Tips for Flying With Baby and/or Toddler

May 7, 2013 by Ann

24 tips to help make flying with babies and toddlers easier. My son’s first flight at 3 months! – TT

I love reading how people fly with their kids. There’s always something that I didn’t know, or something I forgot, or something that reassures me that I’m doing ok.

The following tips are based on things that have worked for me when I fly with my kids.

Selecting a Flight and Seats

Pick a time that works best for you, when you are most alert during the day. Logic has told me that trying to schedule flights for times when my kids normally naps. This has repeatedly not worked for me. Toddlers and logic don’t mix. I’ve had flights delayed so much that they were just waking up from naps as we were boarding. I’ve had later flights where I’m exhausted, but my kid is wired with the excitement of flight. So now, I schedule around my needs.
Pay for peace of mind. I don’t want to have to worry about sitting together, so I pay for the ability to select a seat. I consider it part of flying now and don’t think of it as a separate fee. For international flights, I upgrade to comfort seating. I need the extra space and early boarding.
Window when possible. We usually end up in the middle three seats, which means there are two aisles my son will want to try to run down. The window gives him something to look at, which he loves.
In the debate between bulkhead and back row, I pick back row. Bulkhead is nice if you get a bassinet and you have a lap infant. However, each time we’ve had bulkhead our son has been distracted by all the people waiting for the bathroom. Or worse, the people who want to cross in front our seats to get to the other aisle. Also, our son is a bit visual. Being at the front of the plane, he doesn’t really know or notice all the other passengers so he’s more likely to be loud. In the back of the plane (or, I should say, the back of the section) he sees all the other people and he’s more likely to behave. The only thing I don’t like about the back row is that he can now kick the seat in front of him, but we’re working on that!

Carry On Tips

Bring exactly what you need and nothing more.
I’ve read that a diaper an hour is a safe bet. This doesn’t really work for us since we tend to fly for longer periods of time and I’ve never actually needed 18 diapers. For diapers, pack what you would normally pack for an excursion of that length, and then add 1 diaper for every 3 diapers you pack. If you normally need 6 diapers, pack 8.
Pack an extra outfit for the kids, an extra shirt for the parents.
Make space for all the electronic things you can’t pack in your check-in.
Enough snacks/formula/bottles to get you through the flight and a extra for delays. Include snacks for yourself.
Pack a few toys. My son doesn’t need too many toys. Bring their favorite, something somewhat interactive, a coloring book and crayons, and a surprise toy for desperation.
Andrea over at Passports and Pushchairs brings her kids pillows on flights. Though bulky, it is worth the space it takes up. It helps create both a comfortable and familiar environment for children to relax in.
If you have any more space (which I don’t know any parent who does), take a look at the food and diaper supply and add more if needed.
Keep packed in a separate bag things you will need easy access to. For me this is usually a few diapers, wipes, and a changing mat. Then a separate bag of snacks and toys. Once on board, unpack that bag and place it under the seat.

At the Airport

Get there early, especially if you don’t have your seat assigned. Depending on the airline, you won’t be able to request a bassinet until you are at the airport. Keep that in mind.
If you have a lap baby, ask if there’s space for them to have their own seat.
I bring their stroller and have a baby carrier (I use the Beco Butterfly II). I let my toddler walk as much as possible and alternate carrying my daughter or putting her in the stroller. (While most airports that I’ve been to in the US will have gate-checked strollers at the door of the airplane when we exit the plane, some airports in Europe don’t do this. The gate-checked strollers are sent to the luggage carousel with the other luggage. Find out in advance so you know where to look.)
Start prepping for the security line as soon as you can. I once saw a family keep a cheap tote bag in a pocket in their carry on. When they went through security, they threw all of their loose things in that bag plus their jackets, belts and shoes. Then they just grabbed the bag and headed to the side to get themselves fixed up again.
Waiting for your flight isn’t the time to just sit and wait for your flight. You have plenty of time to do the sitting on the plane. Let the kids explore, play, walk, run, jump.
Some airlines and airports still allow families with small children to board first. If that’s the case, it can be worth it to guarantee you have enough space to put your suitcase in the overhead bin. My kids are still young enough that this is our best option. It’s likely that the next time we fly, my very active 30 month old son will need extra time to get his wiggles out pre-flight. In that case, I’ll board with my daughter and the boys will join us later.

