The island that overwhelms you on arrival — and is nearly impossible to leave.

There's a place where restaurant staff hold your baby so you can finish your meal, where kids aren't just tolerated but celebrated, and where six months planned turned into three years lived. That's Bali, according to today's guest.

Alison Emerick's family spent three years living in Bali — sandwiched between two years in Singapore and their current home in Lisbon — moving there when her kids were just three and five years old. She's walking through everything a first-time family needs to know: how to survive the flight, where to actually stay, which beaches are worth it (spoiler — not many), and what happens when your kid splits her chin open!

Meet Alison Alison is a writer, photographer, and American mom of two now living in Lisbon after nearly seven years abroad — first in Singapore, then three years in Bali. She's the founder of Semicurated Life and the author of a comprehensive Bali Family Guide covering neighborhoods, sample itineraries, and safety information for families. Before any of it, she studied French and International Studies and teaching English in Japan through the JET Program.

In This Episode:

• Where Bali is in this great big world, and how to get there
• Surviving the long-haul flight: overnight legs, screens without guilt, and why Singapore Airlines tops her list
• The airport "taxi mafia" and why a prearranged private driver is worth arranging in advance
• Health and safety on the ground: dengue, rabies, motorbike accidents, and the reality of pay-before-they-treat-you healthcare — including the day her daughter split her chin open and needed stitches under anesthesia
• Area-by-area breakdown: Sanur vs. Nusa Dua vs. the South Bali resort towns vs. Ubud
• Why Ubud disappoints more families than it delights, and where she sends people instead
• Island-hopping options: Nusa Lembongan for the beaches Bali itself doesn't really deliver, and Flores for Komodo dragons and some of the best snorkeling of their time in Indonesia
• What things actually cost: villas, private drivers, food delivery, childcare, massages
• The daily offerings (canang sari) woven into everyday Balinese life, and what they taught her kids
• When to go: the wet-versus-dry season breakdown, and her least-favorite month to visit

Links + Resources

Follow Alison’s adventures on Instagram: @semicuratedlife

Alison’s Bali Family Guide: https://stan.store/semicuratedlife/p/get-my-bali-guide-for-families-now

Semicuratedlife site: https://semicuratedlife.com/

Questions or episode ideas? hello@untetheredchildhoodpod.com Follow the show: Instagram @untethered_childhood

Italy is one of those countries you dream about taking your kids for years....because, it's Italy! If you're itching for a family trip to Italy, we have some ideas and starting points for you.

There are 20 distinctive regions, and today we're zooming into Southern Italy - the CAMPANIA region! This "happy land" is the region that gave us Amalfi Coast, Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento.

Luigi Panella is a Southern Italian luxury chauffeur who was born and raised in Campania and has spent the last 15 years guiding families through the region he knows through and through. He's the kind of guide who doesn't just drive you somewhere, he tells you what you're standing on. I've trusted him with two of my own Italy trips, including one with two very small kids, and he is a big reason those trips worked so well for us.

This episode is a window into what a Southern Italy trip for a family could look like, the sweet hidden stops along the coast, the food, and how to approach it with kids. It's an insider's guide. I truly think if you go with your kids, it'll leave a lasting impression on all of you.

Wherever you are in your planning — just dreaming or actively researching — we hope you leave feeling inspired. Andiamo!

• Why the Romans called Southern Italy's Campania region Campania Felix — the Happy Land — and why it still earns that name
• The mindset shift Luigi says will make or break your Italy trip: come as a traveler, not a tourist, and choose one or two regions to really sink into
• The case Luigi makes for ditching the car and seeing the Amalfi Coast by boat with young kids (from the man who's driven that road hundreds of times)
• Where to base your family on the Amalfi Coast, and how to hop between villages by ferry like a local
• The layers hiding underneath the coast's 13 towns — including an ancient Roman villa buried beneath a church in Positano, the cave at Conca dei Marini (La Grotta dello Smeraldo), and why Ravello inspired a Wagner opera
• Why Luigi calls Naples a "giant playground of history and flavors" — and what it takes to see it that way
• Sorrento as the ideal family home base: stroller-friendly, walkable, connected by train, and deeply local
• Why kids love Pompeii (the volcano backdrop, the Romans' big cobblestones, the sense of a city frozen in time)
• Making the case for Matera — a UNESCO World Heritage city where people lived in caves until the 1950s — and its neighbor Alberobello and its iconic trulli stone houses
• Luigi's cheat sheet for spotting a tourist trap restaurant vs. the real thing (short menu, slow pasta, dinner at 7:30)
• What Southern Italy's food culture teaches kids about slowing down, lingering at the table, and what it means when someone says prendiamoci un caffè

🌐 Luigi Panella: luigipanella.com 📱 Instagram: @LuigiPanellaLuxuryChauffeurs

📩 Questions or feedback? hello@untetheredchildhoodpod.com 📱 Follow along: @untethered_childhood

You go to Italy for the views. You leave with something deeper. Keep raising explorers.

You did not come this far to leave without knowing about luggage forwarding.

Part 2 of our Japan series with Jo MacGregor is here — and this one is all about the stuff that actually makes or breaks a trip. Phrases to teach your kids before you land. The konbini experience that her kids sprint toward the second they touch down. Omakase with children (yes, really). Playgrounds that look like they were designed by a giant who loved Godzilla. And the luggage forwarding system that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about traveling with kids.

If you missed Part 1, go back and start there — it's a full three-week itinerary, city by city. This episode picks up where that one left off.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Two mistakes families make when planning a Japan trip (and one of them will surprise you)
• Why Jo says strollers are non-negotiable
• Are kids actually treated like celebrities in Japan? Jo gives an honest, nuanced answer
• What to do if your family has gluten-free needs — including a Facebook group Jo recommends and a kitchen hack that changes the equation
• How to read a room, Japanese-style: the cultural motto Jo uses with her own kids everywhere they travel
• Japanese phrases to teach your kids before the flight lands (including the one that will make every waiter light up)
• Konbini culture — what it is, why whole YouTube channels are dedicated to it, and why it might become the highlight of your kids' trip
• Omakase explained: what it actually means in Japan versus what we think it means, and how to do it smartly with a family
• The playgrounds. We talk about the playgrounds.
• Sumo and baseball — the seasonal schedule you need if either of these is on your list
• Luggage forwarding: the system that lets you travel like a local and pack like a human being
• What Jo would say to a family the night before their first Japan trip if they called her in a panic

LINKS + RESOURCES thetokyochapter.com — Jo updates her area guides constantly with new finds. Bookmark it!

Jo on Instagram @thetokyochapter

Find me at @untethered_childhood or hello@untetheredchildhoodpod.com