Looking to start traveling again in a safe, fun, sustainable, and luxurious kind of way? In our ever-changing world, this new era of travel means looking for options that skip the crowds and choosing companies that prioritize sustainability, personalized itineraries, the health of patrons and staff, and fun amenities.

I recently went on my first international trip since the pandemic began — a river cruise in France — with Avalon Waterways. A cruise ship company specializing in bespoke river tours in Europe and Southeast Asia, I was blown away by the attention to detail and personal feel of the experience.

If you’re looking for a small tour provider that will keep you safe, take you to fairytale destinations, and completely immerse you in luxury, then read on — because I found all of this and more on my river cruise.

Here are 10 benefits of taking a river cruise with Avalon Waterways!

10 Benefits of Taking a River Cruise with Avalon Waterways

Cruising Without the Crowds

When given the option, more and more travelers are choosing smaller cruises over mega voyagers.

The current health crisis is a big reason for this (rubbing elbows with strangers doesn’t quite have the same appeal it used to), but having fewer guests onboard means that companies can deploy smaller ships that fit into ports the big ones can’t. This means you’ll get to spend time in off-the-beaten-path destinations without standing in lines, experiencing inflated prices, and having hordes of people in all your photos.

Plus, because Avalon Waterways’ ships have smaller capacities, they can make their cabin sizes bigger and have a greater amount of staff per guest. Avalon Waterways’ ships hold an average of 150 guests with an average of three guests per crew member.

Skip The Seasickness

If you’re prone to seasickness, then sailing on a river as opposed to the sea should be on your radar.

Not only are rivers in Europe famously serene, but you can pretty much hedge your bets to never get seasick on a river regardless of your destination. There are no waves on rivers and less motion than the sea in general — meaning you can skip the ginger pills and enjoy every moment of the water.

Read more: What to Pack for a Sailing Trip (Packing List & Must-Have Essentials)

See The World Your Way

Feeling adventurous? Exploring port cities while your ship is docked is one of the best parts of the experience — you’re on vacation to see the sites, after all. Which makes having awesome tour options that suit your interests and style paramount to having a great trip.

Avalon Waterways includes plenty of Active & Discovery Tours that’ll make sure you get the most out of each destination. Think walking tours, adventure activities, culinary classes, wine tours, and more.

These tours are included in the price of your ticket, but if you’re feeling like a solo adventure, then there is a solution for that too. Sailing with Avalon Waterways means having access to their Avalon Go app; a downloadable application that’ll give you access to maps, itinerary recommendations, and expertly chosen restaurants, bars, and museums.

Plus, this app will send you notifications for your daily itineraries and scheduled activities.

And don’t forget to grab lunch if you decide to create your own tour and head out on your own — the culinary staff onboard will happily pack a lunch for you.

You’ll Get a Room With a View

If you’ve ever dreamed of waking up in the morning to the sight of a gorgeous river, then cruising with Avalon Waterways is your chance for this and more.

Two entire decks of Avalon’s Suite Ships include Panorama Suites — 200 square foot rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows that open up to 7-feet wide. These windows essentially transform your room into an open-air balcony, meaning it will be full of fresh air and natural light all day long. Even the rooms that don’t feature these windows are never fully interior — every single one of them boasts windows and natural light.

The Suite Ships also have sky decks that run the length of the ship and feature plenty of places to hang out and enjoy the view.

I loved waking up to natural views outside of my room every morning, and having my private balcony was the cherry on top.

Tons of Variety

No cruise is ever truly one size fits all, and the key to having the best trip possible is one where you can customize your preferences and experiences.

Avalon Waterways offers multiple options for where to cruise and plenty of port cities for every trip. They put a lot of thought into the destinations in their itinerary scheduling; hiring local guides that help travelers understand and connect with their destinations deeper than they could on their own.

The company also has plenty of off-the-beaten-path experiences on offer, featuring small towns and mom-and-pop shops along the way. Plus, all of their excursions are kept to small groups — you’ll be hard-pressed to find one that is open to more than 30 guests at once.

Read more: 10 Important Wellness and Self-Care Tips for Travelers

Outstanding Service

If you love supporting companies who think big when it comes to customer service, then you’ll feel right at home aboard an Avalon Waterways ship.

