Tag Archives: family travel

Where to Travel in 2017, Before the Rest of the World Catches On

Deciding where to travel can be overwhelming: There are so many amazing places—and so many factors to consider: the best timing for your trip, the optimal moment to book it, the stress of finding the right expert to plan it so you maximize your precious vacation time…. That’s where we come in: Our goal is to eliminate these uncertainties and cut to the chase about where to travel, why, and how to get the best experience for your dollar. We’ve already shared the most popular destinations of 2017—the places that our readers have submitted the most trip requests for. Now, we’re offering a list of places that might not be on your radar but should be.

Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland, the Arctic

Newfoundland scenery. Photo credit: Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism

This is the year when U.S. travelers will take a closer look at our neighbor to the north—and not just because there are no Canada travel alerts or Zika virus and the exchange rate is great. 2017 is also the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation—a reminder that this sweeping nation was once a lot more difficult to traverse than it is now. A solid train system and the possibility of low-cost domestic airlines finally joining the competition should make it even easier to hop around in the coming year. Not that you need to. Pick a spot, any spot—British Columbia for adventure activities, Alberta for the Rocky Mountains, Montreal for all that delicious food, Newfoundland for its dramatic coastline and unique lodges, the Artic region for polar bears and northern lights, or any of the country’s famous national parks (all free to visit this year).

If you’re seeking the right travel specialist to design the best Canada trip possible, Ask Wendy for her recommendation. Also read our Insider’s Guides to British Columbia, Newfoundland, and the Arctic.

China: Jiuzhaigou National Park

turquoise lake in China's Jiuzhaigou national park

China’s Jiuzhaigou national park has earned its stripes as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its serene, crystalline turquoise pools. Photo: WildChina

After nearly 30 years on the brink of extinction, panda will be released back into the wild in China’s Jiuzhaigou national park and nature reserve next year. The chance to see these much-loved bears in their natural habitat is only half the draw, though. “Apart from panda tracking, Jiuzhaigou is by far one of the most beautiful landscapes in all of China,” says China travel specialist Mei Zhang. “Mandarin for ‘Nine Villages Valley,’ Jiuzhaigou has earned its stripes as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its serene, crystalline turquoise pools surrounded by hills of crisp yellow flowers.” Hike primeval forests to the brilliant blue-and-green Five-Color Pond, then check in to the new Ritz-Carlton, propped right up against the mountains so that you won’t miss any views even when you’re inside.

Read Mei Zhang’s Insider’s Guides to China’s Big Cities and Small Villages, Yunnan Province, and Beijing, and reach out to her to plan the best possible trip.

Colombia: Bogotá

Historic colorful buildings in Bogota, Colombia

Historic colorful buildings in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: Four Seasons/Thinkstock

This South American capital city has a lot going for it these days. Already cool in the books of culinary and cultural travelers for its thriving Nuevo Colombiana food scene, vibrant street art, and impressive art and architecture, Bogotá is adding big-name luxury hotels to its tourism offerings. At the end of 2015, Four Seasons took over the historic Hotel Casa Medina Bogotá, improving on the notable building’s old-world charm; and this year it unveiled a second property, the more modern Four Seasons Hotel Bogotá in Zona T, an area known for shopping and nightlife. Both boast destination restaurants (Spanish in the former, Japanese in the latter) and are likely to catch the eyes of trend-watching travelers. What’s more, thanks to its high altitude, Bogotá is not a friendly environment for Zika-carrying mosquitoes. Visit now before everyone else does.

Reach out to Eric Sheets to plan the best possible trip to Colombia, and read his Insider’s Guide to Cartagena for other ideas.

England’s Cotswolds

Buckland Manor, Cotswolds, England. Photo: Jonathan Epstein/Celebrated Experiences

“For years the English countryside fell off many travelers’ radar screens, as it was not good value compared to other destinations,” says United Kingdom travel specialist Jonathan Epstein. Then along came Brexit. Now, “the British pound is the weakest it has been since the early ’80s” says Jonathan. “Hotels in the Cotswolds that were $500 per night five years ago can be had for 25% to 35% less.” What’s particularly interesting is that while country manor hotels are improving, they still attract a mostly British audience, so you’re not likely to find yourself running into a ton of Americans. Add to that the lure of gardens, castles, charming villages, woodland walks, and award-winning cuisine, and the Cotswolds get even more attractive.

Read Jonathan Epstein’s Insider’s Guide to The Cotswolds, and reach out to him to plan the best possible trip.

Japan’s Cuisine and Off-the-Beaten-Path Culture

Tsukiji market, Tokyo. Photo: Context Travel

Japan has grown increasingly popular with our readers over the past two years. Maybe it’s the cuisine: Japan has the second-highest number of Michelin stars in the world (second only to France). Maybe it’s the atmospheric ryokans, or the hiking routes, or both: Aman recently opened its Amanemu resort, inside Ise-Shima National Park on the Kii Peninsula, where guests can cap off a walking trip along the famed Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Trail. Maybe it’s the diverse landscapes: the coastal scenery of the Noto Peninsula, the spiritual Buddhist mountain region of Koyasan, the fun art islands of the Seto Inland Sea, the hot-spring-rich areas and pottery villages of Kyushu, Matsumoto, and Takayama in the Japanese Alps. Whatever it is, go now while the number of flights to Tokyo are increasing and new hotels are going up (like 2016’s Four Seasons Kyoto) in preparation for the Summer Olympics of 2020.

Read Scott Gilman’s Insider’s Guides to Classic Japan and Off-the-Beaten-Path Japan, and reach out to him to plan the best possible trip.

Mexico: Mexico City, Merida, Loreto

Traditional dancers in Merida, Mexico. Photo: Jouney Mexico

Mexico City (The New York Times’ choice of #1 destination to visit in 2016), Merida (the capital of Yucatan state), and Loreto (on the Baja peninsula) are each having a moment. What makes Mexico City special is the sheer diversity of culture you can experience there—world-class museums, cutting-edge architecture, emerging fashion designers, up-and-coming artists, plus all that delicious food (from taco stands to Pujol)—and the juxtaposition of ancient and modern: You can sleep in buzzy new hotels designed by world-class architects and in the morning go hot-air ballooning over the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan. (Plus Mexico City sits at an altitude too high for mosquitoes, so it’s Zika-free.)

A similar old-new combo can be found in the charming city of Merida. “The narrow streets and shady plazas create a feeling of the old world, as horses traverse the cobblestone streets lined with centuries-old mansions,” says Zach Rabinor, one of Wendy’s recommended Mexico experts. Many of those old buildings have been turned into boutique hotels and gourmet restaurants, so travelers seeking luxury and culture will easily be able to find both. In fact, Merida has been designated the American Capital of Culture for 2017, which means lots of events and celebrations throughout the year.

As for Loreto, it’s the counterpoint to Baja’s bustling Cabo region. The laid-back, old-world charm and coastal location attract adventure seekers, history buffs, sun seekers, and golf aficionados. Next fall the 7,400-yard Danzante Bay Golf Course will open, and Alaska Airlines is set to increase flights to Loreto to six days per week from LAX. “While there are breathtaking new resorts in Loreto, the vibe is refreshingly relaxed,” says Baja travel specialist Julie Byrd. “It’s still so untouched.” (If you’re concerned about Zika virus, know that fewer cases of Zika have been reported in the state of Baja California Sur than in Florida.)

Read Zach Rabinor’s Insider’s Guides to Mexico City and the Riviera Maya, and reach out to him to plan the best possible trip.

For Cabo, read Julie Byrd’s Insider’s Guides to Los Cabos Beach Vacations and Los Cabos Villa Vacations, and reach out to her to plan the best possible trip.

Mongolia

Horse riders in Mongolia. Photo: Nomadic Expeditions

The 2015 opening of a Shangri-La hotel in Ulaanbaatar put Mongolia’s fascinating capital into the travel spotlight—and it’s still there. This year, a new airport will expand the country’s tourism infrastructure, making trips from a number of international cities easier than ever before. “The city is a place where modern high-rises are lined up next to traditional nomadic gers,” says Mongolia travel specialist Jalsa Urubshurow. “Don’t let the bustling energy of UB fool you, though, since Mongolia remains largely untouched—a place where a horse-based nomadic culture continues to thrive.” That culture got a little bit of the spotlight itself recently, Hollywood style, when Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley narrated the film The Eagle Huntress, about a young Kazakh girl living in western Mongolia’s Altai Mountains who wins the Golden Eagle Festival, a prize historically awarded to men. ((The festival was actually created by Jalsa in 1999; you can read more about it here.) Now is the time to explore this country’s deep traditions, diverse landscapes, and burgeoning modernization, before the rest of the travel world catches on.

Read Jalsa Urubshurow’s Insider’s Guide to Mongolia, and reach out to him to plan the best possible trip.

Myanmar: Yangon, Rakhine, and More

Mt. Popa, Myanmar. Photo: Antonia Neubauer.

This jewel of Southeast Asia is expecting an influx of visitors in 2017 and thus is investing in infrastructure development under the government of Aung San Suu Kyi. In the capital city of Yangon, a new airport is being built and, by 2018, the capital city will even have a Peninsula hotel. For more intrepid travelers, Suu Kyi has pushed to open routes in Rakhine, Shan, Chin, and other tribal states, including areas where no foreign travelers were ever allowed in the past.

If you’re seeking the right travel specialist to design the best Myanmar trip possible, Ask Wendy for her recommendation. Also read our Insider’s Guide to Myanmar.

Nepal

A young monk in Nepal. Photo: Toni Neubauer

Tourism is still down after Nepal’s devastating earthquake in 2015, but that’s why Nepal travel specialist Toni Neubauer feels it’s so important for travelers to show their support for this magical country. “Without doubt, if you want to see a still-beautiful, less-touristed Nepal; appreciate the resilience of a people recovering from a disaster with little government aid; and appreciate some of the huge changes in the country, now is the time to go,” she says. For instance, roads that were previously only accessible to trekkers are now much more accessible to all travelers, and more comfortable resorts are opening such as the luxury-level Barahi Jungle Resort in the Chitwan. While it’s true that fewer tourists translates to better deals and more availability at top hotels and restaurants, the real reason to visit now is that it’s a boon to the locals and their economy—and gives travelers an insider’s glimpse into how its homes, monuments, and centuries-old art are being restored.

Read Toni Neubauer’s Insider’s Guide to Nepal, and reach out to her to plan the best possible trip.

New Zealand: Before It’s Overrun

Mount Nicholas Station, Queenstown, New Zealand

New Zealand has been a popular adventure spot for years, but we’re including it on our 2017 must-visit list for two reasons. First, it has grown so popular, and many of its most atmospheric inns and lodges are so intimate, that you’d be smart to book a year in advance, so if you’re thinking about it at all, start planning asap. Second, the busy season used to be limited to December 15 through January 15, but now it stretches all the way from November to March. “The country is literally full,” says New Zealand travel specialist Jean-Michel Jefferson. “Even locals are having trouble finding hotel rooms.” That’s not to say you should cross New Zealand off your list—rather, you should go as soon as possible, before it gets thoroughly overrun. A savvy and well-connected travel specialist like Jean-Michel, who is based in New Zealand, can ensure that you don’t get caught in the crowds and that you uncover unique experiences such as spending a day with a top orca researcher, helicoptering into undiscovered southern Fiordland, meeting a Maori chief, and dining on freshly caught wild seafood on the beach.

Read Jean-Michel Jefferson’s Insider’s Guides to New Zealand and Queenstown, and reach out to him to plan the best possible trip.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Cinnamon Country. Photo: Sri Lanka In Style

If it seems like everyone is talking about Sri Lanka, it’s because they are. It’s one of the buzziest destinations of 2017—which is why Wendy’s headed there herself later this month. With its civil-war troubles behind it, Sri Lanka can now show off its 2,000-year-old history and eight UNESCO heritage sites, its national parks (packed with wildlife including leopards, elephants, and sloth bears), and its hotel boom that includes several new exquisite coastal resorts. “While this sharp rise in tourism may signal an end for the simple untouched beauty of the country,” says Sri Lanka travel specialist Miguel Cunat, who has lived there for more than a decade, “there are still plenty of off-the-beaten-track places to explore and myriad opportunities to experience authentic Lankan culture. The previously off-limits North and East Coast are now safe and open to travelers, and the Southern Coast has been benefiting from the opening of many new charming hotels and restaurants.” What’s more, 2017 is the 150th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s tea industry, and the celebrations will include an expo, seminars, workshops, and a convention.

Read Miguel Cunat’s Insider’s Guide to Sri Lanka, and reach out to him to plan the best possible trip.

Zambia

Amanzi Camp on the Zambezi River, Zambia. Photo: Amanzi Camp

If all you know about Zambia is Victoria Falls, you’re missing out. The country’s wildlife-viewing opportunities are top-notch: elephant, hippo, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, lions, leopards…. Zambia offers remote luxe camps in off-the-beaten-path parks often overlooked by mainstream travelers. The exclusive Amanzi Camp opened in the Lower Zambezi in 2016, and another high-end property is slated for 2017: The five-star Mambeti Camp will make Zambia’s Liuwa Plains more accessible (and more comfortable) for safari lovers eager to spot the area famed for its lions, the second largest wildebeest migration in Africa (in November), a recovering cheetah population, and more.

Read Cherri Briggs’s Insider’s Guide to Zambia, and reach out to her to plan the best possible trip.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

8 Gorgeous Canadian National Parks For Your To Do List

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Canada is one of the smartest summer vacation ideas for U.S. travelers. It’s close, it’s affordable, it’s not too hot, it’s blissfully uncrowded … and it’s got more than 40 beautiful national parks and reserves. Which are the best ones to focus a trip on? We asked that very question of our Trusted Travel Experts for Canada. Here are eight parks for your To Do list.

