Zip World Titan, Blaenau Ffestiniog

If you’ve been following us you’ll have heard us banging on about how 2016 is the Year of Adventure in Wales, so decided to get in on the action by making the trip to Blaenau Ffestiniog during our recent break in North Wales, to tackle the imposing challenge of Zip World Titian.

Even if we hadn’t seen the adverts on TV, it was hard to miss all the viral chatter about Zip World’s various zip line rides at sites across North Wales. They started in 2013 with the mile long Velocity ride at Bethesda, which has riders hitting 100mph 500ft over a quarry on the world’s fastest zip line. Not long later they opened Zip World Titan, at the astoundingly beautiful quarry town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. With the chance to zip from mountain to mountain on three separate lines, this was the one for us!

Four adults (including Grandma!) from our group took up the Titan challenge, with the kids sent underground on a nearby mine tour instead, as they fell under the rider age limit of 7 years old. We were kitted out in helmets, harnesses and the familiar red flight suit, briefed on what to expect, then bundled in to a minibus which slalomed to the top of the first mountain. Awaiting us was Alpha, the first in a series of three zip lines and the longest run on Titan, ready to take us across the valley to the next hill.

The View

Zip World’s amazing staff strapped us in and unleashed us simultaneously into the teeth of a fierce wind as we whizzed out in to the sky, each rider trying to make themselves as small as possible to reduce the wind resistance in a race to the next hill. The first zip is an attack on the senses as you try to take in the unbelievable views, judge the distance to the quarry floor, fight against the ferocious headwind to keep yourself pointing forward and keep an eye on your zip-mates. Even with the protective goggles on you can expect the wind to find its way to your eyes, and you’ll battle with tears filling up inside. What a rush!

With Alpha completed we made the short walk over to Bravo. Although shorter than the first ride, Bravo is much faster and before we knew it we were airborne once more. The walk from the end of Bravo up the hill to the start point of Charlie was tinged with disappointment knowing that this was our last ride, but we made the most of it, drinking in those final breathtaking views over Snowdonia National Park as we descended through the sky to the finishing line.

Titan was a superb experience. Two of our riders were a little apprehensive about the challenge, especially when they stepped up for the first ride and saw the scale of the terrain we would be flying over, but the Zip World staff were fantastic throughout in reassuring the riders and double checking our safety gear each time. Once you hit the sky on that first ride, the fear disappears and it’s just high octane fun for the rest of the course. The whole thing took just over an hour to complete, although on busy days you’ll need to budget around 90 minutes to complete the course.

It gets pretty cold up in those hills, so don’t forget your gloves (although you can buy some onsite if you do). The other thing you’ll definitely need is your camera, as those views are exquisite. Make sure it’s a small one though, as you’ll need it to fit in the small pouch on your flight suit.

As we drove homewards between the slate tip hills of Blaenau Ffestiniog, all four riders were in agreement that this was the best fun we’d had in ages. Zip World Titan is over before you know it, but we guarantee you’ll never forget it! Check Zip World out for yourself Here.

Restaurant Review: Pizza Pronto, Cardiff Bay

Pizza Pronto Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay is such a great place to hangout with kids on a sunny day. The weather has finally turned here in the UK so this weekend we loaded the children’s bikes in to the car and headed toward the water. The Boys had a great time riding at the Skate Park and playing in the Sand Park on the Cardiff Bay Barrage, but it wasn’t long before they needed to refuel, so we headed over to Pizza Pronto on Mermaid Quay.

Marcus was working in the Bay on Friday and came home raving of the delicious smells emanating from Pizza Pronto. The grown-ups may have been sold on the aroma alone, but we knew the kids would enjoy this fun looking place once they caught site of it. The kitchen is situated in a shipping container next to a table and bench style outdoor eating area, which allowed us to catch the last of the afternoon rays whilst we chowed down.

Pizza Pronto specialise in delicious, handmade 8” pizzas, which are great to devour on the go or in the eating area, where you can indulge in some people watching, especially on a weekend as the party people pile in to the Bay.

