Advertisement feature with the Aviva Community Fund. Did you spot my recent social posts supporting the Aviva Community Fund? To help build stronger communities, Aviva offers local groups the chance to apply for much-needed funding for community projects in areas just like yours! About Aviva Community Fund The fund allows local groups to enter for the chance to secure funding which ranges from up to £1,000 to £25,000 – money that can make a real difference. Local projects enter in one of three categories; Health & Wellbeing, Environment or
Advertisement feature written in collaboration with Nickelodeon Treasure Hunt & Malta Tourist Authority If you follow Zena’s Suitcase on Instagram or you saw this blog post you have might already spotted that we visited Malta to go and check out the all new Nickelodeon Treasure Hunt this April. It was our first time visiting Malta and to be there for the premiere of the Nickelodeon Treasure Hunt was super exciting for all of us. We spent our first morning taking it slow, wandering around St George’s Bay, near the Intercontinental
This advertisement feature was written in collaboration with LEGO City When we received an invitation to the attend the LEGO City Hero Academy event at the London Transport Museum I knew that myself and the girls had to attend. They both already love LEGO just as much as their older brother did when he was growing up, which I simply adore. LEGO has made huge strides in appealing to girls and boys with a number of its collections, and it’s a toy that is going to be enjoyed in our house
At some point in your life, you may want to have some personal ‘me time’ away from the normal routine. Whether the routine involves taking care of the family, going to work or managing your business, the effects of normal everyday living will eventually create stress and can wear you out. If you feel this start to happen, it’s definitely the time to pamper yourself and retreat to a location where you can recuperate and recharge your human batteries. Going on a holiday specifically for a personal self nourishment retreat
Ad – Written in Partnership with Keetoo app I do love visiting London with the family for the day, but when there are 4 of you to consider, the cost of tickets to attractions and eating out can soon mount up. On our recent trip to London, we were asked to try out Keetoo, a new money saving London travel app, during our day out. This post is all about our experience of using Keetoo and the money we saved on our London travel. Using the Keetoo App to Visit
I love city breaks, and if you follow me on Instagram you will know that I’ve recently been on a weekend away to Berlin to see the fantastic new show by Chameleon Theatre, Memories of Fools. I’ve visited Berlin numerous times now, and I’ve spent serval city breaks in London, Liverpool, York and various other cities over the years. Given the number of city breaks on my list it’s about time I talked about what to pack for a weekend away. Space in a weekend suitcase is often
We’ve been making some changes to our living space recently. We wanted to make full use of the living space we had and the current layout wasn’t doing that. Sofa’s and chairs have been moved around and we were interested to see what impact adding a kids bean bags would have on our room & lifestyle. The lovely people over at Bean Bag Bazaar very kindly sent us a gorgeous fluffy bean bag for the kids to try out. This particular bean bag is the ICON® Luxury Faux Fur Kids Classic Bean
AD – Press Trip featuring the Nickelodeon Treasure Hunt in Malta Hello lovely readers! I hope you are having a fantastic Easter break so far. I know excitement is running very high in our house and we wanted to make sure you were completely up to speed with what’s going on! We made a big announcement over on Instagram stories earlier and you are very welcome to go and take a peek at me breaking the news to the girls there. On Friday we are going to be flying to
So Indie was 7 years old recently, and the lovely people at L.O.L Surprise sent her the new L.O.L Surprise DIY Glitter Factory as an extra special treat. I love how L.O.L Surprise are getting more and more creative with their range and we loved being given the opportunity to review their new toy. L.O.L Surprise DIY Glitter Factory So glitter is life, right? Well it is when you are 7 years old! We love the L.O.L Surprise Glitter Series and this Glitter Factory takes things to a whole new level. Before
I wanted to share with you a review of our hotel stay at El Pueblo Tamlelt in Agadir incase you were going to book your next holiday there. It’s a budget hotel in the Caribbean Village Agador complex where we stayed while on our recent holiday in Morocco. I would definitely describe this hotel as an affordable option for people wanting to go on holiday in Agadir. We picked a budget hotel as we hoped that we would be out and about exploring Agadir independently and going on days out
