FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

We love questions from our readers and potential partners! Here are some of the answers that we have to give all the time. Hope this helps to unveil the mystery around our adventurous family!

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About “Perfect Day To Play”

When did you start this site?

Alexandra started writing TripAdvisor reviews and social media travel posts in 2007. She has been running her personal travel Instagram account for quite a while, then added Cosmos' account to the pile.

Our friends kept coming to us for advise and tips on what are the most stunning places to hike, which destinations to visit, which hotels to book, how to budget and plan for travel. When Cosmos came along, and the family did NOT slow down on our travels and adventures, we had many people tell us – you should start a travel blog!

So we did! This site was officially launched in April 2019.

Who writes on this website?

Perfect Day To Play - travel blog lifestyle blogger Alexandra
photo credit: Anastasia Che Photo

All the posts have been written by Alexandra. Photography/Video is being shot by all three of us (yes! Cosmos as well!), and sometimes by our friends.

Can I write a story for your site?

We love that you love our site enough to want to write a story of your own here, but we do not offer guest posting opportunities at this point.

How can we find you on Social Media?

Yes absolutely! We love social Media! Especially Instagram – we have 3(!) accounts on Instagram:

We also are sending out a regular newsletter to our subscribers.

Sign-up Now!

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Who posts on your Social Media?

Alexandra prepares and schedules all social media content. We use a number of tools to manage the scheduling so the whole logistics around keeping the content current and regularly flowing is not super overwhelming. Some of the tools we use on regular basis: Planoly, Tailwind, MailChimp, Preview app, When To Post app, Snapseed app, Canva, HashtagHound, Ingramer, and some other tools.

How can we work with you?

Thank you for asking! You can find more information about working together in Partner With Us section.

Can we use your photos or videos from PerfectDayToPlay website or social media?

Yes, you can. To find out how you can re-post or use our photos, videos, and other media “as is” at no cost, please refer to Media Use Limited License. In the nutshell: you have to give credit, link back and only limited non-commercial use is allowed.

For questions about the Commercial Use of our media, please check out Partner With Us section, or send us a message!

Can we send you something?

You are so sweet to think of us!

  • Do you prefer “traditional” ways of communication? Send us a letter!
  • Do you have an awesome travel/outdoor related family-friendly and, most importantly, eco/sustainability-friendly product you'd like us to look at? Send it in!
  • Are you promoting your awesome family-friendly adventure service?
  • Are you organizing a super-duper cool event and want to invite us? We'd love to hear about it!

iizuum inc.
24076 112th Avenue, unit 12
Maple Ridge
British Columbia, Canada
V2W0K2

IMPORTANT NOTE: anything you send us via mail will be treated as a gift from you to us. We will not return it. We will not compensate you in any form, monetary or otherwise. We do not guarantee will attend your event or use the service you are promoting. We reserve the right to transfer your product samples, discounts, event invitations to any person or company of our choosing, to raffle it off or gift it, or otherwise dispose of it as we see fit. If we really love your product, event, or service, we may choose to review it on our blog, in which case we'll reach back to you to discuss the details. Please always include your contact information and your direct email address within your letter/package. Please refer to the Partner With Us section for more information on how we can partner up, or CLICK HERE to get in touch.

Will you share about my Go Fund Me / Fundraiser / Book / Small Business / Blog or Page? Can I get a shout out?

I wish we had time to accommodate all of the requests that we get but there just isn't enough time in the day. If you are a business interested in advertising please visit our Partner With Us section.

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About our family

Where do you live?

We are blessed to live in one of the most stunning places on our planet – Beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Our home is located in the city of Coquitlam. We moved to BC a few years ago, before that we used to live in Toronto, Ontario Canada for almost 10 years!

As much as we enjoy traveling, we also enjoy our time at home! For privacy reasons, we do not share our exact location. Thank you for understanding that we are unable to share our exact location.

PerfectDayToPlay where do we live? Beautiful British Columbia

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Where are you from originally? What is your background?

Both Alexandra and Alex were born and raised in Minsk, Belarus [former USSR]. We both speak Russian as our native language. We do also understand and speak some Belorussian and Ukrainian.

How did you two meet?

