Untethered Childhood

Part one of our two-part series on South Africa, featuring Misché and Kat of Zwela Journals! They describe Cape Town as a total vibe with an African soul, a city wedged between the mountain and the sea! They were both born in Cape Town and now live in Barcelona. They’re the co-founders of Zwela Journals, a small studio making travel journals designed for kids that help them slow down, notice more, and remember where they’ve been.
In part one of our two-part South Africa series, Kat and Misché share their childhood memories of South Africa, what ubuntu means to them, and how to plan Cape Town with kids. We also talk about why travel journaling works for kids, including kids who find writing hard, and how to keep it fun instead of feeling like homework.
In this episode:
Campfire stories on a family game farm near Kruger, and a granny’s “fairy lights” over the bay
Sundowners, the South African ritual of stopping to watch the sun go down
Why South Africa’s birds might be the secret to a kid who’s never bored on a road trip
What they’re homesick for: biltong, braais and savory pies
Ubuntu: “I am because we are”
Cape Town with kids: Table Mountain and its “tablecloth” cloud, the aquarium at the V&A Waterfront, seals in the harbor, and restaurants with play areas
Where to stay (Sea Point, Green Point, Tamboerskloof) and how to get around
A full-day loop down the peninsula: Muizenberg, St. James, Kalk Bay, Simon’s Town, the penguins at Boulders Beach, Cape Point, and the drive over Chapman’s Peak to Hout Bay
How Zwela’s prompts change on every page and meet kids where they are, including kids with dyslexia
The funniest and sweetest things kids have written in their journals
Tip from the episode: buy your Boulders Beach tickets online before you go, so you only wait in one line instead of two.
Coming next Tuesday in part two: the Garden Route, safari at Addo and Kruger, and the women protecting rhinos near Kruger.
Find Zwela Journals:
Website: zwelajournals.com
Instagram: @zwelajournals
South African Travel Journal: zwelajournals.com/south-african-journal
Why travel journal with kids: zwelajournals.com/why-travel-journalling
Come say hi on Instagram at @untethered_childhood. If this episode has you dreaming about South Africa, send it to the friend you’d want on the road trip with you. We're raising explorers together!

Welcome to the winter edition of our Make the Swap series! If you caught our episode with Marion Donat, you know the idea: same style of trip and time off, just reimagining the destination. This time we’re trading the usual U.S. ski trip for the Austrian Alps!
Hilary Russell of The Slope Seeker Family has skied the same corner of Austria for more than 15 years, first with her husband and now with their three boys. Her family skis twice as long there for about half of what they used to spend skiing in the US. However, as Hilary will tell you, the savings are only half the story! It’s the village bakeries, the cows and horses out in snowy fields, ski instructors who are direct but kind, and a ski school lunch table full of kids chattering in different languages. Sign us up!
Hilary grew up in Türkiye and Germany and learned to ski in the Bavarian Alps as a little girl. Today she lives on a lake in Alabama, and helps families plan their own Austria ski trips.
A LITTLE SKI HISTORY
Austria is widely considered the birthplace of modern downhill skiing and ski teaching. In the early 1900s, Hannes Schneider began teaching in St. Anton. His Arlberg technique spread around the world, all the way to the ski school he opened in New Hampshire in 1939, which trained many American instructors. Closer to Hilary’s home base, Axamer Lizum hosted Olympic alpine events when Innsbruck held the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976.
IN THIS EPISODE
The “why are we doing this?” moment that sparked her family’s swap
Why you don’t have to be an expert skier to love it here
Why Austrians won’t put up with price gouging
Village life
One pass = 12 resorts
Gearhart, the slopeside hut owner who now greets her husband as “Alabama”
Walkie-talkies, gondola friendships, and kids gaining independence on the mountain
How Austrian run colors compare to U.S. runs
Off days: tunnel water slides, Swarovski Crystal Worlds, and day trips to Salzburg and Neuschwanstein Castle
How she’d structure a first week for beginners
What to pack, what to rent, and drying clothes on the wall heaters
The big side-by-side swap comparison
DESTINATIONS COVERED — AUSTRIA
Innsbruck and the Tyrol region
Kühtai (night skiing!)
Stubai Glacier
Schlick 2000
Axamer Lizum
Hochoetz
Muttereralm
Day trips: Salzburg and Neuschwanstein Castle (Bavaria)
RESOURCES
Hilary on Instagram: @theshamblessttraveler (her story highlights break down each ski area, packing, and gear)
The Slope Seeker Family itineraries: theshamblessttraveler.com
Make the Swap: Belize and Mexico City with Marion Donat: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PX8VAMhSv1midCSKBCFMM
Coffee Break German podcast (Hilary’s pick for learning a few phrases)
Untethered Childhood on Instagram: @untethered_childhood
Email: hello@untetheredchildhoodpod.com
What swap should we cover next? Come tell us on Instagram, and we’ll go track down an expert for it.
P.S. Untethered Childhood was just named one of the best family travel podcasts on Feedspot. Thank you for listening, sharing, and cheering us on!
Until next time, we’re raising explorers together.