On the Flight

Flying with Toddler

Let your children lead you to what they want to do on the plane. Within the rules, of course.
Use Andrea’s advice and use their pillows and blankets to make their space comfortable.
Draw out each activity to last as long as possible. If they’re looking at a magazine, make a game out of it. Search for certain photos, talk about what’s on the pages. If they’re eating a snack, take it out of the wrapper slowly, let them eat it without other distractions.
Let them be bored and just observe what’s going on. Don’t feel you have to entertain them if they’re not actively doing something. Some kids just want some space.
For long flights, let them walk around when the seat belt light goes off.

Aside from the tips above here are two more things to help for smooth airline travel with kids:

Keep your children involved in the whole airport process. Talk to them about flying, tell them what they should expect at the airport and on the plane, and how you expect them to behave. While on the plane, point out all the new sites and continue to tell them what is going to happen as the plane lands and you leave the airport.

Most importantly, be patient. Flying is stressful for everyone involved. Kids included. As parents, it’s our responsibility to help our kids through it and remain calm regardless of everything else. It’s ok, though, because as parents we can also book ourselves a nice spa visit once we land.

This post is part of Travel Tip Tuesday with Suitcases and Sippy Cups and Walkingon Travels . Click on the link to see more great tips.

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What Now, Using the Best of the Bunch

May 6, 2013 by Ann

I’m a strong believer in living with our photos. By that I mean, take them off of the computer or memory stick, and find a way that the whole family can enjoy them easily.

This three-part series is going to offer tips on how to choose from the hundreds (or thousands) of pictures taken on a single trip and turn them into a beautiful souvenir that your family will enjoy for years.

(Note in this post I reference various services and products that I am using. These brands are not sponsored, nor affiliated in any way with Travel Turtle. They are just products that I have used and enjoyed.)

Let’s Review

In part 1 of this series we eliminated duplicate and blurry photos. We grouped the photos into smaller themes and from those themes we selected a few of our favorite photos. I am participating with this series using a group of photos I took from a 2011 trip to Paris. I started with roughly 400 photos and by the end of this part, I had around 200 photos.

In part 2, we created albums and slide shows. This made it easy to share a majority of our photos with family and friends. I created a photo book with Shutterfly that used most of the 200 photos from part 1.

Now I want to share ways to take our absolute favorite photos to create smaller displays for our family to enjoy.

Part 3: Ways to Display the Best Photos from Family Trips

Slideshows, large photo books and even digital frames are a nice ways to store a large group of photos. However, sometimes smaller photo collections have more impact. These smaller collections can be displayed on walls or little books that are easy for our children and family to enjoy. They can be viewed at any time without needing to be set up. Here we will look at two ways to display and create a curated collection of our photos from a single trip.

Wall Art

As I mentioned, in part 1 of this series we selected a few of our favorite photos. We will use those favorites for the pictures we want to use in our photo wall display. There are many different types of photo walls, and I scoured the web for a few options. Because the theme of this series is to keep everything simple so that we actually do something with our photos, my criteria for selecting photo wall inspiration was to look for something: easy to assemble, change when necessary, child friendly and budget friendly. The bonus, they look great on our walls! The inspiration I found is on Pinterest (you do not need to be a member to view the board). I will add to the board through time, so please follow the board or bookmark the page. Travel Memory Ideas Photo Wall

Now that we have some inspiration for our walls, let’s print the photos.

Wait! We have a few decisions to make first.

Color vs. black and white – Take a look at all the photos you want to display and ask yourself the following questions:

Do the photos have one consistent color tone throughout?
Are the photos simple images without a lot of clutter in the background?
Do you like color photos?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions, you may want to consider going with black and white photos. However, if you still prefer color photos, then do it! Or do a combination of both. They’re your photos and you can do what you want.

Editing photos – Again, editing is up to you. However, if you want a more polished look to your photos, it doesn’t hurt to spend a few minutes editing them. If you noticed that your favorite photos do not have a consistent color tone, you can use filters to achieve a uniform look. If you feel that the photos are busy, crop them. Here is a sample of three photos from our trip. The first group is before I applied filters, the second was after I applied the Saloman filter on Photogramio. They now look similar even though each was taken at a different time of the day.

Without filter:

With “saloman” filter:

These examples are just to show how filters can easily give a more uniform look, but they aren’t necessary. Remember, the idea here is to keep things as simple as possible so that it gets done.

