Family Cycling Adventure in Northland, New Zealand (Video)
On Christmas Eve 2016 we left Vancouver and hopped on a 14 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Skipping Christmas altogether, we landed in sunny NZ with our bikes, trailer, and Neil, our almost two year old toddler. We decided to head north from Auckland to an area called Northland where we spent the next month cycling. Despite the narrow and hilly roads we had a great time. Incredible views, long sandy beaches, too much fish n’ chips, and many friendly Kiwis all around.
- British Columbia (and nearby), Downhill Skiing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Okanagan, Trips with Kids, Videos
Teaching a Two Year Old How to Ski
It all started kind of accidentally. We were on our way to Mt. Baker for the Family Day long weekend back in February. On the way there Gili and I were talking about how funny it would be if Neil would try skiing. We both agreed he’s probably too young and we should wait till next year to start him skiing. Boy, were we wrong. I guess that being originally from Israel we still don’t have the Canadian mind frame of how young kids can actually start skiing. You see, both Gili and I started skiing at age 26 (!) right after we moved to Vancouver. We figured that since…
A Mini-Guidebook to Cycle Touring with a Baby/Toddler
Recently a few people asked us about cycle touring in general and more specifically about cycle touring with a baby. Since the questions keep piling up we figured we’d put together a blog post about our recent experiences of cycle touring with our son Neil. Neil turned two in February and we have cycled with him in four overseas countries and have also done some short trips close to home, in British Columbia, and the nearby Washington state. Every time we go on a cycling trip with him we are amazed by how easy it is, and even though the worries keep on building up before the trip, once we start…
New Zealand: Cycling the Wild Far North
Some people know how to take a vacation. They book a week or ten days in a resort or a hotel, spend some time on the beach, eat well and have a good time. Or they travel in style to Europe, hopping between ten cities in ten days, seeing all the important sights. For some reason we are not those people. Some years ago we became addicted to cycle touring, and having a kid hasn’t seemed to change it so far. There is something about travelling slow and into the unknown that just appeals to us. So I guess when we chose New Zealand as our winter travel destination we…
Victoria: A Wet Ride and a Warm Stay
On the last weekend in November, literally hours before selling our car, we headed to Victoria for the weekend. Of course, the car only served us to reach Tsawwassen – from there we were on our bikes, as usual. We had about 7 km to ride to the ferry terminal and our mission was to keep Neil awake so he would fall asleep on the other side. That included leaving his trailer open and it was very cold. He wasn’t the happiest camper, but once we arrived to the Kids Zone on the ferry everything was better again. Those Kids Zones have proved themselves to be very useful. After getting…
Family Cycling Journey to Brittany, France (Video)
In September 2016 we set off on a three week cycling trip in France with our 18 months old toddler and his balance bike. We explored Brittany from the capital Rennes along canals and greenways to Roscoff and then along the north coast to Brest. We all had an amazing time and enjoyed the French cuisine and wonderful bakeries.
Seattle: Post Election Weekend of Urban Cycling Exploration
It was a stressful week with the US elections taking over everything and everywhere. For some reason, not in my worst nightmares, did I ever think Donald Trump would become the next president. I followed the elections a little bit (because how could you not), and after the second debate I just decided that there was no way this bully was going to win. I guess I am still an optimist inside, but sometimes you just fall on your face. We still decided to go ahead with our plans to go to Seattle for the long weekend. So the atmosphere on the streets wouldn’t be as cheerful as we hoped, but…
Travel Tips: How to Travel on the Cheap Side
The most common question we are asked about our travels is: “How do you afford to travel so much?”. Our usual response is that we don’t travel nearly as much as we’d like to… More seriously, here are some tips on how you too can travel cheaply for long periods of time. Most people think Hawaii is expensive, but our two week trip to the Big Island was one of our cheapest yet. We spent a total of $20 on our accommodations. How so? Well, we spent most of the nights camping for free at county campgrounds or on deserted beaches, and a few nights with hosts from Couchsurfing and…
France: Cycling in the Place Where You Can’t Go Wrong
We heard from several people that “you can’t go wrong” when going to France. However it seemed that in the beginning everything was going wrong. We arrived early in the morning to Paris after hardly getting any sleep on the flight. The flight was long but went well. We had an extra seat for Neil so it was a lot easier than to hold him on our lap the whole time. I discovered a while ago (or rather, he discovered) that stickers keep him busy for a long time, so I bought a dollar store worth of stickers to take with us on the flight. I think that by the…
Pacific Spirit Ride: Balance Bike in the Forest (Video)
Back in August we took Neil for a ride in Pacific Spirit Park. He is getting quite good on his balance bike, but it was his first ride in the forest and he had a great time. I created a short clip of the ride.
