The family behind Japan Family Guide.
I’m Matt. Together with my wife Lyndsie and our two boys, Darrell and Ernie, we’re a family of four from the Gold Coast Hinterland in Queensland who went to Japan and came back already planning the next trip.
Before we had kids, travel was a huge part of life for Lyndsie and me. Between us we’ve visited over 40 countries across five continents: backpacking, road trips, moving on every few days to somewhere new. We rarely sat still. A week by a pool was never really our thing. We ate everything, wandered everywhere, and rarely had more than a loose plan.
When Darrell and Ernie came along, that pace of life slowed down for a while, as it should. But once the boys were old enough, we were keen to get back into it and bring them along with us.
The boys are active kids, obsessed with sport, always outside, and not the type to sit still for long. As it turns out, that makes them pretty good travel companions. Japan suited all four of us.
Japan had been on our list for years. When we finally made the trip as a family, it surprised us. Not because it was incredible (we expected that) but because of how well it worked with kids. We covered a lot of ground, and every part of it was manageable, welcoming, and genuinely fun for all four of us.
The food was a revelation. The trains made everywhere feel reachable. The kids were engaged rather than just tolerating another day of sightseeing. We came home already talking about where we’d go next time.
Most Japan travel content is written for couples or solo travellers. The family-specific advice we found tended to be vague or aimed at toddlers. This site is our attempt to fill that gap: practical, firsthand, written for families who want to actually get out and do things.
We book our own accommodation, plan our own routes, and get around on foot, trains and buses, with the occasional taxi when we’ve pushed it a bit late. Japan makes independent travel easy in a way that’s hard to overstate. We never felt like we needed someone to shepherd us around.
That said, we’re not purists about it. There are experiences and day activities where a guide genuinely adds value, and we’ll say so when that’s the case. What we don’t do is hand the whole trip over to a package.
Active first
Hiking, walking, getting into neighbourhoods on foot. If it keeps everyone moving, we’re in.
Independent travel
We sort our own transport and accommodation and find our own way around. Japan is extraordinarily well set up for this.
Food obsessed
Non-negotiable. We will queue. We will eat things we can’t identify. The boys have learned to do the same.
Honest advice
Everything here is based on what we actually did. If something was a hassle with kids, we’ll say so.
Japan Family Guide is built around one question: what does this actually look like with kids? Not in a hand-wringing “is Japan manageable with children?” way (it absolutely is), but in a practical “here’s what we did, here’s what worked, here’s what we’d change” way.
You’ll find destination guides, itineraries, food recommendations, transport tips, and honest takes on accommodation. All of it written for families who want a real trip, not just a smooth one.
Plan it the way we would.
We planned this trip ourselves, paid for it ourselves, and wrote down what worked and what did not. All of it is on the site, free, with nothing to sign up for.
- Where to go, and how long to give each place
- What to book ahead, and what to skip
- Getting around with kids, without the guesswork
- What it actually cost us
The planning guides
Flights, trains, money, food, insurance and where to stay. Written after the trip, not before it.
Read the guides → Browse destinations