If you choose a wall display that has different sized photos, the last thing you will want to consider is which photos should be larger. Ask yourself, what is the goal in displaying these photos? Are you more interested in showing your photography skills? In that case, a perfectly composed photo of a building, landscape or something else may be the preferred large photo. Do you want to showcase your children and where they’ve been? Then the posed photo of them in front of a statue or building may get top billing. Do you want to show your family having fun? Then maybe a candid photo of family members laughing or engaging in their location will get the honors.

Kids Story Books

Kids love to look at pictures of themselves. In part 2 of this series, I suggested creating a photo book through a service like Shutterfly and then purchasing two copies of the book. One for you and one for your kids. However, this can get expensive. Plus, some kids just are not as interested in looking through 200+ photos of a single trip often. Instead, make a photo album. It’s cheap, easy, and fun. Also, by selecting just a small portion of our hundreds of photos we can tell a story children will enjoy reading over and over again.

This is what I did: I recently went to my local photo printing kiosk and printed out 40 photos from our trip to Paris. I wanted a nice variety of photos of our family, and my son, with iconic images of Paris in the background and sometimes just the buildings and statues themselves. While my photos printed, I picked up a photo album that allowed for one 4×6 photo per page, and a total of 36 photos. To keep my son involved in the process, he came with me to print the photos and pushed all the buttons on the touch screen monitor. All the photos and album cost less than 15 Euros/20 USD. When I got home, I put the photos in the album in a way that told the story of his first trip to Paris. I also added a photo of the three of us to the cover and titled the book “Paris: 2011”. It instantly became his favorite book. He loves looking at the pictures of him in front of buildings, pointing out Pluto (we went to Disneyland Paris while we were there) and saying “Mommy” and “Daddy” when we are in the picture.

Here are some tips for you if you want to make a similar album:

If chronological order makes sense, do that, but don’t feel confined to the order of the trip. I had a photo of my son eating a baguette on the last day of our trip. However, it made more sense to be at the beginning of the book where I would have had a blank page to introduce a new section. Move things around to tell a better story.
Keep horizontal pictures next to horizontal pictures, and vertical pictures next to vertical ones.
If your photo album has more spaces than you have photos, use the extra pages to write details of your trip. Dates, places you went, and stories that your children will enjoy reading.
Use office labels to add text to the photos that could use a little more details. Especially if your kids are old enough to read, writing “Notre Dame” next to the photo of the “Notre Dame” and “Sacre Couer” next to the “Sacre Couer” will help them recognize the names and differentiate the different buildings.
Give the book to your children and include it in their evening bedtime routine. Use the photos to tell the story of their trip to Paris, winging it and changing it up a little each time. Or use labels and empty pages to write the story of their trip so anyone looking at the album with them can read the same story.
If you want to go back to the place don’t end your story book with “The End”. Instead, use “and they couldn’t wait to go back!”

Now that you have a few options on turning your large collection of photos into something that your family can look at over and over again, go ahead and make something with one of your trips. Share with me if you make anything from these ideas and I will share them here.

Thank you so much for following along!

This post is part of Friday Daydreamin’ at RWeThereYet. Click on the link to see what other bloggers favorite posts of the week.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Memory Keeping Tagged With: familytravel, organizing photos

The Scene of a Laugh

May 3, 2013 by Ann

One of many fun things to do at the Open Air Museum in Arnhem, Netherlands.

This looks innocent enough. My husband and my son enjoying a small boat ride. What they didn’t know is that most of the people who rode on the boat before them had taken the boat from the starting point, to the other side and back to the starting point. Well, everyone except for the family that went right before my husband. My husband was showing our son the animals (seen in the background) when the previous family got bored with the boat. They opted out of returning it to the dock above, ignoring the line of people waiting for their turn. With the boat at the empty dock, the people on the other side had no choice. They walked away.

When my husband and son finished with the animals, they saw this boat and decided to go ahead and ride to the other side. As I walked with my daughter to meet up with the rest of our family at this dock, I noticed a group of kids running to the dock my husband just left from. They were the next in line when the previous family left and they were going to go get the boat themselves. Only, they didn’t know my husband had already taken it across. Once my husband docked, no one was interested in heading the other direction. They got to the dock and threw their hands up in the air. They watched as their boat docked where they were just standing only 5 minutes ago. They just stood, waiting for a boat that wasn’t going to return to them. Then they made the decision all kids really wanting a boat ride must make, go back to where the boat is.

