Tag: international

Germany and Austria Christmas 2023: Flights and Logistics

Trip motivation For Winter Break 2023-2024, our family visited Germany and Austria! This has been at the top of our family wish list for a few years. This big multi-city trip was so fun. We saw Christmas markets, snowy villages, ice-skated in 3 cities, and loved loved loved train rides with gorgeous scenery. European travel is quickly becoming one of my favorite things with family-friendly towns, easy navigating with trains and so much history and beauty. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting but with a little preparation and research and tips from other travelers, we had a successful trip! This post covers our flights, itinerary, planning process, and international logistics such as using the subway, getting a phone card, and finding budget restaurants. Read all of our European Christmas Market posts at the following links: Our 2023 Germany and Austria Trip: Flights and Logistics (this post) 2 days in Munich, Germany with Kids Day Trips from Munich with Kids: Nuremberg & Neuschwanstein Castle 3 days in Salzburg, Austria with Kids 3 days in Innsbruck, Austria with Kids Planning our Itinerary I love planning trips, especially through well-traveled places where there’s a ton of information to read through and make plans for. Many online blogs were really helpful! We were in each home-base for around 4 days and read numerous blogs and books. One tip for traveling with kids is take a 3-day best of guide and cut out half of it to make it actually realistic to manage in those same 3 days. Mix in some kid-focused/less touristy options like malls, playgrounds, hotel pool. We also took several day trips which felt like a lot of moving but our kids loved reading their new kindles on the trains and this was a great time for just chatting and reconnecting with gorgeous views. Several months before, I sketched out our plan in excel and on google maps with a balance of activities, rest time, food, rest, and fun. We made sure to research how far areas were and tried to schedule several anchor points with a few optional activities so we didn’t overstuff our schedule. Overview Day 1: Arrival in Munich, Marienplatz Christmas Market, Hoffbraus dinner Day 2: Munich: Residence Palace, Viktualienmarkt, City Walking, Ice Skating, More Christmas Markets Day 3: Day trip to Nuremberg: Christmas Markets, Kid’s Activities, Toy Museum Day 4 (Christmas Eve): Transit to Salzburg, Austria, Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf Day 5 (Christmas): Salzburg: Cathedral, Christmas Markets, Dom Museum Day 6: Salzburg: Day trip to Berchtesgaden salt mine tour and Christmas market, Mozart House, Augustiner Dinner Day 7: Salzburg: Science museum, Strudel class, Funicular and Fortress Museum, Mozart Concert Day 8: Transit to Innsbruck, Ambras Castle, Evening Light Show Day 9: Innsbruck: Top of Innsbruck cable cars, Zoo, Sound Museum Day 10: Innsbruck: Swarovski Crystal World, Kid’s NYE festival, Local hockey game! Day 11 (NYE): Innsbruck: Day trip to Seefeld, Hike, Pool with waterslides, NYE run Day 12: Transit to Munch, Day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle Day 13: Fly home! Flying RT to Munich We were able to use United points to fly for 63k points per person and flew a combination of United and Lufthansa planes. Chase Sapphire Preferred Apply Here Chase Sapphire Reserve Apply Here Chase Hyatt Apply Here Tips for Long Plane Rides Sleeping on planes West to East: Plan to sleep! For the overnight red-eye flight to Europe, we emphasized that after dinner service, everyone was going to try and get some sleep. I gave each kid a dose of melatonin and they passed out pretty immediately. We packed these cheap pillows from Amazon (They came with eye masks!). On arrival, get outside and try to limit naps so you can readjust. Activities for long flights East to West On the long flight, the kids were happy playing with the personal screen and alternating between coloring, reading, tv, games, and snacks. Ellie has been loving the Magic Treehouse books and when they were little, they used to love activities in the Magic Ink and small play pack coloring books (Amazon links). We have one Nintendo Switch that the kids love. For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here. Transportation in Europe Train travel and public transportation is one of our favorite things about Europe. Everything is pretty straightforward and inexpensive. In Munich, we used the MVGO app and bought daily unlimited family passes. One top tip for international travel is to download the city map to google so that it doesn’t continue to use data every time you load. It was also super easy to buy tickets for our day trips and 2 hour train to Salzburg, Austria at the end of our stay. The Bayern ticket is a family ticket that is a great deal for unlimited travel in Bavaria (Munich and surrounding areas) on regional trains and is good for Salzburg day trips or even one-way trips like ours. In Salzburg, we had the salzburg card and it included public transport. From Salzburg’s main station, it was an easy 2 hour trip to the main Innsbruck station. On our trips between cities, we generally booked tickets the night before and were able to get really inexpensive tickets. The price for all 4 of us was 44 euro and it was a double-deck train (Ellie was so excited!) In Innsbruck, we had the Innsbruck car for bus travel around the city. It was easy to get tickets back to Munich at the end of our stay. I love how easy train travel is in Europe. We used the website Seat 61 to get some guidance but it was really straightforward. We mapped destinations using google maps and compared the time/cost/effort to use a taxi, train, bus, or walk. We used uber or the train depending on where/how far we were going. If you have little ones, it might be harder to use a taxi due to the car seat. If you plan on using a stroller

