Travel Advice

Water – Water – Water

April 26, 2014 by Ann

My word for today is water. And my advice about water has to do with packing and itinerary planning. When you’re traveling, plan for water.

Forms of water to prepare for

From the sky (aka rain or snow): Make sure you pack for wet seasons (good time to get rain boots!) and make alternate plans for days with lots of outdoor activities – just in case.
As amusement: Pack a bathing suit and a change a clothes for everyone. You will likely know that your hotel does or doesn’t have a pool. What you might not be prepared for are the fountains your kids will want to jump into when all the other kids are doing it, or a very alluring water park on a very warm Summer day.
Coming into your body: Hydrate! Before your trip, find out what the water safety is like where you’re traveling to. Purchase water or filters as needed. Get something refillable because it’s better for the environment, but if you can’t that’s ok, too. Bring water with you wherever you go. I swear there have been popular tourist destinations I’ve travelled to with absolutely no water for drinking within miles (and no restaurants or shops). If you’re traveling to Europe and don’t like your drinking water carbonated, learn how to say “bubble-free” in the local language.
Leaving your body (sorry!): When traveling in Europe, make sure to have some change on hand for public bathrooms. The good news is – at least their clean in most cases! In Asian countries, make sure to have some toilet paper on hand for public bathrooms (not everywhere, but many places don’t provide toilet paper). And wherever you go – bring some sanitizer. I’m not usually a germ freak, but talking about public bathrooms just makes me feel gross.

Since it’s getting warmer here in Germany, I’m going to head out with my kids and a few bottles of water. Have a great Saturday!

And today’s A-Z Challenge Travel Blogger Spotlight is Amy and the Great World. Please send some love her way this weekend.

Photo by Venture Vancouver sous vetement feminin sensueltranslation from english to brazil seo and press releases

Filed Under: atozchallenge, Encourage, Family Travel, Travel Advice

Volunteer Trips for Families

April 25, 2014 by Ann

Here’s another type of travel to consider: volunteer trips for families.

I haven’t done this with my family, yet. I know I will when they are older. Some of my favorite bonding memories with my friends are those where we volunteered with an organization for something greater than us. I can’t wait to bond in this type of meaningful way with my kids.

This isn’t something, when the time comes, that I will go into half-heartedly. I imagine hours upon hours of researching the right fit.

In the meantime, I want to do things a little differently with this post.

First, I want to ask if anyone reading this has any experience with a volunteer trip – domestic or international. If so, please leave your thoughts in the comments, or shoot me an email.

Second, here are a list of resources I’ve found online. I will update this list and this post as I learn more about it.

Resources for Family Volunteer Trips

International Volunteer Program Association: Includes a list of member organizations as well as a lot of information for people interested in volunteering.
Global Citizens Network: Offers information about volunteer and plans scheduled or custom trips for independent travelers, groups, or families.
The Great Pro jects: Provides volunteer projects focused on wildlife around the world.
Outreach 360: Started in orphanages, but has branched out to include empowering children in poverty-stricken areas.
Me To We: Focuses on volunteer trips that provide the sustainable community development.
Give Kids the World: This Orlando-based company helps children with life-threatening illnesses make their wishes come true. Volunteers have to be at least 12 years old.

For more articles about family volunteering

USA Today lists the 10 Best Family Volunteer Travel Vacations
New York Times discusses some of the things families should discuss before embarking on a volunteer trip.

On another note

I have loved doing this A-to-Z challenge. It’s been fun writing new posts almost daily, and meeting so many travel bloggers. I can’t believe we’re already at V! Only 4 more (very difficult) letters to go. I’m not ready to stop these daily, themed posts. In the month of May I’m going to write a new post every week-day about an attraction (museum, park, anything) that our family has visited. I’ve wanted to write about these anyway, and this is a good time to do it. If this is something that interests you, please join me! I hope you stick around for those posts – and I’m sure I’ll still check out a lot of your blogs in the future.

A funny thing, my A-to-Z spotlight blog of the day, the Traveling Suitcase, is also going to continue the A-Z challenge in May. Let’s see if we can get a group of travel bloggers doing the same! In the meantime, check out their blog!

Photo by danielthornton BARI RAV4 W1712 Stockpair

Filed Under: atozchallenge, Encourage, Engage, Explore, Family Travel, Travel Advice

“Unknown” Destinations

April 24, 2014 by Ann

The challenge in these destinations

Yesterday I wrote about touristy attractions. Today I want to discuss the complete opposite: unknown attractions. I value showing our children the popular destinations. However, there’s something fun in discovering something relatively unknown.

The problem is – how do you find out about these places?

Well, the good news is most of these places are in a guidebook. Not all guidebooks, though. Comprehensive guidebooks, focused on a smaller region, will have more unknown sites and destinations. This is actually a good thing. No one wants to spend their vacation in a place that is just “meh“. If it’s not in a comprehensive guidebook focused on the region, that might be because it’s just “meh“. (And if it’s not in a comprehensive guidebook and you still want to go – that’s ok, too!)

The bad news is that off the beaten path places are not off everyone’s beaten path. I tend to think that statement refers to sites that aren’t on a top 10, 20, or even 50 list of things to do. These are places that your circle of friends might not be as familiar with, but they’re likely a local person’s treasure. The reason this is bad news: crowds are still possible. Don’t worry we’ll talk more about that in a moment.

There are four types of unknown/lesser known destination trips.

A popular destination, such as Paris, with visits to sites that are off the radar.
Off the radar cities that are off the typical tourist trail of cities.
Regions that aren’t visited by many people from your circle or nationality, but have tourists from within the region or are a popular destination for people from another country.
Places that have tiny populations and tourists rarely go or get a chance to visit. These are much more remote, challenging, and likely expensive to get to.

Six steps to finding and enjoying an “unknown” destination

For the purpose of this post, I’ll focus on the first three I listed above. Remote, challenging, and expensive destinations aren’t something people go into lightly. I’m sure anyone going there with their family will get better resources than I can offer.

For the other three, though, I want to talk about how to find and enjoy them. Remember, the nature of the “unknown” place is they don’t get as many tourists as wherever you’re from. Hopefully, these tips will help.

What kind of trip do you want? some sites within a popular city, something of the tourist trail in an often visited country, or something completely unfamiliar to you and your circle.
Search online: Look up photos, websites, and social media and follow the clicking or hashtag trail until you find something appealing.
Check out a guidebook: Find a comprehensive guidebook for the area of the world you want to visit. Skip the parts about places you are already familiar with and see if you can find a place that interests you.
Research: Now that you know where you want to go. Go back to the web and guidebook.
- Know the history and geography.
- Consider your transportation options. Remember, it’s “off-the-beaten-path” – roads and public transportation may not be as reliable as places you are accustomed to.
- Learn some language. Don’t count on English speakers working the hotel desk, kiosks, or tours if they don’t get many English-speaking visitors.
- Don’t forget the meals. Research the food. Don’t worry, meal selections will likely be more authentic. This may not appeal to the youngest or pickiest of travels. Knowing what to expect can help. Then you can order something you know they will like, or pack some peanut butter and buy some bread.
- What will you do there? See what attractions, events, and festivals are there. Even if it is relatively unknown, it will likely have a list of must-sees and dos.
- Who does travel to this place – does it have a high season? Try to find out who travels there. Is it a local favorite? Is it popular with German tourists? If there’s a chance it could be busy with their more typical tourist, consider visiting during shoulder season. Then you get the best parts of the destination, without the crowds.
- Is traveling off-season an option?Be cautious of traveling off-season, though. In some places off-season is actually closed season and there may be NOTHING to do.
Once you are there, talk to locals. What do they recommend?
Wander. What kinds of things do you stumble upon when you travel without any direction? Some of my favorite trips have been because I hadn’t pre-planned anything and just took random turns as we wandered around.

Photo by Rome Cabs

Every day of the A-Z Challenge I link to another participant writing about something travel-related for the challenge. I actually picked my links before I knew what I would be posting about on any given day. Today’s planned link is with Tui Snider’s Offbeat and Overlooked Travel. Lots of great information fitting in with going to places that aren’t necessarily on a typical top 20 list.Audio-Technica AT2020

Filed Under: atozchallenge, Encourage, Engage, Explore, Family Travel, Thoughts, Travel Advice

Rest planning

April 21, 2014 by Ann

When I was a travel agent, I used to preview customer itineraries for the trips they were planning. I love planning itineraries. Seriously, send me a question about yours anytime.