The journey from one dock to the other, along the lake, isn’t a straight line. It weaves in and out of buildings from the Netherlands past, windmills, a small shopping street, a drawbridge, a poffertjes cafe, into some kind of building, and then around another building before getting to the dock. Strolling it’s a good 15 minute walk. For kids on a mission, it’s a 5 minute sprint.

For the third time in 20 minutes, the kids ended up waiting at an empty dock. Yes, by the time they got there, another unsuspecting family had taken the boat to the dock the kids just left. Whether or not they finally had a chance to ride the boat, I don’t know. Like I said, there was a poffertjes cafe on the way and we had to stop there. I did see those kids later, laughing and having a good time. Whether they rode the boat or not, they didn’t let their boat disappointment ruin their day.

This post is part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby and RWeThereYetMom Favorite Post Friday.car cover tarp Michelin X-Ice North XIN3 Bushnell

Filed Under: Family Travel, Photo Friday Tagged With: arnhem, familytravel, Netherlands, open air museum

Germany, What a Beautiful Country

May 1, 2013 by Ann

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Local Fun, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: familytravel

Happy Queen’s Day

April 30, 2013 by Ann

Today is Koningendag in the Netherlands.

The last one, at least for a while, as the Queen of the Netherlands will abdicate the throne to her son. Starting next year, the Netherlands will celebrate King’s Day. Queen’s Day is one of the Netherlands largest parties, if not the world’s largest party, with family friendly events included in the schedule.

In honor of Queen’s Day, here are four family friendly activities to do in Amsterdam all year round guaranteed to keep everyone happy.

Family Friendly Amsterdam

NEMO Science Center

For kids of all ages, anyone interested in pushing buttons , playing with balls, and learning how all things work. It’s conveniently located near Centraal Station and the Amsterdam Public Library.

I wrote more about Science Center NEMO here.

Hot Tip: Order tickets online to avoid the lines. During weekdays, the Science Center can get quite busy with school groups.

Another bonus: Head up to the top and enjoy beautiful views of Amsterdam. During the summer (and in good weather), this is a great place to eat lunch. Bring an extra set of clothes because there are some water features that kids can’t help but jump into.

Picnic in Museumplein area

On one end, a grocery store (Albert Heijn) selling ready-to-go meals. On the other end, a large Iamsterdam sign, the Van Gogh Museum, and the very recently reopened Rijksmuseum. In between, a large grassy area with a playground on the edge. Perfect place for picnic and play.

Vondelpark

Amsterdam is a busy city, with canals, trams, bikes, cars, people… whew. Vondelpark is a great escape to let the kids run around and explore without any immediate danger. Rumor has it that there are also playgrounds here, but my son had too much fun running around in the open grassy areas to care about the playgrounds.

Heineken Experience

The kids won’t get to sample the beer, but the Heineken Experience is interactive enough to keep it fun for them.

This post is part of Travel Tip Tuesday. Click on the link to get more great travel tips.car seat cover rav4 kits de sexe Replay JE5 gopro hd hero3 black edition

Filed Under: Explore, Family Travel, Netherlands Tagged With: familytravel

What Now, Using Most of the Photos from our Trips

April 29, 2013 by Ann

I’m a strong believer in living with our photos. By that I mean, take them off of the computer or memory stick, and find a way that the whole family can enjoy them easily.

Quick Review from Last week.

Last week we took a huge group of photos from one trip, grouped them into smaller, workable categories, and deleted all the unneeded photos. I am working with photos from a 2011 trip our family took to Paris for my son’s first birthday. I went from 400 photos to around 200 photos in a total of three categories: Disney/Halloween, Birthday, Paris Sites. This week we will look at options for creating something that our family can enjoy using as many of the remaining photos as possible.

Part 2: Organizing Large Photo Collection: Ways to use ALL of your favorites from a Single Trip

One school of thought, when it comes to photos, is that if we are going to take a lot of photos, we might as well do something with them. The other school of thought thinks that we just don’t need to keep every photo we take. Last week we deleted all the photos that didn’t add to our travel stories. The blurry shots, the multiple shots of the same things, the less worthy shots.

I feel my 200 remaining photos tell a complete photographic story of our trip. There is not too much redundancy with a good amount of sites and people.

For those who want to use as many photos as possible from your trip, this part is for you.

