerse yourself a little bit more in in the different places that you stay in. So, how long do you think it took you before you kind of felt kind of relaxed and kind of familiar with the place?

Routines That Make Anywhere Feel Home

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah. Um, I think pretty quick. We're the kind I'm the kind of person, like even you know, before this trip, as soon as I check into a hotel, like it's when I leave, I'm like, oh, when are we going back home? We gotta go home. And I'm referring to the hotel because it's it's home now. Um, so we were very quick to as soon as we get there, like we fully unpack, you know, things out of the suitcases, out of the um packing cubes, set everything up. And I think part of that was because, you know, the baby, we gotta make sure her crib and her diapers and all that stuff is ready to go. Um, and then I think also because of our baby, we kind of were in quite a bit of a routine of like, you know, we have this much time before she naps and this much time before a meal. So the days became very like scheduled and in in kind of a loose way. Like we didn't, we we had specific times we wanted her to nap, but it wasn't like, okay, like, you know, we we gotta go and do these things at this time. But I think being in that kind of a routine made it feel like home a lot faster. It's like, okay, you know, we're having breakfast together every morning, then we're gonna play with toys, then we're gonna go out and do something, then we come back and we're gonna have a nap, and then we'll have lunch, and then you know, that sort of thing. Um, so just I think spending all that time in the accommodation and in the kind of local neighborhood, like walking, you know, walking the dog a couple times a day at the local park and going grocery shopping and doing all the laundry you have to do with babies, uh, made it made it feel like home quite quickly.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

It must have been actually nice because I can imagine when you were out uh walking Ellie or out for a stroll with baby C that you would meet people and people would talk to you.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Yeah, yeah. That was I think that was one of the things that I didn't really realize was gonna be such a big difference with this trip, but especially with our daughter because she's so um social and like she loves to wave at people and smile and clap and all that sort of thing. We made friends so quickly, like, and you know, not lifelong friends that we're gonna, you know, be at each other's weddings and funerals and that kind of thing, but just like little things, you know, we'd be on the tube in London, and you know, in the tube everyone's, you know, kind of head down on their phones, not looking at anyone, and she's smiling and waving and playing peekaboo and tapping people on the shoulders. And we had one lady come up to us and she goes, I think your baby is the only person who's happy to be on the tube. And I was like, Yep, I think so. So that was that was so fun. And like, you know, because we were in places for so long, we were able to like we enrolled in like baby swim class. So we're seeing the same families, you know, every week for six weeks, I think it was. You know, we go to the local library, we go to the same playgrounds, it's the same kids, you see the same parents, and you kind of you know get to know each other a little bit. Um, and that was definitely, I think, more so with our baby. Our dog is less social, she's just a little scary. So we would, we, you know, we don't smile and nod at other dog uh owners, but usually we're more like, let's cross the street because she gets nervous. But but with the baby for sure, she opened up a lot of uh social connections for us.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Oh no, that's really sweet. So you mentioned a little bit about kind of accommodation. So obviously,

Finding An Airbnb That Truly Works

SPEAKER_01 18:15

because you were staying longer term in places, um, how did you go about finding accommodation that was going to be you know right for you guys? And I and one thing I was I have to ask you is because this is something that Doug moans at me about, if I don't get something that's on the ground floor, because I would imagine the amount of stuff that you had to take up and down, I I guess you were looking for something that didn't have a lot of stairs or had a lift.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yeah, that was in hindsight. I'm on Doug's team. We should have done a little bit more on that. Yeah, so we we used Airbnb. Um, and I know people have their thoughts. Some people love Airbnb, some people it's not for them. I think for us it made sense because we were gonna be in places for so long, we definitely needed like a full, fully equipped, you know, apartment with the full kitchen and the bathroom and the laundry and all that. Um, I think if you were gonna be somewhere even longer, you know, many, many months, you could probably find a cheaper option like on the local rental market, but Airbnb, you know, they take care of it all. There's reviews, it felt quite safe. Um, and then in terms of yeah, the actual places we were looking for, we always wanted to, there's filters on Airbnb where you can say, like, I'm bringing a baby, I'm bringing a dog. So we'd always make sure to click that. You know, we didn't want to freak out any of the owners showing up with our baby and a dog. Um, we'd always look for places that were very are well as spacious as budget would allow. So in London, you know, that was still only a one-bedroom place. Um, but just some space for our daughter to be able to crawl around, play with her toys, set up the crib, that sort of thing. Um, make sure that, you know, it was very clean and we'd feel comfortable because we we had her, we were spending a lot of time in the apartment. So we wanted to be more comfortable. Whereas on past trips with just me and Colin, like, you know, if it's kind of dark, if it's kind of dingy, it's like, no problem, you know, whatever, it's just to sleep. But this time, you know, we really wanted to feel good about the place we were staying. Um, and we tried to be in very uh central neighborhoods where, you know, there was the restaurants, the shops, the grocery stores right outside our door. And we could take a triomma tuba, a bus kind of anywhere else we needed to go in the city. Um, and then in terms of the the flights of stairs, so I don't think we ever got away with even the the apartment we booked that was ground floor still had a couple steps to the door, like from the sidewalk. Um, but the worst was our last place in London was on in Canada, we call it the third floor. I think they call it the second floor in the UK, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Because they I think it would be, yeah, because we have ground one.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

