About Me

Hi there. So you’ve found my blog. Well, I’m thrilled to have you here, welcome.

So you’re probably wondering who the hell is Passports and Adventures. Let me enlighten you. I am Catherine, or Cath for short, whichever you prefer. I am (ehem) over 40 and am originally from Dublin. We are an Irish expat family now living in the Algarve in Portugal (we hijacked my parent’s retirement), by way of the United Kingdom, where we lived for 15 years.

Who are we, you ask? We are me, my husband Mr Passports and our 7 year old son aptly nicknamed Hurricane A. Mr Passports and I have been together 20 years and married for 10. We also have one crazy 8 year old German Shepherd, who might be 8 but is still 8 months old in his heart.

We moved to Portugal because Mr Passports finally wore me down convinced me to live somewhere warmer. We realised our son had spent two-thirds of his life indoors due to the wet weather and we wanted something different for him. So we gave up a beautiful six-bedroom house in Wales and moved south in May 2017. 

It also meant me giving up a job I loved within the science industry. Oh yeah, did I mention I used to be a mad scientist? Having been the eternal student and spending nine years in university (yes, you read that right, 9 years!), I finally achieved my goal and graduated with a PhD in Chemistry in 2004, after which I joined my hubby in the UK.

My blog, originally named BattleMum, was started as a parenting and lifestyle blog during the last few months of my maternity leave but changed focus last year when I realised I loved writing about our travels more than I did about the parenting side of things. Writing posts about travelling get my juices flowing and my fingers typing, and when you find joy in something you gotta go with it, right. Then came a scary name change to Passports and Adventures. I felt I needed something that reflected the nature of the blog and so a new name was born.

We are very much a wanderlust family. Mr Passports and I were always keen to travel pre-kids and, while we enjoyed new cities and cultures, I have to admit we were a bit lazy about where we went, sticking to Europe. Having seen my sister-in-law continue to travel with two, three, four, five, six and now seven babies in tow, we decided to follow her lead when our son came along and to carry on enjoying travelling with our son along for the ride. And we’ve even become more adventurous with trips to New York, Yellowstone and South East Asia under our belts. 

So now, Passports and Adventures is a family travel blog which focuses on family travel. I share our family holidays, travels, days out and hints and tips in the hope we can inspire more families to get travelling, even with toddlers and young children in tow. Many people put off travelling with their kids while they are young because they worry about the “what if’s”. Well I want to dispel those fears and show families that travel CAN be enjoyed even when the kids are little.

Some of our holidays have been package holidays, some are stay-cations and some are to far-flung destinations. We also enjoy days out to both popular and less well-known places. We have a long family travel bucket list and our long-term plan is to work our way through it. We want to discover the world together as a family, while sharing our experiences with my readers. So, I do hope you’ll come along for the ride and become inspired to travel more, even with your babies and toddlers. Because it CAN be done!

So that’s me and my family in a nutshell. Ex-mad scientist, keen traveller and a wife and mum. 

You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube. If you are interested in working with me, please visit my Work with Me page.

Cath x