Handmade Classic Pepperoni & Ham and Olive Pizza 

We opted for a plain Ham (not on the menu, but kindly made for the kids upon request), a Ham & Olive and a classic Pepperoni (£3.95 each), which we tore up and shared between us. The bases are thin, crispy and fresh out of the oven. The toppings are generous and our order was with us in around 5 minutes. Unfortunately we didn’t have time dessert, but the sight of a Lemon Meringue Pizza on the menu certainly caught our attention!

Great food, good value, fun and child friendly. What more do you need? We’ll be back, probably for the Lemon Meringue Pizza! Thanks Pizza Pronto.

Traveling with Young Children on Planes: 12 Essentials

It such a daunting experience to take young children on a flight for the first time. We wish we could tell you that it’s not as bad as you think it will be, but a lot of times it will turn in to a bit of a nightmare. They’ll scream, they’ll poo, they’ll vomit, they’ll want out of their seats or bassinet, they’ll throw temper tantrums, and they’ll throw food. Depending on their mobility level, you’ll likely have to chase after them in to First Class a few times.

But there are a few things you can do lessen the impact on your kids, yourself, fellow passengers and that flight attendant smiling with gritted teeth as she wipes the baby sick from her skirt. We’ve been flying long haul with our 2 kids for the last 5 years, since they were both babies. Kid X made his first flight to Sweden at just 3 months, and was taking on the 12 hour journey to Hong Kong just a few months later.

Try to schedule flights during their usual bed time, so that they will sleep most of the way and wake up bright and fresh at your destination. If your child is under 2 and no heavier than 13kg then call your airline to pre-book a bassinet located in the first row.

Believe us when we say we’ve had some tough journeys, but it gets better with experience. We’ve listed our 12 Essentials for traveling with young children below, based on 5 years of flight experience. Some of the items will be most suited to older children like ours (5 & 3 respectively) but they’re all centred on the same principles you would use to keep your children comfortable and content in any situation; keep them warm, dry, fed, watered, occupied and comfortable.

1. Travel Pillow | Stop sleepy head rolling on long journeys with the Trunki Yondi head and neck support.
2. Mini Raisin Box | On the go healthy snack that kids are always ready to eat.
3. Blankets | Home comforts whiles traveling. aden + anais blankets are lovely and soft to keep them toes warm. Get them to sleep with the blanket for a week before the flight so that they associate its feel and smell with bedtime.
4. Wet Wipes | We never leave home without these handy Water Wipes, with no added nasties.
5. Vest | Uniqlo ultra-lightweight and pocketable vests are ideal for keeping them snug whether sleeping or enjoying the inflight cartoons.
6. Multipurpose Ointment | Lucas Papaw Ointment has anti-bacterial properties that can be used for a various things from nappy rash to sunburn and chapped lips. Put a little underneath each ear to stop any baby drooling causing soreness.
7. Water Bottle | Keep your kids hydrated on long flights with 100% recyclable Sigg water bottles that are BPA and phthalate-free.
8. Colouring Pens | Very handy to occupy little minds. These Melissa & Doug triangular shaped crayons won’t roll off the seat tray.
9. Headphones | In-flight headphones don’t fit the kiddies very well, so these JVC kids headphones are perfect for their little heads.
10. Rucksack | Perfect for keeping all your essentials in one place. This stylish Swedish backpack has been everywhere with us. Keep it under the seat in front of you for easy access.
11. Plastic bags | Or pee pee bags as we like to call them. They are great for emergencies when there’s a queue for the toilet.
12. Play-Doh | This versatile classic will keep the kids entertained for a good 1/2 hour when they become bored during a long flight. Get the mini travel tubs here.

So there’s our tried and tested list of 12 Essentials for traveling with young children on planes. But here’s one more tip, just for the parents.

ALWAYS carry a spare change of clothes for yourself. Take it from someone who once had to sit in baby-vomit soaked trousers and underwear for 13 hours straight!

Exploring our Horizons

If you are anything like us, you’ll probably have a list as long as your arm of all the incredible places you want to travel to, whether alone, with a friend or partner, or with your family in tow. We’ve been really lucky so far in having taken our boys to some pretty awesome places like Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan; that’s a pretty impressive set of passport stamps for a 3 and 5 year old!