So we go just one, two, three. So it was the third floor, and each floor was like two flights of stairs up. And I I don't know why I knew I read it when I booked it, and I thought, oh, okay, you know, day one, bringing the luggage, that'll suck, but then it's fine. But then I forgot, like every time we leave the house, we have the baby, the stroller, the groceries, the dog, and just oh you know, four or five times a day. I'm like, why did we do this? So that one, that one I wasn't thinking.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Oh, I can no, I can imagine. I I think I did it once or twice, and now I'll make sure when I book anything because Doug will ask me. So how are we gonna how far away is it? I'm gonna be carrying this luggage, how many steps? Yeah. So it's kind of something I guess I've learned over time to like make sure that we're not too far to go. Yeah, um, obviously, kind of the when you when you're planning a shorter trip, there's there's certain things you think about. What when

Planning Light And Splitting Travel Tasks

SPEAKER_01 21:18

when you're doing something that's uh that's for a long trip like you just did, were there things that you had to consider slightly differently?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Um in terms of like booking, like planning things or booking.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, I think you know, when we do a shorter trip, we kind of go, you know, you're worried for two weeks or a month or whatever, and you know you've booked your accommodation and you know, you might do a little bit of research and you make sure you know where you're gonna go and eat and you do that sort of thing. But for for a longer trip, I guess you you don't necessarily maybe have to do uh anything kind of as detailed as that. Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah, yeah. I was actually I was just I was listening to you and Doug this morning um talking about your your international travel tips. And I know you mentioned like, you know, if there's something you wanna do, book it in advance because then you show up and you're disappointed. And I think that's actually one of the nice things about doing a longer trip or slow travel is you just have so much more flexibility, right? It's not like, oh, I want to go to this restaurant in Paris. I'm only in Paris for two nights. I have to book it. It's oh, I'm in Paris for a month. Let me open up their calendar. Oh, they have a reservation spot, you know, three weeks from today. Great, I'll grab that. So I think that was quite nice. We didn't book too many things super in advance besides like, you know, the flights, the car rentals, like the bigger transportation pieces, obviously the accommodation. That one you actually, I would say it's the opposite. I think you have less flexibility with accommodation because you need to book for such a long period of time. So it just really um the the options, especially on a place like Airbnb, like as soon as you say, oh, I'm looking for a place for six weeks and I want it to be dog friendly and baby friendly, it's like there's like three options in each city. My husband's always like, oh, like what like what are you know, what are we looking at? And I'm like, well, it's one of these three places. That's it. Or we have to pick a different city. Um, so that that I would say is very important to book in advance. But everything else, kind of the day-to-day itinerary stuff. Um, I still did a lot of research and I had basically I would just save places on Google Maps or I'd come up where I'd write, you know, a list of things. Here are the things I want us to do this month. And then we'd kind of plot it out, you know, each day. Each week we'd look at the list and go, oh, what do we want to do today? Oh, that looks fun, that looks good. And if we came across something that's oh, actually, that's booked up this week, okay, great, let's like reserve it for next week or something like that. So there were a couple times, you know, we took our daughter to meet Santa. So that was something, you know, you had to book the tickets uh to go do that in advance, or we did afternoon tea, uh, your favorite. So that one we booked.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Oh, it's lovely. It's really interesting, isn't it? Because as you say, some things are more flexible, you have more flexibility with, and other things you have to think a little bit more ahead, especially because you say you've got you had the you had the dog and you had a daughter with you, so you've got additional kind of logistical things to think about because a baby as well, not not a no, not a grown-up child, not this is a baby, you've got to think slightly differently when you when you have a baby with you, if that's what I'm saying. Um, so obviously I I have to ask you this. So logistically, um, when you were getting around from place to place, how did you did you and your husband have an agreed kind of I'll be looking after Ellie, you'll be looking after Baby C, that's how we do it, kind of routine, or not?

