I'm a full-time mummy

As a stay-at-home mum, family is always number one priority for me. And hence, when I plan for a family vacation, it must be a family-friendly place that has activities for all of us to do while we relax and enjoy some downtime.

When the school holidays started recently in early December 2021, we have been having some day trips at the nearest beach (Port Dickson) and while it was fun, I do feel that a longer stay would be more awesome! After all, the drive from our house to Port Dickson is about 1.5 hour to and fro and we only get to spend about 6 hours every time, not sufficient I would say!

At the moment, I am currently looking at holidaying in the state of Pahang. When you say the word ‘Pahang’, the image that comes to mind are the green luscious forest, the long stretch of white sandy beach and the blue sparkling ocean.

The hotel that got my attention at the moment is De Rhu Beach Resort. It is located in Balok, Kuantan. There are several reasons why I choose De Rhu Beach Resort, amongst them are:

1.    It is a beachfront resort, right on Balok Beach
2.    It has a playground in the pool that will definitely score points with my kiddos (refer picture below – see how glorious and fun looking are those pools!!!)
3.    There is a large swimming pools for adults to plunge in for some fun
4.    Lots of ample parking space
5.    It has restaurants that serve good food throughout the day
6.    It is eligible for Traveloka promotion!

Image source: Traveloka

Who doesn't appreciate a good promotion, eh? Thanks to Traveloka, I can choose from a variety of hotel promotions available. You can also get a discount if you're vaccinated or if you're travelling by air too! I am contemplating to go with the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia #supportlokal promotion as this promotion gives me a 10% discount on De Rhu Beach Resort. Not only that, if we are taking a flight, we can also get up to RM50 off but I think for my family size, it would be easier to travel by our trusted family car as we can stop by R&R along the way whenever circumstances arises (nature calls, hunger pangs etc).

Additionally, I can also claim for an income tax relief up to RM1000 by 31st December 2022. How cool is that?! Traveling and also getting income tax relief is a win-win! If you would like to know more, do check out Traveloka's full promotions at hotel promo.

FYI, De Rhu Beach Resort is rated an impressive 8.5/10 in Traveloka with hundreds of reviews! Customers’ reviews are important factor to me as it means a whole lot of people have tried out and agreed to the good service and conditions of the hotel. The check-in and check-out time at the hotel is at a standard 3PM and 12PM respectively. From what I see, the rooms are spacious, so I can squeeze in my whole family into 1 room and still have space to walk about.

Now I can just imagine how relaxing it is to stay at De Rhu Beach Resort! I can feel the wind blowing in my face as I have a break with a light stroll by the beach with my family.

Image source: Wikipedia

So, I hope the Kuantan holiday plan will materialize soon as we are badly in need of some vitamin SEA and I am looking forward for a longer stay at a beach area with my loved ones. That’s all the updates from me for now. Stay safe everyone!

A family staycation is a perfect chance to treat yourself and your family, giving you all a break from reality and our day-to-day responsibilities, to rejuvenate our mind and body, and to see and feel a different environment for our sanity's sake.

You can let your hair down. There is no need to worry about cleaning the house whenever your children make a mess as there is room services to handle that. At least for a few days, you are worry-free on matters of cooking, laundry and to-do-list as a mother and housewife. All you need to do is just focus on the break and rest as much as you can during staycation.

Staycation also reduces the traveling time. Have fun being a tourist at your hometown. You can pack lightly and reduce the cost on airplane and airport transfers. You just need to go to any hotel for a staycation by driving your own vehicle. Most of the hotels provides free parking within their premises too.

Anyway, it is every mom’s concerns to check on the places to go for holiday that will suits her family and children. Whether the hotel is suitable for children, whethere there have any children pool, no smoking rooms, and if possible, connecting room for the children. Also do note that not all hotels are child-friendly. So here are few tips to plan a staycation with your family and children:

Choose a hotel that caters to your little ones

When scouting for a hotel, not only scout for the best deals, you must also check on child-friendly hotel or family-friendly hotel from beds and amenities to children activities. If you have extra budget, you can go for a hotel that offers spacious rooms, with extra amenities such as baby cots, bottle warmers, and stroller. Some hotels also offer exciting activities for children such as children’s yoga, rock climbing, and cooking class. This is to ensure you and your children will have a good staycation experience.

Make sure all items and belongings are well-packed

With the little troops I have (5 children between 2 to almost 12-years old) packing can be an overwhelming task. But when packing for a hotel staycation, the list become less as most hotels provides toiletries and basic amenities such as towels, hair dryers and iron. So all you need to do is just pack important things that are not easy to get such as medication and diapers. Also don’t forget the children swimming suits if they love to splash in the swimming pools. I'm actually very glad that I'm at the phase where my older 3 children can pack their own clothes when we go for our family holiday!