But we always wonder how much are the boys really appreciating what they are experiencing? It feels pretty silly asking ourselves this question sometimes. They’re just little kids after all, with little life experience to draw on and compare new experiences against. Fellow parents know that kids are on auto-pilot most of the time; they’ll take part in whatever is going on, they go where you drag them. So how can you make sure they appreciate it when they’re experiencing something amazing?

Our Boys Surveying Their Valley

It’s hard to say. One way could be to ensure they experience as much of their day to day surroundings as possible, exploring your town, or valley, or county, inside out. We usually find something to be exciting or amazing because it’s different to what you are used to experiencing.

We’ve been doing a fair bit of walking on the mountains around our town lately. We’re lucky that we grew up and now live in the beautiful South Wales valleys, surrounded by mountains and forests to explore. We’re lucky that our children can experience the sort of childhoods we did.

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It was during one of these family treks that I came to this conclusion. It's important to let your kids first explore their horizons before you try to expand them. You've got to know what's in your backyard to appreciate the joy of eventually jumping over the fence. In the process, you'll probably find there's plenty adventure and wonder to be found just around the corner (or behind our house in this case) as there is on the other side of the world.

I’m hoping that once our boys have seen all that our Valley has to offer them, it will dawn on them how amazing those adventures in Kuala Lumpur or Reykjavik really are!

Here are a few snaps from our recent mountain walks.

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Past Adventures: Balinese New Year

Before marriage and kids and mortgages and council tax and pensions and multivitamins and all that heavy crap that comes with being a proper adult, we spent a year backpacking around the world in 2005. Weirdly we experienced 3 different New Years’ celebrations that year; firstly in the UK before we left, then Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, then Balinese New Year in Indonesia, all within a couple of months.

Before Marriage and Kids...

Balinese New Year was definitely the weirdest. We were staying in the capital Kuta (a tourist trap hell hole – seriously, if you’re going to Bali, avoid Kuta, there’s plenty of amazing alternatives for a week before heading for Australia. We spent our time learning to surf, dodging aggressive shop keepers and battling dysentery.

Bali New Year Celebrations

Our stay also coincided with the six day New Year’s celebrations, which included lots of vibrant carnival style parades (below are some picture we took of the bizarre parade floats) where you’re encouraged to make as much noise as possible to rouse the evil spirits out in to the open.  The third day is called Nyepi (meaning to “keep quiet”) where the whole island shuts down and goes in to 24 hours of silence. No flights, no traffic, no people on the streets and no lights allowed. The idea is that the evil spirits that were driven in to the open earlier will think all the polite locals and drunk tourists have deserted the place, leaving no one to torment or corrupt, and will themselves then leave the island, setting the scene for the people to magically reappear a day later to a freshly cleansed Bali.

Carnival Style Parade

Giant Parade Floats

With Kuta being the tourist capital of Bali, you can imagine how hard it is to enforce Nyepi upon on the thousands of tourists, who are instructed to hunker down in their rooms for the day, in silence, lights out. As the day wore on, and particularly in the evening, you’d notice a few apartment lights flicker on across the eerie darkened town, hear the odd set of scurrying footsteps outside and voices shattering the silence of the night. These instances of disrespect gathered momentum until the local administrators simply flicked the switch to the town’s power supply, shutting the whole place down until the next morning.

How did we know? Well we were watching Arnold Schwarzenegger movies with the volume turned right down, when the TV clicked off just as he was about to scalp a baddie with a precisely thrown circular saw blade (hey, we’re only human).

We spent the rest of our time in Bali travelling outside of Kuta to various ancient temples, visiting the spectacular active volcano Mount Batur, and made a trip to the wonderful Tegalalang Rice Terraces in the countryside surrounding Ubud. These adventures reminded us that there was more to Bali than the litter strewn beaches and vomit soaked streets on Kuta. If fate should drop us on that provincial Indonesian island again, we’ll be driving right past Kuta.

Mount Batur

Telgalalang Rice Terrace

Balinese Temples

Trip Review: Legoland Billund, Denmark

Lego, are you kidding me? We’ve got two kids, of course we were going to end up in Legoland! The only question was London or Denmark.....?