By Land and Sea: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, British Columbia. Photo courtesy Destination BC.

Encompassing forest, beach, ocean, and more than 100 islets along British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, it’s the miles-long stretches of sand and the numerous hikes through the lush rainforest that make Pacific Rim a favorite of Trusted Travel Expert Sheri Doyle. You can get a taste of both environments on short loop hikes from the main parking lot; Sheri also recommends the Nuu-chah-nulth Trail from the Visitors’ Center to Florencia Beach, which gives you some insight into local history as well.

Peaks Aplenty: Jasper National Park

Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies. Photo: Travel Alberta

Snuggled in the Canadian Rockies, Jasper isn’t undiscovered, but to Sheri it always feels far less busy than the adjacent—and more widely known—Banff National Park. Hiking and wildlife are the draws here; Sheri’s favorite short jaunt is the Path of the Glacier trail to a gorgeous glacial lake in the Mount Edith Cavell area of Jasper.

The Hidden Gem: Kootenay National Park

Kootenay National Park, Canada. Photo: Parks Canada/C. Siddal

Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Photo: Parks Canada/C. Siddal

Even less crowded than Jasper, but with mountains no less majestic, is nearby Kootenay. The park’s Radium Hot Springs provide a secondary attraction, and the same-named town, just outside Kootenay’s border, has more affordable hotels than you’ll find in Banff.

The Big Kahuna: Banff National Park

sunshine mountain lake banff national park alberta canada

Hiking on Sunshine Mountain in Banff National Park, Alberta. Photo: Billie Cohen

This is the country’s original national park, set in the dazzlingly picturesque Rocky Mountains. Sure, it can be busy—but Trusted Travel Expert Marc Telio recommends veering off the beaten path and taking the gondola up Sunshine Mountain for a hike far from the crowds. For Mount Norquay’s via ferrata—a series of cables, ladders, and suspension bridges bolted into the side of the mountain—you don’t need any technical know-how, but you will need a healthy dose of confidence.

Picture-Postcard Vistas: Yoho National Park

Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park. British Columbia. Photo: Parks Canada/Karin Smith

This British Columbia park’s name comes from the Cree word for awe and wonder. The impression it leaves on contemporary visitors is no less impressive, particularly in late spring at Takakkaw Falls, ones of Canada’s highest and most dramatic waterfalls. Here, Marc loves going for a peaceful paddle on startlingly crystal-clear Emerald Lake.

The World’s Highest Tide: Fundy National Park

beach at low tide in Fundy National Park Canada

Fundy National Park, New Brunswick. Photo: Parks Canada/Dale Wilson

When the tide goes out in New Brunswick’s Fundy National Park, it does so decisively: The difference between high and low tide can be as much as 50 feet—the height of a four-story building. Time it right, and you’ll literally be walking on the ocean floor, among crabs, sea snails, and other crustaceans (plus the shorebirds that stop by for a quick bite to eat).

A River Runs Through It: Nahanni National Park Reserve

Virginia Falls, Nahanni National Park, Canada

Virginia Falls, Nahanni National Park, Northern Territories. Parks Canada/Charles Blyth

Little known to the general populace, this vast and remote reserve in the Northern Territories is world-famous among whitewater rafters and kayakers, who come to paddle the Naha Dehé (the South Nahanni River). It was named among the first class of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Nahanni called “one of the most spectacular wild rivers in North America.” Rapids aren’t the only water feature here: Virginia Falls is almost twice the height of Niagara, and Nahanni’s hot springs provide a natural antidote to the sore muscles you’re sure to acquire while hiking and paddling.

The Geological Wonder: Gros Morne National Park

Fjord Boat Tour on Western Brook Pond, Gros Morne National Park Western, Canada. Photo: Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism

Fjord boat tour on Western Brook Pond, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland. Photo: Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism

It’s taken Mother Nature millions of years to create the mountains and fjords that have earned Newfoundland’s Gros Morne its UNESCO World Heritage stripes; what you see on the surface today is actually deep ocean crust and the earth’s mantle, pushed up by the geologic process of continental drift. Western Brook Pond was clearly named with characteristic Canadian understatement: This “pond” is actually a spectacular, glacier-carved fjord that occupies an area of nearly nine square miles, with waterfalls cascading 2,000 feet down its cliffs. If you go to Gros Morne, Trusted Travel Expert Jill Curran recommends getting a taste of Newfoundland humor at Anchors Aweigh, a music-and-comedy show in the town of Rocky Harbour.

Bear spottings are not uncommon in parts of Banff National Park. Photo: Travel Alberta

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

The American West You Don’t Know About, But Should

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Year after year, families flock to the American West to show their kids the region’s knockout scenery and rugged-cowboy lifestyle. And so every summer, the Grand Canyon’s viewpoints are choked with visitors, Yellowstone’s roads are jammed by wildlife-induced rubbernecking, and the guest ranches are sold out months in advance.

We’re here with a solution: Six key strategies that will help you avoid the crowds out west. I recently employed these tactics on a 900-mile drive around Utah, discovering breathtaking parts of the state that I hadn’t seen on numerous past trips through it, and having them largely to myself.

Wake up early.

Morning in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

The general wisdom is that the national parks are least crowded at sunrise and sunset. But when I stopped at Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon National Park at 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday in September, there were hundreds of people swarming the overlooks. By comparison, at 8:30 the following morning I had Inspiration Point almost to myself. The earlier you get up and out the door, the fewer people you’ll see on the roads and the trails. If you follow the typical flow of traffic in a park (most people drive through Bryce from north to south, for example) but start earlier, you’ll stay ahead of the crowds the entire day.

Sunset in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

Seek out state parks.

Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. Photo: Brook WIlkinson

I uncovered plenty of spots that would easily earn national park status for their natural beauty—if only they didn’t face such stiff competition (Utah already has five national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands). Goblin Valley State Park is just such a spot: It has a landscape like nowhere else on earth, with spooky hoodoos shaped like toadstools and witches and alien invaders. These hoodoos (thin spires of rock with curvaceous profiles) are quite different from the ones that have made Bryce Canyon famous: The former have rounded edges, as if they’ve melted into shape, while the latter are more rigidly striated. But even my well-traveled, adventurous Utahn relatives have never been to Goblin Valley. When I visited a few weeks ago to go canyoneering, I ran into fewer than a dozen other people in the park. This part of southern Utah is so remote that the Henry Mountains I could see in the distance were the last mountain range to be mapped in the lower 48 states, back in 1872.

Take the road less traveled.

The Castle, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Photo: National Park Service

The Castle, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Photo: NPS Photo

Google Maps will tell you that the fastest route from Arches National Park to Bryce Canyon or Zion is via I-70 and Highway 89. What it won’t tell you is that an alternate route, Scenic Byway 12, is one of just 31 designated “All-American Roads” in the United States. The detour adds less than an hour to your route—though we’d campaign for spending a lot more time enjoying the sights along the way. The most spectacular section runs from Tropic to Torrey, with several miles of pavement that cling to the knife-edge of a mountain ridge with gorgeous canyons spilling down on either side dotted with scrubby pines, earning it the moniker “the Hogsback.”

This route will also take you through Capitol Reef National Park (one of the country’s few national parks that you can visit for free, since the highway runs right through it). There are a number of hikes you can do inside the park, and orchards of peach, apple, cherry, and apricot trees where you can eat your fill for free (or take a to-go bag for a nominal fee left in an honor box). Capitol Reef has a bit more foliage than other parts of this dry desert, and I found the contrast of deep green growth and rose-colored rock to be particularly striking.

Stay a while in smaller towns.

Burr Trail Outpost, Boulder, Utah. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

It’s tempting to make a trip out west all about the driving—the distances are vast, the small towns dotted between the geologic wonders seemingly unremarkable. At least, that’s what you’ll think if you arrive in the evening, check into a motel for a night’s sleep, and hit the road again the next morning. But if you make these communities a destination in their own right, spending enough time to scratch beneath the surface, you’ll find they’re as rich in character as the parks are in natural beauty.

Take the tiny town of Boulder, Utah, for example. Blink and you’ll miss it—literally—with just a smattering of commerce along Highway 12 indicating that you’ve reached, and then quickly passed, Boulder. The local population is so small that the elementary school has an enrollment of seven kids (and four teachers, making this parent of a kindergartener envious of all that undivided attention). But if you stop in to the Burr Trail Outpost, you’ll start to understand what makes this town tick: The work of dozens of local artists—pottery, textiles, metalwork, photography, and much more—fills the shelves, indicating the many creative types who have found the area’s beauty a reliable muse, and who now live side-by-side with the Mormon ranchers who settled Boulder. (As for that drip coffee and stale muffin you were expecting out here in nowheresville? Try a butternut squash mango smoothie, a fresh cinnamon roll, or a macchiato instead.) A few doors down is Hell’s Backbone Grill, a nationally acclaimed restaurant run by two female chefs and based on Buddhist values. Most importantly, the food is fresh (from the restaurant’s own farm a few miles away) and darn good, and that is a rarity in these parts. Also in Boulder is the Anasazi State Park Museum, on the grounds of an 11^th-century Ancestral Puebloan village, reminding visitors that human history is as vital a marker on the surroundings as the effects of wind and water are on the landscape.

Create your own ranch experience.

Cougar Ridge Lodge, Utah. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

If you’re yearning to get your kids comfortable in a saddle but the guest ranches are booked solid during school vacations—or you want a bit more privacy than the typical guest ranches offer, with their group activities and meals—consider the Cougar Ridge Lodge. Though it’s more cowboy estate than working ranch, the property has horse stables and a riding arena for lessons, and the owner can arrange guided horseback trips through the red rock country, as well as ATV tours, winemaking lessons, photography classes, and boating on Lake Powell. Rather than conforming to a dude ranch’s timetable, here the schedule is all your own. Cougar Ridge is enough of a secret that if you book one of the lodge’s four master suites, you’re likely to have the accompanying kitchen, great room, exercise area, and spa area all to yourself; it’s both grand and homey, as if a wealthy aunt who fancied herself a cowgirl had thrown you the keys to her country spread.

Go in fall or spring.

Chances are that you’ll want to hit a few of the west’s iconic spots as well, so we recommend traveling during the shoulder seasons to avoid the height-of-summer masses of tourists. In Utah, that’s October, November, February, and March, when temperatures are mild enough that you can spend the whole day outside (though nights are quite chilly in the high desert, so bring layers), but the crowds have thinned to a trickle in those most famous of places. In places farther north, the season starts later and ends earlier.

Ready to make your way out west? Ask Wendy who the right travel specialist is to plan your trip.

Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. Photo: Brook WIlkinson

*Disclosure: Utah’s Department of Tourism provided me with a five-day trip through Utah, free of charge. In keeping with WendyPerrin.com standard practice, coverage was not guaranteed and remains at our editorial discretion. You can read the signed agreement between WendyPerrin.com and the Department of Tourism here.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

WOW Moment: A Surprise Pastry Class and Picnic in London

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The best trips are packed with unique, memorable experiences that you couldn’t have anticipated or that turned out even better than what they sounded like in your itinerary. That’s the magic we all hope for when we travel, and it’s the magic that Wendy’s recommended travel specialists have up their sleeves—it’s part of the reason she names them to her list of the world’s best trip designers in the first place.

To thank all of you loyal users of Wendy’s WOW trip-planning system, we launched a reward program a while back: Wendy’s WOW Moments. Readers who’ve used our trip-request forms to contact one of our Trusted Travel Experts, and who have contributed reviews of those trips afterward, receive a complimentary gift from Wendy herself on their third trip. And we’re not talking fruit baskets or late checkouts. We’re talking about a personalized insider-access experience, hand-picked to suit your itinerary and arranged by the Trusted Travel Expert. Read eligibility requirements and program details here.

This loyalty program is now in full swing, and the first WendyPerrin.com traveler to earn a WOW Moment got to experience it on a trip to London. We wanted to find out from the traveler how this first-ever WOW Moment went, so we spoke to her by telephone to get the scoop.

Paula da Rosa and her family enjoyed a picnic in Hyde Park. Photo: Celebrated Experiences

The travelers:

Paula da Rosa, her husband John, and her three children live in Vancouver, and as Paula told us over the phone, they are not big travelers. “We keep things pretty tight between Vancouver and Whistler. We ski,” she said. But this summer, her husband had a sabbatical and the family wanted to plan a special trip for their eight weeks off. They started with time in Hawaii (planned by Jay Johnson), followed by a villa rental in France (planned by Annie Flogaus) and then London, where they used to live. The London portion is where we provided their WOW Moment, working with Jonathan Epstein, one of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts for England.

The WOW Moment:

For the WOW Moment, Jonathan arranged a special afternoon at London’s Milestone Hotel, where the grown-ups would try their hands at the art of Sabrage and sip Champagne, and the kids would dive into the art of pastry decoration. The family of five was then whisked away to a luxurious picnic in Hyde Park, with the Champagne they had sabered, the macarons and cupcakes they had adorned, and a cornucopia of other treats.

The kids got to decorate pastries while the grown-ups got to sip Champagne. Photo: Celebrated Experiences

The traveler’s review:

“Did the experience meet my expectations? It was expertly executed, it was super smooth,” Paula reported back to us over the phone. “It was definitely more than I thought it was going to be. I guess I was hoping it wasn’t going to be super cheesy, you know what I mean? We just don’t do cheesy. We’re not the family in Disneyland with the ears—that’s just not us.”

“When we arrived and there was a whole line of staff to greet us—the hotel manager through the pastry chef through the young woman who led it all, and she was quite exceptional—I did have what I like to call a ‘Canadian moment’, where I thought, ‘Really? All this fuss just for us?’ We sort of looked at each other thinking we should be sharing some of this bounty.’ [Paula laughs] It was very, very memorable, that’s for sure.”