I’m not going to kid, 200 photos is still a lot for one one-week trip. With large numbers, we are limited in both money and space on what we can do with the photos to create something that our family can enjoy. However, we are no longer burdened with the stress of deleting photos. Sometimes, especially for the more special trips, it is worth keeping as many photos as possible.

Here are some options for your consideration:

Create a Slide Show

If your photo storing software on your computer allows this, it is definitely the easiest option. Otherwise, there are online sites that will allow you to upload your photos and make a slide show. With 200 photos, this can take a long time.

Suggestions:

Break down your slide show according to the categories you created in part 1.
Each category should take the length of one song.
You will want photos to last on the screen 5-10 seconds, so keep that in mind when picking the song. (For example, one of my categories, has 33 pictures. So, I want to pick a song that’s at least 2 1/2 – 5 minutes long.) Alternatively, you can find the song you want to use for each section and then include the number of pictures that will fit into that time frame (For example, I found a 2 minute song and decide to remove some more pictures so that each photo gets more time on-screen.)
Use transitions between photos.
Have a compelling opening and closing photo.
Keep in mind that viewers may start to lose interest if the total time for viewing is 10 minutes.
If you have the software to do so, add a few segments of a video clip.
Burn it DVD and watch on tv and enjoy!

Use a Digital Frame

Upload your photos to a digital frame. Then people can just watch the frame when they want.

I have the Kodak Pulse 7-inch frame. I can send photos to the frame via wifi.
The slide show and transitions happen automatically.
With my frame, I am only able to have 400 photos at a time. So, the frame will only allow me to have two trips worth of photos unless I upload fewer, of course.
Place the frame in a prominent place and enjoy!

Create a Photobook

Easy way to organize large number of photos from single trip

Here’s part of my process. So easy!

There are plenty of online or in-store options for turning digital photos into photobooks. These books are the only way to have a physical copy of your photos without using up a lot of space.

Suggestions

Allow a lot of white space in the pages.
Use a template and select autofill for the book. Make adjustments as needed, but don’t get too caught up in the details.
Keep in mind the number of pages you will need. For a book with 200 photos, 50 pages means 4 pictures per page. Since we’ve already deleted the really unnecessary photos, we will want these pages to have no more than 4-6 photos per page so that they each get the attention they deserve.
When you get the book, use a sharpie marker and write any details that you want to share about the photos.
Purchase an extra copy of your book and give that one to your children. Now they have their own book of their own trip that they can look at when they want!
Alternatively: Many people commented that they use their blog to keep memories from their trip. Turn your blog into a book by using a service such as blurb.com. In between or at the end of blog pages, include all the photos that didn’t make it to the blog. Now the children will have something to look at to remind them of their trip!

What I’m doing: Due to computer limitations at the moment, I opted to create a photobook with Shutterfly over creating a slideshow or adding photos to my digital frame. Using their simple path, I can put up to 4 pictures per page automatically. They have several travel styles to choose from suiting a wide-range of vacation experiences. I chose the 8 x 11 photobook. I like that it’s big enough to really showcase my photos without being overwhelming. Prices shows are for books with up to 20 pages, with an option to pay for additional pages. Because of this, I did end up reducing the overall number of pictures I used. My book would have been $65 for 78 pages, which is beyond my budget. I adjusted the book manually to allow for 6 pages occasionally. I did pick autofill and shutterfly organized my photos in date order, not in the order they were uploaded.

There are many great photobook making services out there, so find one that works best with your process.

A note about editing: For the purpose of this project, I opted out of individually editing the photos. I wanted it done. These photos are from 2011, I’m making this for my family, and I don’t need 200 perfectly composed, contrasted, white-balanced photos. Next week, we will look at creating items with just the best of the bunch and I will offer some tips for editing photos.

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Filed Under: Memory Keeping Tagged With: familytravel

Raising Responsible Travelers

April 25, 2013 by Ann

Intelligent Travel’s Leslie Trew Magrew recently interviewed author Elizabeth Becker. Becker’s Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism examines our impact as travelers. In the interview, she sites France as a model of sustainable tourism, embracing the culture that people go to France to see. Cambodia exemplifies the worst case scenario, exploiting the sites and people to make more money. Governments and tourist offices are burdened with finding ways to balance the influx of tourists with the local resources. However, it is not just their burden. Responsible travel is our burden. As parents, sharing our love of travel with our families, what can we do to make sure that the places we visit now will still be an authentic experience for our children’s children?