If you are planning a holiday or vacation with kids, having some travel toys in your hand luggage, suitcase or travel bag is going to help things go a lot more smoothly. Kids have a pretty short attention span for travelling so having the best travel toys to hand during your trip can really help keep boredom at bay. Nobody wants a stressful journey, so whether it’s travel toys for toddlers or best travel toys for babies you are looking for, this list of toys, games and ideas will help you
You may have guessed if you have followed my blog for a while that I’m a huge fan of the Chamäleon Theatre in Berlin. If you are pretty new around here, then you might be wondering why I’m sharing a review of their latest show, Memories fo Fools? I hope this post will enlighten you! Why You Should Visit Berlin? If you haven’t visited Berlin, then personally I think it’s a European city break you should be adding to your list. Firstly, you can be in Berlin in less than
It’s taken me a while to think about how I wanted to approach sharing our family holiday in Agadir. As a family, we had very mixed feelings about our experience in this part of Morocco and I feel that it’s really important for us to acknowledge that in this blog post. The girls had a lovely holiday, but there were some aspects of this holiday that we found challenging. We travelled to Agadir with our 4 and 6 year old daughters in February and we were very excited to be
It was Indie’s birthday at the weekend, so we decided to head over to the Red Kangaroo Trampoline Park in Nottingham to celebrate. We’ve not been to a trampoline park as a family before so this was a first for all of us. What is Red Kangaroo Trampoline Park Like? Getting to Red Kangaroo We drove to Red Kangaroo as it is on Blenheim Industrial Estate which is about 30 minutes from our house by car. There is a bus stop about a 10 minute walk away if you want
The beautiful capital city of Austria, Vienna, is considered one of the most charming cities in the world. No wonder it is one of the most popular places to visit in Europe among many tourists. Maybe it is its prime location in Central Europe. Maybe it’s because of the fact that it has a long and incredible history in terms of culture and the arts, which is still widely celebrated in the theatres and concert halls not only in Austria, but all over the world. Not only is it a
We love the opportunity to pop into town, so when we were invited to review Red Dog Saloon restaurant in Nottingham I knew we couldn’t say no. Finding good places for family dining is important to us, so we went along one Sunday with the girls to check out the restaurant. Red Dog Saloon is in a great location on Victoria Street where the Lace Market meets Hockley in Nottingham’s city centre. It’s a stones throw from the Lace Market tram stop and there’s also a bus stop just down
You work hard all year round to support yourself and those that you love the most. So when it comes time to take a holiday, you want it to be an experience to remember! But how exactly can you achieve that goal? There are several aspects of planning a holiday and they all should be tackled one by one. Firstly, you should decide where you’ll be going. Secondly, you should decide on what time of year, or when you will be going. Thirdly, you should take into account activities and
Have you heard about Carddies yet? If you have been following our Instagram account or read our bumper post about tips for travelling with 2+ kids you might have guessed that we are huge fans of these little boxed colouring sets already. In the interests of full disclosure we were sent 2 sets of Carddies around Christmas time, and we found them brilliant for keeping the kids busy when we are out and about both at home or when we are travelling. Since we were gifted these first sets, we
Did you see our post on travel tips for visiting Agadir? I didn’t talk about navigating Agadir airport in that post, as given the experience we had there, I felt it deserved an article of its own. There are definitely some tips and tricks we had wished we had of known before landing at Agadir Airport, which would have made our experience of travelling with two kids a lot easier. These travel tips will help you with arriving into any airport in Morocco, but especially Agadir airport. If you are
Agadir is Morocco’s 3rd largest city and is a popular holiday destination on the southern Atlantic coast. There are a wide range of hotels to choose from here, and we stayed at El Pueblo Tamlelt (Caribbean Village) on our recent family holiday. You may be wondering if Agadir, Morocco is safe for a holiday, and I would say generally speaking that it is. However, there are some tips and tricks we learnt during our stay that will help you if you are planning to visit, especially if you are going
