Field guides for families
Real adventures. Real family. Tough challenges, made approachable.
Written by a family who travels frequently with a neurodivergent teenager, a dog and grandparents — rough parts included.
Where we've been · 8 guides
All destinationsWritten for the families most guides skip
Most travel writing assumes a family with no constraints. Ours has several. Every itinerary here was walked by two adults and a neurodivergent teenager — and, depending on the trip, a dog or a set of grandparents. What worked is written down. So is what didn't.
-
Neurodivergent kids
Crowd levels, noise, age limits, and how much a day's schedule can move without the whole thing coming apart.
-
Pets
Where the dog came with us, where they were turned away, and where one of us waited outside.
-
Grandparents
How long the walks actually are, where the benches are, and which viewpoints you reach without the hike.
What's in every guide
The same three articles for every destination, so you always know where to look — plus a food guide or a 24-hour city plan where we have one. The itineraries print, and stay readable once you've lost signal.
-
The Experience
What the trip was actually like — what worked, what didn't, and what we'd tell another family.
-
Itinerary
The day-by-day plan in brief. Built to print, and to read offline.
-
Tips & Hacks
Food, driving, weather, timings and the small things worth knowing in advance.
Why "Trains & Frogs"
The name arrived on the ring road in Iceland, somewhere in the long empty stretches where the landscape does your thinking for you. Trains and frogs were the first two things our son loved, and they were what made a strange place feel like somewhere he could go.
Since before he was 2 years old, he has been obsessed with trains. He finds comfort in the sight and sound of the trains, the mostly straight and long paths it follows and how one carriage is connected to another. Another thing that he was in love with were frogs. He especially loved the green ones.