Sacre Coeur, Paris.

Responsible Travel: Proper Preparation

Using a Staycation to Better Understand a Vacation

One way Becker suggests approaching the issue of responsible tourism was taking a staycation.

My advice is to first be a tourist where you live. Explore the museums, the farms, the churches, the night life, the historic monuments–and then read up on local politics and history. If you’re interested in volunteering overseas, first volunteer at home. Then when you’re planning your next trip abroad, use that experience as a template and study up on the destination you’re about to visit.

I admit, other than a lower carbon footprint, I didn’t quite understand how this would help. Then I read a little more about responsible travel in Cambodia and the idea of visiting orphanages was brought up. In bold letters the site asked

THINK TWICE BEFORE VISITING AN ORPHANAGE …Would you go to visit an orphanage in your home country? Would somewhere that puts the best interests of the children first allow random visits from strangers?

This helped me put it in perspective. The way we would approach travel where we live, that’s how we should approach travel somewhere else. How do locals like to be treated? What types of things are off the tourist radar, but worth the visit? How do we connect to the community?

With children, seeing what their own community offers helps them make a connection outside of their community. An added benefit to staycations? Learning more about our family’s travel style.

Research

Becker mentions the Baedeker Travel Guides from the late 1800s and early 1900s. These “were written in consultation with historians and archaeologists who presumed the tourists wanted to immerse themselves in a country.” As opposed to many of today’s guides, the Baedeker Guides focused more on the history, culture, politics and even language of a country and only a small space for hotels and restaurants.

Keep this in mind when preparing for a trip. Make sure the amount of time searching for the perfect hotel is matched with taking the time to gain a greater understanding of the country itself. Include children in this preparation. Whip up relevant meals, read stories set in the location, look up phrases and photos online, and do a search on youtube for videos. This knowledge gives everyone, kids included, a better appreciation for the country and compassion for its people.

Responsible Travel: The Local Impact

It’s important to understand just how travel impacts the local community. Becker’s Cambodia example shows that their shortsightedness is actually destroying the very reason people started traveling there in the first place, “In Angkor, a thicket of new hotels has outpaced infrastructure and is draining the water table so badly the temples are sinking.” And that’s just the beginning. The greed exhibited there has made Cambodia popular for sex tourism and even profiting from tours to the killing fields.

This is an extreme, but unfortunately, small example of the effects of tourism. An influx of tourists will have both a positive and negative impact to the local community, in every community. Responsible travelers, educating future travelers, must find an appropriate way to travel with minimal negative impact.

The Ethical Traveler suggests to

Be aware of where your money is going, and patronize locally owned inns, restaurants, and shops. Try to keep your cash within the local economy, so the people you are visiting can benefit directly from your visit.

Fortunately, according to a list by Conde Nast’s Wendy Perrin of what kids say they really want, this should coincide nicely. They want a place that is completely different from home, preferring the experience of a local market where they can the varieties of food then going on a picnic at a park later, and purchasing souvenirs directly from the maker.

This topic is far larger than these simple points I mention above. Acknowledging our impact is the first step. By educating ourselves we can find the balance to make more right choices for our families and the places we visit.

This is definitely a subject I will return to again. In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts on responsible tourism and any challenges you might face as a traveling family.

If you are interested in other articles about this topic, please visit the following sites:

International Center for Responsible Tourism

The Sustainable Tourism Gateway

I-to-I Volunteering

This post is part of Friday Daydreaming at R We There Yet Mom?sexe vibrognail

Filed Under: Travel Philosophy Tagged With: family travel, familytravel

Wordless Wednesday: Graffiti

April 24, 2013 by Ann

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Filed Under: Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: familytravel

Five Tips for Using the German Rail with Babies and Toddlers

April 23, 2013 by Ann

For the first two years of my son’s life, we relied solely on public transport to get from one place to another. We learned a lot using the German rail system both locally and nationally. Here are 5 cost-savings and/or sanity-savings tips for conquering the trains in Germany.

Here we are using the Kinderabteil room for the first time. It was nice to be able to keep W safely buckled in his stroller while on the train.

1. Kids under 6 travel free. So do their strollers. The German Rail website sells a pass for 4-11 year olds, but if the child is under 6, they are free when traveling with an adult.

