2024 has been a special year for the TraveLynn Family team, one in which several of our life and travel plans came to life. It was the year when, after all the daydreaming and planning, our long-term goal of moving to Penang came to fruition. If that wasn’t exciting enough, it was also our first full year running the blogging business as a husband and wife team, realising a long-held ambition to be our own bosses and take full control of our lives.
Amongst all these major events, we still managed to fit in several epic trips as a family, continuing our philosophy of showing the boys the world while spending as much quality time together as possible. We’ve loved having you all along for the ride via socials but, in case you’ve forgotten anything, here’s our round-up of 2024 and what we’ve been up to…
Want to go back further in time? Click here to read our 2023 round up.
Back to Essaouira, our home from home
READ: Visiting Essaouira with kids
Essaouira is without doubt one of our favourite places on the planet and somewhere we return to as often as possible. As you may already know, we run a blog all about Essaouira so we managed to combine a trip there in February that was part-holiday and part-work. For the first time ever, us parents both left the country without the boys as they stayed in the Peak District with the grandparents to attend school (although they didn’t actually attend much school as school closed due to snow).
The city was just as perfect as we always remember it to be, and it was a great chance to experience it without kids in tow. Aside from enjoying more leisurely dinners and rooftop drinks, we had time for a one day e-bike tour in the countryside, took a relaxed walk from Diabat to Essaouira, and generally appreciated some time together without the boys, although we missed them, of course(!).
Wintertime in Bucharest
READ: Visiting Bucharest with kids
As the Penang relocation plans started to take shape, we tried to think of places we’d miss once we departed for Southeast Asia. One of our favourite travel experiences is a European city break in winter, so Bucharest for February half-term felt like the ideal fit (plus, it was the cheapest flight from Manchester airport for half term).
Bucharest doesn’t usually feature on the list of top cities in Europe, but we enjoyed our four days here, wandering around the graffiti-stained streets, exploring the Old Town, learning about the fall of communism, drinking cheap beers and visiting museums and waterparks. The weather played in our favour as the winters can be brutal here but, if you catch it at the right time, Bucharest is a relaxed place to visit for a few days and we loved it.
A new start in Penang
READ: Things to do in Penang
The big set-piece of 2024 and what all the research, discussions, time and effort had been leading towards finally arrived in April. Our move to Penang had been a pipe dream for a few years but began to take shape during our ten-week Southeast Asia odyssey in 2023. The latter part of 2023 and early 2024 had been consumed with form-filling, attestations, document legalisations, emails, more form-filling and patience but once the De Rantau visa approval arrived, it was all systems go. Oh, and we sold a house in the same period, so it was a slightly busy spring.
With much more luggage than we were used to carrying, we arrived in Malaysia via a dreamlike stopover in Abu Dhabi, the perfect decompression chamber after all the busyness of the preceding weeks. The first week in Kuala Lumpur was a mixture of sightseeing, acclimatising and visiting government offices. With our passports containing a shiny new visa, we boarded the train from KL to Butterworth and began our new life on Penang Island.
The first eight months have flown by and we all feel well-settled into island life. The boys have impressed us the most, adapting to their new school, making some lovely friends, finding new hobbies while continuing existing ones, and slowly getting used to the heat and humidity of the tropics. Us parents have had the easy part really: exploring the island, getting to know how daily life works in Malaysia, sorting out life-admin and keeping all four blogs running.
We all love Malaysia, and Penang in particular. We’re still finding new places to explore and new restaurants to eat in but it’s slowly starting to feel like home.
Jumping over to Langkawi
READ: Visiting Langkawi with kids
Just a short hop across the Malacca Straits from our new home is the island of Langkawi, a place that’s similar to Penang but with its own pace and personality. Focused on the beach resorts, mangrove tours, watersports and excellent dining, we squeezed in two visits in 2024, one just us four and one with Jenny’s parents.
The secret to a successful Langkawi visit is an excellent hotel stay and we struck lucky with the Holiday Villa Resort and Beachclub. We spent hours lounging by the pool, swimming in the sea and eating at the onsite restaurants. At other times, we booked onto a couple of half-day tours to visit the mangroves, explore caves and do some island-hopping.
It was a lovely, relaxing few days and made us appreciate even more what an incredible part of the world we are now living in.
Summertime in Vietnam
READ: Vietnam with kids travel guide
Aside from moving the Penang, we classed Vietnam as our ‘big trip’ of 2024. It’s a place we’ve wanted to visit with the kids for years as we knew they’d adore it and it’d offer up some great memories. Pre-kids, we first visited on our way overland to Australia from the UK in 2007, and Jenny did a solo-trip to visit her friend more recently, so we knew the country quite well but were looking forward to some slower-travel across the entire length of the country.
Starting in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), we explored the Cu Chi Tunnels and War Museum to give the boys an idea of the tragic history, alongside more traditional family-friendly activities like pool time and eating out. It’s hard to pick out highlights as the country left such an impression on us but ones that spring to mind are the motorbike tours around Dalat, overnight sleeper trains, Hoi An’s Old Town, Halong Bay cruises and disappearing for a few days at a family homestay in the hills surrounding Sapa.
We finished off in Hanoi after 45 days (using every last hour of our tourist visa allowance) exhilarated from everything we’d seen and done. It’s a magical country and it certainly ranks high on our list of best family travel destinations.
Kuching for October half term
READ: Visiting Kuching with kids
Borneo has always held a special place in our hearts. It began with our love of orangutans and only grew stronger when we first visited in 2012 and then in 2023 with the kids. But our focus had always been on Sabah and we were desperate to visit the neighbouring state of Sarawak.
The capital city of Kuching sits on the Sarawak River and is one of the most laid-back and chilled-out cities we’ve visited in Southeast Asia. If you’re looking for an easy city break with enough activities close by to keep you occupied, this is the place to head to.
After exploring the city and its waterfront (including the best museum in Southeast Asia, the Borneo Cultures Museum), we ventured out in Grab taxis for a couple of day trips to see the orangutans at Semenggoh Wildlife Centre and tackle accessible jungle treks in Bako National Park.
Staying in the Hilton Kuching rounded off the visit perfectly, with the hotel overlooking the river and city, it was the perfect place to head back to after our day’s sightseeing, although the boys became obsessed with the onsite gym, so it wasn’t all about switching off.
Christmas in the UK
To round off the year, we are heading back home to the UK for Christmas to see all of our friends and family again. After being away for eight months, it’s the longest the boys have ever spent overseas, and they’re super excited about seeing everyone again. Us parents also can’t wait to see people and we’re looking forward to the novelty of walks in the Peak District and getting the Christmas tree up at home.
We know from past experience that it’s not going to be a totally relaxing visit, with plenty of miles to be ticked off on the motorways and play dates to organise, but it’s such a treat to have three weeks off to spend time with our loved ones. We’re not sure how we’ll cope with the change in temperature and the darkness arriving at 3.30pm. Our flight lands at 6.00am in Manchester and we don’t have any coats or jumpers to take back with us, so we’ll let you know how it goes!
Looking forward to 2025
It’s around this time of year that we slow down for Christmas but also start planning ahead to the next year. In the short term, we have a couple of trips booked to neighbouring countries, one of which will be a new destination for all of us!
Looking slightly further forward, our De Rantau visa expires in April, so we’ll begin the process early in the new year to extend for another twelve months. We love our time in Penang and don’t feel ready to leave just yet. We’re hoping the extension process is straightforward but, as ever, we’ll keep you posted.
You may also like to read:
TraveLynn Family’s 2023 ROUNDUP
How we afford to travel
The BEST family travel destinations