Family Traveler Spotlight is the section of our publication where we profile families who love taking their children along on their travel adventures. In this edition, we meet Tracy Morris of The Blonde Nomads. She shares with us her family’s experiences sleeping under the stars in Byron Bay and enjoying breakfast with koalas on Hamilton Island, and why the “wow aren’t we so lucky to be here” experiences are the greatest luxuries of all.
Interested in having your family featured in Family Traveler Spotlight? Email us at editorial@topflightfamily.com
Tell us about your family.
Hi – we are The Blonde Nomads! Tracy and Rob along with Marli our 4 year old daughter and Ziggy our 1 year old son.
Where do you live when you’re not traveling?
Sydney, Australia
What type of work do you and your partner do?
We work alongside brands and travel destinations as ambassadors and social influencers. As well as caring for our mini blondies, I also write for travel publications and work as a photographer, while Rob is a carpenter/ builder when we are not on the road.
Tell us about The Blonde Nomads.
On The Blonde Nomads, we share our unique adventures to holiday destinations as well as highlight video/movie clips. These stories and clips help give you an insight on how you can travel with little ones and hopefully inspire you to plan an adventure of your own. We also share traveling tips and recommendations.
Why do you believe in traveling the world with your children?
Our main goal as a family is to unplug from modern technology as much as possible and provide a hands on learning environment for our little ones. We think there are so many amazing things to see and do in the world so why not do it together as a family! Stepping away from the 9 to 5 working rat-race and spending quality time together is important to us.
Luxury means different things to different people. How do you define luxury when it comes to traveling with your family?
For us, luxury means feeling good – spoilt and happy. This doesn’t necessarily mean in a 5 star location but simply watching a beautiful sunset together on the beach or witnessing something amazing like baby turtles hatching from their nest – it’s the ‘wow aren’t we so lucky to be here’ experiences that make us feel good and fills our ‘luxury’ tank.
What’s the best travel experience your family has ever had?
Not to sound cliche but all of them have been amazing and have their memorable moments! I think thats why we love what we do! Some stand out experiences include exploring the stunning beaches while in The Cook Islands above and below the water, watching the baby turtles emerge from their nests on Heron Island and simply sleeping under the stars with a campfire in Byron Bay while road tripping in NSW Australia.
What’s your favorite family-friendly luxury hotel?
We loved our stay at the Reef View on Hamilton Island. The whole experience of our adventure to Hamilton was really child friendly, from our easy airport transfers to the amazing swimming pools, free island bus and kids under 12 eat free! The kids loved the Cockatoos visiting our balcony each morning and the breakfast experience where you share your meal with the koalas at the wildlife park.
What three items do you never travel without?
Our baby carrier, snacks for the kids and Baby wipes!! ..and of course our camera!! Oh and hats/suncream!! …we do take a lot with us but thats the thing with traveling with kids – you do need to bring a lot of ‘stuff’!
What’s your favorite online travel resource?
We love Instagram!! It is a great resource for travel insights, tips from locals and connecting with others. We have met some amazing people via our Instagram account @theblondenomads!
What’s the worst mistake you see other parents making when traveling?
We have seen some families push their kids too far by not factoring in some rest/down time for their mini adventurers. As much as you want to get the most out of your holiday and see everything on your list, sometimes you need to prioritize and not do so much. Sometimes you can’t help but do a few long days but if we do, we always ensure we include a rest day or downtime to follow, that way our kids are at their best and enjoy the magic of travel as much as we do.
What’s on your travel bucket list?
We’d love to take the kids to Bali and Hawaii. And back to Vanuatu after we went their for our honeymoon back in 2011.
…Back in Oz we would love to explore Christmas Island and Lord Howe Island. We also plan to road trip to Western Australia as well as up to the tip of Australia to Cape York.
Read more from Tracy at The Blonde Nomads, and be sure to follow her on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.