20 October 2025 Steps: 3,561 (but we rowed a lot!) This morning we got up nice and early to go on the Trang An boat tour . This is the activity that Ninh Binh is best known for, and is one of the main reasons we decided to visit this area of Vietnam , so we were excited to finally get to experience it. There are quite a few different tours that you can do in the Ninh Binh area. In Tam Coc, there is a more budget friendly tour, which is generally considered not as scenic as th

19 October 2025 Steps: 8,371 We started the day with breakfast at our homestay , which included in the price. The girls and Susie had the banana pancakes and I tried Banh Cuon , which is a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of rolled rice pancakes with pork. It was really good! A traditional breakfast of rolled rice pancake with pork Bich Dong Pagoda Bich Dong pagoda was about a 15 minute Grab taxi ride to get there, and I had seen the part where you cross the lake, to the te

18 October 2025 Steps: 3,592 Today was meant to be a nice leisurely morning before heading to the train station in Hanoi to catch our train down to Ninh Binh. Well that went out of the window when I realized that I had lost my Wealthsimple card at the mall the day before ! Absolute disaster! Instead, I was rushing around trying to call the mall to find it, cancelling credit cards and trying to figure out how we are going to get a new card sent over to us by the bank. Let’s j

17 October 2025 Steps: 7,128 Well, today didn’t exactly go according to the spreadsheet itinerary! I unfortunately won the prize for the first ‘funny tummy ’ of the trip, so instead of heading back into Hanoi, which would have meant another hour-long taxi ride each way, we decided to stay at the hotel for the morning and really focus on some homeschooling . We’ve been struggling to find time for it with all the sightseeing lately, so it actually worked out quite well. In the

16 October 2025 Steps: 11,168 Today was our first day exploring Hanoi, and we caught a taxi to Hoàn Kiếm Lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi as the taxi's are so cheap here. It cost about $8 CAD for a 1 hour taxi ride using the Grab app . I still can't get over the traffic here, it's quite literally madness. Hanoi's Old Quarter First order of business was to find a place for breakfast, as we hadn't eaten anything before setting off in the taxi. We found this cute little place ca

15 October 2025 Steps: 8,199 We don't have too much to report today. We caught our flight to Vietnam around lunchtime, but arrived late in the afternoon in Vietnam, so we didn’t really have any time to explore aside from going out for dinner. The taxi to our hotel was almost an hour, and the driving is completely crazy ! The rules of the road seem to be “ just drive, they will avoid me ”, but the way that the bikes weave in and out between the cars, I can’t believe there ar

14 October 2025 Steps: 18,625 Today was a special day as we took the girls to the Hong Kong Disneyland for the first time . We aren’t big Disney people, and we really didn’t have any intention of going to the Florida Disneyland, but everything we read about the Hong Kong one was that it was cheaper, smaller, and a lot less busy , so we wouldn’t be spending time queuing for rides. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I would like it or not, but it was absolutely awesome and w

13 October 2025 Steps: 23,966 We visited the Big Buddha on Lantau Island about twenty years ago when we were travelling after university. It was one of our favourite experiences from that trip, so we really wanted to take the girls this time so they could see it for themselves. Maybe we’d built it up too much in our heads, but it ended up being a a slight disappointment. If we were to go again, there are definitely a few things we’d do differently - I’ll explain below. Gett

12 October 2025 Steps: 10,725 We had a bit of a lazy morning as the heavens opened and the rain started bouncing down . It was only meant to rain for an hour or so, but it kept going, so rather than stay in our room all morning we went down to the pool . It was actually kind of fun being in the pool and hot tub as the rain drops bounced down. Lunch at the Dim Sum Library In the afternoon we met up for with one of Susie’s school friends who now lives in Hong Kong for lunch at

11 October 2025 Steps: 18,193 After 11 nights in Japan, we arrived in Hong Kong . The days have flown by, but we're ready to experience a new country now, and have been looking forward to showing the girls Hong Kong for a long time as Susie was born here. Our hotel was close to Hong Kong Park so we started our day there. Hong Kong Park Me and Susie have visited Hong Kong together twice now, and we've walked around Hong Kong Park each time we've been here, but I forgot how stu

Explore Daigo-ji Temple on Day 10 of our RTW trip! Discover Kyoto's serene Daigo-ji, enjoy fluffy pancakes, and savor delicious curry!

Explore Daigo-ji Temple on Day 10 of our RTW trip! Discover Kyoto's serene Daigo-ji, enjoy fluffy pancakes, and savor delicious curry!

Explore Daigo-ji Temple on Day 10 of our RTW trip! Discover Kyoto's serene Daigo-ji, enjoy fluffy pancakes, and savor delicious curry!

7 October 2025 Steps: 24,187 Today was our biggest day yet (almost 25,000 steps), and while it was great to see so many amazing sights, we are all absolutely exhausted . Tomorrow we are just going to do a half day of sightseeing to try and recharge a bit, before heading down to Nara and Osaka, and then on to Hong Kong. Hokan-ji Temple (Yasaka Pagoda) We decided to walk straight to the famous Yasaka Pagoda viewpoint from our hotel, as we got a Google alert telling it was 'les

6 October 2025 Steps: 21,590 We had to check out of Ben's Guesthouse by 11am, so we got out quite early to visit one of the most famous temples in Kyoto - the Golden Palace, as it was quite near to our hotel, and we had enough time to fit it in before check out. Kinkaku-ji (Golden Palace) We got to Kinkaku-ji Golden Palace , just after it opened at 9am, but there was already a steady stream of tourists walking up the path to the entrance. The viewpoints were quite busy, bu

Welcome back to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days, sharing the real, unfiltered experience of long‑term travel with kids - the good moments, the chaotic moments, and everything in between. This is Day 7 of our journey, spent exploring Kyoto’s beautiful Arashiyama district in the rain! You can browse the full 100‑day contents list here, but for now, join us as we wander through Arashiyama's historic streets, visit

Welcome to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary ! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days , documenting each step so other families can get an honest, real‑life look at long‑term travel with kids - the highs, the chaos, and everything in between . This is Day 6 of our journey, where we wrapped up our time in Tokyo with an incredible cooking, calligraphy and origami class called 'Homecoming TAKA', before catching the famous Shinkansen to Kyoto. You can bro

Welcome to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary ! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days , documenting each step so other families can get an honest, real‑life look at long‑term travel with kids - the highs, the chaos, and everything in between . This is Day 5 of our Japan adventure, where we crammed as much as we could into our final full day in Tokyo - exploring temples, markets, and museums while making the most of every moment in this incredible part

Explore Shinjuku Tokyo on Day 4 of our RTW trip. Discover Shibuya, Meiji Jingu & Shinjuku Tokyo with us. Join our travel adventure!

Follow our third day on our 100 day family sabbatical RTW trip. We spent time exploring Ginza, Zojo-ji Temples and the Tokyo Tower