2. Some trains allow reservations. On those trains, try to book a “Kinderabteil”. This is a kid room. Instead of the typical 6-seat configuration, there are 4 regular seats and two-fold down seats. Strollers go where the seats fold down. On some trains and in first class the Kinderabteil is even larger than the regular 6-seat configuration areas, giving kids some space to move around without bothering others. If the Kinderabteil is not available for reservation, then it is first-come, first-served.

On this train we noticed (see where the arrow is pointing) that the seats lift up to make space for things like strollers. Be on the lookout for that sign if you need the space. It’s usually at the end of the car.

3. Many tips for flying with kids are applicable for riding the train with kids. There are three things to consider about train travel that differs from plane travel: train seats don’t have seat belts, there are no liquid restrictions, and the train often stops. For children who are easily distracted, try to schedule train trips to avoid their nap times. I know anytime I thought my son was going to fall asleep, the upcoming stop was announced. If that didn’t wake him up the group of people exiting and entering the train sure did.

This time we weren’t able to secure a Kinderabteil. Even though kids under 6 travel free, they can still get a seat reservation. We put our suitcase in the area in front of him for added protection.

4. Kids love to snack. Unlike airports, train stations sell food and drinks for prices similar to what they are at regular stores. No need to shop at the grocery store to save prices before going to the train station! Snacks are also available on a lot of trains. They are sold by an employee walking the aisle and/or at the restaurant car. These snacks are a little pricier, but still reasonable.

5. In almost all cities in Germany shops are closed on Sundays and holidays . Main train stations (Hauptbahnhof) and airports are the exception. If diapers are running low on a Sunday, head to the Hauptbahnhof to replenish stock.

This post is part of Travel Tip Tuesday. Click the link to read more great tips.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Germany, Travel Advice Tagged With: family travel, familytravel, Germany, Rail, toddlers

What now? Organizing Photos, Part 1

April 22, 2013 by Ann

Memory Keeping Monday

When I travel, I often have at least three cameras with me: phone, point and shoot, and dSLR. It’s easy to take a lot of photos. How do I handle these when I get home?

I’m a strong believer in living with our photos. By that I mean, take them off of the computer or memory stick, and find a way that the whole family can enjoy them easily.

For this three-part series, I’m going to join in and tackle a large group of pictures I have sitting in my hard drive. In 2011 we went to Paris for 6 days for my sons first birthday. I haven’t done anything with those photos and will use this opportunity to create something(s) for our family.

Keep in mind, these tips are mostly focused on the photos. Future posts for Memory Keeping Monday will look at ways to organize journaling, ticket stubs and other odds and ends we collect while we travel.

Part 1: Organizing Photos

There are many reasons people take pictures when they travel. It’s not always just to remember what we did. Some people want to take pictures to practice their photography techniques. Others use photography as a creative outlet. Still others use it as a way to connect with people. As family travelers, we often photograph our subjects in front of sites as proof that they were there. More often than not, we do a combination of all of these photos. I know I do.

Because we have so many reasons we take photos, it can be overwhelming when it comes time to sort through these photos. However, we have to sort through these photos. Unless we are good at taking exactly the perfect photo and only keeping the perfect photos, and never taking too many photos, there are a lot of photos on a single trip that we just don’t need. Let’s say, for example, we come back from a week’s vacation with 600 photos. That’s a lot. It’s not even 100 a day. If we were to make a slide show, allotting 1 second per photos, that would be a TEN minute slide show! If we were to make a book allowing 4 pictures per page, that would be 125 PAGES! Filling that space with photos that don’t contribute to the story of our trip is a waste. That’s why we have to curate our travel photo collection.

Before looking through the photos, take a few minutes to think of the final product you want to create. Do you want to spotlight your best photographs? Do you want an album of the things you did ranging from the smallest details to the biggest moments? Do you want to tell a story, or several stories, of the best parts of your trips? Will you possibly want to do a few of these things?

While going through your photos and reliving your memories, you may change your mind and want to go in a different direction than what you originally planned. That’s ok.

What I’m doing: We went to Paris for my son’s first birthday, which is close to Halloween. Since Halloween isn’t celebrated in Paris (except for some nightclubs which aren’t really appropriate for a one-year old) we spent his first Halloween at Disney. So, I want to create some kind of memory piece using a lot of the photos, but I know I will also want to use some of my favorite photos for other things (to put in frames, his birthday album…)

Now that we have an idea of what we want to do, let’s look at our photos. (If you haven’t already, upload all of your photos from all of your cameras into one folder on your computer.)

