about this travel guide | oktobedifferent

about this guide

Travelling with kids can be challenging, but worth all the effort

Being a single parent bringing up a special needs child in this fast paced modern society, I totally understand how fellow full-time parents are relentlessly spending all your time and resources taking care and nurturing your little ones, many a times being overwhelmed by the massive challenge, and at the same time feeling like being confined by a repetitive routine and a much isolated life with not much of a me-time.

And all this while we are always on a lookout for more possible free-play options and various explorations to help our kids gain more confidence about themselves and their surroundings, and improve their insecurity, sociability, stamina and motor skills, but only to face with limited options.

As I have discovered myself as a avid traveler previously, one of the ways to liven up ourselves and get new motivation in life, is really to travel to new places and get to meet up with new people/ culture along the way, and pick up new inspirations.

Bringing my son along on various trips also allowed him to experience many things that were otherwise alien to him - like collecting freshly laid chicken eggs at farms, walking on padi fields, to plucking fresh fruits off trees, jumping into the river and swim with buffalos, and roaming around freely with local village kids in big open land (a healthy way to deplete all his energy each day). These trips trained him to be more active, grow his confidence, allowed him a chance to learn how to ease up and be sociable to new friends, and opened him up to a whole new whole of learning opportunities.

However as much as its fun to explore this world with our kids, but its true that traveling with a young child can be a lot of hard work, especially challenging and demanding if you are bringing along a kid with special needs who often suffers from sudden meltdowns and restricted by narrow eating habits. I have to admit that I had my fair share of difficult moments on my previous trips, and that my planned itineraries were not easy to follow and time was hard to manage. Nothing like the days when I traveled by myself for sure.

There were times I actually feel it may be easier to just stay close to home, where you already know where everything is and it takes less energy to do things you have been doing regularly.

Yet after all the deliberations, there still comes the conclusion that its well worth all the effort to travel with our kid. The vastly enriching experiences and lovely memories collected from each and every of our trips we made together provided us with very special bonding time away from home, and whenever I recollect the memorable scenes from our trips, it just feel so awesome that I was with my child when he had each of the many first unique experiences overseas..

These photos from our trips never fail to bring smiles to my face..

Everday we wake up with a clean sheet of paper to write a brand new story

I mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what's gonna happen or, who I'm gonna meet, where I'm gonna wind up. Just the other ....

A DIY guide meant for parents travelling with young kids

It started off as frequent sharing of my trips with other friends who are keen to travel with their kids, and that it later occurred to me that it would be an awesome idea to publish an online travel guide to provide travel tips for all fellow parents who are looking forward to bring their child for an adventure overseas.

And hopefully other parents will start to contribute their list of recommendations too - pooling together our experiences to make this guide as comprehensive and fun, and updated, as possible, to encourage others to make their first trip.

For this series of DIY guide which meant for parents traveling with young children, the main considerations will be for parents who want to travel slow and allow more free play time for his or her child whom may (or may not) have sensory issues that make them object to too much visual or noise stimulation.

As I myself have a Hyperlexic kid who is sensitive to flashing lights and loud jingles and very averted to busy places with big crowds, I would often plan trips with him to small villages around Asia - where its more peaceful, with many kids around as playing companions, and a bigger land for him to roam around without being overload by his sensory or being swamp with big crowds.

Other considerations includes :

We recommend Do-It-Yourself style of travel because it provides you with more time and flexibility, to do whatever you or your child likes (be it spending hours picking up of pebbles by the beach or collect autumn leaves by the mountains), at your own pace compared to being rushed around by tour companies.
We are always looking out for best experiences at most best value for money so that you can have a longer holidays
Its all about localised experience. We certainly hope to include suggestions on places to meet up and mingle with local people to learn about their unique culture and lifestyle, and not forgetting to have a taste of their local food.
We hope to include recommendations to more nature parks and animals places, and possibly to more rural villages, and will cover less of mega theme parks and shopping.
We will try to recommend destinations that have a good public transport system.
Safely is our priority too

This DIY guide may feature the following :

List of free attractions and things to do in a city or destination
List of individual popular attractions with ratings, opening hours and nearest subway station etc
List of walking trails with maps
List of activities to experience local lifestyle
Popular places to sample local food that you shouldn’t miss
To recommend value-for-money accommodations, or local home stays if ever available
To provide easy-to-follow whole day itineraries that includes a combination of attractions, activities, convenient F&B places to take breaks, and transport options so that you will never feel lost with your child in a new city
All necessary contacts for a village visit, including a homestay
Travel tips (including transport passes and how to get from/to airport)
Information of the destination and best time/season to visit

Send us your recommendations!

Please feel free to customise our sample itineraries according to your needs and send us your feedbacks on what’s working for you and what’s not.. so that we can share with other parents what can be a perfect plan for an unforgettable holiday.

Just make sure you have a lot of spare time between visiting each of the attractions or place of interest so as to not feel rushed and at the same time to allow your child more time to to do what they love most - just like my son who loved to read the letters on the signage inside the zoo more then looking at the animals, and prefers feeding the fishes than taking boat rides at floating market in Bangkok..

Well, its not about catching all the sights in any city but to experience a bonding time with your kid doing whatever he or she enjoys

Yes, traveling with your child can be fun and memorable.. All you need with careful planning, a slower pace, and a lot of patience..

Leave behind all your house chores and all the worries, and go travel to enjoy a trip of a lifetime.

Start planning for one now!

"Become friends with people who aren’t your age. Hang out with people whose first language isn’t the same as yours. Get to know someone who doesn’t come from your social class. This is how you see the world. This is how you grow."