Since I was born I’ve been to almost 50 cities in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Maldives, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.
About Us
My Dad’s been hanging out with me for my first 5 years teaching me all kinds of important life skills like pressed hams, doodle guitar, Black Jack, Wheelies, how to make your farts loud, and well, you know, all the things that will get you by in life.
But since I’m now at school most of the day, I told him “its not you, it’s me” and that we need to see other people (I have my eye on one of my classmates, she smiles at me all the time, unlike my Dad, who’s often telling me off for trying to pull my pants down). Anyway, we had a discussion on what he could do since we won’t be seeing each other so often, and came up with this idea.
That is, share our travel experiences with silky smooth cats such as yourself. My Dad was always getting himself in a huff at some of the reviews written on TripAdvisor. We both had a wee chuckle at the fella who cried when he saw House of Dancing Water in Macau, and the dude who rated Meiji Shrine 1/5 stars because a stone got stuck in his shoe walking there. So, we thought we could review things better. My Dad writes about destinations from his experience, and I write about all the kids stuff.
Over the years, Dad has taken quite literally over 56,000 photos and 3700 video clips of myself on our holidays. He thinks he’s an absolute photography genius and being the old nostalgic bugger he is, he shoots film as well as digital. He thinks he can impart his photography wisdom on you. All I will say is he is no professional but he might know a thing or two because there’s always a damn camera hanging around his neck which inevitably means less tom foolery for me.
One thing you should know – some times I think my Dad is a Pom because he spends an awful lot of time whinging about hotels and things we do on holiday. If there is something to complain about, he will find it! This is good news for you, because if my Nana was writing these reviews and giving you her opinions, every single hotel, city, beach and activity would be given a 10/10. Basically if my Dad says something is good, that means it’s actually pretty wicked. He will say when something is not good, so you know when he says something is great, it must be spectacular.
Why Toucan Takes Off
I asked my Dad if I could have my little girl friend over for a sleepover but he said I was a bit young for that. Instead, he said I could have a Toucan as a sleeping buddy, and since I got him he always takes off with us when we travel, hence Toucan Takes Off.
Where To Start
Start with our featured destinations our Toucan’s Fav’s, on the home page. Each destination has 5 sections, Things to Do (for adults and in general), Toucan’s Tips For kids (self explanatory), You Should Know This (Miscellaneous drivel), a Map, and some tips for photographers.
A Bit More About My Dad
Now everybody’s different and has different things they value when traveling, which means not all of you are going to find this useful.
- Dad’s number 1 priority when traveling is avoiding crowds. That’s sometimes impossible, but most of our travel will be based around staying away from hoards of tourists wherever possible
- This is not a budget travel blog. If you’re looking for info on cheap hotels, deals and the like, this isn’t for you
- We love clean fresh air, which is ironic since we live in Hong Kong. Any place which has fresh air automatically gets bonus points
- We’re not foodies and think spending USD$250 on a Michelin Star meal is for absolute wombles
- If you like spending time with your kids and doing stuff with them, this is for you
If you want to contact Toucan Takes Off, you can send us any questions or comments you have via email or ask us on twitter.