Our Family Trip to Seoul, South Korea!: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info

Trip motivation In July 2023, our family visited Seoul, South Korea! This has been at the top of our family wish list for a few years. In the last few years, k-drama watching for Jenn has made it jump higher on the list. We visited in late July and combined this trip with a Hawaii visit and 5 days in Japan. We visited Asia previously (Tokyo 2017) but this was the first time the family visited Korea. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting but with a little preparation and research and tips from other travelers, we had a successful trip! This post covers our flights, hotel, itinerary, planning process, and international logistics such as using the subway, getting a phone card, and finding budget restaurants. Read all of our 2023 Korea/Japan posts at the following links: Seoul, South Korea: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Kyoto, Japan: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Kyoto Day 1: Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Osaka: Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Dotonbori Kyoto Day 2: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Kyoto Day 3:Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri Gallery Kyoto Day 4: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple Planning our Itinerary I love planning trips, especially through well-traveled places where there’s a ton of information to read through and make plans for. Many online blogs were really helpful! One tip for traveling with kids is take a 3-day best of guide and cut out half of it to make it actually realistic. When taking trips with kids, a key to enjoying the trip is really spending time on the planning process. That’s not to say that every minute is planned but we don’t want to waste time looking up times or directions and not having a plan. We also made sure to add some sights that we as a family were interested in and asked for advice from friends who had made a similar trip. We spent 4 nights in Seoul and had 3 full days of exploring. Several months before, I sketched out our plan in excel and on google maps with a balance of activities, rest time, food, rest, and fun. We made sure to research how far areas were and tried to schedule several anchor points with a few optional activities so we didn’t overstuff our schedule. Overview Day 0: Arrival evening, settle into hotel Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Day 4: Fly out to our next destination, Japan! Other reconmmend spots we’ll save for next time Gwangjang market Additional palaces Han River Boat cruise Cafe hopping in Bukchon, Insadong, and Ikseodong neighborhoods DMZ tour Art, Science, and Children museums Day trip to Nami Island Amusement parks Everland, Lotte World Other parts of Korea: Busan, Jeju Flying to Seoul Prior to this portion of our trip, we spent some time in Hawaii visiting family. We were able book cash flights to Seoul Non-stop on Hawaiian Airlines. Our flights were 10 hours and the one-way flights were $650 each. We use miles for a lot of trips and we did use miles for our Japan to Nashville portion. Its not all or nothing. We were able to save money in other ways on this trip and decided to pay cash for this portion. We used the Chase Sapphire Reserve to get more points for our next trip! See more detailed tips on using points and miles here. Long flight tips: Sleeping on planes West to East: Plan to sleep! For the overnight red-eye flight, we emphasized that after dinner service, everyone was going to try and get some sleep. I gave each kid a dose of melatonin and they passed out pretty immediately. We packed these cheap pillows from Amazon (They came with eye masks!). On arrival, get outside and try to limit naps so you can readjust. For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here. Headphones Melatonin Airplane pillows Activities for long flights East to West On the long flight, the kids were happy playing with the personal screen and alternating between coloring, reading, tv, games, and snacks. Ellie has been loving the Magic Treehouse books and when they were little, they used to love activities in the Magic Ink and small play pack coloring books (Amazon links). We have one Nintendo Switch that the kids love. For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here. Grand Hyatt Seoul- Itaewon We had a wonderful stay at the Grand Hyatt Seoul. We booked a basic room using cash ($250/night) and used a suite upgrade award (from status) to get a suite with a separate living space for the kids. We used our Hyatt credit card to get points for future Hyatt stays. You can also use points from this stay. You can earn Hyatt points from Hyatt stays, the Hyatt credit card and Chase points which can be transferred to Hyatt. Learn more about points here. Chase Sapphire Preferred Apply Here Chase Sapphire Reserve Apply Here Chase Hyatt Apply Here We love having suites on hotel stays. Some space to spread out is lovely. We even set up the kids TV with the nintendo switch! For more on sleeping on vacations, see this post here. In addition to having the suite upgrade, our Hyatt globalist status gave us some cool perks. The hotel was gorgeous with a beautiful pool. There was a kids area (not drop-off) and spa that we didn’t take advantage of on this trip. Everyone was so kind and we were received a welcome gift of wine, and pastries along with a hand-written note. The hotel was grand (haha

Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market

Background In July 2023, our family visited Seoul, South Korea! This has been at the top of our family wish list for a few years. In the last few years, k-drama watching for Jenn has made it jump higher on the list. We visited in late July and combined this trip with a Hawaii visit and 5 days in Japan. This post covers our 3rd full day in Seoul and visits to Gangnam, COEX aquarium, and Myeongdong Night Market. Read all of our 2023 Korea/Japan posts at the following links: Seoul, South Korea: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Kyoto, Japan: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Kyoto Day 1: Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Osaka: Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Dotonbori Kyoto Day 2: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Kyoto Day 3:Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri Gallery Kyoto Day 4: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Starfield Library Gangnam: About a 30 minute cab ride from our hotel area is the Gangnam area. Gangnam means south of the river. This area is very fancy and trendy. It has become more famous since the Psy song, Gangnam style. We spent the morning at the Coex mall. Here we took some pictures and oohed and ahhed at the starfield library. Kind of a bookstore, kind of just an instagram spot, it was a sight included in many of the must-do lists. Nearby, we also visited a large statue of the gangnam hands where the song played on loop. The kids were actually familiar with the song from past weddings lol! COEX Aquarium COEX aquarium: As part of the mall, there is also a huge movie theater and an aquarium in the mall. There are several throughout Seoul. This one was really fun! It had a stamp book to encourage walking through the exhibits and some cool features such as a room with framed art with the fish inside, a turtle section, a mermaid show, and some octonauts theming. The kids appreciated being indoors after a few days of more adult-focused touring. For lunch, we went to the nearby Hyundai Mall food court area where we got a variety of yummy foods like musubi, cutlet, egg, fried chicken, tteokbokki and mochi. Myeongdong night market: In the evening, we went back to the Myeongdong area where we had a delicious KBBQ grilled dinner and wandered some small market stands selling grilled lobster, fruit, squid, chicken, ice cream, and so much more! More Asia 2023 Posts Read all of our 2023 Korea/Japan posts at the following links: Seoul, South Korea: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Kyoto, Japan: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Kyoto Day 1: Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Osaka: Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Dotonbori Kyoto Day 2: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Kyoto Day 3:Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri Gallery Kyoto Day 4: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple

Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae cafes

Background In July 2023, our family visited Seoul, South Korea! This has been at the top of our family wish list for a few years. In the last few years, k-drama watching for Jenn has made it jump higher on the list. We visited in late July and combined this trip with a Hawaii visit and 5 days in Japan. This post covers our second full day in Seoul and visits Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanghwamun Square, and Hongdae Cafes. Read all of our 2023 Korea/Japan posts at the following links: Seoul, South Korea: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Kyoto, Japan: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Kyoto Day 1: Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Osaka: Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Dotonbori Kyoto Day 2: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Kyoto Day 3:Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri Gallery Kyoto Day 4: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae cafes Hanbok Rental Hanbok Rental: This was one of the highlights of our trip! We rented outfits for 2 hours and walked to the palace across the street. We used a company called chambok. Outfits were 10-20 each for the 2 hours and it also came with some small hair decorations. The ahjummas were so sweet and helped us pick our outfits and get dressed. Ellie was a princess and Carter loved dressing up as a magistrate. From here we walked half a block to the palace Gyeongbokgung Palace Gyeongbokgung Palace: The palaces have free entry if you’re wearing a hanbok outfit. About a quarter of the visitors were wearing hanboks. It was so fun people-watching and sightseeing while dressed up. The palace was gorgeous, although busy. There are a few short guard changing ceremonies at different times throughout the day. It was hot hot hot and we didn’t time a tour or get a lot of context but it was fun to walk through the buildings and take pictures. We only stayed about an hour Gwanghwamun Square Gwanghwamun Square: Right across the street from the palace, there’s a small square with large statues. Gwanghwamun Square is mainly known for its two landmark statues? The King Sejong the Great of Joseon and Admiral Yi Sun-shin. Its a popular spot for K-drama films including memories of the alhambra where the statues come to life in a VR game. Very fun! From here, we caught a taxi to Hongdae (This was a 30 minute drive) Hongdae Cafes Hongdae Cafes: This neighborhood was so fun! On the main streets, there were tons of cute shops and activities. We stopped for a fantastic lunch of grilled meat that was really cheap. Per the recommendation of a friend, we stopped at 2 cafes. The first was a meerkat cafe where you could pay a fee and pet animals such as racoons, kangaroos, and meerkats! FYI, you had to be 7 to play in the meerkat room and Ellie was too young. We still had fun watching and seeing the other animals. We also went to a harry potter themed cafe! It was a little pricey as drinks purchases were required for each person. There were several floors of sights to visit and some cute visuals but only a small interactive robe section and the kids weren’t familiar with Harry potter. The hongdae atmosphere was really fun with lots of people hanging out including some dancers in the streets. There is also a cooking show called NANTA that was recommended on many of the blogs I read. Itaewon dinner: Near the hotel, we had some pork cutlet and pastries at a shop near our hotel. If we had more energy, it would have been great to go out to one of the night markets to explore but we were pretty tired. More Asia 2023 Posts Read all of our 2023 Korea/Japan posts at the following links: Seoul, South Korea: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Kyoto, Japan: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Kyoto Day 1: Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Osaka: Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Dotonbori Kyoto Day 2: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Kyoto Day 3:Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri Gallery Kyoto Day 4: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple