Travelling To England with Kids: Castles and Beaches
How We Got There
A month or so after we booked our flights from New York to Athens, we noticed that we had a quick layover in England. We made a few changes to our flights, that only cost 150 Euro total, and voila! We were able to stay in England for a few days on our way to Greece (I also have to shout out Norse Airlines- it has been our FAVE budget airline of anyone else- by far. I 1000% recommend them).
We flew into Gatwick, which was just south of London… and we wanted an authentic England countryside experience… so we picked an Airbnb further south, in a small little town called Hailsham.
Hailsham and Driving in England as a Foreigner
We were NOT at all prepared for how difficult it would be to drive on the roads. We got stuck in our giant 9-seater van in the parking lot of the rental car lot!
We quickly figured out a few of the differences (the cars are almost all manual, the steering wheel is on the right, the stick shift is to the left of the steering wheel, and you have to push it down and pull it up a little to get it into reverse). The roads were super busy, and narrower than we’d ever seen before, that, and not knowing what the road signs meant, and trying to figure out the right of way- made for a stressful driving beginning.
We changed our plans on a dime (initially we were going to drive around all day) and spent most of the time walking around Hailsham and hanging out in our Airbnb. Flexibility has been KEY to this whole journey, more on that HERE. and support HERE. We picked a place that rented out rooms with a landlady that makes you breakfast- and the photos were about 1000x better than the rental. It ended up working out as JD got quite sick for a few days, and everyone was jet-lagged- so we didn’t do much.
London Train Strike Puts a Strike in our Plans
I was still hopeful to get one busy day in before we left (as I always am! Ha ha)… but the London train strike stopped that. We planned on meeting a friend in coaching friend in London- but had no way to get there, as it’s mostly impossible to drive in the city (it would have taken almost all day just driving, and neither of us was excited to try driving in the city. Note: we also discovered that London adds an extra charge for anyone driving in the city).
We pivoted and did a quick Google search for “castles near me” and spent the day touring around some lovely castles and grounds- and scouting out the beautiful cliffs on the side of the sea. I highly recommend the area around Brighton- so lovely!
We were all happy with how lovely the cute roads, people and cafes were… and everyone enjoyed the castles and the sea. I had much more planned- so we’ll have to come and do an England tour again.
After a few days of on-and-off rain, cool weather, jetlag, sleeping, and sicknesses we headed off on a quick flight to Athens!
Regulate Your Emotions While Travelling (and life-ing)
Emotional regulation is hard to teach if:
1) You have a deeply feeling or Neurodiverse kiddos that has a hard time with big feelings.
2) You haven't been taught how to feel your own feelings (in childhood if your own big emotions weren't talked about, safe to be expressed, understood, or validated this can feel especially tough).
To help get you started on your own journey of feelings, and to help you teach your kids about emotions... I've designed a custom Feelings Wheels that helps you recognize and identify what emotion you are feeling. Put your info in below and I will send it to you (and I'll email over a quick list of tips to get you started)!
Awareness is the first step to self-regulation and co-regulation with your children.
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