Alexandra and Alex were classmates back in high school starting grade 8, although we were not a couple at the time but simply best friends. We've become a couple much much later, and have officially been married since 2008. We've had many years and much time to travel and explore just the two of us, but always wanted a little mini-me. Cosmos has entered our lives seven years later – the best decision we've ever made!

Does your son really has the name Cosmos?

Yes!!! We are the proud Mother and Father of the Universe!!! The name “Cosmos” translates from Greek as “the universe” in the meaning of “all people” or “humanity”.

How did we come up with this name? We haven't really thought about it too hard. We had a name in mind in our native language, and Cosmos was the closest English equivalent. In Russian, his name is “Кузьма”, which is in itself a unique and a very very old name. But most interestingly, as a “mother of Кузьма” Alexandra becomes a sorta-kinda superhero “Кузькина Мать” – those who speak Russian will understand 🙂

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About our travel and adventures

PerfectDayToPlay Cosmos is packed with suitcases and is ready to go on vacation

How do you travel so much?

Both Alexandra and Alex have jobs. However, we've specifically chosen the workplaces that have flexible in-office/remote work, flex schedule, and set work hours (aka no overtime) so we can be as flexible as we need to be to dedicate as much time as possible to spending time outdoors exploring and adventuring. Both Alexandra and Alex are technology professionals. You can learn more about Alexandra at her Career/Business website ChickWhoBusiness.com

In addition, our family has an unspoken rule: every Sunday is a family-day offline outdoor day. We hike (weather-permitting) or do some fund activity every single Sunday. We do more extended overnight travel over long weekends. We also attempt to travel for one-week vacations at least 3-4 times per year. Our family prefers shorter but more frequent getaways.

How do you afford to travel?

We are lucky to live in one of the most amazing places in the World – Beautiful British Columbia, Canada, where we have thousands of absolutely stunning locations within an hour or two away! So we simply drive there!

Anywhere we can get by car or by bus – we take it! Before moving to British Columbia we've lived in Toronto, Ontario for 10 years. We've traveled all over and around – anywhere you could get within 8-9 hours of driving.

When we go to an international destination, we research the air-fair/packages quite thoroughly and prepare an estimate. Many times you'd find that if you opt-in for separate air tickets + book your own hotel/AirBnB you can save quite a lot as opposed to booking a packaged deal.

We are also very open to staying at campgrounds if needed and cooking our own meals as opposed to dining out every day.

Perfect Day To Play answers - Cosmos feeds Alexandra fruit on a campground

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Which countries have you traveled to till date?

Love this question! We've been around quite a bit 🙂 We've been to:

We really need to add a map plugin to this page, don't we? 🙂

Where do you prefer to stay when travelling?

Booking.com Deal by Chick Who Business

We personally love Booking.com  service – that's our number one favorite place to go to start on a destination home search. From our experience, they ALWAYS have the best price on accommodations! Here is a link for you to get started with Booing.com and get a bonus welcome gift from our family: Get Alexandra’s special $25 off your next booking by following THIS LINK

AirBnB Deal by Chick Who Business

One of our other lifetime favorites is AirBnB – we are absolute fans, especially when we travel with friends or if we travel to remote locations where there are no hotels around. When we moved across the country two years ago from Toronto, Ontario to Vancouver, BC we’ve lived out of AirBnB for almost 6 weeks. It was perfect! 4 days here, 5 days there.. we’ve tried few neighborhoods before we’ve decided to settle in the beautiful Coquitlam. As we travel with a small child, having a home-like environment with a full kitchen and no disturbances are of the most importance. We usually prefer to book the “entire home” option wherever we go. Here is a link for you to get started with AirBnB and get a bonus welcome gift from our family Get Alexandra’s gift of up to $62 toward your first trip via AirBnB by following THIS LINK

As mentioned before, our family is very open to be staying in a tent at a campground. that's of course weather-permitting and, since we travel with a 3yo now, we usually look into all other options first before deciding to book a campsite 🙂

How do you get around at a destination?

It really depends on whether or not we have our car with us. If we do – well, easy – we drive where we can drive and we hike a lot. Our 3.5yo Cosmos can now do a 6km hike almost all by himself – we've taken his stroller away from him when he was 2yo and now he is very used to walking long-distance.

