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Monica

Hi, I'm Monica! This is my family lifestyle blog where I share posts about motherhood and microadventures.

  Stepping out of the airport at Male was like stepping into a holiday brochure – you know the kind of brochure where you’re sure every photo must be highly edited because there’s no way the ocean could be that blue. Someone’s upped the saturation here, right? That turquoise ocean was directly in front of …

Read More about Arriving in Paradise at Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu

“Is this whole place ours? The whole thing? Nah, it can’t be.” We’d followed the directions James Villas had sent us perfectly. We’d even put the address into the satnav in our hire car to make doubly sure we didn’t get lost. Yet here we were, sat outside a Portuguese mansion and wondering where we …

Read More about My Portuguese Pad with James Villas

Here at The Travel Hack we like to think we’re great at digging out unusual destinations to add to your travel wish list. We love cities like Paris, Barcelona and London but there’s nothing like visiting a quieter and less known destination for a more authentic and much more affordable option! Today we’d like to …

Read More about Travel Wish list: Picardy, France

When you tell people you’re a travel blogger the first thing they inevitably ask is, ‘Where’s your favourite place?’ To which we’d promptly reply, ‘How can you choose!? There are too many!’ Favourite places can depend on so many things such as the weather, who you’re with, how you’re feeling, what’s going on at work …

Read More about The Travel Hack’s Favourite Destinations…EVER!

Do you want to know what goes on behind the scenes in the life of a travel blogger? I’d love to tell you that it’s all sunset selfies, exotic holidays and brunches in beautiful places. Some of the time it is, but most of the time it isn’t! This is why I’ve decided to finally …

Read More about Behind the scenes with a travel blogger – Join me on Snapchat

Have you ever been to a festival where the star of the show isn’t the headline act but the location? How about a festival where the food is so good you wish you could grow a second (or third) stomach so you could try everything? What about a festival where you constantly stumble upon surprise …

Read More about The epicness of Festival Number 6, Portmeirion

Earlier this summer, LateRooms.com launched a memorable moments competition whereby they asked us to share our memorable photographs. Entrants were asked to send them in via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the #LateRoomsMoment hashtag. There were so many amazing moments entered with gorgeous photos that captured your summer perfectly. These are the photos you want …

Read More about Announcing the #LateRoomsMoment photography competition winner

Sign up here to receive updates about my 12-week blogger e-course Last weekend I had the honour of speaking at Blogstock, the world’s only blogging festival. It’s a mixture between a blogging conference, with talks and workshops to help improve your blogging skills, and an actual festival with tents and live music and great food …

Read More about How to be a 6-figure blogger – Part 1

We’ve all heard of Booking.com, the booking fabulous website for hotels. They’re now known for their cheeky adverts that make you do a double take and say, ‘Did he just say what I think he said!? Before the watershed…?’ But do you know about Villas.com, the equally fabulous website for (would you believe it) booking …

Read More about Review: Using Villas.com for a villa or apartment getaway

This competition has been extended until October 8th! Who hasn’t dreamt about a luxury holiday in the Maldives? A real tropical paradise style holiday with white sand and turquoise sea. The kind of place with luxurious villas on stilts over the lagoon, cocktails sipped under palm trees and dinner eaten under the stars. I don’t know about …

Read More about Name a Sea Turtle and Win a Luxury Getaway to Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu in the Maldives #Shellmemyname

It’s been forever since I’ve written any kind of personal update and I’ve had a few lovely emails asking how I’m getting on with the epic renovation project. It was the end of last year when I told you about my house. Yes, we bought a house! But it’s not just a house, it’s the …

Read More about The house renovation project: Eight months on…

Check out my 12-week blogger e-course if you’re interested in becoming a full time blogger. ‘Niche’. Urgh, it’s a horrible word. But it’s a word I’ve been saying A LOT recently. I’ve been speaking at a few blogger events and conferences and the word ‘niche’ keeps coming up. Why? Because having a niche when blogging …

Read More about How to find your travel blogging niche

  It’s been all over the news recently about how expensive it is to use your phone when you’re abroad. Well duh, we all know this but it’s still easy to get sucked in to using your phone and wracking up a massive bill. A selfie a day on Instagram could add up to an …

Read More about What’s the best UK mobile network when you’re abroad?

When you tell someone you’re a travel blogger the first thing you’re asked is, ‘Where’s your favourite place?’ The second thing you’re ask is, ‘What’s your top travel tip?’ Its impossible to name your favourite place in the world but we can share our top travel tips! So here you have it, The Travel Hack’s …

Read More about The Travel Hack’s Ultimate Travel Tips

If you’ve been following along on Instagram you will have seen that I’ve just returned from an incredible 3-day trip to Iceland. Actually, ‘incredible’ doesn’t do it justice. It was an unforgettable, once in a lifetime, ‘tell-it-to-the-grandchildren-in-50-years-time’ kind of incredible. I was away for a long weekend and it was actually only 36 hours spent …

Read More about The most incredible 3 days in Iceland – EVER

Today’s blog is a Forest Holidays Review from my gorgeous stay with Forest Holidays at their Sherwood Forest location. We have had two family holidays with Forest holidays, the first being to Sherwood Forest in the summer and the second was to Forest Holidays Ardgartan Argyll in Scotland in the winter. They were both very …

Read More about Forest Holidays Sherwood Forest Review

Sign up here to receive updates about my 12-week blogger e-course   One of the hardest things about travel blogging is that you’re so busy travelling you don’t have time to blog. You may notice a lot of the full time travel bloggers travel very slowly and will schedule in a couple of days each …

Read More about How to keep up with your travel blog while you’re travelling

  In theory, Iceland shouldn’t be this beautiful. Iceland is a harsh, lonely country. It’s volcanic and rugged with vast spaces of desolate land. There are very few trees and it can be hard to differentiate between the grey of the cloud and the grey of the earth. The land is flat for miles and …

Read More about My Geothermal Helicopter Tour in Iceland

  We all love travelling in the summer, especially in Europe when the weather is at its best and there’s an exciting vibe in the cities. Everyone is outdoors, soaking up the sun and making the most of the balmy evenings. American Express® has created Hello Europe, a hub dedicated to providing Card members with …

Read More about 5 Alternative City Breaks in Europe

Last month I had an incredible 5-night stay at Tregarthens Hotel on St Mary’s island, the largest of the Isles of Scilly. I was travelling with Sam and our four-month old son, George. We’ve stayed in a few hotels with George already but Tregarthens was the best by a million, trillion miles. (Yes, it was …

Read More about Tregarthens Hotel Review: A St Mary’s Hotel, Isles of Scilly – The best hotel when travelling with a baby

Yesterday I had the pleasure of popping up to Leeds for a day of blogging and networking. Icelolly, the holiday price comparison site, invited a fabulous group of bloggers to their offices for a beach themed day. There were cocktails, palm trees, more cocktails, sun loungers and…yep…more cocktails. It was a lot of fun and …

Read More about Blogging at the Beach with Icelolly #BlogAtTheBeach

  Now there’s a blog post title I never thought I’d type. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy. There are a million and one summer beauty products designed for fully-grown adults, why would you use baby beauty products? Since George was born I’ve actually found some baby products are not only cheaper but also much better …

Read More about Summer beauty products I’m stealing from my baby

  Did anyone else have grand plans to start a fitness regime in preparation for their summer holiday? I’d planned to start mine in May…then I pushed it back to June…then July…and now my summer holiday is just six weeks away and I’m in desperate need of a kick up the bum. (I have a …

Read More about Easy heath and fitness tips to get holiday fit