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Kind of. I think so. Our first priority was like, let's make each travel day as seamless, as easy as possible. So, you know, working with the Airbnb host, like what's the latest we can check out, what's the earliest we can check in on the other side. We didn't want to have like any dead time. And then some of some of the routes were really easy, like Brighton to London, I think it's like an hour on the train, 90 minutes, something like that. And we were staying two minutes from the train station in Brighton. And that was the hardest part was pushing our bags up the hill for two minutes. Like, and that was after that, it was a total breeze. So we really tried to prioritize like what can we do on the travel days to make them as seamless as possible. If it's, you know, we don't usually take taxis in cities where more public transit people, but it's like if we can just throw all our stuff in a taxi and pay money but save, you know, half an hour, like let's just do it. Um, and then yeah, we would usually divide up um the baby, the dog, and the luggage. And it was usually just a matter of who has like a spare arm, you know, like we both put something on our back, we both take something in each hand. And then if my husband saw me struggling to push, he'd okay, let's switch. Like, I'll, you know, I'll take this bag, you take that bag. Um, and then when we got on the the train or the plane or whatever, it was usually I would usually like settle the the live people, the dog and the baby, and then my husband would sort of get all of the gear um onto the train. It's like, hey, you you know, you get all of this stuff off the platform into the luggage area, and I will just make sure the baby and the dog are okay, is usually how we did it.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

I I think one of the advantages though, the fact that you guys have traveled before and have traveled together before is that you already kind of know each other and how you travel well. So it sounds like as a team, it's and it double Doug and I are the same. We're a really good travel team because we kind of know what each other's strengths and weaknesses are, what he need he needs help with, what I need help with, whichever way around. And we kind of just know each other now. So that it works really, really well. So I think obviously that helped a huge amount with you guys, like before you did this sort of trip that that you guys had this experience together, and we're just kind of as you say, know who would do what and who would do what best in whichever particular kind of you know, Doug Doug's the one that does all the I give him all the I do all the booking, yeah, but he gets all the tickets to keep because I'm like, nah, you keep all those. So he does all that sort of thing. So it's just you you kind of settled into that, don't you? Were there any were there any moments during your trip where that that that felt hard that you thought, oh, this is just harder than I thought? A

Hard Days Electric Cars And Road Trips

SPEAKER_01 26:36

lot.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

A lot. Um, I think when we when we didn't get that France visa, especially because it was so last minute, that was kind of a very big pivot. And I I like to think I'm a kind of person who like when um you know when things don't go to plan, when things kind of go haywire, I'm very good at like, okay, we need to pivot, like let's problem solve, let's, you know, do what we need to do. So I was very quick on like, okay, you know, we can't go to France, where are we gonna go? We're going to the UK, let's find a place, let's work it out. Whereas I think my husband's a little bit more like, oh, like I just need to like panic about the thing. And I'm like, nope, like right, right in action time. So we did pivot from that quite well, but it was I'm more of like after I've pivoted, after I've solved the problem, then I sit back and I'm like, whoa, that was a lot. I gotta like process. Um, so that was quite tough. And then um, like we spoke about the actual like moving day, like the travel days themselves were quite difficult. Um, we did decide, as I was saying, to when we were traveling from the Loire Valley to get up to the UK, we did like a road trip. Um, in hindsight, I think we should have just taken the most direct either train or flight just to get, you know, there um as fast as possible. I think we just kind of had really lofty um ideas of what a road trip was gonna look like, but it was not like our daughter does not really love her car seat, does not want to be in the car for a long time. And then we stupidly booked an electric car, which we've never driven, and we've never driven one in France. Um, and it was very, very complicated. There was all a lot of the charging stations, you had to have like a special card that they don't give people who have rental cars to use, and it wouldn't work, and just like it was such a drama. And we, you know, because we were inexperienced, we had no idea like how long would a charge last. We'd be like driving back to the Airbnb, and my husband's like, Oh, I think we can make it. I'm like, Well, we have to make it, like, we have a baby here, like we've got to get there. So just that was not just I think not smart planning on our part. So that was probably the hardest. I think once we returned to that car, we were like, okay, no, never again. Not doing that again.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

