One Tiny Leap is a family travel blog that aspires to inspire familes to travel more.
The moment we packed our bags and embarked on a year-long trip with our then 3-year-old was the beginning of our family’s true adventure, and we haven’t been able to stop since. We believe in slow, responsible travel – especially as a family.
Fast forward three years and we’ve lived in Lisbon for two years, travelled the world, were nominated for awards and continue to want to discover more, and more.
The sections below are a good guide to the type of post you can find in One Tiny Leap, and a good way to get to know us. Keep reading and stay in touch on social media.
Discover Lisbon as a family
I’m a Lisbon native, and we have recently spent two years living in Lisbon, during which I rediscovered the city, especially as we explored my hometown as a family. I love nothing more than helping families travel to Lisbon, stay in the right neighbourhood for them and do and see the right things. Here are my tips:
Start planning your holiday to Lisbon and make sure you check out the weather in Lisbon to make sure you’re travelling in the right month for you. Once you’ve booked your train/flights, have a look at some of our favourite family-friendly hotels in Lisbon and get an intro to the city’s must-dos in my guide to spending 48 hours in Lisbon.
If you’re visiting Lisbon with children and need inspiration beyond sightseeing to keep the kids happy, our Top things to do with kids in Lisbon should help you get started. If you’ve got little ones, find local Lisbon playgrounds here. Lisbon is near some incredible beaches, and of course the beautiful town of Sintra, which requires a bit of planning, so for tips have a look at my guide to Visiting Sintra with kids.
In the very unlikely event the weather report is showing rain for your Lisbon holiday, be prepared: What to do in Lisbon with children when it rains.
Find out our top tips to travel with baby, toddlers and kids
We’ve been travelling since my child was a newborn, from long-haul to very long roadtrips and week-long train journeys. We think we’ve got it sussed, which is why we’d like to share our top tips with our readers. Here are my favourite guides to travelling with kids.
If you’re in the first stage of your family holiday planning, we can help you with our tips & tricks for finding cheap flights. Once you’ve booked your flight, start thinking of what you need to pack for your flight to entertain your child. We have a thorough article packed with ideas on ways to keep kids off the screen during a long-haul flight.
We also have tips on train travel with children, from advice on travelling with children on trains, to a guide to going on the Eurostar with children.
USA Road trip
Waking up to America’s epic landscapes. Nothing could prepare us for the breathtaking experience that is spending time in the US’s contrasting cities, states, national parks and those isolated open roads – all made for long journeys like ours. We spent six months on a family six month USA trip and would love to inspire other families to do the same. Nothing was fancy, all was fantastic.
The South
We started out in Miami and made our way to the St Josephs Peninsula, via Orlando of course, in the search for Florida’s most beautiful beach – and found it. We followed with a short stint in Destin, before making our way to New Orleans and Texas, where we spent nearly 10 days in Austin. The city’s quirkiness and character and stunning landscapes, such as St Edwards Park, where we spotted beautiful fields of bluebonnets. We spent a bit of time in Houston, where we visited the Nasa Johnson Space Centre and the Schlitterbahn water park in Galveston, before making our way to Dallas (ye-haw). Dallas wasn’t the city for us, so we visited Nashville, Tennessee – the home of country music, Memphis and Chattanooga, before going to Charleston in South Carolina – one of our favourite places in the US.
The East
The US’s East Coast was ours during late Spring to early Summer: we headed straight to New England, where we began our stay in Massachusets, before making our way to the picturesque Cape Cod and peaceful Maine.
Going West
From here we moved towards Canada – Toronto and Niagara Falls, before continuing our journey towards America’s Wild West. From the epic Devils Tower, to outlaw town of Deadwood with a pit stop at the 1880 Town our trip took us to our favourite state: Utah. Here we explored Moab and the awe-inspiring Arches National Park. To escape the scorching temperatures we moved north back to Wyoming where we explored the idyllic Tetons National Park and the truly unforgettable Yellowstone National Park.
West Coast
From Yellowstone, we made our way to Vancouver, Seattle and finally Portland, Oregon. We ended up staying in Oregon nearly a month, exploring the rugged Pacific Northwest Coast in unforgettable places like Cannon Beach, Yachats and seeing the epic Thor’s Wells in Cape Perpetua. We also visited the incredible Crater Lake National Park where you can find the bluest water in the world.
From our quaint a-framed Oregon airbnb we drove through redwoods in the Redwood highway towards the city of Eureka in Northern California. We spent some time exploring the coast, before moving towards San Francisco where we spent a night at the Sofitel near San Francisco airport, and then in our best Airbnb yet – a secluded cottage near Muir Woods.
We made the Bay Area our home for a week before starting our family’s San Francisco to Los Angeles road trip, which after a few days, of course, led us to Los Angeles, where we spent just under 5 days including one day in Disneyland in Anaheim. Despite the intense August heat in LA we really wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park, so we made our way towards Palm Springs, and finally Joshua Tree. We also popped to Vegas which we didn’t love (or write about!), but where we found (and did love) the Red Rock Canyon Park, which was spectacular.
All in all it was a whirlwind six months, where we were moving every three or so days to make our fairly strict itineary and make it back to LA on time for our flight to Auckland…Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY.
Living Area
Here you’ll find some of our restaurant reviews, food workshops and general foodie inspiration.
- West Sussex Pubs: Earl of March review
- Tokyo: Tokyo Sushi Workshop
- Barcelona: Alta Allela Family-Friendly Vineyard near Barcelona
- Tokyo: Visiting the Cup Noodle Museum in Tokyo
- Brighton: Pizza Express Brighton Review
- Austin, TX: Skip Breakfast in Austin: Franklin’s BBQ in Austin
- Brighton: Riddle and Finns Review
- Newburyport, MA: Brine Restaurant Review
- Charlestown, RI: Matunuck Oyster Bar Review
- Seville: La Bodega Tapas Bar Review
