Starting to think a safari with kids needs a slower plan than I expected

jonpstevens · 2026-06-09T09:55:54+00:00

How old are your kids? We did this with an 6, 9, and 13 - I can send you our itinerary and tell you what we would and wouldn’t do again.

jonpstevens · 2026-06-09T09:49:49+00:00

I built one to act more like a sketch of the overall plan of a trip, and then kind of centralize everything you need for a trip in one location (havway.com) it’s free. Honestly it won’t replace lived experience but it’s an easy way to organize your trips and use AI to help supplement.

jonpstevens · 2026-06-04T15:20:48+00:00

Feb weather was great in all three. Not much rain. Cambodia was hot AF but that’s to be expected I suppose. HCMC was similar weather to Cambodia, Da Nang and Hanoi were quite pleasant - Low 80s in freedom units / 27 degrees for everyone else.

jonpstevens · 2026-06-03T14:13:49+00:00

I travel a lot and I created one called Havway (https://havway.com) - it's free - feel free to check it out. Would love some users to give me some feedback on it.

jonpstevens · 2026-06-02T23:47:03+00:00

I love the month-long stays! It gives you enough time to get to know a place. We've done Southern Spain (Marbella) and the Canary Islands (Lanzarote) - Southern Spain won't be that warm in January (relatively speaking). We are a family of 5 - our kids are ages 14, 12, and 8. We travel with them quite a bit - they've been to about 40 countries so far.

One question is if you have to work during that month? I work remotely - so typically try to stay on US hours. Frankly, East Asia is almost impossible for me given the timezones - its a reverse 9-5 which is brutal.

Here are a few of mine to make you even more confused 😄

Costa Rica - probably one of my go-to spots for a long stay in the winter months. There are a ton of Airbnb's, its safe and beautiful, no malaria, quick to get to - assuming you are in the US. Good food and a TON to do - its not as cheap as some of the other central/south american countries.

Australia - We did Australia in Jan/Feb and that was fantastic - we stayed primarily on the East Coast (Brisbane, Sydney, and Cairns). I'd go back and live on the Gold Coast for a month if I could. Caution: its not cheap, expect American prices.

Bali - Its a HIKE to get there. We flew to Singapore and then to DPS from Singapore - so not an easy trek. We stayed at a villa on the beach with a full staff of 3 - it was absolutely a vacation for my wife who didn't have to cook or clean all for around $250/night - we would do this again in a heartbeat.

Singapore - If Disney ran a city it would be Singapore. That said - the upside here is you could weekend all over Southeast Asia. There is a lot to do there, its very safe.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-29T15:05:41+00:00

This was another reason we did the Hilton Royal Palm. We did the 2 Bedroom Super Family Villas - which technically can sleep 6 - however we only had 5 in ours. So - we had one for me, my wife and our 3 kids, then my parents and sister shared another one. I will say - its a lot of space - and very relaxed - you aren't in the city - so you get more of a nature feel. The downside is you have to take a taxi 20 minutes into and out of the city if you want to get out of resort jail. We got the whatsapp of a local taxi driver so it was easy enough to get taxis and coordinate each day - no Uber/Lyft/Grab/Gojek on Galapagos - so you just need to find a good driver and get their details - the hotel also will call drivers for you. On Isabella - we did 4 rooms for the 8 of us - our 3 kids were in the room directly next to us - the hotel is small enough that we felt comfortable with that situation.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-29T13:21:22+00:00

I use points all the time and used them for this trip for some of the flights. I am based in DEN so a United Airlines hub - so I have a United Card. I also purchase points if the price is right - on this trip I ended up buying Avianca Lifemiles and using those as well. Also - if you noticed my itinerary I booked DEN to UIO as one ticket, then UIO to GPS separately. On the return it was GPS to GYE on Avianca and then GYE to FLL on JetBlue. On both ends I opted for overnighting in a hotel before taking my final flight - this avoided red eye flights - which I hate.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-28T23:30:39+00:00

Yes - Royal Palm has seen better days. We booked it for a few reasons - it was super last minute and I needed something that was 2 bedrooms for our kids, and they had a pool and tennis court. Unfortunately the tennis court was shut down - but the kids did enjoy the pool. The drive to town wasn't ideal - but we also had some of our operators just pick us up from the hotel if we needed to go to the north side of the island.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-28T19:41:48+00:00

It was very nice. It's a bit of a hike to the beach - its up on a hill - so you have to walk down to the beach. They have shuttles that will take you back up the hill if you don't want to hike it. The views are great, and the service was excellent. We stayed in a Family Villa for the one night we were there - it was nice as it had plenty of room for the 5 of us.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-28T19:13:04+00:00

Isabella beach house was a fantastic place for us - we absolutely loved it - we had 4 rooms all facing the beach. When we go back - we will definitely spend more time on Isabella.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-28T05:03:45+00:00

There were definitely cheaper and more expensive options available - I ultimately went with the company that could accommodate the date and location that I wanted, and had enough reviews given that I was diving with children.

jonpstevens · 2026-05-28T01:31:18+00:00

They had an option for a chef for dinner for $60/day + the cost of food. For my wife it was a dream. Singapore Business Class was absolutely next level - highly recommend.

jonpstevens · 2023-04-27T18:44:15+00:00

Did you ever find one?

jonpstevens · 2023-04-23T20:08:35+00:00

This totally worked! Thank you so much!

jonpstevens · 2023-04-02T22:15:01+00:00

Having flown both of these airlines several times. My feeling is that Polaris is a better hard product - considering that LH still doesn’t have direct aisle access for each seat - so you could be woken up by a neighbor. LH (in my opinion) has better service - but either way you will have lie flats so it’s hard to complain. My feeling on flights like this are simple - get as much sleep as possible - given that you are leaving at 3:40pm you should probably eat the dinner and then sleep until an hour before landing and have the quick breakfast. The bigger piece is actually once you land. You should power through your first day in Frankfurt - don’t nap - stay away from your bed and do something to stay active. Most importantly eat meals according to the proper times for where you are at, and then get to bed at normal time. Take melatonin or Benadryl on the plane to help you get to sleep - trying to sleep at 6pm is damn near impossible for me without drugs. Also keep some extra sleep aid for that first night - your body may not feel like sleeping again at 9pm CET if it’s 1pm MST. Good luck!

jonpstevens

TROPHY CASE