If you are starting to feel a little stir crazy at home and missing travel, plan a travel theme night. This week on the podcast we chat with Katja Gaskell from Globetotting about how her family is spending their Friday nights dressing up and cooking recipes from different countries. Kim and Tamara also share some fun ideas for family movie nights.

ON THE PODCAST

00:30 - Sponsor - Comrad Socks

01:30 - Talking with Kim and Tamara about their quarantine

08:47 - Talking with Katja Gaskell

10:40 - Themed dinners

24:03 - Keeping kids entertained

30:08 - Katja's favorite travel gear

34:05 - Future trips for Katja and her family

ABOUT OUR SPONSOR

This episode is sponsored by Comrad Socks. Comrad compression socks are an essential no serious traveler should board a flight without — at least on LA-NY or transoceanic segments — and makes a major difference in how your legs and feet feel during the flight, upon arrival, and the next day. Their aim is to make the best, most stylish, comfortable version of what's traditionally been a boring but useful product—and that's why travel customers that already know and wear compression are getting excited about. Receive 20% off your first using discount code VACATIONMAVENS.

ABOUT KATJA GASKELL

Katja Gaskell is the Founder of globetotting.com, a website for adventurous family travel. She is a firm believer that you can – and should! – take your children everywhere and anywhere no matter what age they are. She currently lives in London with her husband and three children, after nearly 12 years living abroad in Australia, India and Mexico. Katja has also written across a range of titles for Lonely Planet guidebooks and tried and tested luxury hotels for the British boutique hotel guide Mr & Mrs Smith.

Follow Katja on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

TIPS FOR KEEPING TRAVEL IN YOUR QUARANTINED LIFE

• To keep the travel vibe alive even when staying home, consider planning a theme night.
• Choose a country and then cook or bring in food from that cuisine.
• You may consider dressing up or adding a family movie about or from that area to make it even more fun.
• Themes Katja and her family have done for their themed Friday dinners:
  • Mexican theme with fish tacos for the meal. Her daughter dressed up in a skeleton decorated dress to be La Catrina. Who is one of the most recognizable symbols of The Day of the Dead celebrations, she is a tall female skeleton that wears a fancy hat with feathers. Her son dressed up as a lucha libre, which is a term used in Mexico for professional wrestling. If you don't already know they wear unique masks with different colors. Katja dressed up as Frida Kahlo, who is a Mexican painter known for her portraits, with a headdress from a previous costume and a Mexican scarf. Her husband dressed up as a mariachi band member. Then their youngest dressed up as a princess, which may not be Mexican but was still fun.
  • India theme with fish curry, samosas and aloo gobi, which is a dish made of potato and cauliflower. Dressing up was harder, since they didn't already have items that went with the theme, but they decided to find some Bollywood movie posters and recreated them.
• Any theme you come up with can work. It could be based on places that you've been, on seasons, places you want to go, color, movies, etc. Make it something that your family will enjoy.
• If you have a family that is not into dressing up so much, you can just focus your theme around the food you have for your meal. If you have kids that are a bit older, you can make it so everyone has to make a dish for the meal.
• Take turns with control of the TV if you can. If it's not your night and you don't want to watch what someone else is you can go do something else that night.
• Depending on how you like to work, you can create a bit of structure for your kids by making a list or a schedule of different activities to do during the day.
• Quarantine tip for Katja: wear a pair of jeans at least once a week!

FAVORITE TRAVEL GEAR

Katja loves to be comfortable and wear jeans along with her Stan Smith Sneakers, and a long cardigan.

MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

Frozen Dinner Theme - Stuffed Suitcase

Big Hero 6 Theme - Stuffed Suitcase

Beauty and the Beast Theme - Stuffed Suitcase

Vacation Planning for Kids - We3Travel

FOLLOW US AND SPREAD THE WORD!

If you liked this show, please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play and leave us a review! Have a question or comment? Send us an email at [email protected]. You can also follow our travels on Stuffed Suitcase and We3Travel, or follow the Vacation Mavens on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Thanks for listening!