Renting a car is one of the best options to consider in Europe, especially if you are travelling with a baby or toddler, and to multiple countries.

For one, it is cheaper, if you are travelling in a group, and can share out the expenses.

Secondly, cheap travels such as busses & coaches sometimes require you to bring your own car seat, which is quite a hassle to bring in a 13-hour flight with a 1-year old toddler.

Here are the tips for renting car in Europe, especially for Malaysians!

1. Malaysian Driving License Vs International Driving License

Our Malaysian Driving License are usually accepted. However, it’s best to do a research on the countries you’ll be driving beforehand. For instance, France required an International Driving License issued by JPJ Malaysia.

The International Driving License is also very easy to apply if you already have a Malaysian Driving License. Just go to the nearest JPJ & say that we need an international driving license. There will be a fee paid. You will usually get your international driving license within the same day.

2. Book Your Car & Car Insurance Online Through Car Rental Brokers

For one, it is always save time & money to book your car online. You may find various options, and may even compare the costs between car rental companies. If you rent a car through car rental brokers, the choice is even wider!

Many car rental brokers offer insurance to be bought together with the car rental. It is highly advisable to get the fully-covered insurance, as we will never know what will happen (and how much expenses to be incurred) in rainy days. However, the choice is all yours!

Insurance that is bought online are said to be cheaper than those bought at the car rental company’s counter, so it may save your pennies!

You will need to declare if you plan to drive outside the car rental’s country.

If you plan to pick up and drop off the rented car at different locations, there will be an extra charge called “one way fee”, which differs between companies. This needs even more research and comparisons.

If you pick up or drop off your rented car at airports, there are usually “airport charge”.

However, do take note that there will be a few things that need to be paid locally, such as deposits and infant car seats. Again, the charges differs between companies, so do your research thoroughly!

Also, please do read all the fine prints. Certain companies have “miles restrictions “, while others don’t!

It is required to receive & return the rented car with full tank.

3. Driver’s Credit Card

Drivers, please DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CREDIT CARD AT HOME!

It is key requirement that drivers bring their credit card together for deposits and other things that need to be paid locally.

4. Driving Opposite Side of the Road

Be prepared to drive on the left side of the road in countries such as Netherlands, Belgium & France, while driving on the right sight of the road in the UK! Flexibility is the key to drive in Europe.

5. Online & Offline Maps & Address

In an era of Waze, Google, pocket Wi-Fi and the likes, always expect the unexpected. Signal loss and data problem are real, people!

If it happens to u, and you don’t have an offline map, relax. Stop somewhere nearby and look for any local internet. Or just kill time while waiting for your pocket Wi-Fi to refresh quota. Travel needs to be stress-free!

Hope these tips will help you to plan your European road trip wisely! 🙂

So many to write, so little time! As you may have guessed, Shafa is only writing her posts once Aydeen is sleeping or taking a nap. So here’s a quick write up on our Emirates experience!

1. Choosing seat

We are not a believer of paying to book seats pre-baby. After having one, we change our mind. We never thought there’s a science of choosing area when travelling with little ones!

For example, though Aydeen can’t sleep at the hanging cot provided in the front seats, the floor area is wide enough for him to play around. However, we don’t like them as we can’t pull the hand rest up. So we prefer seats behind them.

And latest tips we heard , the restroom in the middle is larger, making it easier to change diapers. Believe this: changing diapers for an active kiddo like Aydeen is like facing a war. Especially when he decided to scream at the top of his lungs. And jump all the way throughout. And play with your spectacles while pulling your hijab. Forget about looking hot.

2. Priority boarding

Just like any airline, those travelling with infants always have priority boarding.

As much as we wanted to shop around, after a few flights, we decided boarding earlier is the way to go with babies. Because you get to request a glass of water to prepare his milk, just in case your baby decides to scream when everyone else settles down.

And you get the top storage area for your stuff! Some people packed too much in their bags, making the top storage area impossible to fit anymore bags from other passengers. Pity the late ones.

3. Free carry buddy, hygiene set & toys

This is my favourite! Since we were having transit to and from KL, we have a total of 4 flights. Which means, we have 4 sets of these stuff! Carry buddy is the cutest ever and very handy!

4. Stroller at Dubai Airport

Upon availability, this is very handy and is quite necessary, as the journey to transit is very far at Dubai airport. There is even a person pushing Shafa’s mother on wheelchair!

5. Big, spacious airplane

We ride Airbus A380 for most of our trip. Superb! There’s even stars at the ceiling when lights off. Ha ha!

Can’t wait to share more!

It’s been a long time since our last post as a couple. And yes, we have a baby now!

So sorry, many things have happened in between.

1) loss of Shafa’s late dad

2) Shafa’s 1st pregnancy

3) coping up with being new working parents

4) handling a few businesses during free time

And now that Aydeen (our baby) is 1 year, we are now back to travel writing & photography!

For today’s post, we would like to share a few tips on travelling with a 1-year-old baby! Hope it helps with preparation of new parents who are travellers, like us!

1. Train the baby to travel

Yup, that’s what we do every weekend. Aydeen loves car seat. Aydeen loves going out. And he loves shopping. Of course, he loves food the most. Ha ha!

P/S: see this picture, he’s a perfect shopping companion, even in Promenade Palace, The Hague! :p

2. Vary his taste pallet

Every travellers know how different food are from our home, and how it is equally important for us to try on every local food possible, especially if we are writing about one! So from the very beginning of his solid food introduction, we are making sure Aydeen has varied tastes of food: from Malaysian food, to western food, and varied tastes of grains, rice, bread, vegetables, fruits, fishes, eggs & poultry. Also with loads of plain water! And of course, eating his own healthy snacks 😊

P/S: As you can guess from the picture, Aydeen ate most of the scones at Mark & Spencer, Oxford Street. We only tasted a bit 😦

3. Make him love strollers & various types of baby carriers

If you have the space at your rented car’s boot or extra hands for other types of transportation, it is best if you could make him love the stroller.

For one, it is always more convenient using strollers , especially if lots of walking involved! And it saves your baby’s well-being in rainy weathers due to most strollers have rain covers (I saw most Londoners do use this type of transporting baby the most. Their babies are all dry and not affected by winds during the rain, whilst our baby got a little bit cold when we didn’t put on the rain coat for him, but not too wet, since his jacket is waterproof).

Whilst using stroller is more convenient, we recommend bringing along your baby carriers together. This is because, there are times that babies don’t want to sit in a stroller. Plus, it is especially easier to put the baby to sleep. In our case, we bring both adjustable sling carrier as well as soft structure carrier. Why two? Because Shafa personally love the adjustable sling carrier, while Yusof prefers the soft structure carrier. And we take turns, if it’s permissible. 🙂

P/S: isn’t the yellow dinosaur rain coat that Aydeen was wearing in Lille, France (last picture) the cutest? 😊

4. Prepare loads of food & drinks

If your baby is a big eater & drinks a lot, such as ours, you will need to have a specialised bag to fill in his favourite food, milk, and plain water. Our must have is his favourite travel snack in a container, sometimes we also pack bread, and definitely his milk. Everything need to be in place, or else he will scream at the top of his lungs. Very demanding, yet a very happy boy we have. 🙂

P/S: The red container in the picture at Schiphol Airport is Aydeen’s favourite snack, at the moment 🙂

5. Baby’s usual hygiene set PLUS a very good lotion

The hygiene set is your usual diaper-changing, bath and grooming set. If you are travelling to cold countries, do ensure to bring the very best lotion for your baby (of which you can share too). In our case, we brought Shaklee baby lotion, and it works perfectly well for our baby! He didn’t have any issues with his skin throughout the journey , which is unbelievable, because both of us usually have skin issues when visiting cold-weather countries. Yusof got the time to put on his skin, and it feels better than any other lotions he tried before! We are definitely going to buy stocks of the lotions for ourselves too!

Hopefully this post is useful for everyone. Will share our journey soon!

Yesterday was quite a day well spent for us.

The day started with a relax, breakfast + movie-watching at the living room. We never thought a 1987 Robocop movie will be so engaging!

Then we cut off some branches of our Rambutan tree. It has become too big. Here are some pictures of Yusof at work (because Shafa just hold the chair :p) :

Later on after Zuhur prayers, we went for a lunch at Kenny Rogers Paradigm Mall to reward ourselves. And to our surprise, Ayon & Kak Nasrah was there with the kids! We got to play with lovely Amna for a while. 🙂

After enjoying some brief moments with the kids, we went for our monthly grocery shopping at Tesco. Since we still have stocks for most of the items, we’re just replenishing the items used everyday. Saved!

We also went for a movie after maghrib prayers, but will further review on that movie in the next entry. 🙂