I I think the thing is though, you know, that that that when you learn when you travel and you kind of go, okay, of that was something we're not ever gonna do again. You gotta learn from it, don't you? And it's like you know, the more you travel, the more the it, you know, everybody makes mistakes, everybody makes the wrong choices, and you kind of go, right, okay, won't do that again. The main thing I think is is that you just you just deal with it. Like you say, you pivot or you deal with it, you handle it, you just deal with it at the time. I think it's by not falling apart, it's by going, actually, things sometimes go wrong, and we just have to figure it out and we will work it out. Exactly. And and that's that's always the that's the best way to kind of like think about it and and deal with at the time. And you know, I I always kind of just say it's like, look, nobody's died. Nobody's died. We just need to figure this out and we just need to be calm and and and sort it out and and uh you know, and as I say, they always go down in the you go write that down, go right, I won't do that again.

unknown 29:22

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Exactly. Now I'm gonna ask, I know obviously you had BBC, so there was some uh patern paternity leave for your husband. Um but obviously planning long-term travel sounds like kind of quite a financial, financially quite an expensive thing to do. Um so was there ways that you know you thought about planning it that would make it a bit more kind of um cost effective, budget friendly, and obviously slow travel is more cost effective and budget friendly to start with. Um, but were the other things you kind of thought, okay, um, how can we kind of make stretch our budget further?

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Yeah, absolutely. So I think um a lot of this is going to be do as I say, not as we did, because we fill off a lot of these rules. Um but when we initially started planning this trip, the idea was to try to stay in places that were lower cost of living than back home in Vancouver. So we were kind of looking in, you know, southern Spain and and different parts of France that were going to be a little bit cheaper. Um, but then again, we went to the UK for four months and totally threw that plan right out the window when we decided to stay in London. Um, we by staying in Airbnbs for more than four weeks, a lot of them offer a monthly stay discount. So that was huge. Um and I would recommend any if you're staying even in an Airbnb for more than you know two weeks, three weeks, I would just check if you put it to 28 days, which is the the minimum you need to get that monthly stay discount. Sometimes places were discounted like 50%, like it was a wild number. And I think Airbnb actually tells you now, so a little thing will pop up and it'll say, Oh, if you stay three more days, you actually save like hundreds of dollars. And it's like, oh, okay, like I'll book that. Um, so that was a huge one for us. We never stayed anywhere less than 28 days because we wanted to get that discount. Um, and then, like you were saying, slow travel in itself is kind of cheaper on the day to day because you're not rushing around, you're not jumping on, you know, flights and trains every single day. And you also kind of adopt a little bit more of a um like a local mentality, you know, like you are grocery shopping, you like we had breakfast at home every single day. Whereas if we had only been in London for a week, you know, I'm sure we would have eaten out every single meal. We did eat out a lot of meals, don't get me wrong, but we also did try to cook at home at least once or twice a day. Um, and then, you know, you also just have some more chill days, like you'll just do, oh, we went grocery shopping and we did the laundry, or, you know, I think um we went to go see a movie one day, you know, something that's that's quite inexpensive. Um, or we went to the library, we went to the playground, and then we're there for so long, you know, we get the the discount card for Tesco grocery stores. Like, you know, we we get that because we're gonna be here and we're gonna shop there, so we might as well save some money. So just little things like that that are kind of similar to how you would do it at home. I think you can adopt a lot of that when you are slow traveling to save on the budget.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Absolutely. Well, but when this podcast comes out, actually Doug and I will be in Cape Town and we we've got accommodation for, I think we're there for about 22 days. Um, and and basically the the point of that is that as well as exploring Cape Town and I'm seeing friends when we're there, I can do a bit of work, we can do a bit of grocery shop and we can do some cooking because we I've been traveling for quite a few months now, and actually I'm looking forward to a bit of kind of just home cooked stuff and not actually eat now because that can become a bit uh bit bit it's lovely, but also looking at my how tight my jeans are, it's not something I want to be continuing for much longer. Um, but you can get to into a bit more of a routine, you're not kind of feeling that you have to go out and sightsee every single day because you've got a longer time there, so that's really cool.

Budget Reality What Worked And Next

SPEAKER_01 32:48

So looking back on your trip, is there anything that you're you did just went exactly as you planned it?