Hello Billund, home of the Lego Group! But let’s back up for a second.

We knew the boys would lose it over a trip to a Lego theme park, but in all truth, we wanted to go too. A few months prior we had watched Channel 4’s excellent documentary on the Lego Group ‘The Secret World of Lego’ (it’s still viewable here - Check it out), which visited the charming company town of Billund in Denmark. We seriously love Scandinavia; in fact we got engaged in Denmark back in 2009, so we needed little more motivation to book the tickets.

Legoland Hotel

Like many of our trips, this one became an extended family affair. We’re talking Grandparents, an Auntie and a Cousin, as well as the four of us. That’s 8 people in total; we were rolling deep on this one.

We booked with Ryanair (£55 Adult return, £32 Child Return), flying out of London Stansted and landing at Billund International. That’s right, they’ve got their own super convenient airport in the town, which Lego built out of real bricks back in 1964.

What you need to know about Billund is that it’s a very small town. We’re talking just over 6,000 people, so there’s not too much to do there when brick fatigue eventually sets in. Recognising this problem, somebody went ahead and constructed the Lalandia Holiday Village and Water Park, right across the road from Legoland.

There’s also the official Legoland Hotel, but as there was eight of us, we chose to hire one of Lalandia’s beautiful Nordic holiday homes and self cater for 5 nights (£855 shared between 8 of us). This package came with passes to their awesome water park, which the Grandparents loved as much as the kids did. We also picked ourselves up a minibus from Europcar so we could explore the region (more on that later).

Lalandia Nordic House Plus 8

We highly recommend staying at Lalandia; it’s a welcome haven when you’ve heard ‘Everything is Awesome’ blasted out for the hundredth time. Which brings us on to the main attraction.

Legoland was great; not amazing like the behemoths of Disney or Universal Studios, but quietly confident in its own offering. It mixes its traditional attractions (intricately built model towns and cities) with its new lifeblood (licensing every kid friendly brand from Star Wars to DC Comics) in a balanced way, throwing in a selection of cool thrill rides for kids of all ages.

Their Haunted House was a particular favourite with the boys, as was the Atlantis by Sea Life aquarium, 4D Movie Experience and the various rollercoasters spread across different themed lands.

Adults and older kids should head over to Polar Land and strap in to the crazy Ice Pilots ride (see it here), although you may want to skip this if you suffer from any conditions that being thrown around violently by a gigantic robot claw might aggravate.

Lego Mount Rushmore

Giant Lego Spider

Lego Oil Rig in Miniture Land

One of the great things about Scandinavia is that everything seems to be designed well and works efficiently, and Legoland is no exception. It isn’t a huge theme park, and you could comfortably do everything in one day with time to spare, so bear this in mind when deciding the duration of your trip. However, the attractions are varied enough to keep you energized throughout your visit, and the food on offer is pretty good too. As you can imagine, the Giftshop was Bedlam at the end of the day, so it may be worth hitting that place as soon as you arrive to avoid the inevitable throng of sugar powered kiddies either having a meltdown or bullying the adults to splash their cash.

Entry to the park isn’t cheap, and although you can shave a few Danish Krone from the price by buying online and at least 7 days in advance (still around £30.00 each), we did a bit of research and found that you can buy Discount Vouchers on eBay for just a few Euros which can save you up to 50%. We were unsure if the vouchers were legit, especially as they were written in German, but we took the risk and it paid off!

So with Legoland all wrapped up, what else is there to do during your trip to Billund? Brick enthusiasts can take walk through the town centre and check out the Lego HQ, as well as the home of Lego inventor Ole Kirk, but that’s about it.

There are a few restaurants and cafes for you to chose from (there’s a list here), but as we were self catering, we mainly ate at the holiday home, having stocked up from the local supermarkets. We’re a pretty healthy bunch, but we do like to eat dirty every now and again (who doesn’t), so we called in to the Tulip Time Out burger joint for some awesome Danish burgers and hot dogs.

