While we prepare to travel anywhere, short or long, we all make plans. Be it a 2-hour drive or a 2-day travel, especially with kids. How to pack compactly, baby-friendly places that can be visited, which is the best route, where to stay, the list is endless. Travel Mad Mum is a travel blog that has all these covered and some more. This was the also the first travel blog that I had fell in love with.

Travel Mad Mum

Meet Karen and Shaun, the Travel Mad couple. Karen, while on maternity leave, in 2015, started their travel blog, Travel Mad Mum, while traveling with her husband, Shaun, and 10-month old baby, Esmé. Though Karen is from Dublin, Ireland and Shaun from Auckland, New Zealand, they had been living in London, UK, during that time, where Karen worked as a nurse and Shaun, a builder. Shaun, had started his own Instagram page, Travel Mad Dad to capture their beautiful moments. Their first trip was a seven-week backpacking trip through SE Asia and as they say, the rest is history.

Karen and Shaun had met in London and bonded over their love for travel. Both of them had traveled a lot from very early on in their relationship. Their love for travel, helped them decide to do the same with their baby during their baby gap year or maternity leave. For this, they worked extra, late into the pregnancy as well to have enough savings. But it ensured they had more time with baby Esmé while traveling before they had to resume work again.

The Blog – Travel Mad Mum

Karen and Shaun started the blog, Travel Mad Mum at first, to keep their loved ones updated about where they were visiting so that they didn’t miss seeing Esmé growing up. But soon they realized, they were in a position of giving good advice on traveling with a baby. The blog became a chart-topper and they won the “UK travel blog of the year award” in 2017.

I have attached the blog link below.

• https://travelmadmum.com/

Even when her maternity leave was over, they traveled all over the world whenever possible. And when they had their second baby, Quinn, they repeated the same strategy but started even earlier at 9.5 weeks. This time, their first international destination was Canada. They also drove the pan American highway from Canada to Argentina, which in itself is major road-trip goal.

Travel Tips

The tips that this travel blog has to offer are mind-blowing. Whether we are looking for the best places to travel in a continent or country, or baby-friendly places that we can stay, or the best travel gear while traveling, or even the best way to pack for a family of 4 in a piece of single checked luggage, you name it, and voila it is here.

The advice that we can read on how to travel with a baby or with children, show us the amount of planning that they have done and succeeded. Or some of them, that they learned while travelling, is shared with us so that we don’t make the same mistakes. Coming from somebody who has successfully explored more than half the globe, these tried and tested methods do guarantee some assurance.

Together, in their 16 years of adventure, they have visited 89 countries, of which 51 were with their children. They have made road trips in 8 countries across 5 continents, up mountains, sometimes along roads less traveled. This family has flown to more than 40 countries across 6 continents around the globe.

They have swum in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, did backpacking with a baby, and overnight safari with a toddler.

Bertie – The Renovated RV

Karen and Shaun bought Bertie the RV off eBay for £4k GBP. Since the RV was not in a good condition, they renovated it in about 18 months. This was done during the pandemic time. Since Shaun was a builder, he was the person behind all the renovations done in Bertie.

Though Shaun and Karen had successfully renovated 3 other properties before this, Bertie was their dearest and challenging one. Considering, they had to renovate an RV suitable for a family of 4 people and that this was being done in the middle of a pandemic, the difficulties that they overcame were innumerable.

The YouTube vlog on their renovation of Bertie can be found below.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWgk3ftrvOk

Shaun had shared the progress of renovations in stories of his Instagram page, Travel Mad Dad as well.

• https://www.instagram.com/travelmaddad/

Though their initial idea was to renovate it and then travel through Europe, Central Asia and South East Asia, in Bertie, plans changed towards 2021.

New Adventures Of Travel Mad Mum & Dad

This time they have traveled to UAE (United Arab Emirates). Karen started working as the Director of Nursing in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE. The reason behind their change of plans was that Shaun was diagnosed with Raynaud’s disease which made living in London difficult. As low temperatures could be a trigger, they decided to move to a country with a warmer climate.

They had packed an extra happy bundle when they moved to UAE. Karen was pregnant and they were happily surprised by twin surprises. They turned into a family of 6 in January 2022 with an addition of a boy and girl, Fern & Fíonn.

Right now, their daily adventures are with their newborns and can be seen in their Instagram and Facebook pages which I have linked below.

• https://www.instagram.com/travelmadmum/
• https://www.facebook.com/travelmadmum
• https://www.instagram.com/travelmaddad/

What part of the world will this Travel Mad Mum and family be off to next? Like you, I too can’t wait to know. All the best wishes from The Anish Girls to this beautiful family.