As the travelling lifestyle becomes more popular, there's a lot of discussion about whether or not to post across social media platforms. Like everything there are pros and cons for both and it really does come down to a personal choice.
I often get asked about ours so I decided to share how and why our page was created.
CAMPING WITH CUBS
Our travel name is pretty obvious once you realise our surname is 'Lyons'. I love seeing the looks on people’s faces when they work it out. Our girls have always been referred to as our Cubs, and I actually wanted to name them after characters in The Lion King, but we decided on places in Australia instead.
During my pregnancy I accepted redundancy due to a downsize at work. I knew I didn’t want to go straight back to work after having Keira, but I still wanted to try and contribute to the family income. I started developing an online store that specialised in camping items for kids and gift packs, and so the name was created.
Camping with Cubs was registered as a business and the website created, but I was then asked to work from home helping an ex-colleague start his new business venture. Between helping that setup, a newborn baby, everything else called life, 9months later being surprised with the news of twins and then deciding to travel around Australia, the business never kicked off, so we instead used the name, page and website as a journal for our travels.
Our Facebook page was created with the intention to keep all our travel memories in one place, rather than mixed amongst our profiles. A page for our family and friends to follow along, if they wanted to, and a keepsake for our girls to look back on when older. The page is just us sharing what we get up to, good and bad but as more people have started to follow, we have tried to share more information about our setup, tips, ideas and what works for us in hopes of helping others on their journey. We have also since linked an Instagram account to our page for those only on Instagram.
WEBSITE
We had many discussions about keeping our website or not, but in the end we all (especially our friend and creative designer Anna from Little Boat Creative) spent so much time on it that it seemed like a waste just to delete it.
Raising three kids, still working for that company I mentioned earlier, exploring as a family, finding couples time and focusing on my personal wellbeing can be quite a difficult juggling act, so I haven’t spent as much time on the website as I would have liked but I aim to update it this year.
I think the website is a great way for people to see what we have done, how we do it and what equipment we use, rather than having to scroll through old posts.
Facebook is great for real-time updates, but a website allows easier access to more specific topics that people might be interested in.
BLOG POSTS
I enjoy writing posts and sharing our knowledge in hopes of helping others.
I have written a couple of articles for Caravanning with Kids (just for fun, I did not receive payment) and might in the future submit a few more but I mostly plan on keeping what I write for our website.
We are not experts and don’t believe one-way suits all. Not everyone will agree with us and that’s OK, we just want to share mistakes made, what we have found works for us and we are always open to suggestions and recommendations if someone has found a better way.
AFFILIATES
We do have an affiliate link for Caravanning with Kids which means if you want to purchase any of their items, we get a very small commission if you use our referral link which we share occasionally.
We recently became a Roving Stockist for Pegless Clotheslines which we absolutely love. We decided to order some because other travellers would see ours and love it too but it can be hard to order items when you don’t know where you’re going to be, so now we are able to offer it on the spot to save the hassle and the cost of postage.
PRODUCT REVIEWS
We only share or recommend items we personally use and have used for a while. We don’t accept products in return for good reviews and don’t ask for free or discounted accommodation/experiences in return of a positive review. Our reviews are our personal opinions that we choose to share.
LOGO
The very talented Anna from Little Boat Creative designed our logo when setting up our website. When we did our first trip, we realised a lot of people were hesitant to strike up a conversation with us because we had the three little ones, especially if they were crying. They didn't want to be disruptive. After discussing with other travelling families, we decided to put stickers of our logo on our car and caravan so other travellers could see we were a travelling family and more than happy for people to come say hi anytime.
We are always open to questions and discussions, and will always answer honestly, so feel free to send us a message or catch up with us on the road.
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