Venturing Outside of Billund

Remember we mentioned the minibus that we hired? It wasn’t cheap at £366 for a 4 day hire, but it came in handy when we exhausted both Legoland and Lalandia’s water park. We did some planning ahead and decided to take a day trip to the town of Ribe, Denmark’s oldest town, which is around an hour’s drive from Billund.

Ribe

Ribe Architecture

Ribe really is a charming and picturesque place, great for a lazy day strolling in the streets and holing up at the cafes (don’t walk by the Isvaflen Ice Cream Parlour without trying one of their awesome cones). Photographers will have a field day exploring the historic architecture of the town, headlined by the imposing Ribe Cathedral.

Isvaflen Ice Cream and The Night Watchman

There are many walking tours of the town available, but do yourself a favour and join The Night Watchman on his free evening tour. It takes around 45 minutes to complete and he delivers it in both Danish and English, regaling you with stories of Royalty, Witches, Pirates and collapsing Cathedrals. The kids were half in awe, half terrified. You can find more details here.

We also made the short journey from Billund to Givskud Zoo to take the kids on a safari, navigating our way around the park in our minibus and getting up close with the animals. Tickets cost around £20 per adult (ages 11 upwards), £10 for kids (3 – 11) and free for under 3’s. It’s also a little cheaper if you book online in advance.

Almost a third of the species at the zoo are on the endangered list, so we got to see some pretty cool creatures like Grey Wolves, Southern White Rhinos and Red Pandas. There was also an awkward scene when we came upon a pretty intense mating session between two gigantic Western Lowland Gorillas, which had the kids asking us all kinds of uncomfortable questions!

However, the highlight of the day was driving through the Lion Park, where you got very close to Northern Europe’s largest pride; close enough to smell the animal carcasses that they were feasting on! There was also a large model Dino Park on site, which the kids were totally into and gave us a chance to stretch our legs after our safari. Givskud Zoo is definitely worth a visit if you venture outside of Billund.

We Survived Legoland Billund!

So that was our 4 day, 5 night trip to Legoland Billund and Ribe. It wasn’t exactly a cheap trip, but it was lots of fun and a real treat for Lego mad kids. If you’re planning on heading there yourself, below are some useful links to help get your planning started. Hit us up in the comments or drop us an email if you need any further info, we’re always happy to help!

Legoland Billund Website
Lalandia Holiday Village & Water Park
Ryanair
Europcar Car Rental Billund
Visit Billund
Visit Ribe
Givskud Zoo

Our First Post!

Welcome to Buy The Ticket, our family adventure and travel blog where we'll be posting up our experiences as we drag our two crazy boys around the world with us.

We're an eight legged, half Hong Kong Chinese, half Welsh family, currently camped in the spectacular Welsh valleys, but always planning our next trip.

This year we're planning on visiting Dubai, as a short stopover stay on our way to Hong Kong, where we go annually to visit family. We've also got a four day trip around the beautiful north of Wales booked.

Ok, we're a little biased because we live here, but Wales really is a spectacular country to visit, and with 2016 tagged as Wales' Year of Adventure, what better time to head up north and kick start the adrenaline glands with activities like Zip World's mile long and 500ft high, 100mph zip line at Bethesda's Penrhyn Slate Quarry, or catching a wave at Surf Snowdonia, the world's first inland surf lagoon set in the shadow of the Snowdonia mountain range. And we know the kids are going to go mad for the Snowdonia Mountain Railway.

I case you're still not sold on Wales, check out Visit Wales' breathtaking Year of Adventure video below.

Our fellow parents out there know that when you've got kids biting at your ankles, you need to conjure as many everyday adventures as you can, so we'll be posting updates on those small excursions and budget friendly escapades as well. Sometimes jumping across streams can be just as fun as jumping on planes.

We'll also be posting up tales from our previous travel adventures, as well as sharing stories from our travel mad friends. We'll do our best to to give you all the details on each trip as well, in case you feel inspired to try it for yourself. If you want further info on any of our activities, you can drop us an email or comment under a post with your question. If we can help, we will.

So thanks for taking the time to visit our site. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest to keep abreast of new posts, of which there are plenty to come!

Flo, Marcus, Kid X & Kid H.