“We go into a conservatory within the hotel and they were giving us history about the hotel and location, which was interesting, and they had John sabre a bottle of Champagne. That was pretty funny. [Laughs] He put on this cape and hat, and we both looked at each other and thought we were stepping into cheesy, but it was for the fun of it.”

The Conservatory restaurant at the Milestone Hotel, London

Afterward, Paula and John enjoyed some of the Champagne they’d opened while the kids were taken to the Oratory dining room to decorate macarons and cupcakes. “That was very nice, because the five of us had been traveling together for weeks at that point, so it was lovely for mom and dad to have a minute to be husband and wife,” she says. “And it was nice for the kids to meet the pastry chef, and have the lady who was organizing it snap pictures.”

When tea was announced a short while later, Paula says she expected to be walked right into the next room. “But they said, ‘Oh no, we’ll do it outside.’” Packing up baskets of tea treats plus the kids’ macarons and John’s Champagne, the staff led the family across the street to Hyde Park, where they’d already set up a picnic site. “We sat back and enjoyed the afternoon,” Paula recalls. “When we finished, we called over, and they came over and packed it all up, and then as parting gifts they gave us gift bags of teddy bears and things from the hotel and had made a framed photo of our family, and then we were driven back to our hotel.”

“This was nowhere near what we were expecting. But I had been thinking in the back of my mind, Wouldn’t it be neat to have a picnic? So this wasn’t that far off from something we would do—but it felt very posh.” Then she adds with a laugh, “But I think I might start doing that.”

The traveler’s review of the WOW trip-planning system:

Paula had heard about Wendy Perrin through a friend and checked out our website. “I thought it looked straightforward and easy to deal with,” she says. “And the people I chatted with—it all seemed pretty tight. And someone else does the planning.” That appealed to her greatly, she says: “I don’t have that expertise, and I don’t want to spend the time building that expertise. I’d rather just hand it over to someone else who does know—and that worked well because it’s not just booking a flight, it’s booking different places.” Thinking back to before she found WendyPerrin.com, Paula laughs and says, “We were trying to plan what to do with eight weeks, and almost needed a divorce lawyer, because we had to work though a lot of stuff, prioritizing people’s wants and needs, and working through a lot of logistics, with three children.”

“People asked me why didn’t you just use VRBO. I don’t want to land and be surprised, and if there is a surprise, I want someone else to deal with it. This wasn’t meant to be cost-effective. We don’t get sabbaticals often, so I didn’t want to get into a situation of I took a less expensive route and then I’m paying for it on my holiday.”

Wendy Wants To Amp Up Your Trip!

On every third qualifying trip, Wendy will add to your itinerary a surprise WOW Moment. A WOW Moment is an exclusive insider experience that helps make a trip extraordinary. Each WOW Moment is totally different. They vary depending on a huge range of factors, including the country you’re headed to, the timing of your trip, logistics, availability, and more. You can read a sampling of the more over-the-top WOW Moments (those most conducive to editorial coverage) here. Learn which trips qualify, and how the process works, here: Wendy Wants To Amp Up Your Trip!

Authentic Food Markets Worth Traveling the World For

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For me, travel is best when I engage all of my senses. Wherever you are, step into a food market and this simply happens naturally. When you can recall a taste or an aroma, you’re also more likely to hold onto the memory. That’s why I remember blindly choosing a handful of French cheeses for an afternoon picnic in the Alps, knowing each would be delicious, and ogling the enormous fish caught that very morning at a pungent stall in Singapore. Each time I’ve strolled into a food market abroad, I’ve gotten to talk to (or, in circumstances of language barriers, gesture at) local people going about their daily life, generally welcoming of but not kowtowing to tourists. And then, of course, there are the photo-worthy visuals: careful rows of flamboyant dragon fruits, racks of glistening pastries and just-baked breads, and salamis and ham hocks hung on butcher’s twine to dry.

Here are markets where you can see, touch, and smell the ingredients necessary for life in that corner of the world, and hear how the transactions between buyer and seller differ from place to place. Arrive hungry, of course, because there will be plenty to taste, too. Want to go even deeper? Our Trusted Travel Experts can arrange a market tour with a culinary expert or local chef.

Headhouse Square Farmers’ Market—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Place: First established in 1745 (though under a different name), the Headhouse Farmers’ Market in Philly is a cook’s delight, with the city’s largest selection of locally made and grown produce, baked goods, meats, cheeses, and other specialty items.

Best Time to Go: The market is open 8am to 3pm every Sunday from May through December. Go before 11am for the best offerings (though sometimes there are events, such as cookbook signings with local chefs, later in the day).

Tastiest Treat: Pick up a box of handmade chocolates from John & Kira’s, or locally produced maple syrup from Spring Hills Farm.

—Paul Bennett, Trusted Travel Expert for Cultural City Tours

Mercado de San Ramon—San Ramon, Costa Rica

The Place: The town of San Ramon has a charming, laid-back atmosphere; older generations use the park and market (which sells tropical fruits, vegetables, and flowers) as a meeting spot to go over the coming week’s events. San Ramon is located between San Jose and the famous Arenal Volcano, so stopping here breaks up the drive between these two popular destinations quite nicely.

Best Time to Go: The market is open daily year-round, but is best on Fridays (12pm–6pm) and Saturdays (7am–12pm).

Tastiest Treat: Make sure to try the queso arollado (rolled cheese) or cajetas (a sweet coconut milk-flavored spread).

—Irene Edwards, Trusted Travel Expert for Costa Rica

Borough Market—London, England

London’s Borough Market. Photo: Michael HeffernanLondon and Partners

The Place: With tons of vegetables, fish, craft foods, and incredible cheeses—all sold by lively stallholders eager to tell you all about the provenance of what they’re selling—Borough Market is a great place to learn about Britain’s organic food movement. Located in a Victorian glass-and-ironwork building, it is also very photogenic.

Best Time to Go: The market is open Wednesday and Thursday from 10am to 5pm, Friday from 10am to 6pm, and Saturday from 8am to 5pm; it’s closed on many holidays. Get there early; the later you arrive, the larger the crowds you’ll find.

Tastiest Treat: Cheese or terrific preserves and jams.

—Jonathan Epstein, Trusted Travel Expert for England, Ireland, and Scotland

The English Market—Cork, Ireland

The English Market, Cork, Ireland. Photo: William Murphy/Flickr

The Place: The resurgence of the Irish food movement started in Cork, first with farmhouse cheeses in the 1970s, and a slew of restaurants spotlighting local produce in the 1980s; there is no better way to learn about the country’s culinary scene than in this covered market, which sells everything from fish and meat to locally made chocolate and cheese. (Wondering about the name? The market dates to the 18^th century, when Ireland was still English.) When the Queen recently came to Ireland, this was one of her few stops.

Best Time to Go: The market is open from 8am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday. I like to go around lunchtime, either picking up a picnic of bread, cheese, and other things to snack on, or sitting down for a meal of the best Irish food you’ll find at the Farmgate Cafe. (The restaurant is not open for dinner.)

Tastiest Treat: I love the incredible selection of Irish chocolate. And make sure to learn about “buttered eggs.”

—Jonathan Epstein, Trusted Travel Expert for England, Ireland, and Scotland

Marché Notre Dame—Versailles, France

Cheese at the Notre Dame Market in Versailles, France

Notre Dame Market, Versailles, France. Photo: Paris Perfect

The Place: There’s more to Versailles than the royal palace and gardens. This market is one of the best in the entire region, and one of the largest too. Dozens of stalls sell their specialties, from local and exotic produce to artisan cheese, marinated olives, and colorful spices. The best part is, it’s not far from the palace and gardens, making it the perfect warm-up to a wonderful day of exploring.

Best Time to Go: The market is open on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday morning, from 7am to 2pm. The absolute best time to go is between April and October, when the weather is warm and the palace gardens are lush and green. Grab an assortment of fresh foods from the market in the morning, then after you’ve explored the palace, find a spot in the grass along the Grand Canal for a picnic.

Tastiest Treat: Make sure to try the crepes from the stand inside the southwestern corner section of the covered halls—they’re the best crepes I’ve ever tasted, and for mere pocket change! The owner coats her delectable, crispy-on-the-edges crepes and galettes in a generous helping of salted butter, making for a mouth-watering memory you won’t forget.

Montesanto-Pignasecca Market—Naples, Italy

The Place: Montesanto-Pignasecca market, located right in the heart of the city on Via della Pignasecca, is Naples‘ most ancient market, offering local produce from mozzarella to juicy tomatoes and fresh bread. It’s the biggest and best-supplied food market in the city center, and a very lively place, bustling with people and popular with locals since the prices are so low. You might hear the market before you see it: The voices of the barrow boys urging you to buy their goods echo down this very narrow street.

Best Time to Go: The market is open Monday through Saturday from 7am to around 2pm; I prefer to go in the morning, when it buzzes with locals doing their daily shopping and the produce is at its most fresh. The best fish comes in on Fridays, when many Italians adhere to Catholic doctrine and avoid eating meat.

Tastiest Treat: Suffice it to say, you’ll satisfy your taste buds on the spot. Naples is famous for its mozzarella made from water- buffalo milk. Another local cheese to try is Provola, produced in the area around Mt. Vesuvius from non-skimmed cow’s milk.

—Paul Bennett, Trusted Travel Expert for Cultural City Tours

Ortigia Food Market—Siracusa, Sicily

The Place: This open-air market is located in Ortigia, a small island connected to the mainland of Siracusa. It is the city’s historical center, filled with ancient ruins of Greek temples, Baroque churches, and Jewish ritual baths, with wide-open piazzas and breathtaking views of the sea. The market sells locally produced cheeses, fruits, vegetables, fish, herbs and spices, wine from all over the island—pretty much anything you might need to make the freshest Sicilian meal can be found here. Walking along, you will hear local fishmongers sing out the day’s offerings in Sicilian dialect, accompanied by an assistant wielding a guitar.

Best Time to Go: The market is open Monday through Saturday from 7am to 11am, year-round. We like to send travelers with our local culinary guide, collecting fresh ingredients and then preparing a lunch together.

Tastiest Treat: Pick up sun-dried tomatoes, capers, cheeses, and other local items to have vacuum packed and brought home to share with their friends and family.

—Marcello Baglioni, Trusted Travel Expert for Sicily

Olhão Market—Olhão, Portugal

The Place: Olhão’s two original market buildings sit side-by-side along the waterfront—the perfect location for the enormous variety of fish and seafood sold here, all straight off the boat. There is also fresh produce for sale. I love the ambiance and the authenticity here; at few other markets on the Iberian peninsula are you able to buy seafood straight from the people who caught it.

Best Time to Go: The market is open every day but Sunday. Go first thing in the morning, before it gets too crowded. If you can, visit in late fall, winter, or early spring, when there are far fewer tourists.

Tastiest Treat: Buy some Manna fish preserves from Conservera Do Sur; canned fresh tuna, scallops, mackerel, and anchovies are easy to carry and a treat once back home.

—Virginia Irurita, Trusted Travel Expert for Spain and Portugal

Nishiki Market—Kyoto, Japan

Nishiki Food Market Kyoto Japan CR Flickr-Jan

Nishiki Market, Kyoto, Japan. Photo: Jan/Flickr

The Place: Strolling through this market’s more than 100 shops, all packed into five blocks, is a truly immersive experience, and the best way to understand Kyoto’s culinary offerings and the city’s traditions. You’ll find pickled vegetables, Japanese tea sweets, miso, tofu, knives, cookware, sushi, freshwater fish, truffles, chestnuts, rice cakes, and sake. The market is a regular spot for both locals and tourists; some of the stores have been in the same family for centuries.

Best Time to Go: The market is open from 10am to 4pm everyday except Sunday (and is smaller on Wednesdays). Avoid 12pm to 2pm, when the lunch crowd rolls in.

Tastiest Treat: Take away some soy-milk donuts, which are cooked on the spot and served piping hot; they are slightly sweet and deliciously natural tasting—a far cry from most American donuts. For a more lasting souvenir, buy a handmade knife from one of the oldest knife shops in Japan; one of the docents who lead our Nishiki tours is a knife maker, who can advise you on your purchase.

—Paul Bennett, Trusted Travel Expert for Cultural City Tours

Mindil Beach Sunset Market—Darwin, Australia

The Place: The Mindil Beach Sunset Market gives visitors a taste of the uniquely Australian, relaxed, multicultural lifestyle enjoyed by Darwin locals. Among the nearly 200 stalls, food is the main attraction (from savory to sweet, the flavors of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, India, China, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, France, and Greece are there for the sampling, along with Northern Territory crocodile steaks and Aussie burgers) but you can also buy local crafts, from didgeridoos to barramundi-skin belts.

Best Time to Go: The market is open Thursdays (5pm–10pm) and Sundays (4pm–9pm) during the “dry season,” which runs from the last Thursday in April to the last Thursday in October. Come early enough to purchase the makings of a picnic and secure a great spot on the lawn, overlooking the beach, to watch the sun set over Darwin Harbor (B.Y.O. wine); sunset is usually around 6:30pm.

Tastiest Treat: Of the exotic options, I like the Indonesian satay, barbecued pork balls in a banh mi, or laksa. For Aussie fare, try the burger made of kangaroo, buffalo, or emu.

—Stuart Rigg, Trusted Travel Expert for Australia

Machane Yehudah Market—Jerusalem, Israel

spice bags at Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem

Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem. Photo: Julien Menichini/Flickr

The Place: The Machane Yehudah Market (known locally as “The Shuk”) sells farm-fresh local produce, spices, Middle Eastern fare, and traditional Jewish food. Here you’ll find the best challah, chocolate rugelach, and cheese-and-spinach burekas right out of the oven, and tahini made right in front of you using a 500-year-old giant basalt-stone sesame crusher. Though the market has been a place to buy foodstuffs for decades, it’s recently been revitalized and now includes trendy bars and restaurants as well.