The company truly goes above and beyond when it comes to its customer service. They have plenty of amenities on board, and are more than happy to cater to your needs should you require items or special resources.

Also, the narrow crew to patron ratio on the ship means that there is always someone available to help you out should the need arise.

Commitment to Sustainability

More and more, travelers are expecting higher levels of conduct from their tour operators when it comes to sustainability. Preserving the environment and lessening our travel footprint may take a little extra planning, but it’s more than viable in today’s travel landscape.

Thankfully, Avalon Waterways takes a lot of the guessing out of the sustainability equation and is very transparent in its efforts. Home to the Lighthouse Project, the company is committed to measuring their environmental impact and has committed themselves to save water, lessening waste, and using their influence to clean up the world’s rivers and oceans.

Here are just a few initiatives that Avalon Waterways has succeeded in over the last couple of years:

• Eliminated all single-use plastics from their ships and worldwide offices
• Is working with The Ocean Cleanup to help stop the flow of plastics from land to ocean
• Has gone digital in their communication, effectively reducing their paper waste by 80%
• Uses LED lighting on all their ships

Not to mention, the company plans to further reduce their environmental impact in the coming years by lowering their carbon emissions by 50%, generating sustainable electricity while docked, and partnering with more companies to help their mission of removing 90% of the earth’s ocean plastics.

Attention to Detail

It’s often the little details that turn a so-so trip into an unforgettable lifetime experience, and it’s exactly this attention that makes Avalon Waterways stand out from the crowd.

Aboard the ships, you’ll get to choose the firmness of your bed and pillows, soak in designer bath products, cozy up in plush towels, sip on premium beverages, and relax in gorgeous lounges.

This company seriously leaves no stone left unturned, and if you need something, the crew is always there to assist.

The Freshest Local Ingredients

Let’s be honest, it’s often hard to maintain a healthy diet while traveling abroad. With so many temptations, ingredients, and standards around the world, many notions of health can easily go out the window.

But with Avalon Waterways, delicious healthy food is a constant offering. They use only the freshest local ingredients to prepare their taste bud-invigorating dishes, each one of which has been artfully crafted by award-winning chefs.

There are also food options galore, no matter your diet or food tolerances.

Read more: How to Stay Fit While Traveling – 6 Easy Ways!

Amazing Inclusions

As I mentioned above, attention to detail is what makes Avalon Waterways’ service above and beyond, and their vast menu of inclusions is no exception.

Regional wine and beer are included with every lunch and dinner, there are awesome onboard enrichment activities and entertainment, they offer onshore excursions featuring local knowledgeable guides, and their app is loaded with local gems to inspire your free time.

The whole ship is outfitted with complimentary WiFi, there are water refilling stations scattered throughout (there are even vitamin-infused options), and they even offer cappuccinos for any time you need a pick me up.

A big thanks to Avalon Waterways and iambassador for inviting me to be part of the #AvalonAD campaign. As always, all opinions are my own.

The post 10 Benefits of Taking a River Cruise with Avalon Waterways appeared first on Ordinary Traveler.

Yearning for a trip into nature and a dollop of culture thrown in? Consider an Autumnal road trip to America’s Great Lakes: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minneapolis

The post Road Trip: USA Great Lakes featuring Michigan, Wisconsin, Minneapolis appeared first on The Travel Magazine.

It’s the perfect time of year to invest in the best soup maker. We’ve reviewed top soup makers from Morphy Richards, Lakeland, Judge, Drew & Cole, and Salter to bring you our top picks for making seasonal soups in under half an hour. When testing we made all sorts of delicious lunches, from a simple leek and potato to a spicy curried butternut squash soup. 

Each and every one of the best soup makers in our guide has been tested hands-on by Millie Fender, our small appliances expert, and ranked for ease of use, capacity, and features. Although none of them can go in the dishwasher because they come with electric-powered bases, many of the best soup makers have a self-clean button that blitzes any remnants of your soup from the blades or sides of the jug. Some of the soup makers in our guide can also be used in the place of the best blender to make smoothies and even crush ice. 

Other features we enjoyed were delayed start settings, which allow you to add your ingredients and come back in up to 12 hours to find a jug of freshly-cooked soup, and clear designs so you can see your food cooking. 