Something magical happens in the vicinity of a waterfall — the sounds of crashing water, the enchanting mists, the lush landscape of the surrounding area — which continues to compel travellers to seek out waterfalls wherever they go. The following waterfalls are well worth planning a trip around, just to experience that surreal appeal of falling water all travellers seem to enjoy. Angel Falls Named for the heavenly heights that this water falls from — as well as the divine light that illuminates the waterfall all morning — Angel Falls
This guest post is from Becky Goddard-Hill, who blogs at A Beautiful Space and Bukit (her brand new travel blog) Becky is the co-author of Create Your Own Happy, a happiness boosting book for kids age 7-11. Create Your Own Happy is full of activities to teaching kids how to make themselves happier other people happier and the world a happier place. Todays she is sharing her tips on how to help children be happy travellers, and I just know you are going to love it! Children are not always
Just because you are traveling the world, doesn’t mean it is not important to look good. Fashion and travel are very connected. By knowing how to look the part, you can stay comfortable when traveling to different destinations, all while looking gorgeous every step of the way. The most crucial fashion piece for travelers is a good pair of shoes. Well, it doesn’t have to be one pair; you can bring multiple pairs to a destination depending on how you will be spending your time there. You can have a
As the political landscape of the world changes, borders are moved or removed all together. Sometimes a country’s name is changed completely and as these things happen the list of countries that have disappeared grows longer and longer. It seems crazy to me that a country can be completely lost in time yet it happens and it doesn’t always mean conflict and chaos. Take Czechoslovakia for example. This country split fairly amicably in 1993 to become the Czech Republic and Slovakia mainly for economic and cultural reasons. For those of you that
We’ve all heard people say that eating carrots helps you see in the dark. But, there are actually a lot of foods that affect your eyesight. If you’re a parent, you want to be sure that you and your family are eating healthily in general, because your diet significantly affects your general health. Although carrots helping you see in the dark is not strictly true, there are lots of ways in which your diet affects your eyesight. To help you navigate the tricky world of food and how it affects
Our planet is filled with extraordinary places, and extraordinary experiences, just waiting for us to come along and explore them! Unfortunately, however, not all of us can afford to just pick up and take off. Don’t lose hope! There are ways where you can not only see the world, but do it on a pretty tight budget! Traveling is something I honestly believe every human should experience, regardless of financial background. Through my experiences, I’ve been able to put together some pointers to help you save big on your next
If you are planning a visit to Carlisle soon I’m super excited for you. This historic 2000 year old city has a lot going for it and is well worth a trip in it’s own right or adding to a UK holiday exploring the north west of England. With two areas of outstanding natural beauty and one UNESCO World Heritage site to shout about there’s lots of things to do in and near Carlisle during your time here. Carlisle has played a huge part in both England’s and Scotland’s history
Sydney is an amazing city and has so much to offer everyone visiting it. However, Australia is a massive country with so much fun to explore in its entirety. Thanks to this, there are plenty of amazing day and weekend trips that can be taken near Sydney. If it isn’t just a short drive or train away, cheap budget airline tickets are widely available to accommodate some of these awesome trips. Check out some of the best adventures you can take on the east coast! Best Weekend Trips from Sydney
I’m really excited to share this week’s episode of the Zena’s Suitcase podcast with you. As you might already be aware last week I appeared on BritMums Facebook Live where we talked about all the exciting things you can do with kids in Spain. I was a great discussion featuring Carrie from Flying with a Baby, Jen Howze from Jenography and co-founder of BritMums and Susanna Scott from A Modern Mother and also co-founder of BritMums. I was feeling really inspired by our travel talk about visiting Spain that I decided
Childs Farm is a brand that has been catching my attention more and more recently. All my kids have had sensitive skin at some point and I want to make sure that we use the best products we can for them. Childs Farm heard that we were going to be heading to Morocco very soon. I may have mentioned that once or twice already. They offered to send some travel toiletries over for the trip and I was super excited to be able to try out the new sun care