Best Time to Go: Arrive soon after 9:30am, when the delivery trucks have just departed. You’ll find the freshest food and fewest crowds on Monday; Friday is a half day and at its busiest and most colorful; on Sunday, most of the stalls get taken over by the most famous granola maker in all Israel, who dries his ingredients there.

Tastiest Treat: Kurdish-style red kube soup—a chicken soup with beets and either deep-fried breaded meatballs or Middle Eastern dumplings—is a market favorite.

—Joe Yudin, Trusted Travel Expert for Israel

Rent A Villa In Italy For the Whole Family

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Poolside and deck view. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Countryside view. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Outdoor side view. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Dining room. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Master suite sitting area. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Outdoor dining. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Dining pergola. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Cantina detail. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Cinema night. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Cinema seating. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Bellavista suite detail. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Brunello suite sitting room. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Living room view. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Interior view. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Breakfast nook. Photo: Homebase Abroad

children's TV room Ca di Pesa Italy villa

Children's TV room. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Jungle room. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Countryside view. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Question:

Hi Wendy,

I’m looking for a really special villa in Tuscany for a family reunion for my mom and dad’s 40th wedding anniversary. There will be 18 of us, ranging in age from three years old to 82. We want a great setting with fabulous views, and also a good base for making day trips to the hill towns. Can you suggest a village or villa for us—or a good resource for securing a rental?
Thanks for any help you can offer,

—Margaret

Answer:

You’ve got a challenge, Margaret: The dreamiest villas in Tuscany tend to be restored farmhouses or castles filled with things that can be treacherous to toddlers or grandmas or both: slippery centuries-old stone steps, open-hearth fireplaces, wobbly antique furniture, spiky medieval-style door latches, etc. I know this from personal experience, having rented an ancient Italian farmhouse with my own mom and kids. I went to sleep every night worried my two-year-old was going to trip over an antique, go flying into a door latch, catapult down the stairs, and end up in the fireplace.

But I do, in fact, have a place in mind for you. Several years ago, when I was in Tuscany I was shown a rambling property called Ca di Pesa that is actually an historic borgo (medieval village). I’ve remembered it since because it struck that unusual note of being sophisticated enough for adults (it’s got a wine cellar where you can dine by candelight, for instance, not to mention a cinema and a bocce court), while also kid-friendly enough for tots (it’s got plenty of flat lawn and a freshwater pool with a child-friendly gate). It’s in an ideal central location amid the vineyards and olive groves of Chianti, near the charming town of Panzano, halfway between Florence and Siena. And it fits 18.

Two caveats: First, a lot of people who rent homes in Tuscany like to be able to walk into town, and while it’s only a five-minute drive to town, it’s a 3.6-mile walk—and not on a charming country path but just on the regular road. Second, the price tag is high, so it helps if you can fill the house. (Maybe you can scrounge up two more family members to make your group 20?) The price in May is $22,500 for the week—which sounds exorbitant until you do the math and realize it translates to $161 per person per night and includes a concierge and a welcome dinner.

So it’s a splurge, for sure, but then again, you did ask for “really special.” And, to this day, whenever I fantasize about the Tuscan villa vacation I desperately need, I think back to Ca di Pesa and look through the photos above. My favorite touch in the house? The jungle fresco in one of the bedrooms.

Do’s and Don’ts for Your Trip to London

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Note from Wendy: I’m just back from a trip to London with teen and tween boys, and out of 12 days’ worth of family-friendly activities—including a cricket match, the Science Museum, the H.M.S. Belfast, and Kensington Gardens—these are the experiences that my 14-year-old son, Charlie, enjoyed most, as well as those he feels are overrated. Here, Charlie tells it in his words:

My mom took me to London over the summer and it ended up being an amazing experience. However, there were some times when I just wanted to leave whatever it was that we were doing. So, in this article, I will be sharing do’s and don’ts for London: where to go right away, and what to hold off on.

DO take a rib ride on the Thames.

This ride was both simply thrilling and thrillingly simple, as all it is is a high-speed boat ride. Your kids will love it, and you will probably love it too. It’s basically a tour of London, just much faster. With James Bond music playing, you feel like you’re in a movie. In addition, it isn’t too much of a bumpy ride, and I highly doubt that someone would feel sick after. I recommend getting there early so you can grab one of the front-row seats.

I recommend sitting in the front row on the London rib ride.

DON’T prioritize the London Eye.

Everyone traveling to London has this on their agenda. But this really wouldn’t be too bad a thing to miss. The views aren’t as great as you’d think, and it’s sometimes hard to see because you’re packed in a cell with 25 others. There is also a very long line to get tickets; however, there is a big playground for the kids right next to it. You should still go here, but don’t overhype it or make it a priority to the other sights you’d like to see. If you have time, go for it.

The views from the London Eye are good, but you get better views from other places in London.

DO pay a visit to the Churchill War Rooms.

This place surely exceeded my expectations. It is an exhibit about how Britain was run during the war and Winston Churchill’s life. They had a humongous interactive computer that had a timeline of world history during Churchill’s life. I spent a long time there. They only take groups of 5 or 7 at a time, so try to come when it first opens in the morning.

At the Churchill War Rooms you see the World War 2 bunker that shows how Britain was run during the war.

They have a humongous interactive computer that displays a visual timeline of world history during Churchill’s life.

DON’T randomly visit the inside of Tower Bridge.

You should only go to the exhibition inside Tower Bridge if the drawbridge is scheduled to go up. We got lucky and got there 15 minutes before the drawbridge lift. We watched the bridge draw from the glass bottom floors at the top, when it really might have been better to watch from the wings at bridge level. But I only did one, so I can’t tell you which is best. Besides that, there isn’t really too much to see inside the bridge. It’s a worthy destination, but only if you get to see it in action.

Tower Bridge as seen from the H.M.S. Belfast.

From one of the bridge’s glass-bottomed floors we watched the drawbridge lift.

DO climb St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The view from the top of St. Paul’s is phenomenal, undoubtedly better than that from the London Eye. But instead of a line to get there, there was a climb. And some climb it was. To get just to the second floor, there is what seems like a never-ending spiral to the top. But when you get to the fourth floor, you get the great payoff of going outside and feeling the breeze on your hair, the entire city of London in front of you. This is why I feel that St. Paul’s does the London Eye’s job better. There are even a lot of seniors making the climb for the top, which I thought was great. If you truly can’t make it, I would recommend just going up to the third floor, as the view isn’t that different and you aren’t forced to keep moving like you are at the top.

The view from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

These are the stairs you climb to get to the top of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral.

DO take some time at the British Museum.

The name is misleading because nothing in this museum is British. Kept here are all of the artifacts and spoils of war that the British have won, stolen, or recovered. You will find things in this museum from every country, including mainly ancient Rome, China, Greece, and Egypt, as well as Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Assyria. You can also find things from the Americas, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Your kids would have very likely learned about some of this stuff in school, so they can tie what they’ve learned to what they’re seeing in person. No one will come out of this museum unsatisfied or unimpressed.

An Egyptian mummy in the British Museum.

DO hire a Blue Badge guide for a day or two.

Without our guide, Sean, there would be many more things I would’ve wanted to skip. Our guide had insight on nearly everything in the city, he made the Tower of London come alive, and in Stonehenge we would have been lost without him. If you asked him a random question about London, his answer would never be “I don’t know.” We only had him for two days in London, but the amount of things we were able to see with him in that span was exceptional. I recommend hiring one, even if just for a day, as you won’t need one for an entire week. Try making it on the first day because your guide will have insight on what to do for the remainder of your stay. [Note from Wendy: We hired an exceptionally kid-friendly guide—one who can’t be hired via the Blue Badge site—through Jonathan Epstein, an England specialist on my WOW List of local fixers.)

In the Tower of London our guide, Sean Moran, showed us “graffiti” carved by prisoners centuries ago.

In the Tower of London, Sean showed us “graffiti” carved by prisoners centuries ago.

DON’T wait in a crowd to see the changing of the guard.

Some people will get to Buckingham Palace two hours before the changing of the guard starts to get a prime spot. If this is truly something you want to do, I won’t stop you. However, our guide knew where to go and got us a spot just outside the gate to the Wellington Barracks about 10 minutes before the change started. What’s more is that here, the guards walk right by your face, maybe three feet away. You also get to see the band playing before they start. Make sure you snag a spot in time on the sidewalk and hold your ground. Some people will go onto the cobblestones that they force you off of when the guards start and try to stand in front of you. Kindly ask them to move.

Here’s the band marching out of Wellington Barracks toward Buckingham Palace. My mom and brother and I all videotaped it.

DO spend some time at Borough Market.

Borough Market has been in business for more than 1,000 years. Schedule lunch there for one day, whether you have a bite in one of the restaurants or sample the many booths. There is some very interesting food there. The closest stand to where we ate sold ice cream from goats. Saturday is rush hour there, so if you want something less hectic, aim for a weekday.

Our guide Sean taught me the geography of London during Roman times over lunch at Borough Market.

DON’T bring your wallet to Harrods.

Harrods was probably one of the most overrated places we visited. There’s not a lot to really see that you can’t see anywhere else. If you can drop in for a visit, go for it, but don’t prioritize it over something else. On top of that, the prices are marked up way too far. There was a toy there that in Hamley’s—which is definitely a place not to miss if you have kids—cost £3 for 2. In Harrods, the same exact toy cost £15 for 1, which is a 900% markup from Hamley’s. As for the food halls, there are 2 places within 10 minutes of our house that have better sushi than what we tried. However, if you buy anything at Harrods, the food is the way to go.

My mom and brother ordering sushi in the food halls at Harrods.

At Hamley’s, testing out the toy that ends up grossly overpriced at Harrods.

DO spend an evening at Covent Garden.

Come here with no plans but maybe a dinner reservation, and you’ll leave happy. There are lots of shops and restaurants to spend your time in, but the best part was the performances in the square. I saw this pantomime starting his act while I was waiting for my brother and mom to get out of a shop, and we all ended up watching his show until the end, laughing the whole time. Spend an evening here and it won’t go wrong.

A Charlie Chaplin impersonator at Covent Garden.

At the end of the show he gave a hug to his sidekick plucked from the audience.

Photos by Timothy Baker

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

10 Apps That Will Improve Any Road Trip

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Old-school as it may be, we still say that a paper map is an essential on any road trip packing list, and that putting down your phone might just be the smartest thing you can do with it on a vacation. But we’re not exactly Luddites here either: A smart digital toolkit can lower stress, ease planning, and even enhance a road trip, and these days you’ll benefit greatly from stocking up on a small collection of apps before you hit the highway. The following apps were all tested by Wendy and her family on recent road trips. Add your own favorite road trip apps in the comments below—and see Wendy’s full list of recommended apps over at TripAdvisor.

Waze

This one is a no-brainer and many of you probably already have it on your phones: Waze. The real-time traffic app will clue you into the least congested routes, collisions or road blocks, even police speed traps.

Around Me

Driving through unfamiliar territory can get very stressful very quickly if someone has to use the bathroom, the gas tank is hovering on empty, or worse, one of the kids is sick. Wendy uses Around Me to discover nearby hospitals, pharmacies, ATMs, even grocery stores.

Gas Buddy

She recommends GasBuddy for info on fill-up stations and their gas prices.

Sit or Squat

For the other kind of emergency, download Sit or Squat (by Charmin) and you’ll always know where to find a clean public restroom.

Roadside America and Along the Way

The best road trips have nothing to do with your final destination. The journey is the point, and the stops you make, make the journey. In addition to Wendy’s advice on the three things you should always stop for on a road trip, she recommends the Roadside America and Along the Way apps to ensure that you don’t miss quirky fun attractions, interesting parks and landmarks, or the world’s biggest anything.

The Yellow Pages

Yup, this old standby has been updated for the mobile age. The YP app will help you find automotive repair shops, health and wellness facilities, and more—all with contact info, address, and websites—but what Wendy’s family uses it for is to punch in the type of food they’re in the mood for—say, Southern fried catfish, or peach pie—and find out the closest restaurant that’s serving it.

TVFoodMaps and LocalEats

Ever seen some delicious dish on a travel TV show and wish you could try it yourself? With TVFoodMaps, you can search for restaurants featured on food shows. You can either search by show title (Adam Richman’s Man vs. Food or Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, for example) or even search by route: Type in your starting point and your destination and it’ll serve up a list of interesting eateries various hosts have visited. LocalEats has a similar mission: to help travelers discover insider favorites. Search by city, browse a calendar of state-by-state food events, or scour appetite-inducing lists like Best Breakfast Places in America.

Urgent.ly

Urgent.ly is an on-demand roadside assistance service. No AAA? No problem. Download the app, and if you ever get a flat, need a jump, or—d’oh!—locked your keys in the car, contact the service and they’ll send help. They’re on call 24-7, every day of the year, and you only pay for the services you use.