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Um I think into like sort of the bigger picture things. So I'm really glad we kind of we kind of prioritized family, I would say, throughout. So spending those first 10 weeks in Toronto, I'm really, really glad we did that. It was kind of the first time my parents and siblings got to meet our daughter, um, and just having like a really concentrated amount of time back in my hometown and sort of getting that first like ease into travel, I think was really great for us. And then we also had all of our parents come out and visit us while we were in Europe. Um, so that was really nice too, because I know they were very like, oh, like you're taking our granddaughter away from us. Um, so it was so nice that they came out. Um, I think my mom came out three times actually. So that was great. You know, we got to see them kind of every month or two. There was another grandparent showing up and staying with us, and that was awesome. Like they got so much time in with um BBC, which was great. Um, we did quite a few day trips when we were in Orleans, the Laura Valley. So we got to see, I think we saw like seven or eight different of the chateaus, the castles. And I'm really glad we did that because by the time we got to the UK, we weren't doing as many day trips. And I think that was partially because there was just so much in the cities themselves. We didn't feel like we had to go, but it also started to feel like a little bit more of a hassle. I don't know if maybe Baby C was a bit more active or or what it was. Um, but for some reason when we were in Orleans, we really prioritized that. And I'm glad I look back and I say, oh, I'm really glad we, you know, we managed to do that and go out and see those really cool, um, cool castles and things that we got to see. And then I guess just um it didn't go to plan exactly, but like I'm just I'm just really glad we went. I think there would have been so many opportunities for us to say, you know, it's easier to stay home. We're like, you know, no, no one's forcing us to do this, no one else is doing this. Like it would have been so easy to just save it or do a shorter trip or or something. But we kind of um I think because we had been planning it for so long, the wheels were kind of in motion. We could have at any time turned to each other and said, like, nah, let's not bother. But I think we were just oh we were both so committed to this idea. Um and I yeah, I was talking to someone the other day, and they're like, oh, like, you know, what made you like, like what, you know, why did you actually go? And I was like, oh, it wasn't even really a question by that point. Like by the time she was here, it was already like, yep, we've got the travel crib, we've got the stroller, like we're packing, we're going. Um, so I'm just really yeah, I'm really glad we were both so committed to that idea and we could make it happen, even if we had to, you know, pivot and change things along the way.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Oh, that's brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

And is there anything that you'd change if you do it again? Um, I wouldn't apply for that France visa.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

We weren't gonna get hindsight's a wonderful thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 35:17

It's kind of uh I wouldn't rent that car in Normandy. That was bad. Um and then I think probably just a few like minor packing things I probably would have done a little bit better on. We um by the time we arrived in Europe, it was already mid-September. And at that point we knew we were going up to the UK for the winter, which like, you know, not ideal, but is was that was the pivot. But for some reason we packed like, I had like shorts, dresses, sandals, and I'm like, who like what what did I think was gonna happen? I don't so yeah, very ambitious. But luckily, my mom came out to visit us pretty quick after we got there. So we just sent her home with all of the summer clothing we had brought. I was just shaking my head, going, Why did I bring sandals for winter essentially in the UK?

SPEAKER_01 36:00

I I think that's what sometimes it's one of the hardest things when you're away for a long time is actually thinking you've got all these different seasons to to pack for, so so what you what do you put in or what do you pack? Um so yeah, it's it's I think packing is a it's a bit of a dark art deciding what to take and what to pack. Um and it doesn't matter how how much I pack and how little I pack, I always think of pack too much. Yeah. That's kind of how it goes. Yeah. Um now, uh anybody listening to this who who may be considering traveling with a baby and or their dog, or just the dog and not the baby. Um is there is there any tip, one tip that you'd share for anybody kind of planning kind of longer term slow travel?

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Yeah, I would say kind of similar to what we were talking about of like, you know, not feeling that pressure to sightsee every day. I think it's really important when you are doing a trip like this is to kind of give yourself permission to just enjoy local life. And sometimes that is just, you know, you go to the local coffee shop, you do some work, and then you come home for the day. And I know I I struggled with this. There was days when that would be kind of all we did, and I would feel this um FOMO really of like, oh, there's so many, you know, there's all these museums and there's all these galleries and stores and you know, all this stuff we should be doing, especially in places, you know, like London where it's endless the amount of things you could be doing. Um, but I really had to kind of sit back and just say, like, like, no, that's not, that's not why we're here. That's not the purpose of this trip. I don't want to burn out and spend every day, you know, sightseeing from, you know, nine in the morning till nine at night, kind of thing. And then I do want to sort of take a step back and just enjoy this local life and all these opportunities that our daughter like kind of opens up for us, that we are gonna go to playgrounds and city farms and libraries and local events, um, and really just like appreciate those and and take the time to kind of savor those moments of us like getting to be together as a family in this cool place and not feel like I need to um, you know, make the itinerary really hectic with all this bucket list stuff. So I think I would encourage people, yeah, kind of lean into that local life. And especially if you are traveling with a young baby, I always would say, like, you know, this is our first trip with her, it's not our last trip. We don't have to fit in every every single thing. It's okay if she doesn't appreciate this thing. If we have to, you know, leave the museum early, that's fine. Like, we can come back some other time and see it again.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

