Episode 100 Slow Travel With a Baby and a Dog

In episode 100 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy is joined by Riana Ang-Canning, the travel writer behind Teaspoon of Adventure, to talk about long term slow travel with a young family.

Riana and her husband Colin spent nine months on the road with their baby daughter and their dog Ellie, basing themselves everywhere from Toronto to the Loire Valley, Brighton and London, with a week in Málaga for their daughter’s first birthday.

If you have ever wondered whether a much longer trip is possible once there is a baby or a pet in the picture, this is a warm, honest and very practical listen.

Riana shares how the family chose each base, what they booked ahead and what they left open, the real money side of staying put for weeks at a time, and the moments that tested them, including a last minute visa setback that changed the whole plan.

It is a lovely conversation for anyone drawn to slower, more settled travel, and a fitting way to reach our 100th episode.

Click the blue button below to listen:

Episode 100 – What you’ll learn in this episode

• Why the family spent their first 10 weeks in Toronto as a gentle way to ease into travel before heading to Europe
• How a rejected French long stay visa, with passports returned just two business days before the flight, forced a complete pivot to the UK
• How they chose each base for being easy to reach by train from Paris and busy enough to fill four to ten weeks with a baby and dog in tow
• What made accommodation work for a long stay, from a full kitchen and laundry to space to crawl, and the hard lesson about stairs after a third floor London walk-up
• Why they never booked an Airbnb for less than 28 days, and how the monthly discount can quietly save you hundreds
• How slow travel lowers day to day costs through home cooking, a local supermarket loyalty card and gentler, cheaper days
• Why a longer stay gives you far more flexibility to book restaurants and activities closer to the time
• How travelling with a baby opened up unexpected social connections, from a baby swim class to friendly strangers on the London Tube
• What it really takes to move between bases with a baby, a dog and the luggage, and how Riana and Colin split the jobs
• The travel decisions they would not repeat, including a hire car road trip through Normandy in an unfamiliar electric car
• Riana’s honest packing mistakes, including sandals and summer clothes for a UK winter
• Her single biggest tip for anyone planning a long trip: give yourself permission to enjoy local life and drop the pressure to sightsee every day
• What is next for the family, including a hoped for return to Asia

Links

Guest information

• Teaspoon of Adventure – Riana’s travel blog, with itineraries and tips for everyday travellers
• Teaspoon of Adventure, Unfiltered – her Substack, with behind the scenes stories on family travel
• Riana on X

Mentioned in this episode

• Airbnb – where the family based their long stays, using the 28 day monthly discount.

Podcasts

• Episode 62: How to Plan Long Term Travel – Tracy and Doug on their own nine month trip
• Episode 57: 15 Essential Europe Travel Tips
• Episode 37: Tips for First-Time Visitors to France
• Global Travel Planning Podcast directory

Articles

• 9 Essential Tips for Visiting Paris for the First Time – Paris was the family’s first stop in Europe
• 1 Day in Paris (Paris in a Day Tour with Walks)
• Best Places in London for Afternoon Tea (London Travel Planning) – Riana treated herself to afternoon tea in London