At an international destination, we usually take a car rental.

We've been booking with Enterprise and have been a member of their loyalty program since 2008. If you can help it, we would NOT recommend any other company but Enterprise. Here are few reasons that made me stick for over 10+ years :

1/ They allow you to pick up your car at one location and to drop it off at a different location within the city at NO charge! (except for Airport locations) – that was super-handy when needing a car on the weekend and maybe 1-2 locations are open. But then you can drop it off next to your home a few days later – no commute needed!

2/ They have your spouse automatically included as a second river – no extra charge! (I’ve seen other companies charging $10-$20 per day for the second driver!)

3/ Their service is absolutely awesome and super-quick.

If you travel with a young child – always (!) bring your car seat with you. Airlines do not typically charge anything extra for a car seat.

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About this website

Where did you learn how to blog and to build a website?

Alexandra: well, I've done quite a bit of digging on the topic.. I've taken a few online courses as well. It IS possible to start from “0” zero-knowledge and develop a decent blog and social media profile.

One of the courses I've taken is here: “Make Money from Home: How to Build an Online Business “

Another amazing and super-helpful course that I've personally done and DO strongly recommend is: Blogging Blastoff I've started with the 5 Day Start A Money Making Blog Crash Course and then eventually upgraded to get the full course. If you are planning to launch a money-making blog, this course is a MUST TAKE!

What tools have been used to develop this website?

We used self-hosted WordPress. Alexandra has developed the entire website by herself.

What service did you use to purchase your domain?

We used GoDaddy service to purchase our domain name. Then ported it over to a different hosting service.

What service did you use to host your website?

Over the past few years, we've used multiple hosting services, finally settling on the most convenient and cost-effective – HostGator. The best thing about the service is that you pay for your hosting once for your main domain and then you can add multiple add-on domains at no extra charge. You can also create multiple email boxes and either set up a mail client or conveniently redirect all your email to one place, like your Gmail account for example.

What theme is your site on? 

In July 2019 we switched the theme to Paperio that we got through ThemeForest

Who created your logo?

Alexandra has purchased the original Gecko vector graphic via Shutterstock, and has used Adobe and Canva tools to modify it to our satisfaction.

What tools do you use for Social Media scheduling?

Instagram – I have tried many tools, but so far here is Planoly – the absolute best tool for Instagram on the market!

Facebook – along with using Facebook internal publishing tools for our PerfectDayToPlay Facebook page I have recently discovered Missinglettr service that allows us to schedule campaigns in seconds! Plus ReviveOldPosts is always handy!

Pinterest – I am currently using Tailwind to schedule content for Pinterest. Love their Smart Loops functionality.

Twitter – using Business tools within Twitter itself for scheduling, MissingLettr for campaigns and amazing TweetFavy for boosting!

Tumblr – using the IFTTT applet to post to Tumblr everything that's posted on Facebook and Instagram

READ THESE POST for more details

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What camera gear and lenses do you use? 

Phone Camera: Believe it or not, most of our photos are taken using a regular phone.

Action Camera: This is our favorite camera to take on an adventure because it is easy to use, it provides quality images and videos and it is water-proof! We shot amazing videos underwater in Hawaii using it – including some turtles!

Point and Shoot Camera: we are still using a Sony camera we got almost 6 years ago! We do know we need to upgrade our equipment – currently researching lenses and camera options…

Selfie Stick – Tripod – with Remote. Love this model as it is super-compact, fits into any purse, backpack, and even into my pocket, and conveniently extends to both selfie-stick and tripod.

Aerial Drone: DJI Mavic Mini. Beware: there are serious restrictions and airspace regulations you will have to abide by to fly in Canada, including obtaining a pilot license and registration for most of the drones. Best about DJI Mavic Mini – it only weights 249g – as of Mar 2020 – no need to register or fly with a pilot license! Still have to abide by airspace regulations. It is a good idea to take a drone school course. Coastal Drone Co is the course I took to get my pilot license.

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Send us your questions!

Do you have more questions that go unanswered? Send us a message!

ask @ perfectdaytoplay. com

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