1. Delete bad photos. The first round of deletes will be to delete all the blurry photos, too dark photos, accidental picture photo, or any you just know you don’t want. If this is too hard, save all the photos in a separate folder that you can access later if you want to. You probably won’t access them.

What I’m doing: I started with around 400 photos. I only deleted about 15 photos.

2. Group the remaining photos by a theme into folders. If you have more than 100 photos, you will want to break them down into smaller sections. Look through the photos to see if any natural stories can be told from this. Some trips lend themselves more to a day by day story. Some stories are told better by themes. Figure out what works best for you and your trip. Keep each folder group to around 50-100 photos (unless it’s day by day then each folder will just have the day’s photos). Every photo should belong to a group. If you have a few stray photos either make them their own folder, put them in with another folder, or delete them altogether if you discover that there isn’t really any value to them.

What I’m doing: I have them categorized chronologically in sections. There are three folders: regular Paris photos, Halloween and Disneyland, and Birthday.

3. Work through individual folders to delete multiples. Now’s the time to fine-tune your individual folders. Delete any multiples that don’t tell a story. Don’t feel that you have to delete all multiples, though. If a grouping of photos tell a great story, keep them! But you don’t need 10 photos of front the Taj Mahal to know you were at the Taj Mahal. (My rule of thumb is to limit a grouping or series of photos to 3 photos.)

Added tip: Take notes to why you are keeping the ones you are keeping.

At this point, I always like to make sure that at least each person in my family has one photo from the day, so even if I don’t have a great picture of myself, I will keep one in.

What I’m doing: Since I know I want to end up with some kind of album, I am still going to keep a lot of photos. For the Halloween/Disney part I started out with about 80 photos. That’s really a lot for 1 day, even a Halloween/Disney/Paris day. Looking at these 80 photos I know that I want to have pictures of the theme park, signs of Halloween, signs that we are in France (and not Orlando or California), and my son meeting some Disney characters. After deleting a large group, I was left with about 60 photos. For me, that is still too much for one day. I realized that a large chunk of photos I was keeping were from a 5 minute interaction my son had with Goofy during lunch. After deleting more photos, I was left was around 43 photos that I feel give a good representation of the day with not too many theme repeats.

If you feel like you aren’t deleting enough, it’s ok. I know this is hard to do and we will have plenty of time to narrow down the pictures again. But for now, delete the ones you know you do not need.

4. Now pick out your favorites. Within your theme/individual photos create a folder called “favorites”. Put copies of your top 5-10 photos (or less!) into that folder. There doesn’t have to be a rhyme or reason to this. It’s just your favorite photos.

What I’m doing: I kept a picture from the beginning of the day, the end of the day, a picture of my son in his costume and one with him and pluto, and a photo of all 5 of us.

5. Repeat with each theme/individual folder until you have gone through all of your folders.

NOTE: While going through this process, it’s a good time to copy into their own folders any photos that you may use for other purposes completely. For example:

A folder for blog photos, facebook photos, or tripadvisor reviews.
Any photo projects you may have that are not trip-specific. For example, I keep track of “where we sleep“. If I have a photo in a hotel room, I put it aside so that I at least one photo from each hotel we’ve stayed at separately. I also put aside one picture of each of my children from each trip we take. I also want to have a separate record for his first birthday, so I’m keeping copies of those in a separate folder to sort through later.

What I’m doing: I went through all of my separate photos for my Paris 2011 trip. My kids were sleeping when I went through the “Halloween/Disney folder” and I was able to concentrate on the photos. They woke up by the time I was going through my other two folders, so I didn’t delete as much as I wanted to because I didn’t want to accidentally delete something. This is our reality. This is why organizing photos is so difficult. That’s ok, just do what you can do.

Also, while I was going through my regular Paris folder, I discovered so many pictures of my son that just show his one-year old personality so strongly. I didn’t want to delete all of these, even though there are repetitions. Not sure what I’m going to keep, but I want to have the choices there for later. I also made sure that I had at least one photo of the sites we saw, usually the photo was of one of us in front of the place (or inside), but if I liked a picture I took of the building, I kept it.

I started with roughly 400 photos and I was able to get to around 200 photos, 35-40 a day.

Now that we have the first step towards creating a souvenir of our trip, having the photos organized, come back next Monday to see what we have to do next.

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Filed Under: Memory Keeping Tagged With: familytravel