For more road trip intel, see Wendy’s series at TripAdvisor: How to Plan the Ultimate Road Trip Itinerary, Packing List: Essential Gear for a Road Trip, How to Make Family Road Trips Fun and Stress-Free; and 15 Simple Hacks to Make Any Road Trip Better.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Pokemon Go Is Coming on Your Trip: Here’s How to Keep Kids Safe

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Note from Wendy: When the augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released this summer, my 14-year-old, Charlie, was (like a gazillion other kids) instantly enthralled. I let him play the game during our travels—in small doses only, and in safe areas. As he used his smartphone to hunt and catch digital creatures in real-life locations everywhere from California’s Hearst Castle to England’s Stonehenge, I saw first-hand how Pokémon Go can be a double-edged sword for traveling families: On the one hand, it leads kids to explore places and discover sights that otherwise might not interest them. On the other hand, your kid could stumble into a dicey neighborhood, wander into traffic, or walk off a cliff in pursuit of a Pokémonster. So I asked Charlie if he would share a few suggestions, from a teen’s perspective, for how to achieve that balancing act of giving your kids the freedom to play the game while minimizing its drawbacks and keeping them safe. Here’s his advice:

Hi. I’m Charlie and I’m 14 years old. You might trust your kids to play Pokémon Go in the town you live in, but playing in an unfamiliar place could put them at risk. The app contains warnings not to trespass or enter dangerous areas, the loading screen warns players to be alert at all times and stay aware of their surroundings, and there is even an alert when you go too fast, noting that the game should not be played while driving (though it is easily bypassed by pressing the “I’m a passenger” button). Unsurprisingly, these have done little to make the game safer. People have fallen off cliffs while playing, have wandered too close to military bases, and have even been stabbed. Some kids have ended up in places where they shouldn’t be, and some have been lured into being robbed. And with the recent release of the game in South America, there are now even more foreign countries where your kids could be at risk.

So how can you keep your kids safe while they try to catch that elusive Pikachu at the Eiffel Tower? Here are my three tips.

1. Play it with them.

Obviously this is a lot to ask, but it’s your best bet for keeping your kid safe.

You can’t have your head in your phone, though, since you need to watch your child. What you can do is put your phone in battery saver mode. That turns the app into a black screen when it is held top down, and it rumbles when you find a Pokémon. Let your kid be the one to track down the Pokémon; then, when he finds one, catch it with him. This will make your kid want to wait up for you, so you can catch them together. If you need a break, you can pretend to take a long time to catch one, so you don’t tire out too quickly.

2. Set a curfew.

The later at night it gets, the more dangerous a place can be, especially in an unfamiliar country. Nighttime is a more likely time for drunk drivers and illegal activity. So giving your kid a time to be in by is a surefire way to be safer. A good curfew might be about 9 or 9:30 pm, but it will depend on how old your child is and what country you’re in.

3. Limit how far they can go.

To make sure that kids don’t get lost or take too long to get back, set boundaries on how far they can travel. This could be a hard rule for your kids to follow. If you tell them not to go past 7th Street but the Pokémon that they’re after is on 8th street, they’re without a doubt going to stretch the boundaries. The best way to enforce this, if you have an iOS device, is to make sure that the “Find my iPhone” app is on your child’s phone. That way you can enter your child’s iCloud information on your device and track their location. Another great way to limit their range of play is to let them play in a park that they’re not allowed to leave. Parks have little to no cars and are often great places to play, boasting frequent sightings of rare Pokémon.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How and Where to Spot Supercars in London

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Spotted on Sloane Street: A Mercedes Gullwing in front of a Ferrari 458 and a modded Range Rover

The Dorchester hotel's parking lot on a Monday morning in August

The Dorchester parking lot

Right to left: a Lamborghini, a Mercedes, a Porsche, a Rolls-Royce....

A Ferrari 458 wrapped in chrome blue, at the Dorchester

Me and Stuart, the extremely nice and knowledgeable concierge at The Dorchester

Me and more new friends at The Dorchester

carbon-fiber Pagani Huayra, Lamborghini Aventador

A carbon-fiber Pagani Huayra (right) and a Lamborghini Aventador (left) outside 45 Park Lane, next to The Dorchester

3 modded Mercedes G-Wagens outside 45 Park Lane

Two Lamborghinis and three Rolls-Royces at The Dorchester

A Rolls-Royce with a stainless steel hood and modded headlights, at The Dorchester

A Lamborghini Aventador on Piccadilly Circus

Two Lamborghinis in front of Buckingham Palace

A crystal-encrusted Mercedes in Sloane Square

A McLaren P1 in Notting Hill. I was speechless.

Here's a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta Coupe with the coolest wrap job I have ever seen in real life.

That same Ferrari F12 as viewed from the front

A rare Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat with a KSA license plate

A DB9 Aston Martin on Piccadilly Street

A Maybach 62 Zeppelin just off Sloane Street

A crazy-nice Brabus Mercedes

A Ferrari F12 Berlinetta Coupe with a modded hood

A Lamborghini Gallardo with a rare type of back window

A McLaren 750LT at the McLaren dealership on Knightsbridge Road

A modded BMW M6

A Pagani Zonda, extremely rare and fast

A Porsche 918 Spyder, the only electric supercar

A rare Rolls-Royce Wraith

A very loud Ford GT in Notting Hill

British-made TVR sportscar, with super-interesting exhaust pipes

Lamborghini Aventador interior

Pagani Huayra interior

Photos by Doug Baker and Timothy Baker

Hi. I’m Doug and I’m 12 years old. My mom just took me to London, and one of my favorite activities was spotting supercars. The craziest car I saw was a rainbow-diamond-encrusted Mini Cooper inside Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, but there were other rare supercars driving around London all the time. I saw a Mercedes plated with gold and black Swarovski crystals on Sloane Street, and a gray W Motors Lykan HyperSport in Knightsbridge. It was one of four ever made! If you want to see cars like this too when you go to London, here’s my advice:

Go in summertime. That’s when all the wealthy Middle Easterners come to town for cooler weather and they ship their supercars from home.

Go to The Dorchester hotel’s parking lot. Stuart, a concierge at the Dorchester, told me that if I wanted to see the most and best cars, I should come in the morning before 11 a.m. That’s when the cars’ owners are sleeping, so their cars are parked. Don’t go after noon because that’s when they’re driving the cars. If you have questions about the cars, the concierge can answer them. (The concierges were super-nice even though we weren’t staying at the hotel.) The streets and other fancy hotels near The Dorchester can have nice cars too.

The best time to see the cars driving around is after 5 p.m. and late at night. The best places to see them are Knightsbridge, Mayfair, and Notting Hill, and especially on Sloane Street and Brompton Road. They are on the streets around fancy department stores like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason because many of the car owners shop there so you can see their cars.

Go to supercar dealerships like Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, and Lotus. The Lotus dealership in Piccadilly Circus actually has no Lotuses in it, but you’ll see Lotuses driving past it. The McLaren dealership is near the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at the Knightsbridge Tube stop. The employees were friendly and nice both times I went in.

When you photograph the cars, don’t forget to photograph their license plates. You’ll see license plates from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. Some have both English and Arabic numbers.

Tips for photographing cars

Always have your camera ready.
Take the bus. Sit at the front row of the top of the double-decker bus.
Listen for the cars. Sometimes we heard them coming before we saw them.
Look inside to see what the interior looks like.
Never spend too much time on one car. A cooler car might come by.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Watch: How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus and Mosquito Bites

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Recently, health officials confirmed that the Zika virus is being actively transmitted by mosquitoes in Miami Beach, Florida. That’s the latest destination in a list of popular U.S. vacation spots—greater South Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands—that have recently reported transmissions of the virus.

Experts are learning new information about the Zika virus every day, and the CDC is sharing that information online at cdc.gov/zika. There you can find up-to-date details on transmission, risk factors, mosquito control, as well as geographic listings and a map of where cases have been reported.

As we’ve stated here before at WendyPerrin.com, travelers who are thinking about pregnancy (along with those who are already pregnant) should not visit destinations where the virus is spreading. The illness has been reported in both men and women, and is known to be transmitted by mosquito bites, sex, blood transfusions, and from a pregnant woman to her fetus.

But as I’ve also stated, the rest of us should not let panic determine our travel decisions. The truth is that mosquitoes have been carrying nasty diseases for centuries: dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever. And nearly every country has mosquitoes. If we were to stop traveling to places with disease-carrying mosquitoes, we’d have to stop seeing most of the world and build a bubble around our own backyards. What’s more, as I explained to journalist Scott Mayerowitz in his recent article for AP News, “the rest of us should be careful not to focus so much on avoiding Zika that we choose a destination that puts our health at greater risk, whether from mosquitoes carrying other diseases or from another cause such as tainted water.”

It’s always important—not just in Zika-affected countries, but everywhere there are mosquitoes—to protect yourself. Here’s how my family and I did it in the rainforest along the Panama Canal. (While Panama is a Zika-affected country, we did not see or feel any mosquitoes during our time there.)

Wendy and her family, in mosquito-resistant clothing, in the rainforest of Panama last month.

Wendy and her family, in mosquito-resistant clothing, in the rainforest of Panama in April 2016.

Transparency disclosure: Our sponsor, MedjetAssist, provided the financial support that made it possible to bring you these travel tips.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Road Trip Hacks: 5 Things That Will Come in Surprisingly Handy

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We all know the no-brainers to pack for a road trip: Snacks, maps, phone chargers…. But there are other items you’d never think to bring along that will save you a lot of hassle. Here are a few of Wendy’s problem-solving road-trip essentials. Don’t miss her full list of 15 ingenious road-trip hacks over on TripAdvisor:

What would you add to Wendy’s list of surprising road-trip must-haves?

Small overnight bag

Pack it only with what you’ll need for one night: toiletries, pajamas, and the next day’s clothes. By keeping those essentials separate from the rest of your luggage, you won’t have to unpack the entire trunk every time you stop for the night.

Cheap beach towels

If you’re flying to your road trip, don’t take up precious space in your luggage with a towel. Buy one when you get to your destination; you can usually find them for five bucks or less. They’ll serve as picnic blankets, a cover for your valuables when you leave the car, seat protectors for messy activities or on-the-go eating, makeshift pillows and, of course, as towels if you make a pit stop at a lake or a pool.

Permanent marker

No matter how organized you start out, the car is going to get messy, and everyone’s stuff is going to get mixed up. Bring a marker to label things, especially if they look alike (say, when four passengers with iPhones have brought identical white power cords and charging blocks).

A roll of quarters

Even in this age of credit cards and pre-purchased toll passes, you still need an old-fashioned handful of change on a road trip. Throw a roll of quarters in your glove compartment for parking meters, vending machines, and laundromats.

Garbage bags

They have endless uses in addition to the usual one: storing wet bathing suits, serving as emergency rain gear, protecting cameras in the rain. You can even twist one into a rope and use it to tie things together.

For more road trip intel, see Wendy’s series at TripAdvisor: Packing List: Essential Gear for a Road Trip, How to Make Family Road Trips Fun and Stress-Free, How to Plan the Ultimate Road Trip Itinerary, and 15 Simple Hacks to Make Any Road Trip Better.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Family Road Trips: How to Eliminate Stress and Bickering

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Mom, he’s on my side! She won’t stop touching my stuff! I have to go to the bathroom! I’m hungry! Are we there yet? If you think family road trips are all sing-alongs and car games, you’ve never been on a road trip. Maybe it’s the cramped car, the sitting still for hours on end, the long stretches between meal stops. Whatever the reason, road trips seem like the vacation most likely to inspire bickering and stress—but all those other moments in between are golden. Luckily, it’s easy to ensure more of those memorable family bonding times with a few simple strategies. Based on her own family’s experiences, Wendy has put together a surefire list of methods for making a road trip stress-free. Here’s a preview, but don’t miss the full list over at TripAdvisor.

And, for more road trip intel, click to Wendy’s essential packing list, and her Keys to Planning the Perfect Road Trip.

Let each kid play navigator.

Let each kid pick an attraction or two during your trip. Wendy’s son chose La Jolla Cove as a pit stop, to see the seals.

Give your kids a map of your route before you leave and let each one pick a stop or an activity each day. You’ll give them a sense of ownership over that day’s events that will keep them energized and interested all day.

Make the trip a treasure hunt.

Create a fun trip challenge or goal to make stops more interesting. Wendy’s kids collect Do Not Disturb signs.

On Wendy’s trips, the family picks something to search for at each stop, creating an easy scavenger hunt: maps, magnets, Do Not Disturb signs from hotels…. Or try giving the kids a camera (nothing fancy needed) and turn the game into a photo-taking mission.

Give each kid his/her own space.

If you are able to set up each kid in a separate row of the vehicle, great. If not, try crafting a divider between them (even if it’s just out of colorful tape).

Agree on how long you’ll drive between stops.

To prevent kids (and adults) from going stir crazy, put a time limit on how long you’ll drive between rest stops.

It’s nearly impossible to make sure everyone is on the same schedule during a road trip. Someone is going to get tired before everyone else; someone else will get hungry; someone else will get restless. And if the driver is feeling good, he or she may want to push through…stretching everyone else’s patience. To avoid arguments and meltdowns from stir-crazy kids, set a limit for how long each leg can be.

Whenever there’s a world’s biggest, longest, or quirkiest something on your route, stop and check it out.

Nighttime minigolf at Chuckster's, home of the world's longest mini-golf hole. Vestal, NY

Wendy’s family seeks out quirky roadside attractions, like Chuckster’s in Vestal, NY, home of the world’s longest mini-golf hole.

Rest stops are more than just a chance to stretch legs and burn off energy. They can be the source of fun memories and even funnier pictures.

Wendy’s family seeks out quirky roadside attractions, like the world’s biggest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas, or the world’s biggest yo-yo, in Chico, California—or the world’s biggest anything, really. School playgrounds and children’s museums not far from the Interstate are other kid-friendly pit stops. That said, even “boring” rest stops can be amped up: bring a tennis ball, inflatable beach ball, or a Frisbee for games. Keep a few picnic basics in the car too so that you can make a rest stop double as a food stop. (For more info on what picnic essentials to stow, see Wendy’s road trip packing list.)

Prioritize pools.

