Luxury tour operator Lightfoot Travel is teaming up with children's travel author Isabelle Demenge to supply her Leap & Hop book series to their clients in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. 

The series has four editions currently in print including Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Rajasthan (India) and Hong Kong. Each book features almost 100 pages of rich photography – taken by Demenge herself, illustrations by artist Emilie Sarnel, activities, and space for children to record their own travel stories. The first half of each book introduces the country and covers topics such as history, geography, transportation and food amongst others. Through interactive exercises such as quizzes, crossword puzzles and drawings, the child learns about the culture of each place and what makes it unique. Sample activities include identifying the various MTR station colours in Hong Kong, or picking out exotic fruits that are found in Cambodia.

The second half of each book focuses on specific locales in each country or region – the sites that make up Sri Lanka's culture triangle or the various temples that comprise the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. 

Demenge herself originated from France and has travelled the world with her husband and three boys. She lived in New York and worked as a banking lawyer before moving to Hong Kong in 2008 and deciding to take some time out from the legal profession. It was in Hong Kong that the idea for the book series began to take shape.  

“I was looking for children's books to prepare them for a family trip to Cambodia and could not find anything, so I did a lot of research and wrote a book myself,” says Demenge. “It was tailored for our itinerary with fun things for them to do in each place that we were scheduled to see. One temple, one game!” 

Demenge now does her research with her kids in tow, creating the activities for them to do beforehand and then gauging their reaction to each one and the respective destination. 

“Once I've chosen the sites, I try to put myself in my kid's shoes. What would make them connect with a place? What would make them laugh and remember what they see? How can I connect it to something else that they already like and know about? I'm always interested in connecting places and history across culture. The kids get a better perspective and understanding if they can relate to what they're seeing and compare it with what they know,” says Demenge. 

Lightfoot Travel are excited to supply these books, as keeping children interested is always a huge concern when designing cultural holidays for families. 

“Kids can only visit so many temples before the boredom starts to set in. With these books, suddenly a temple is no longer just a temple, but a new challenge that they can busy themselves for hours with,” says Lightfoot Travel's Founder, Simon Cameron. “These books are really unique, and are exactly the type of thing we want to supply as part of the tailor-made holiday experience.” 

Leap & Hop books are suitable for children ages 6-12, and the next destinations on Demenge's radar are Bali, Thailand, Beijing and Myanmar.  

Lightfoot Travel is a luxury tour operator specialising in tailor-made family holidays, honeymoons, corporate travel and private villas in destinations around the world. Please contact Regional Marketing Manager Nikki Pang at nikki@lightfoottravel.com or +852 2815 0306 for any enquiries. Please visit the Leap & Hop website at www.leapandhop.com or visit their Facebook page HERE for more information on the series.