What is the best soup maker?

We tested five of the best soup makers on the market, and the one that came out on top was the Drew & Cole Soup Chef Pro. We were seriously wowed by the soup it produced, which was smooth and creamy, and it offers a delay start mode. If you’re looking for a soup maker that’s got a clear cooking container, we love the Morphy Richards Clarity Soup Maker. It’s got a clear tritan jug and heats very fast.

1. Drew and Cole Soup Chef Pro

Best soup maker for delay starts

Capacity: 1.6 litres
Modes: 3
Features: Saute, delay start

Reasons to buy: 

• Saute setting
• Memory function (perfect for adding ingredients)
• Delay start of up to 12 hours
• Takes only 20 minutes

Reasons to avoid: 

• It’s quite large

If you like the sound of coming home to a fresh cooked soup that you prepared before you left home, the Drew & Cole Soup Chef Pro is the best soup maker for you. It’s easy to delay the start by 30-minute intervals up to 12 hours, and the smooth cooking mode takes just 19 minutes. There’s also a smooth+ setting for seriously velvety soups, but even on the regular setting, we had zero issues with lumps or grainy ingredients. Everything was perfectly silky and cooked just how we like it. 

Another major perk is the saute setting, which is on the handle of the soup maker. You can sear your onions or garlic using this mode before adding stock and starting the blending setting. For the quality of the design, we also think it comes at a great price. 

Ideal Home rated 5 out of 5 stars

2. Morphy Richards Clarity Soup Maker

Best soup maker with a clear jug

Capacity: 1.6 litres
Modes: 3
Features: Clear tritan jug, straightforward controls
Power: 1000 watts

Reasons to buy: 

• Watch your soup as it cooks
• Speedy meals in 21 minutes
• Effective self-cleaning
• Keep warm function

Reasons to avoid: 

• The working capacity isn’t the largest

The Morphy Richards Clarity Soup Maker warns you that ingredients could stick to the bottom when cooking, but we had no issues with this when making our soups in it. Straight out of the box, it’s very easy to assemble. We were surprised to find that the jug is not glass, but felt like plastic. In fact, it is tritan, which is a very durable but lightweight material free from BPA. 

The smooth soup setting is only 22 minutes, which means you can set your soup up to cook and finish your bowl within the same lunch break. Cooking was very speedy, and the ingredients were simmering within five minutes of us turning it on. The controls at the top are straightforward to use, and there is one for smooth, chunky, and smoothie, and clean. The quality of the blending was great, and it also has a keep warm function that kept our soup perfect for drinking after it had finished blending. 

Ideal Home rated 5 out of 5 stars

3. Lakeland Touchscreen Soup and Smoothie Maker

Best high-end soup maker

Capacity: 1.75-2 litres
Modes: 4
Features: Self-clean, can also crush ice
Power: 1000 watts

Reasons to buy: 

• Transparent tritan jug
• Easy controls
• Recipes included
• Speedy soup making

Reasons to avoid: 

• An expensive option that won’t fit under counters

The Lakeland Touchscreen Soup & Smoothie Maker is by far the most premium-looking option we tested. It has a price tag to match, though, so if you drink a lot of soup then it will be a great investment.

With a modern design and a blender-like jug, it has modes for smooth and chunky soups as well as sauces and even iced drinks. We really enjoyed the control panel, which made the process very easy, and the timer also helped to know when to add any extras. We were able to add cream to our tomato soup once the blending started thanks to a removable lid insert. If you want an extra smooth finish you can also just blend without heating once your soup has finished. The auto-clean function was also very effective. 

Ideal Home rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

4. Judge Soup Maker

Best soup maker for extra functions

Capacity: 1.2 litres
Modes: 6
Features: Can steam eggs and reheat

Reasons to buy: 

• Heats very fast
• Easy to pour
• Comes with an egg cooker
• Removable cap in lid

Reasons to avoid: 

• Smaller capacity than some
• The lid is quite fiddly

The Judge Soup Maker has a capacity of 1.7 litres, but if you’re making soup it will only take up to 1.2 litres. We found that it heated up very fast, and because the jug is plastic and see-through it’s possible to watch your soup as it cooks. 