When choosing where to bed down each night, Wendy recommends finding motels with pools. The end-of-day swim will help kids work out any pent-up energy and can even serve as a reward after a long day of driving. A reinvigorating dip can be just as rewarding for tired parents.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Don’t Take a Road Trip Without Packing These

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Some road-trip packing essentials are no-brainers: rocking music, tasty snacks, and a whole lot of patience. But there are plenty of additional items that you might not realize you need…until you need them. Luckily, we’ve got your essential road-trip packing list right here. These items will help you save money, stay healthy, and stay sane during those long hours on the road. (You can also click over to TripAdvisor to see Wendy’s full list.)

Save money with a cooler

Pack your own water and snacks to save money and calories. The cooler (either the old-school kind that you fill with ice from the hotel, or the electric kind that you plug into your cigarette lighter) will also come in handy for picnic lunches. Which reminds us: Toss a picnic blanket in the back seat.

Save your skin with sun protection

For you and for your car. For you and the kids, we’re talking about the SPF kind, and not only for the times when you get out to stretch your legs. If you’re riding with the windows open, slather some on arms and faces—especially the driver’s left arm. Wendy also recommends bringing a windshield sun blocker; the steering wheel and seats can get very hot after a few hours in the sun while you’re all off hiking or seeing the country’s largest peach pit. A blocker will keep the car cooler and cut down on how much you need to blast the A/C once you pile back in.

Save your sanity with emergency kits

You’ll need three kinds to be prepared for just about anything: a first-aid kit, a roadside emergency kit, and a roadside assistance plan, either through an automotive club or an insurance company.

Save your back

In addition to regular stops to stretch your legs, Wendy likes to take along a lumbar support pillow to help prevent back pain from long stretches of driving. (Pro tip: a rolled up towel works in a pinch too.) Then each night at the hotel she likes to use rubber massage balls called T Spheres to roll out cramps and kinks.

Stay on track

Getting lost can be maddening, especially if everyone is tired or hungry and ready to get out of the car. If you’re using the GPS on your phone, be sure to bring a USB car charger so that you always have power (better yet, get a charger with multiple ports so other passengers can charge their devices too). Don’t forget a smartphone mount for your dashboard either, as they make looking at the phone for directions and playlist changes much easier—remember both of these tasks are for your copilot, not the driver! Wendy also recommends a paper map for road trips. Not only are they handy if your devices do run out of juice, but they provide a big-picture overview of the trip and can be used as a roadside-stop journal and kept as a memento of your adventures.

Stay connected

Whether you have to work during your road trip or just want to post pictures of your trip on Facebook, you’ll need to bring a few pieces of tech gear if you want to get online on the road. A portable Wi-Fi hot spot can be invaluable; or you can talk to your cell phone carrier about turning your phone into a hot spot (sometimes this incurs fees, so be sure to check). Finally, pack a voltage inverter; these are special chargers that plug into the car’s cigarette lighter one end and have a three-prong A/C outlet and USB ports on the other.

See Wendy’s full list of road-trip essentials and her tips for how to plan the ultimate road trip itinerary on TripAdvisor, where she’s TripAdvisor’s Travel Advocate, and follow her on Instagram for postcards from the California road trip she’s on right now.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

The Keys to Planning the Perfect Road Trip

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Road trips are the great American summer vacation: wind in your hair, rocking tunes on the radio, kids/friends smiling in the back seat. But the magic doesn’t happen, well, magically. All road trips roll a lot smoother if they’re planned well: No one wants to be driving endlessly at 3 a.m. still looking for somewhere to eat or sleep. And no one wants to be bored in the back seat.

With some easy pre-trip thinking, you can ensure that everyone in your car stays happy and even has a meaningful, memorable trip. This summer Wendy’s sharing her hard-earned road-trip wisdom, culled from countless drives across America, in a series of articles on TripAdvisor. First up: How to plan the ultimate itinerary. I’ve summarized a few of the tips, but click here to read the full article on TripAdvisor, and we’ll see you on the road!

Get everyone on the same page before you ever step foot in the car.

What are your fellow road-trippers expecting from this vacation? Ask everyone to share their trip goals—and likes and dislikes—early in the planning stages. If one person is expecting mountains and outdoor activities but another was planning on stuffing their pie hole with a different pie in every state, you could end up with some road-trip rage. If you can all agree on a few things ahead of time, you’re going to be a lot happier when you’re on Hour 15 of Day 6.

Throw a map-planning party.

Grab an old-school map and plot out where you want to go and how you want to get there. Be sure to think about how far you really want to drive each day, and how long you want to stay in various stops. College towns can be fun and affordable overnight stops, with plenty going on whether you arrive early or late.

Give everyone a day to own.

If every person in the car gets to choose one part of the trip to be in charge of, then everyone’s wish list is more likely to get met. You can set this up so that each road tripper picks something to do, see, or eat each day—or you can give over a whole day to each passenger.

Consider whether you want to go back the same way you came.

A round-trip route could be boring at the end: The home stretch could feel like your vacation has already ended. Or it could give you the opportunity to see things you couldn’t fit in on the first leg. If you’re flying to a destination and renting a car, you might want to opt for a loop route so that you can save money by flying into and out of the same airport..

If your route is one-way, decide which direction is best.

At first glance, driving from here to there might seem the same as driving from there to here—but direction can affect a lot on a road trip. One way might mean amazing sunsets every night, or better weather, or views that don’t require you gazing across a lane of oncoming traffic in order to see the ocean. Bonus tip from science: Studies show that it’s the end of the trip that leaves the most lasting impression, so pick a route that ends with a memorable grand finale.

Seek out the small stuff—and leave time for kismet.

Small towns are packed with fun events during the summer: state fairs are full of quirky competitions and food on sticks; parades and festivals pop up all season; and off-the-beaten-path spots sometimes have surprising or quirky attractions. When you do stop, be sure to ask the locals for recommendations—they may help you discover a gem that’s not on your map.

See Wendy’s Guide to Planning the Ultimate Road Trip on TripAdvisor, where she’s TripAdvisor’s Travel Advocate, and follow her on Instagram for postcards from the California road trip she’s on right now.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Watch: How to Make Family Trips Fun

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Dear fellow parents: I feel your pain. Traveling with kids is one of the biggest challenges of parenthood. My kids have been to 30 countries, and if I had a nickel for every meltdown in an airport line, every toy left in a hotel room, every time Charlie took a permanent marker and made a mural out of Doug in the back seat, every time a jet-lagged child woke me up at 2 a.m. announcing “I’m tired of sleeping now!”… I’d be rich enough to hire a nanny to watch the kids while I travel alone.

But that’s not the answer. Because even though taking the kids can mean inviting chaos, it also means carving out the time and space to reconnect as a family and create priceless memories. And it’s a great way to raise global citizens.

Plus, it can be fun. Honest. In this video, I show you how. Charlie and Doug even have cameos, as they were plane-spotting in the Caribbean with me when we shot this.

For more hard-earned family travel tips, check out my 10 Keys to a Peaceful Family Vacation. And here’s advice from children themselves—because sometimes they come up with the most kid-friendly travel solutions:

What to Know Before Booking Your Family Cruise

How to Get Your Child to Try New Foods When Traveling

How to Save Time and Tantrums in Amusement Parks

How to Keep Your Kids Happy on a Cruise

Why You Should Sleep In a Museum

How to Have a Kid-Friendly River Cruise

Transparency disclosure: Our sponsor, MedjetAssist, provided the financial support that made it possible to bring you these travel tips.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Six Iconic Wine Regions That Are Made for Bicycling

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I thought I knew how to ride a bicycle until I moved to France, where I discovered that you do not need special shoes—any old pair of five-inch heels will do. In France, I learned that helmets are for rugby and that a bike clip is what fastens your skirt to the saddle so your underpants won’t show (where I come from, it’s the thing that attaches your shoe to the pedal so you can pump like a maniac). I learned that wine is an energy drink—something farm hands and dockworkers have known for centuries—and that the best way to tour Burgundy, or almost any wine region, is on two wheels, sampling the local terroir as you go.

Here are some top wine areas for exploring on two wheels.

bicyclists in Piemonte Italy wine country

Piemonte, Italy. Photo: Butterfield & Robinson

A magical relationship exists between bicycles and vineyards, a symbiosis that has a lot to do with geography.

“The main thing is that the roads that vintners take to get to their grapes are paved small trails, perfect for biking,” says Tyler Dillon, a travel planner who has put together many vineyard biking trips. “Second, the distances between villages are just right, a comfortable 10 to 15 kilometers [about 6 to 9 miles]. They work well with mealtimes. You can ride for two or three hours in the morning, ending at noon in a small village that’s serving a Michelin-star lunch.”

Wine regions are accessible to cyclists of all skill levels.

“The gradual changes in elevation that are suitable for growing grapes are also good for cycling. If you haven’t been training you can stay at the lower altitudes.”

The pace is just right.

“There’s also a certain pace of life that’s appealing. You’re immersed in a culture that’s based on seasonality, on a crop and cycles of nature. It’s a slower pace than in a big city, a pace that matches with biking. On a bike you’re forced to slow down and take it all in.”

Traveling on the ground helps you understand what comes out of the ground.

“To understand a bottle of wine you have to understand the region where it’s grown—the rocks, the soil, the humidity in the morning, what time the sun rises. That’s what you want to walk away from on a bike trip. You want to smell the lavender. You can’t do that in a car.”

Where to Plan a Wine Region Bike Trip

bicyclist in Burgundy france wine country

Burgundy, France. Photo: Butterfield & Robinson

Tyler names his favorite wine-country destinations for cyclists:

Burgundy: “Not too far from Paris, so you can catch a train there pretty easily. If you get off in Dijon and go south, every town you stop in you’ve seen on a bottle of wine.”

Piedmont, Italy: “A close second to Burgundy, with similar geography but like a big bowl, so instead of going from point A to point B you can do the trip in a circle.”

Rioja: “It feels a little more adventurous than the first two because the climate is more stark and Don Quixote–like. The vineyards spring out of the shale rock and it’s very dramatic.”

Bordeaux: “Great country roads and great food.”

Côte du Rhone: “Dry Mediterranean climate, shaley soil, and a rugged countryside with secluded pockets that feel like no one has been there since the Romans.”

Tuscany: “Hillier than Burgundy or Bordeaux or the Côte du Rhone; it feels like biking through a painting. It’s also quite hot. In hot climates, there’s a little more of a looseness and a celebratory feel in the culture and the wines are more flavorful. The geography is epic, with stunning vistas; when you bike through it you feel like you have a full orchestra behind you.”

To find the right Trusted Travel Expert to help plan your biking vacation, contact Wendy.

Bordeaux, France. Photo: Butterfield & Robinson

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

These Trips of a Lifetime Are Better if You Book Last Minute

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The most extraordinary trips usually require a fair amount of planning. But there are a few destinations where, right now, even a top-of-the-line trip can be planned on the spur of the moment—and should be. Here’s where and why.

Costa Rica

Honeymooners are steering clear of Costa Rica right now—the best resorts, which are typically full, are running at 60 to 70 percent capacity—and the Zika virus could be to blame. If you’re of a reproductive mindset, sure, it’s wise to stay away (Zika is a major concern only for women who are or hope to soon become pregnant). But if not, now is a great time to visit Costa Rica. This summer, top properties such as Finca Rosa Blanca Resort, Hacienda AltaGracia, Kura Design Villas, Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort, and Lapa Rios Eco Lodge are offering discounts to entice travelers, but Michael believes the biggest value is in the extra-special service that you’re sure to receive when a hotel’s staff has fewer guests to care for: A naturalist might take some extra time to find that elusive bird species with you, a restaurant might surprise you with a private dining experience for free, or the front desk clerk might upgrade you to a suite if one would otherwise sit empty. (These things are certainly likely to happen for WendyPerrin.com travelers who use a recommended expert off of Wendy’s WOW List.)

Ecuador’s mainland is seeing fewer visitors than usual—which means now is the perfect time to visit. Photo: Southwind Adventures

Ecuador

An April earthquake and fears of Zika virus have scared some travelers away from Ecuador. But the major tourist areas of Quito, Cuenca, and the Galapagos have seen little effect from either scourge: The quake’s area of damage was confined to the coast, and as for Zika, mosquitos don’t live in the Andean highlands and are unlikely to carry the virus in the Galapagos (due to the same strict environmental controls that have made the islands malaria-free). Tom Damon, Trusted Travel Expert for Ecuador, tells us that, while you’re unlikely to find space on a last-minute Galapagos cruise (travelers book these far in advance, and few have cancelled), the mainland is seeing fewer visitors than usual—and there’s so much there to see, from highland haciendas to rainforest ecolodges, craft villages to UNESCO World Heritage sites. Ecuador’s economy relies heavily on tourism, and the government will have to do much rebuilding along the coast. This is why Quito’s mayor, Mauricio Rodas, has said: “The best way to help Ecuador is to visit Ecuador.” Go now, and you’ll be greeted by grateful citizens eager to make yours the trip of a lifetime.

Monk and Flowers, Nepal. Photo Courtesy Toni Neubauer

Nepal

“Because of the earthquake in April 2015, tourism is still quite slow in Nepal, so if you have a last-minute desire to see or trek the Himalayas, now is definitely the time to go,” says Antonia Neubauer, Trusted Travel Expert for Nepal. Infrastructure, hotels, and trekking routes are all largely functioning as they were before the quake—and you won’t run into hordes of hikers on the most popular trails, as would have happened in the past. Surprisingly, hotel rates have gone up as concrete, food, and other supplies are having to get shipped in from other countries (many farmers missed the planting season last year). But remember that your tourist dollars are desperately needed: “A good portion of the population is still struggling to rebuild. When you come to Nepal, know that you are giving back to the country just by being there,” says Antonia. While summer is the monsoon season, fall is prime for trekking, biking, and festival-going.

