Travelling Journalist Profile: Nicole Navarro

This month Cruisin’ hosted travelling journalist and mum, Nicole Navarro on her motorhome holiday around Tasmania in our Cruisin’ Six Berth Discovery. We took the time to ask her a few questions about her Cruisin’ experience and what she enjoyed most about travelling around with a young family in tow.

Nicole Navarro is a freelance editor and journalist with a sixth sense for travel. She edits the annual Go Caravan and Camping Guide and will be developing a new national travel title later this year. She also contributes regularly to other travel, investment, health and interior style publications.

Recently Nicole has launched a PR company, Hola!Communications, to help businesses get their products seen, heard and experienced. And somehow she manages to also be mum of a four-year-old and one-year-old, and squeeze in motorhome trips to idyllic destinations. Quebuenavida!

1. What did you enjoy most about the Cruisin’ Motorhomes experience?

The ability it gave my young family of four to roam free and have no plans; to turn off our electronic devices and give each other our undivided attention. To let the sun, tides and motorhome dashboard tell us when to wake, sleep and when we have just one hour left to check into our next campsite.

I also appreciated the lack of need for hotels, or the need to decide where to eat for the night. There was also no need to contemplate where my 14-month-old baby could nod off for her morning
sleep, or where my entire family could take a kip after stretching our legs up Mt Freycinet. Our Cruisin’ Motorhome was always patiently waiting for us to return. It was an all-in-one holiday experience. Everything was so convenient, practical and enjoyable in the Cruisin’ Motorhome.

2. Where was your favourite place and why?

The Bay of Fires was my favourite ‘free camp’ spot. I call it ‘the best playground in the world’. What makes this place so special is its striking lichen-covered boulders, and its caves and rockpools to
frolic among. This place made my husband and I feel like children again. I’ll never forget the permanent smiles on the faces of my children. It truly lit a fire in our hearts forever.

For a mix of adult sophistication and family adventure, Stanley was another firm favourite, topping my favourite ‘paid camp’ spot. This place offered a great short walk up ‘The Nut’, the giant rock
that visually dominates the peninsula. It also boasts an impressive sweeping beach, and some fabulous marine life such as the giant rock lobsters, seals and octopus.

Stanley also happens to be a character-controlled town, with original buildings dating back to the early 1800s. Along the high street, many of these older buildings house boutique homewares and
bespoke wooden furniture, a chocolate shop for the kids, numerous cafes, galleries, a deli, oyster bar and an old pub. Plenty of options for the entire family.

3. Do you have any tips for those travelling with families in a motorhome?

- Just because you have young kids this doesn’t mean no hiking.  Go to this website to find 60 short walks to take with your kids in tow, you can even download an app to carry with you everywhere: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/

- Ensure you arrive to each campsite by 3pm latest. This ensures the kids have plenty of time to run around before dinnertime.

- If travelling during daylight-saving months you’ll get more time on the beach, the lake, the river, and the campsite. I recommend it.

- Make sure you split your time between the front passenger seat and the rear seat with the kids. They’ll get a kick out of having you ride up the back with them!

- Find a big sheet of butchers’ paper and completely cover the table, then adhere it with sticky tape. The kids will be in colour-in heaven and can draw up their own map and adventure. The
journey will fly.

- Always pick up a second map for your children and let them get involved in activity or destination decision time.

- Stop into berry farms along the journey, where the kids can pick their own, plus all the other fun farms along the way.

4. Favourite caravan park/camping spot?

The quality of parks we stayed at was generally very high. We were impressed. Certainly some do stand out more than others for varying reasons. Here they are:

Favourite ‘free campsite’:

Bay of Fires’ Cosy Corner, simply heaven. How privileged we felt to sleep so close to what I class as the most spectacular beach in the world.

 5. What was your favourite feature of the 6 Berth Discovery and why?

It’s tough to choose just one, so I’ll mention a few. The first one is the motorhome’s onboard and surprisingly spacious fridge. This fridge made buying fresh seafood while travelling a completely
different experience, especially the oysters.

It meant we could pull into an oyster farm on the edge of St Helens and transfer our oysters – what I believe are Australia’s best – from the farmer’s fridge direct to ours, still fresh and on ice. Thanks to the onboard television and DVD player to entertain the kids for a spell, it also meant we could linger at the oyster farm a little longer, sharing some interesting child-free and undistracted conversation about life as a Tasmanian oyster farmer.

Also the long lasting battery was another special feature. It allowed us to ‘free camp’ off-the-grid, with lights and showers, on the foreshore of the most stunning beach ever. And early on frosty
mornings when we woke in the foothills of Cradle Mountain, the motorhome’s split-cycle air-conditioning gave us the warm boost we needed to jump out of bed.

6. Any further comments?

We will definitely take our next holiday with Cruisin’.

Thanks Nicole!