FAMILY + FOOD + CULTURE + TRAVEL
With a focus on high-quality written content and photography, BoyEatsWorld is written and edited by award-winning travel writer Aleney de Winter and her (now 17-year-old) son, Rafferty Laight, with a little help from his sister. That’s right. This isn’t just another parent writing about their kids’ travels. Our well-travelled offspring are actual contributors, bringing their own perspectives, recommendations, and honest reviews to the mix.
Our mission? To encourage families to delve deeper, go farther and travel with a conscience.
For more than a decade, this multi-award-winning blog has lived at the intersection of family, food, culture, adventure, nature, art and a deep refusal to stay still. Along with inspirational tales, impartial reviews (from both adult and kid perspectives), in-depth travel guides, interviews, tourism insights, travel tips, and recipes collected from kitchens around the world, BoyEatsWorld shares expert yet practical and relatable advice for families who want to explore the world authentically, whatever their travel flavour.
What makes us different is that we’re not figuring it out as we go. For more than a decade, BoyEatsWorld has been published and edited by a multi-award-winning writer and travel industry professional, Aleney de Winter, and is infused with genuine kid perspectives from young travelers who’ve collectively explored 30+ countries.
MEET OUR CREW
ALENEY – That’s me! Though I also answer to “Mum,” “Mama,” “Bruh,” and an ever-evolving language of sighs, grunts, eye rolls and random gesticulations that my teens use in place of words. Yes, I am a parent! Less obvious to the untrained eye is that, when I’m not travelling. parenting, cooking up a storm in my pathetically small kitchen or editing this website, I’m a multi-award-winning travel journalist and accomplished magazine editor. And while my family remains my joyful priority, my professional work keeps me creatively fulfilled and (mostly) sane.
I have an addiction to travel that borders on the need for professional intervention and care far too much about what I eat, where it comes from and who’s cooking it. I believe food is culture, travel is education and that the best stories usually happen somewhere when you least expect them.
If you’re looking for someone who takes food, travel and storytelling seriously but knows how to laugh at the chaos of managing all three, I’m your gal!
RAFF – The “boy” in BoyEatsWorld, 17-year-old Raff is a former TV travel host, award-winning public speaker, print travel columnist, passionate musician, and co-editor of BoyEatsWorld, and the OG inspiration for this website.
With a passion for travel bordering on the obsessive and an appetite to rival an entire stable of Sumo wrestlers, Raff’s first “foodie” experience occurred in San Sebastian, home to the world’s highest concentration of Michelin stars. While his father and I indulged in leisurely pinxos lunches and a three-hour, gazillion-course dinner at Mugaritz (then ranked the world’s second-best restaurant) – complete with signature potato “stones” and butter-soft brioche crusted in crisp caramel – magic happened. At least it would have been magical had he been conscious. At just five months old, he snoozed happily in his stroller (completely welcome in such an establishment in family-centric Spain) while his parents indulged. I like to think that, by osmosis, something supernatural occurred that evening, as he’s been a fearless travelling foodie since.
Now, on the cusp of adulthood, Raff still travels like someone who knows there’s a better meal just around the corner. The appetite remains heroic, but these days it’s paired with a sharp cultural radar and a playlist that changes with every border crossing. At 17, food is no longer the headline. It’s the gateway.
Music is his compass now. Cities are judged by their record stores, underground gigs and the way sound spills out of doorways late at night. He’s curious in a way that feels instinctive, tuned in to how people live, dress, eat and express themselves.
With 28 countries behind him, he moves through the world with an ease that still surprises us. Confident but not cocky. Observant. Open. He understands that culture isn’t something you visit. It’s something you listen to, taste, argue about and occasionally get lost in.
MARLO
Marlo (aka Sugarpuff) may be the baby of the family, but there’s nothing soft about the way she takes on the world at 14. She’s clocked 26 countries and brings a bold, almost electric energy to travel that’s all her own. Sure, like her brother, she loves to eat, but as a singer, artist and ardent feminist, it is music, fashion, art and culture that fuel her. She notices details we sometimes miss. What kids her age are wearing on the streets of Seoul. How girls claim space in cities that don’t always make it easy. The music playing in taxis and markets. She absorbs it all and filters it through her own fierce sense of self.
She still turns heads with the wild hair and cheeky grin, but now it’s matched with confidence and opinions. Strong ones. She’s curious, outspoken and so strong-willed that we wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up becoming the benevolent dictator of some small unsuspecting nation that we pass through on our travels. The fact that she survived infancy without being marinated in a white wine sauce and devoured by her older brother is proof of her single-minded determination to take over the planet one bouncy step at a time.
THE DAD – Papa Eats World is British. In spite of the fact that he has chips and battered spam in his DNA, he shares not only my passion for new cuisines and exciting flavours but also my wanderlust. He is also rather fabulous, piss funny, and, given the wild eccentricities of his Aussie wife and kids, quite possibly the most patient man alive. (he’s also a little camera shy.)
If you’d like to work with us or would like any any further information regarding BoyEatsWorld, please contact Aleney on aleney@smallworldmedia.com.au