Tibet

It’s not at all unheard of for China to revoke permits that have already been granted to travelers headed to Tibet. “The Chinese government can close travel to Tibet at any time,” says Sanjay Saxena, Trusted Travel Expert for Tibet, “which means that it’s difficult to plan a trip for next year. However, our ears in the tourism ministry forewarn us a few weeks in advance if a closure is expected, so with a last-minute booking I can with great certainty determine whether or not we will be able to get a permit.” The overland journey from Lhasa to Kathmandu, Nepal, is one of Sanjay’s favorite travel experiences, but after last year’s earthquake, this border crossing was closed and all such trips had to be cancelled. Sanjay has just gotten word that it will be reopened in June, making this iconic journey through two Himalayan kingdoms possible once again.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Berlin’s History on Foot: A Walking Tour

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Berlin is a city of creative, laid-back people, where long conversations ensue after chance encounters with locals. It also has a long and complicated history: Once the center of a mighty empire, it grew infamous as the capital during the grim Nazi period, and then, for almost 30 years, as a city divided by a wall.

Since the 1990s, Berlin has seen social, political, and economic regeneration, and now it is a gripping city to explore, whether you survey the unique architectural complexes, walk the remnants of the Berlin Wall, or visit its vast heritage of museums and galleries. It’s also a popular one-day add-on before or after a European river cruise, and even during a Baltic Sea cruise.

But no matter how or when you visit, the flat terrain and clear grid of streets make Berlin an ideal city to explore on foot. For advice on how best to route a city stroll, we tapped Context Travel, our Trusted Travel Expert for cultural walking tours. Here are two itineraries, ideal for any urban explorers. You can choose to go it alone or hire one of Context’s “docents”—professors, art historians, chefs, and other interesting local people—to show you around.

The 20th century history walk:

2-3 hours

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. Photo: Context Travel

Though a sprawling city, Berlin has several important sites relatively close to one another that make for a good introductory walking tour.

Start at the Brandenburg Gate, a famous symbol of Berlin modeled on the entrance to the Acropolis, and the spot where Reagan urged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Then stroll around it to see the Reichstag—where Parliament meets—just in its shadow.
Then make a U-turn and head toward the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial.
Afterward take in the sobering Topography of Terror museum, with its exhibitions documenting Nazi atrocities at the site where the headquarters of the Gestapo and SS once stood.
Finish up at Potsdamer Platz, a public square once bisected by the Berlin Wall and now a poster child of the city’s post-unification project.

The Wall walk:

4–5 hours

Berlin Wall, Germany. Photo: Context Travel

Berlin Wall. Photo: Context Travel

Berlin experienced the country’s post-World War II division like no other city in Germany, having been split by the Berlin Wall, which went up overnight on August 13, 1961 and was finally torn down in 1990.

Three key locations around Berlin will give you a comprehensive concept of the Wall: the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse; Checkpoint Charlie, an old crossing point between the Soviet and American sectors of the city; and the East Side Gallery, a section of wall covered with paintings done by artists from around the world.

We suggest the following route for your mauerweg (Wall walk):

Starting from the Memorial—a still-standing section of wall and a center that explains the construction of the border partition—take a short walk to Kieler Strasse to see the old East Berlin watchtower, one of the few such remaining structures; the tower has been turned into a museum by Jurgen Litfin, whose brother was the first person to be killed trying to flee East Berlin.
From there, following Invalidenstrasse down along the canal, come out to the Brandenburg Gate at Pariser Platz—the place where a peaceful demonstration on November 9, 1989, turned into a historic event which ended with demolition of the Wall.
Head south along Ebertstrasse, stopping to look at the remnants of the Wall at Potsdamer Strasse, one of the city’s main thoroughfares.
Walking through Leipziger Platz along Mauerstrasse, and turning to Friedrichstrasse, you will get to Checkpoint Charlie, an old crossing point between the Soviet and American sectors of the city.
Splash out on lunch at Tim Raue, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant next to Checkpoint Charlie. Despite its accolades, the atmosphere remains unflappably casual, with serving staff in Converse and the now-famous chef often seen working the room, chatting to diners. Or for a quicker stop, try West Berlin, a chic cafe serving exceptional coffee and pastries. Though located just past the tourist circus that is Checkpoint Charlie, the cafe is mostly frequented by Berlin’s creatives and offers a refreshing taste of local life.
The last stop on your tour should be the East Side Gallery, a section of wall covered with paintings done by artists from around the world. The best way to reach it is by subway: Walk to U1 Station Hallesches Tor, then ride the U1 line to Warschauer Strasse.

This entire route runs about seven miles and takes four to five hours; you can, of course, cherry-pick portions of the walk for a shorter version. Or you can join Context’s Walking the Wall tour, learning from an expert in 20^th-century history about life on both sides of the Wall, and the hardships and moments of bliss that the city experienced during the Cold War.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Summer Vacation at a Ski Resort? Yes, and Here’s Why

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Ski resorts such as Vail and Park City might be best known for their winter attractions—namely, skiing down powdery slopes. But these and many other ski areas are just as much fun to visit in the summer, when warm-weather activities abound. In many cases, hotel rates and airfares are lower too. Here are a few of our favorite ski areas that make for fun, and family-friendly, summer vacations:

Vail Valley, Colorado

The Area: With nearly 200 runs on Vail Mountain itself and numerous ski areas nearby, the Vail Valley is a Rocky Mountain paradise sitting two hours west of Denver.

Summer Fun: There is a huge array of outdoor activities here during the summer—hiking and biking, plus stand-up paddleboarding at Piney River Ranch, zip-lining, an adventure ropes course, and much more. But you should also take advantage of the cultural offerings, such as free Tuesday-night concerts, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and the Farmers’ Market & Art Festival on Sundays. In Beaver Creek, the Vilar Performing Arts Center has a fabulous summer lineup and an intimate setting. If you arrive early enough, you can even ski Arapahoe Basin.

At the Four Seasons, rates are 40 percent off from mid-April through mid-December. And the view! Courtesy: Four Seasons Vail

Where to Stay: The Manor Vail Lodge is an easy walk from Vail Village. The majority of their accommodations have kitchens and fireplaces (which do come in handy on chilly summer evenings), but since each unit is different, it’s key to book through someone who can explain the pros and cons of each. At the Four Seasons, rates are 40 percent off from mid-April through mid-December; opt for the mountain-view rooms. The hotel’s Remedy Bar is a local hotspot for post-adrenaline cocktails. The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch is nestled in an ideal spot, seemingly remote but a short shuttle ride from Beaver Creek, with great hiking right out the front door.

Insider Intel: The Epic Pass offers unlimited skiing at a number of resorts in Colorado, California, Utah, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Australia—plus a warm-weather bonus. If you plan to ski at any of these locations even once next winter, buy a pass and use it for unlimited free rides up the gondola during the summer as well. You can also save a few bucks by perusing the Vail Daily for two-for-one dinner coupons, which are common in summertime.

Contact Wendy to find the right Colorado ski specialist to plan your best possible trip to Vail. Expect a trip of this caliber.

Park City, Utah

The Area: Thirty miles from Salt Lake City, Park City is home to the Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort, as well as the Sundance Film Festival.

Summer Fun: The biking here is very family-friendly: There are flat, paved paths for babies in trailers and toddlers on balance bikes, and a variety of mountain-biking trails accessible from the ski lifts. There’s also the Alpine Slide, the bobsled track, whitewater rafting, and hiking—not to mention great dining and shopping.

Where to Stay: In Deer Valley, the Montage and the St. Regis have rooms in summertime for a fraction of what you’d pay in winter. The Montage is ideal for families (there’s even a bowling alley in the kids’ club), while the St. Regis has a more adult feel.

Insider Intel: Even in summer, you should make restaurant reservations before you arrive; tables fill up quickly in Park City.

Contact Wendy to find the right Utah ski specialist to plan your best possible trip to Park City. Expect a trip of this caliber.

Wendy’s son Doug tries his balance on a teeter-totter in Whistler’s bike-skills park. Photo: Tim Baker.

Whistler, Canada

The Area: Whistler Resort, which is 75 miles north of Vancouver on a scenic highway, joined the world stage when it hosted the Winter Olympics in 2010—but there’s actually more to do here during the summer than the winter.

Summer Fun: Whistler has endless options for the adventurer: among them are zip-lining, kayaking, canoeing (on both lakes and rivers), tubing, whitewater rafting, fishing, ATV tours, hiking, bear viewing, mountain biking, and golfing.

Where to Stay: With an indoor/outdoor pool and lots of dining options, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler is great for families. Rates are always lower during the summer, and the weaker Canadian dollar often means an even better value for American visitors.

Insider Intel: If your budget allows, charter a helicopter or small seaplane to access high alpine lakes, glaciers, and hiking trails that you’d never get to on foot.

Contact Wendy to find the right Canada specialist to plan your best possible trip to Whistler. Expect a trip of this caliber.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Is This the Best New Cruise Perk at Sea?

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If you think there’s no way you could survive a 6,000-passenger cruise ship, listen up. When the world’s new largest cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, debuts this month, it will introduce a first in special treatment at sea: the Royal Genie. Yes, that’s right, a genie. The kind who grants your every wish. More specifically, a shipboard fixer whose goal is to expedite you past every line and make every potential obstacle on a 227,000-ton floating megaresort vanish.

At least, that was what my Royal Genie did when my family and I put one to the test a few months ago aboard Allure of the Seas. Allure was a fitting ship for this test run because it was the world’s largest cruise ship at the time (until Harmony of the Seas overtook it) and is very similar in design to Harmony. Royal Caribbean, the cruise line to whom these ships belong and that invited me to preview the Royal Genie service, plans to roll it out across five ships this month. Only a handful of passengers—those in the top suites—get a genie.

Now, testing a Royal Genie is harder than you might think. I had trouble dreaming up things for her to do. Maybe I’m just too low-maintenance for a genie. Or maybe I’m more comfortable fending for myself. I did that too on my cruise: I split my time between being spoiled rotten and tackling the buffet line like everyone else. My goal was to be able to advise you how to have the best trip possible aboard the world’s biggest cruise ship, whether you’re in a $30,000 suite or a genie-less $4,000 stateroom.

Before I share my hard-earned advice, though, allow me to clarify what a Royal Genie actually does.

What My Royal Genie Did

My genie, Smitha Thompson, and me in the Royal Promenade aboard Allure of the Seas.

Me and my genie, Smitha Thompson, in the Royal Promenade aboard Allure of the Seas.

If you’ve ever had an airline rep meet you at an airport entrance and escort you through check-in and immigration and onto the plane, bypassing every line en route, then you can start to wrap your head around what a Royal Genie does for you. Her first order of business is to whisk you through the cruise check-in and embarkation process. My genie—the lovely Smitha Thompson, who hails from Mauritius—met me and my family inside the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal. After we’d sailed through check-in, she escorted us onto the ship and to our room, where awaiting us was about a month’s supply of Brownie Brittle, pretzels, and red licorice (my kids’ favorite snacks, which our genie had researched beforehand). Refills flowed every day.

Smitha got us tables in the ship’s fully booked restaurants and front-row seats to the most popular shows. She had me meet with the head of the shore excursions department so I could get answers to my questions about the pros and cons of various shore tours on offer.

Smitha with the boys at our cabana. Photo: Timothy Baker

Smitha with the boys in our cabana in Labadee.

Her main goal, though, seemed to be for us never to get lost on the ship and never to wait in any line. To that end, she insisted on coming to our room (or to wherever we were on the ship) to escort us to every dinner, show, and scheduled activity. We assured her it was unnecessary, but this genie business was new to her too, and she didn’t want to mess up. Her goal in escorting us was always to take us on the shortest route from point A to point B and, upon arriving at point B, to hand us off to the person in charge there for safe keeping. When the ship docked in port, she expedited us off the ship via a labyrinth of secret passageways, normally off-limits to all but crew, so as to bypass any potential bottlenecks en route to the gangway. When we called at Labadee, the cruise line’s private port in Haiti, we were the first passengers off the ship, onto a private golf cart, into the roped-off portion of Labadee that is reserved for suite passengers, and up to a hilltop private cabana, where snorkel masks, fins, a cooler filled with drinks, and a bartender named Kesnel awaited.

Smitha even stood in line at the lobby Starbucks each morning so that she could knock on my door holding a skinny vanilla latte at 7:00 a.m. (She had asked me to specify a coffee drink and delivery time each morning.) The coffee was free of charge, of course, as were all of her services. Only Star Class passengers get a Royal Genie, and those passengers have already paid top dollar, so the cruise line is not about to nickel-and-dime them.

Smitha expedited our departure as well. Normally, on a cruise, passengers must place all suitcases and non-carry-on luggage outside their cabin doors the night before disembarkation (so that the luggage can be transported off the ship and into the cruise terminal). Smitha got this rule waived for us. On the final morning of the cruise, we got to stay in our cabin with all our luggage till everyone else had been ushered into disembarkation groups. Then she came with porters to collect us and our bags, led us on another shortcut to the gangway, escorted us off the ship, expedited us and our baggage through customs and immigration, placed us in a taxi, and sent us on our way. From cabin door to taxi door, disembarkation took 15 minutes—which, for the world’s biggest cruise ship in one of the world’s busiest cruise terminals, is pretty darned fast.

Our baggage left the ship at the same time we did. Photo: Timothy Bake

Thanks to Smitha, our luggage stayed with us in our cabin until we left the ship.

The Royal Genie concept has evolved in the months since my test run. Smitha, whose real job was in the ship’s guest services department, was enthusiastic about trying on the role but had never received any official genie training. Since that time, Royal Caribbean has hired a bevy of Royal Genies, trained and certified by the British Butler Institute, and has even designed special outfits for them that are less nautical, more purple.