We enjoyed the powerful blending modes which left us with a very smooth soup, and because it’s got a classic blender-style design you can also use the Judge Soup Maker to make chilled drinks. The removable cap allows you to add ingredients while it’s cooking, but we did find that the lid was sometimes tricky to lock into place. 

Ideal Home rated 4 out of 5 stars

5. Salter Electric Homemade Healthy Soup Maker

Best value soup maker

Capacity: 1.3 to 1.6 litres
Modes: 2
Features: Self-clean, blend button

Reasons to buy: 

• Budget-friendly option
• Heatproof handle
• Simple controls

Reasons to avoid: 

• Some ingredients burnt to the bottom

Salter’s soup maker is the most budget-friendly option in our guide, and it’s a trusted choice to make either chunky or smooth soups. You are warned that ingredients can burn to the bottom before use, and a good way to fix this is to add some oil to prevent sticking, but we still found that there was a little burning after our soup was finished.

There are two soup modes: smooth, chunky, and one for blending or self-cleaning. The self-clean mode is very effective at removing residue from the blending blade. We also liked using the blend setting to add an extra blitz for soups we wanted a little smoother. 

Ideal Home rated 4 out of 5 stars

How we tested the best soup makers

Making broccoli and stilton soup in the Lakeland touchscreen soup maker

Soup makers can be used to make all types of different soups, including chunky, smooth, and even gazpacho. When testing the best soup makers we cooked a variety of recipes to make sure they were all up to the task of making even tricky soups. Some classics, like butternut squash or leek and potato, will blend very easily into velvety smooth soups, whereas others like pea soup or broccoli and stilton, will need to be very well cooked and blended to achieve the consistency you’re after.

Making butternut squash soup in the Judge soup maker

We also made a lot of tomato soup using tomatoes and red peppers to see if the skin would pose a challenge to the cooking and blending, and while we used the same recipes, it was amazing to see the slight (or sometimes not-so-slight) differences that arose between different soup makers upon testing. 

The post Best soup maker 2021: reviews of our top 5 for seasonal soups appeared first on Ideal Home.

Nurseries are deceptively expensive to decorate, however, a thrifty Mum from Northumberland managed to create a safari nursery for under £500.

Jungle-themed wallpapers and animal wall stickers are a popular theme when it comes to kid’s room ideas. However, if you are looking for a way to get the look on a budget, be inspired by this nursery makeover by Kayleigh Aspin from Northumberland.

Safari-themed nursery makeover

‘I kept seeing safari-themed bedrooms online and I fell in love with them,’ Kayleigh told money-saving community LatestDeals. ‘They always seemed a bit too grown-up for my 18-month-old son Parker though, but I thought I could definitely do this and make it more of a fun design for him.’

Before

Image credit: Kayleigh Aspin

Plain green-painted walls gave Kayleigh the basis for her new look, but she knew she was going to have to get creative to keep it within budget. Hunting on the internet for cheap deals, and making her own accessories helped keep costs down and made it all the more special.

‘I’m a single mum and did all of the room myself, working through Parker’s naps,’ she says. ‘It took me over five months!’

After

Image credit: Kayleigh Aspin

The new, colourful space is super sensory, with jungle-themed wallhangings, animals on swings and even a leafy canopy over the crib.

Image credit: Kayleigh Aspin

Image credit: Kayleigh Aspin

The leaf garland above the window adds a tropical touch to the room and Kayleigh admits to coming up with the idea during a midnight feed! ‘I bought the jungle leaves from Shein and attached them to some twine,’ she says, ‘then I hung it up with some hooks! In total it cost me around £20 to create.’

Image credit: Kayleigh Aspin

A large statement wall hanging hangs next to Parker’s cot where he can see it while lying down. ‘I bought the safari-themed tapestry from Shein and made a frame using some wood, which I stapled the tapestry onto,’ says Kayleigh. ‘It came out so beautifully and at a total cost of only £11!’

Image credit: Kayleigh Aspin

Looking for online bargains helped keep costs down, such as the bookcase from Amazon that Kayleigh bought with a voucher for five per cent off, bringing the price to £68.99.

The post Thrifty mum created a stunning safari nursery for less than £500 using a few clever tricks appeared first on Ideal Home.