I was gonna ask you about uh what do you have future travel plans, Rihanna?

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Yeah, well, we we actually just did a trip to Vancouver Island a couple weeks ago. So that was more of like a little local trip, but was still great, kind of scratched the itch. Um, and then in uh September, October, my husband has a couple weeks off. So I'm hoping to get back to Asia. We haven't been for quite a few years. Um, it's just gonna depend on flight prices.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Um, but but no anywhere in particular in Asia you've kind of got in sight of it. I know you in Japan for a bit. Yes, I think.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

So Japan, uh Korea, and Taiwan are kind of top of my list, but um, I'm very much like uh wherever the flight is cheapest, is where I'd be happy to go there. So I'm crossing my fingers, something uh pops up that that we can just yeah, the the flight prices have gone a little a little nuts lately, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah, they they certainly have. And and will baby C and Ellie be coming with you on that trip?

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Ellie will not come on that one. We've kind of decided she's she'll be 13 this summer, she's getting a little older, she's losing her vision. Um, so we've kind of decided she's probably done. And she's very like she's very much a homebody, so I think she'd be happy to kind of stay stay home with a sitter. Uh, but baby C will will be coming for sure. So that'll that's the other uh hesitation. It's it'll be quite a long flight to get to Asia. And my husband's going, like, oh, do we want to do you know 12 hours on a plane with uh she'll be you know 20 months old at that point?

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah, that's it. That's gonna be quite uh quite interesting when she's just a running around on a on a longer flight, slightly different. Yeah. Um now thanks so much for coming onto the podcast, Rionna. It's been lovely to chat with you. Um, but can you kind of um and I'm sure everybody listening is going, it sounds fantastic what you did. So hopefully we've got well, I know we've got lots of photos that we'll share in the show notes as well. Um, but um if if people want to find you where online can and I know you've got Substack, and I've also got Substack, so I must be I should follow you. Yeah, I will follow you after this. Um so yeah, share, share where where we can find you.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

Hi well, thank you so much for the opportunity. Yeah, so my uh website is teaspoonofadventure.com, and then Substack is the same thing, teaspoon of adventure.substack.com. So, yeah, lots of blog post guides, behind the scenes stories, photos, all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Perfect, excellent. Well, shall I will put the link to um your website and to your substack in the show notes, which are at globaltravelplanning.com. And this is episode 100, which is just amazing. So I'm so happy that you came on for that lovely episode. Um 100, fantastic number. Um, but yeah, thank you so much um to you in in Vancouver, Rihanna, for coming on and chatting to me today in in England. Thank you for having me. Safe, safe travels. I know you've got lots uh lots coming up soon.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

So congrats and congrats on 100, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Rihanna.

Episode 100 Thanks And Listener Requests

SPEAKER_01 40:53

That really means the world. What a lovely, honest conversation. The thing I will take away most is Rihanna's reminder to give yourself permission to simply enjoy local life and not feel you have to fill every single day. And I have to say, I loved the image of Baby C being the only person on the London tube who was actually happy to be there. And since I've just been in London, I totally, totally absolutely resonates with me. That does. If you'd like to follow Rihanna's adventure, as she said, you'll find her at teaspoonofadventures.com and on Substack with the same name. Um, all of our links, along with some gorgeous photos from the trip, are in the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com forward slash episode 100. And because this is episode 100, I want to say the biggest thank you to you for listening. 100 episodes only happen because you keep turning up, and I'm so grateful for every single one of you. If you've enjoyed the show, please do leave us a review on your favourite podcast app or send us a message via SpeakPype. I absolutely love hearing from you guys. But for this very special episode, that's it for this week. Um, until next time from me, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com. Remember if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favourite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.