Have you ever spotted an animal hiding in the clouds? There's a word for that. It's called pareidolia, and it's your brain's hardwired habit of spotting faces and familiar shapes in everyday things.
This week I'm sitting down with Erin Campbell. Erin has spent 20 years studying what really motivates people. Today she's a fractional CMO, mom to an 11-year-old, and co-founder of Pareidolia, a family board game built around one simple question: What do you see?
Erin walks us through her family's 10-day trip across Iceland's west and south, a three-generation trip. We go from the bottom of a dormant volcano to the top of a glacier, with whale watching, Arctic river rafting, and thousands of puffins playing in the wind along the way. Then we dig into pareidolia: why our brains do it and how a simple game of "what do you see?" teaches kids that people can look at the same thing and come away with different conclusions. We close on working mom life and the three words Erin's never forgotten: embrace the chaos.
Iceland and pareidolia turn out to be a natural pair. Erin spotted faces in the icebergs (a woodpecker head! a proud seal!), and Iceland has its own long tradition of seeing more in its rocks than meets the eye. Just ask a local about the hidden people said to live in them.
This episode isn't sponsored -- I just love this notion of observing, and how well it fits in with traveling with our kids!
DESTINATIONS COVERED — ICELAND
Keflavík International Airport (KEF)
Reykjavík
Þríhnúkagígur: volcano tour
Snæfellsnes Peninsula: a scenic coastal drive and a boat ride to spot whales and seals
Hvammstangi: bird watching
The Golden Circle: Gullfoss (waterfall), Geysir, and Þingvellir (where two tectonic plates meet)
Hvítá River: whitewater rafting
Sólheimajökull: glacier hike
Jökulsárlón: zodiac boat tour on the glacier lagoon
Ingólfshöfði: puffin colony tour
The Blue Lagoon
MENTIONED
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
Johns Hopkins Magazine: The science behind why we see faces in nature
iScience: Processing visual ambiguity in fractal patterns: Pareidolia as a sign of creativity (2022)
ABOUT THE GUEST
Erin Campbell has spent 20 years inside the retail and marketing world, trying to understand one thing: why people buy what they buy. She's done it from every seat at the table: as a strategist at Saatchi & Saatchi X, where she ran a $20M digital and retail media portfolio for brands like Walmart, Procter & Gamble, and Spin Master; as SVP of Customer Insights at Hy-Vee, where she built the company's first-ever attitudinal customer segmentation; and as a consumer product founder herself, co-founding and exiting the beverage brand GEN Z Water within three years.
Today she's Managing Partner of The Circle Foundry, a human capital investment firm she co-founded to back founder-led consumer brands she believes in, and a Fractional CMO who has advised more than 100 first-time founders. She lives in Bentonville, Arkansas, with her husband, Brandon, and their son, Everett.
Pareidolia Games: play.pareidoliagames.com
TikTok: @pareidoliagames
IG: @pareidolia.games
Follow along: IG- @untethered_childhood
Look up. Ask what they see. Keep raising explorers. Memories don't burn, and neither does imagination.

Packing for Europe with kids doesn’t have to mean hauling half your closet across the ocean.
Let’s get real: one of the most daunting parts of international travel with kids is the bags. I’m a little maniacal about my lists in the weeks leading up to a trip, and it’s taken a whole lot of trial and embarrassing error to land on a system that works for our family. You should see my checklists and post-it notes and highlighters. I've spent years fumbling through suitcases, car seats and obsessing over supplies for "what if somebody gets sick".
On our July trip to Europe, I jotted down tips in real time, as it was happening, and built this solo episode from my notes. It's a good one to save and listen to before you roll out your luggage.
I’m walking you through how I build our family packing list for Europe, from that very first list to the last zipper. I wanted to give more meaning and context, so this one goes beyond the suitcase. We talk about the mindset that turned packing from a dreaded chore into a fun challenge for me (something our wildfire taught me), and how to get your whole household ready before you peace out for the airport.
It's a lot about cognitive offload, lightening your mental load (you know, my love language as a millennial mom): being purposeful about putting pieces in place ahead of time so you can stop second-guessing. The goal here is to get you to the "settle in and enjoy it" phase faster.
IN THIS EPISODE
“Forced minimalism”: what losing every possession in our wildfire taught me about packing light and choosing fewer, better pieces
Start with the type of trip, then set your goal: how your bag count shapes decisions from there on out
Why I start two to three weeks out (I love to ease into a trip)
The questions I ask before packing medicine plus where I don't cut corners
What to bring vs. what to buy when you land
My capsule wardrobe for travel, and why it doesn’t have to be all neutrals. Life is too short to leave your pretty dresses at home!
Planning for laundry so you’re not packing for two full weeks
Kids’ clothes, shoes, and the bright-color trick for spotting each other in a crowded airport
Peace-of-mind safety steps: AirTags, an ID bracelet for little ones, and the itinerary I send to our emergency contacts
Getting kids excited before you go, kids’ activities for long flights, and the toiletry-bag hack that keeps all those little pieces from exploding in their backpacks
Household prep: depleting the fridge, checking passports
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Hatch travel sound machine
Anker battery pack
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Dr. Bronner’s soap (I love the lavender)
Seventh Generation laundry detergent sheets
CONNECT
Instagram: @untethered_childhood
Email: hello@untetheredchildhoodpod.com
Stay light where you can, bring what makes you feel like yourself, and let the rest work itself out once you land. Keep raising explorers.

Ischia: Italy's laid-back island, waiting to be discovered.
Off the coast of Naples, there's an island with over a hundred natural hot springs, a castle that lights up the night sky, and a pace of life that makes you forget where you left your phone.
Ischia is the lesser-known island in the Bay of Naples: lush, volcanic, and wonderfully unfussy. The people pull you in like you're one of their own, and the kids on the beach will have yours playing ball with them before lunch hits the table.
In this solo episode, Jordan cracks open her travel journal from five days on Ischia with her husband, two kids, and her in-laws, the slow, sunny ending to a faster-paced trip through Italy. The first half gives you a feel for the island: the spa day, the castle, the food, the little fishing village. The second half covers the nuts and bolts: where to stay, how to get around, and what she'd do differently next time.

IN THIS EPISODE
Where Ischia sits in the Bay of Naples, and why it's a natural fit for families who want to settle in
A full day at Negombo: 14 thermal pools carved into rock and caves, a cove full of yachts, and a lunch "kiosk" that turned out to be something much better
How a grilled chicken leg and an orange Italian Fanta made a little boy proud as a peacock
Giardini Ravino, a garden built from a sea captain's 40-year plant collection, with peacocks roaming the grounds (plus a heads-up for toddlers and cacti)
Sant'Angelo, the car-free fishing village where kids can roam and play
Castello Aragonese, first built in 474 BC: pirate stories, dungeons, and how to tour it
Coniglio all'ischitana, the slow-braised rabbit dish + the island history behind it
Three fave restaurants
Rooftop aperitivo with a castle view
Getting around: walkable streets, a stroller-friendly town, cash-only taxis, and a very memorable rental car
What's on the list for next time -- yay for learnings!
DESTINATIONS COVERED — ISCHIA, ITALY
Ischia Porto (Via Roma, Corso Vittoria Colonna)
Ischia Ponte and Castello Aragonese
Forio and Giardini Ravino
Sant'Angelo
Negombo thermal park

WHERE WE STAYED + ATE
Villa Durrueli
Dortas
Auras
Porcavacca Steakhouse

RESOURCES
Coming soon: our episode on navigating Italy's ferries with kids
Instagram: @untethered_childhood
Email: hello@untetheredchildhoodpod.com
Some places ask you to keep everything running. Some just let you be there. Keep raising explorers. Memories don't burn.