Stock up on some healthy snacks close to you

This is to avoid the typical tantrums, hunger meltdowns or crankiness in the younger ones. You can stock up on nuts, biscuits, or raisins as well. It easy to carry and perfect to control a little hunger pangs. Some hotel also provides snacks in their freezer, but it is better if you prepare ahead. I usually stock some in my diaper bag and some in one of my child's backpack (as we might be split into 2 groups while walking around hence, the backup hahah)

Include ‘me time’ and time with your spouse

Staycation is the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with your spouse or partner. Beside getting some rest from daily responsibilities, this is the time to recharge your romantic battery. Get the children busy with activities, or get the babysitting and childcare services under your staycation hotel for a few hours. You and spouse can get some much needed alone time together.

Of course for now, it is still impossible to have a staycation because we are still under MCO. Sigh.... But heyyyyyy, for our neighbouring country, Singapore, they can enjoy Staycation Singapore! Not only that, there is also promotion on hotels by Traveloka.

Do go check out their campaign Singapore Rediscovers Vouchers for more interesting offers and tips on attractions and hotels!

That’s all for now. Hope these tips helps to give some ideas for mommies out there to have a little break. Stay safe everyone!

As a busy mum with 5 kiddos between 2 to 11-years old, I have already cut down on doing product reviews since the beginning of this year to focus on my childcare and family life, home cooking, education, helping with hubby's administration site of the business and occasionally sharing informational articles on my FB fan page. 

Now, our family has always been a big fan of all things LEGO, so when I received an invitation to attend the LEGOLAND Brick-Tacular celebration with my family, how can I say no?! After all, it is coming to the year-end and we have all been safely staying home due to the CMCO. After getting positive feedbacks from friends who have visited LEGOLAND recently, we quickly arranged for our trip down south so that we can catch the show on time!

Just a quick info on the LEGOLAND Brick-Tacular celebration, this year, LEGOLAND Malaysia Resort will be transformed into the Candyland of your dreams. The resort will also be extending their operating hours on the weekends (Fridays to Sundays) so that everyone can have extra time to enjoy their annual BrickTacular celebration. We are lucky to fully maximise our visiting ours there during our Saturday to Monday stay at LEGOLAND Hotel.

The resort was like a giant Candyland, everywhere you go, you're bound to see candy canes, lollies and more! We enjoyed hunting for Gingerbread Man in the MINILAND as well as being mesmerised by the beautiful decorations around the resort!

My children were so engrossed at watching the LEGO Friends performance on stage! Even I couldn't resist dancing and swaying around to the songs! It was also cool to see LEGOLAND staff giving out Christmas hats for the children around the center stage area. Everything is awesome!

We also made it a point that it's a MUST to visit SEA LIFE Malaysia! I'm impressed with the strict SOP of social distancing and keeping the hygiene of the guests. We also noticed some cute lollies and candies around some exhibits!

I feel safe and assured walking around the resort as you can see staff getting guests to sanitize their hands before and after each rides. There are also staff walking around the resort to sanitize the park, benches and etc. Hand sanitisers devices can be found everywhere and signs to remind you to practise social distancing as well can be seen everywhere. Kudos to LEGOLAND Malaysia for this initiative and effort!

Even at the LEGOLAND Hotel Bricks Restaurant, you can see that the staff are strict and rules are being adhered to by guests too. Instead of going around, taking your own sweet time to choose your food selections, you practically do the same but line up one by one at a safe distance, when it's your turn, you walk up to the counter and give your food order to the staff in-charge and they will scoop and get your dish and food portion as per your order. I also like the table covering during our dinner at the Bricks Restaurant. My children get their own Lego crayons and immediately proceed to choose their own activities - connecting the dots, finding the differences, complete the maze, words search and more!

If you are planning to visit LEGOLAND Malaysia Resort, do keep a lookout for character appearances throughout the park as well as joining in the fun in the activities provided. We managed to take pictures with the Toy Soldier mascot as well as Lego Pirate in our hotel.

Overall, we really enjoyed our trip this round and looking forward to visiting LEGOLAND Malaysia again in the near future!

 You can find out more info from LEGOLAND Malaysia's website.

If you want the latest scoop on promotion and activities, do stay connected with LEGOLAND Malaysia Resort via Facebook and Instagram.

I received no monetary compensation for this review. I was invited to the event with my family in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

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