Anyway, I like to plan, but my travel style is different. I prefer to have a simple goal of the day. It could be a site I want to see, a region I want to explore more in-depth, or just a day for strolling around aimlessly (which tends to be my preferred method of travel – and why I often leave a place wishing I saw more!)

Regardless of how someone plans an itinerary, one important part to consider – whether you have kids or not – is rest. Back at the travel agency I worked with many young adults visiting Europe for the first time. Because they had limited time and wanted to maximize their trip, their schedules were very go – go – go. City after city, train ride after train ride. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, it’s a good idea to take a break every few days. If you’re scheduling everything in advance, take a break from the big cities by heading to the beach or a small village. If you’re going with the flow, the easy tip is when it all starts to feel the same, change the course.

(Please note: the slow traveler approach lends itself to more rest than the “I want to see as much as possible” approach does. And, to be honest, you know yourself and what you can handle. If you want to travel to a new city every day for a week without a break, that’s ok, too! I wouldn’t suggest it, but I’m not going to get upset if you do. 🙂 That said…)

When you have kids, these rest days are crucial. We all know that we should plan for a kid’s day or two while on a trip. That’s a day where the sites are more geared to them, as oppose to say, Harrods food court. It’s also important to plan a rest day for trips that are kid-activity-centric. Say you’re going to the popular theme parks in Orlando. Instead of visiting four back-to-back, take a day to enjoy something more relaxing.

In addition to having a day for resting every few days, make a plan for rest during busy days. Even if the kids no longer nap, it’s a good way to decompress before facing the rest of the day. A good time to do this is after lunch. Go to a local park or cafe and just relax. Or just head back to the hotel. Grab a book, or give the kids some time to reflect in their journals.

To me, resting during a busy trip is the key to making it a successful trip.

Lynne is doing her second A-to-Z Challenge on her blog Winnie’s Views. She writes about her travels with her dog, Millie, in her winnebago. Visit her site today!sun cover car Apple Watch Prology TFT

Filed Under: atozchallenge, Encourage, Explore, Family Travel, Travel Advice

Queues with little ones

April 19, 2014 by Ann

While most people with young kids will say that flying is the hardest part of traveling, I disagree. I think it’s queues. They’re everywhere. Perhaps a good way to prepare for a trip, especially to theme parks, is to stand in the longest line you can find for 30 minutes and see what happens.

Let me know, though, as I really hate lines and will never force myself into one without any benefit.

So, how do we deal with this?

The culture of the queue

First – queuing is a cultural thing. Here’s a sample of different types of queuing cultures.

First come, first served.
Loudest is first.
Survival of the fittest.
Whatever, we’ll all eventually get helped.
Pick a number.
Show me the money.
What’s a line?

Now that we have that out of the way, figure out what the line culture is where you’re going. Then remember that what may be considered rude where you’re from, might not be rude where you are going. So, get over any feelings of being polite or you’ll still be standing in line as I’m posting the Z for this challenge.

Very basic queue etiquette

Regardless of the above, there are still some line rules that you just don’t break.

Don’t push pass people in any line that is roped off.
If people are going in or out of a place (subways or elevators), let the people out before going in.
Don’t look at the reservations book to find the last name of someone else and pretend you are them.
Actually, never pretend to be someone you aren’t just to get preferential treatment.
In dangerous situations – women and children first

Dealing with long lines and waits

Kids aren’t good waiters, so prepare some spur of the moment games and distractions to keep everything fun. Here are some ideas:

Play two truths and one lie
Talk about what’s around you via the game I spy
Take turns with the game 20 questions
Recap the things you’ve done and discuss what you will soon do
Take selfies on your phone, post them to IG #queueselfies
Eat a small snack

If you have any fun line anecdotes, tips on how to queue in a country you’ve visited, or suggestions for keeping wait times somewhat fun, let me know in the comments!

Adventuring at Home‘s blog is about life in Charlottesville, VA. Her take on the A-to-Z challenge are things she wants to do in her 20s. Check it out!

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Filed Under: atozchallenge, Encourage, Engage, Family Travel, Travel Advice