Hi! We are the Hill family – Dad Ross, Mum Amber and kids Ned (born 2012) and Olive (born 2014)  and we live in Melbourne, Australia.

I love, love, love travel. I could spend hours every day reading about and investigating all things travel (in fact, I think I probably do actually do this!).

Hill Tribe Travels hiking with kids along the Mt Feathertop Razorback track with kids

I completed a Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Tourism degree back a million years ago and now I am full-time home with the kids. We are very fortunate that I am able to be home and spend this time with our kids whilst they are young.

Ross and I had some great adventures before the kids came along, to name a few – we made it to Everest base camp (such hard work but it was awesome), we spent 3 weeks on a jump-on jump-off bus around the West coast of Canada (as adults, not young backpackers but it was still an awesome way to see part of Canada and we made some great friends who we still see), explored South America for 5 weeks and had an awesome 8-week camping adventure up the east coast of Australia.

We have seen Western Australia on a few different trips including swimming with the whale sharks along the Ningaloo Reef. There is still lots of Australia we would love to explore and we will get there eventually.

We finally made it back to the Europe side of the world recently for our White Christmas adventure. Gosh it was fun, amazing, beautiful, dark, freezing and all things Christmas.

We have a million photo’s but here are a few of our travels before the kids –

One of my favourite photos from along the Inca Trail

Mountain biking at Whistler

Yes, we really were this close - whale sharks!

This was returning from Everest Base Camp - we look so different now!

It's definitely worth the hike - Machu Picchu

Yes, that's me - Amber under there! Beautiful but freezing Patagonia

I decided to start this little blog after our recent trip to Cambodia and Vietnam – this was our first ‘exploring’ trip with the kids. Before this we kept it pretty easy with resort based holidays to Thailand, Bali and Queensland and various camping trips etc (although it really depends on who you ask, as I am sure there are people who think taking a 6 month old to Thailand and spending time in a tent with a baby are big deals!). I am not going to blog on these events from a few years ago as I will just be copying my diaries out – but here are a few pic’s from trips when the kids were little.

Ned at 10 months - very friendly wildlife in the Tassie National Parks

When there was 3! Cradle Mountain

It's not all fun and games, sometimes all you need is cuddles - we came home early!

Our first trip to Bali - not our best holiday!

Our first trip to Thailand when Ned was 6 months old

Thailand with the Grandparents - at our favourite restaurant

A successful family trip to Bali

I thought Hill Tribe Travels would be a great way to document our travel to our family and friends and if I can inspire other families to take the plunge to start travelling, I would absolutely love that! I had some great advice from travel families, especially Sally from www.our3kidsvtheworld.com and Bron from www.smithsholidayroad.com  and this eased my mind completely with taking the kids to Cambodia and Vietnam. If I can offer similar help to other families who might be a little hesitant to start travelling I would be very happy!

Ross, Ned and Olive at Preah Khan, Cambodia

Yes, travel with kids is hard work, but travelling with kids is just awesome – I really think I could travel in a little bubble with the 4 of us on-going forever (but that’s not going to happen!).

Sure, there are people out there who continually ask ‘why bother travelling with young kids’? Or ‘oh we are going to hold off travelling until the kids are older’.  It drives me bonkers that people think like this!!! We are creating so many wonderful family memories (sure the kids might only remember when they look at the photo’s) and strengthening our family relationships and I love that we are able to give Ned and Olive these amazing learning opportunities.

We are just an ordinary family. I am at home (researching all things travel, no really I am looking after the kids!) and a limitation to our travel is definitely annual leave time! Another limitation I’d say is where we live. We love Australia and love Melbourne but it is not easy to pop over and explore Asia, Europe or America for a couple of days like we could if we lived elsewhere.

I have set up a section on the blog for ‘travel by Ned and Olive’ and to this day it is still empty!!! I am going to have to get more confident with public speaking and hopefully Ned and Olive also gain confidence and they can talk in front of their class about our adventures.

I am not trying to be an expert on all things and am writing my own thoughts (you can agree or disagree, do things the same or completely different!) and if something really didn’t work for us while travelling I’ll let you know. Best to learn from our mistakes!

There is still so much to learn – about the world, travelling as a family and of course the blogging world!

I will update this website as we go along with any trips that we take – be it a big OS adventure or a local camping trip or a music festival…. I will also update our Facebook and Instagram accounts….as social media is a bit temperamental I would like to send out emails to keep everyone in the know (but not spam you!) – so if you didn’t join up from the pop up box please fill in your details here.

I hope you enjoy reading about what we are getting up to. Thanks for visiting and if there is anything you think I can help out with please get in touch.

Cheers, Amber, Ross, Ned and Olive xxxx