I am sitting on my balcony in the middle the jungle listening to birds and monkeys as I write this post! It’s day 5 of my family’s month long adventure in Nosara, Costa Rica. 

We love our place just outside of Nosara and are really happy with our choice to come here! It’s so quiet and remote. Our place is nestled into the trees just off of the beach. We also have a pool that is shared with the other residences of La Luna. We have been spending our time swimming in the ocean and in the pool as well as touring the area. PARADISE!

I want to share a little bit of my experience, some healthy travel tips and a bit about how I travel with kids.

I know what it feels like to arrive at your destination tired, stressed and feeling like sh*t! Add traveling with kids and it’s a recipe for disaster. Not this time for us:)  Luck can definitely play a part, but there are some simple things you can do to make sure you arrive relaxed and ready to start your vacation.

Here goes…

1. Whether you are taking a long flight or not, it’s really important that you are uber hydrated before getting on the plane and keep up on drinking lots of water while you fly. I used to be the person that would drink booze before a flight (and during) and would always feel like crap when I landed. NO WONDER. The air inside an airplane will dehydrate the heck out of you so I recommend drinking lots of water the day before and bring your re-usable water bottle, most airports have water filing stations inside of security. Even if you have to buy an over-priced bottle from a store inside the airport, it’s worth it!
2. Eat light and healthy before you fly. This goes for kids as well. DO NOT FEED THEM FRIES AND POP before you take off. I know that the options are limited inside a airport but feeding them a heavy, sugar,salt laden meal is going  to create a melt-down or severe crankiness!That goes for the parents as well. Your digestion becomes extra sluggish when you travel (especially flights longer than 4 hrs) so I recommend sticking to smoothies or juices before you fly. Luckily there are smoothie places inside a lot of airports in North America now. 
3. Bring a light snack. You know that most of the food on the airplane is pure crap. I like to bring some cut up fruit, KIND bars (or make your own like I did) and packages of instant oatmeal. I just ask for some hot water and add the oats and voila in a coffee cup… a healthy breakfast after a red eye flight! That way you don’t arrive starving. The kids also need to be fed healthy options. Don’t cave to the Pringles.
4. On your layovers, move your body! Don’t feel silly for doing some airport yoga or even some handstands to get that blood circulating. We were in the Calgary airport for 4 hours and did yoga, lots of walking, stretching and even some squats before hoping on the 7 hour flight down to Liberia, Costa Rica.
5. On your way to your destination, stop at the grocery store and stock up on healthy food. We had a 3 hour drive after landing and would have loved to get to our place right away, but then we would have had no food. We asked our driver to stop at the local grocery chain to get the basics like oats, beans, rice, some veggies and fruit and almond milk. When we arrived, we could head straight to the pool and soak up some sun!
6. Calm is contagious. Stay calm no matter what happens as your kids pick up on your stress. Also, it’s 99.9% of the time out of your control so what’s the point of stressing out. I pause before reacting and keep in the mind that this too shall pass. Long waits, hot planes, bumpy flights…. STAY CALM:)

These travel tips made our red-eye, long journey to Costa Rica enjoyable without any hungry moments from me or meltdowns from the kids.