How to Use a Royal Genie

As wonderful as having your own personal vacation assistant might sound, there were awkward moments and missed opportunities. Should you ever be so lucky as to have a Royal Genie at your disposal, here’s my advice:

Don’t be afraid to say No.

A Royal Genie wants so badly to be helpful that sometimes, so as not to hurt her feelings, you end up saying yes to things you really don’t want. For instance, I wish I’d said “No” when Smitha urged us to ride around Labadee in a private golf cart even though we would have preferred to walk like everyone else. I did say “No” to the hand-delivered morning lattes, once I realized I’d rather sleep in.

Ask which shipboard experiences are most special and why.

On a Royal Caribbean megaship, there are more activities, shows, and restaurants than anybody could ever try in one week, so you must choose carefully. I wish Smitha and I had sat down at the start and gone through the universe of options, as overwhelming as that might have been. Somehow I didn’t even learn until Day 6 that the ship has a zip-line or that I could dine al fresco in a garden, under the stars, listening to live music.

Request an in-depth tour of the ship on Day 2 or 3.

Smitha gave us a 45-minute introductory tour of the vessel on Day 1. The ship is the length of four football fields, with 18 decks, so she probably didn’t want to tire us out. But I wish I’d asked for an in-depth, three-hour tour. The ship has seven “neighborhoods” and surprises on every deck, from a Kate Spade boutique to a Boardwalk carousel to a running track that wraps around the entirety of the ship. Only on the last day of the cruise did I discover my favorite serene hideout: Deck 5 aft, where there are just a couple of empty wooden deck chairs and ocean panoramas forever.

Find out what behind-the-scenes tours are available.

Who are you most interested in meeting on the ship and what are you most interested in learning from him or her? The inner workings of a 6,000-passenger megaship are pretty fascinating. Your genie can probably arrange an insider’s tour with anyone from the chef to the chief engineer.

Ask about private photo ops with one of the ship’s photographers.

Your genie will likely schedule activities for you that are unique in the world. (Here, for example, is a glimpse of the first-at-sea features aboard Harmony of the Seas). And when you’re doing a one-of-a-kind activity with your family, you may want a photographer capturing the moment—such as when you’re riding the Labadee Flight Line or surfing on the Flow Rider.

Smitha checks on the boys at the Flow Rider. Photo: Timothy Baker

Smitha kept showing up to check on us around the ship. Here, she checks on the boys at the Flow Rider.

How to Get By Without a Royal Genie

The truth is, some of what a Royal Genie does you can arrange on your own, as long as you’re organized and do some advance planning.

Figure out what’s important to you ahead of time, so you board the ship with a strategy.

Study the cruise line’s website, read the forums and advice on Cruise Critic, and know the full range of options that will be available to you, so you can take action immediately upon boarding. On the ship each morning, read the list of scheduled activities in the daily newsletter; it’s a long, dense list, so bring a highlighter.

Book as much as possible before boarding.

You can make restaurant reservations and book show tickets online in advance. If it’s a free show, send a family member 30 minutes early to save seats for you.

Do the most important activities early in the cruise rather than later.

You know those one-of-a-kind activities I mentioned? On the last day of the cruise, passengers were realizing that they hadn’t tried the Flow Rider, or the Boardwalk zip-line, or what-have-you, and the result was that these things were in high demand. Try them early in the week when the line is short—or before they shut down because the weather has turned too windy.

If you’re in the Caribbean, consider staying on the ship during one of your days in port.

Nobody is a more enthusiastic shoreside sightseer than I. If you have a smart plan for exploring and getting an authentic experience of an island during your limited time in port, good for you. But if you’ve boarded with no plan, beware. The larger a ship, the longer it takes to get on and off, and the more touristy or inconvenient the port areas it calls at. If you’ve got no sightseeing plan, and your choice is between a generic group tour and walking aimlessly around tourist traps, consider just staying put on the ship and having all its features to yourself. Then return to the island and see it properly someday when you have the time to do it justice.

Ask the crew for dining recommendations.

Seriously. The crew members aboard Allure, at least, are outgoing conversationalists, and we got our best food tips from a random assortment of them. They recommended breakfast at the Park Café in Central Park (a big mid-ship outdoor garden), for instance; there we discovered New York deli-style bagels with assorted flavors of cream cheese, lox, and toppings. They also sent us to Johnny Rockets in the morning for omelettes. Who knew?

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If you are considering a cruise on a giant ship, I recommend having a savvy and extremely well-connected cruise specialist arrange and book it for you so that you get the best cabin and itinerary for your dollar. Feel free to write to Ask Wendy and I can suggest the right cruise advisor for your particular trip goals.

Full Disclosure: Royal Caribbean provided me and my family with a complimentary cruise (I paid for the airfare). In keeping with my standard practice, there was no request for or expectation of coverage on Royal Caribbean’s part, nor was anything promised on mine.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How to Get the Best Private Guide For a Trip With Kids

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When you’re planning a vacation with young kids, you might think that hiring a private guide is an unnecessary luxury, an expense that couldn’t add much to the experience or that might get in the way of all that family bonding. You’d be wrong.

A good kid-friendly guide—as I found out on a recent trip with my husband and four-year-old to Southeast Asia—can make a huge difference in your child’s experience of a place, and in yours, too. The best ones know how to make museums come alive, where to find engaging activities, and equally important, how to steer your day so that no one has a meltdown (adults included).

The same value that outstanding guides add to grown-up trips—fascinating history and context, behind-the-scenes access, instant entry into local culture—they can bring for kids too. We travel with our children because we want to create memorable experiences as a family; how memorable is it if you’re chasing after them all day and trying to figure out the next “fun” thing to do? A private guide will not only come up with exciting activities, but will also take care of the small, annoying details—leaving you free to accomplish your main objective: spending meaningful time together.

In the end, our Southeast Asia guides ensured that our trip ran as smoothly and efficiently as possible, given that we had a four-year-old in tow. Here’s what I learned families should look for when choosing and using a private guide:

Request a guide who’s also a parent. With perhaps a few exceptions, only a fellow parent can truly understand how a young kid will impact your trip. Ask your trip planner how he/she knows that a particular guide is great with kids; have they seen the guide interact with children?

Make clearly spoken English a priority. My son, Zeke, had a hard time understanding when some of our guides spoke; in these situations, either my husband or I would have to “translate” for him. In the future, I’ll make unaccented pronunciation the second-highest priority for any guide I hire for my family.

Kid-focused activities keep kids engaged throughout long tours. Photo: Ryan Damm.

Ask in advance for a treasure hunt or other kid-focused activities. Don’t expect your kid to simply tag along while you tromp through museums and monuments. Including your children in the day’s events is key to keeping them engaged. Treasure hunts are a great way to keep them interested throughout a day-long tour.

Invite your guide to bring his/her own kids along. Our guide in Saigon had two kids close in age to our own; when he brought them along, Zeke—who had up until then been shy around our guides—immediately warmed to the whole family. It was as if he saw our guide as a dad now, a figure he could trust. And he adored playing with the girls so much that my husband and I were able to leave him under the care of the girls’ mother or uncle while we did some sightseeing. (If you’d rather not pay for another adult who can act as babysitter, you can tag-team the sightseeing while your spouse watches the kids.)

Make the most of your time with a guide, wherever you are. When Zeke hijacked the city tour that had been planned for our only day in Hanoi (thanks to a tantrum so bad it left me in tears), our guide took us to an indoor play area instead. While we didn’t get to see much of Hanoi, I still learned a lot about contemporary Vietnamese culture by chatting with our guide while my son played in a ball pit.

Be vigilant about the schedule. Adding a four-year-old to the equation makes everything take twice as long, whether it’s a trip to the grocery store or a stroll through Hoi An’s Ancient Town. When any of our guides assumed that we could keep to a typical touring timetable, the schedule would invariably slide, and my son would end up missing his afternoon nap—which made all of us cranky. If I’d estimated for our guide how long my son would last in Angkor Wat at the outset, he could have properly paced our visit so that we saw all of the ruins’ highlights. As it was, my son melted down halfway through and we had to skip half of the temple. Next time, I’ll be explicit with guides about what time we have to eat lunch or be back at the hotel for an afternoon rest, so that they can plan accordingly.

Allot your time with guides thoughtfully. I found a private guide most helpful in large cities, where logistics are particularly tricky. I recommend hiring one for your first day in a new city, then using any additional time there to explore on your own. Elsewhere, use guides only where they can provide access to things you wouldn’t see otherwise: a local village, say, or an after-hours visit to a museum that’s normally crowded.

What’s the best thing that a private guide has done for your family on a trip?

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Disclosure: Journeys Within and their partners provided most elements of the writer’s trip (hotels, intra-Asia airfare, guides, ground transportation, and sightseeing entry fees) free of charge. In keeping with WendyPerrin.com standard practice, there was no request for coverage on Journeys Within’s part, nor was anything promised on ours. You can read our sponsored travel agreement with Journeys Within here.

Five Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Kids in Vietnam

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When you think Vietnam, do you think kid-friendly? I sure didn’t. But while visiting with my four-year-old (you can read more about our trip here), I found five fun things that I never expected we’d be able to do there:

Eat Italian-grandmother-worthy pasta. An English menu and Western dishes are usually two things I steer clear of in Asia—except when I have a four-year-old in tow. Restaurants that serve both the local cuisine and tourist-friendly pizzas and pastas usually are mediocre at best. But at Good Morning Vietnam, in Hoi An’s old town, we were served pasta with delectably fresh pesto sauce; unsalted bread just like you’d find in Tuscany; and a complimentary, housemade limoncello digestif. They have a second outpost in Nha Trang, likely just as good.

Play traditional Vietnamese musical instruments. Andrea Ross, our Trusted Travel Expert for Southeast Asia, arranged for us to visit the Truc Mai House, whose occupants have been granted special permission by the government to share their knowledge of traditional music with guests. Not only did they give us a private concert on the iconic monochord zither (whose sound we all associate with Vietnam, unwittingly or not), as well as ancient instruments made of bamboo and stones, afterward they let my son pluck away at their prized instruments. This kind of interactive experience is exactly what keeps young kids engaged in a foreign land.

Our fabulous Saigon guide, took us to one of his daughters’ favorite haunts: Ba Cay Choi (Three Broomsticks Town), a fantastical, spooky place full of fairy houses. Photo: Ryan Damm

Bake cupcakes that Harry Potter would love. Khoa Nguyen, our fabulous Saigon guide, took us to one of his daughters’ favorite haunts: Ba Cay Choi (Three Broomsticks Town), a fantastical, spooky place full of fairy houses, gnarled wood accents, a ceramic-painting studio, and a kitchen fit for a witch, where kids can mix ingredients such as “fatty bug oil” and “fly milk” to make their own sweets. It seemed completely out of place in the middle of an Asian metropolis, and yet we were the only foreigners in the joint, surrounded by frolicking kids and emo teens.

Have a tea party. On the fourth floor of a shabby apartment building in the middle of Saigon—you have to walk through an entryway crammed with motorbikes to reach the dingy elevator—sits Partea, a darling tearoom of the English rather than Asian persuasion. Pick your cup and your tea (choosing among over 60 flavors, from earl gray to passion fruit to caramel popcorn), and the frilly-aproned staff will heat your leaves in a glass pot, kept warm at your table with a candle. It’s a welcome respite of white walls and flowery tablecloths amid the soot and chaos of this busy city. And just like Ba Cay Choi, it’s filled with locals, not foreigners.

Dingo Deli in Hoi An had a backyard with a bamboo-and-rope climbing structure, swings, and a trampoline. Photo: Ryan Damm

Find playgrounds in restaurants. Eating politely in public three times a day is tough for even the most well-mannered kids. That’s why we were delighted to find the Dingo Deli in Hoi An and Snap Café in Saigon, both of which have sandy play areas for tykes to run around in while the adults linger over a meal. Dingo has a long menu of Australian and American favorites, from meat pies to safe-to-eat salads, and a backyard with a bamboo-and-rope climbing structure, swings, and a trampoline. Snap Café, which is located in an expat-heavy neighborhood, has a spiffier, more elaborate play area, and serves crowd-pleasers from a variety of cuisines—including surprisingly tasty Vietnamese choices.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Uzbekistan Is the Family Vacation Idea You’ve Been Missing

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We’re guessing that Uzbekistan isn’t on many families’ travel radar. It wasn’t on ours—until Trusted Travel Expert Zulya Rajabova gave us five reasons why it should be:

It’s the land of famous explorers and conquerors. Have your children been learning about Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, or Marco Polo? A trading crossroads for millennia, Uzbekistan is rife with history just ready to be brought to life: You can try on costumes from the time of Tamerlane, or ride camels into the desert as the explorers would have done, learning how to make fire and sleeping in a yurt.

You can make art with local craftsmen. Participate with your kids in a hands-on tutorial in ceramics, carpet weaving, calligraphy, embroidery, or woodcarving. And since an entire Uzbekistani family usually practices the same craft, the artisan’s kids will likely work alongside you (if the tutorial is arranged outside of school hours).

You can have a kid as your local guide. Zulya runs a Young Ambassadors program, through which she trains Uzbekistanis from 7 to 17 years old to guide travelers (always with a professional adult guide accompanying as well). In addition to showing you around the city of Bukhara, the local kids will take your family to their school, share a game of soccer, maybe even invite you into their home for plov, a savory, slow-cooked medley of rice, lamb, and vegetable—and the national dish of Uzbekistan—and some sweet halva, a sesame-based dessert.

Your child will gain a greater appreciation of family. Family is strong in the Stans. In Uzbekistan, families are big, and several generations often live with or near each other. American kids experience this beautiful bond, Zulya has found, and come away with a deeper respect for their own parents and grandparents.

The shopping is off the hook. Bukhara’s bazaars are some of the world’s largest and most diverse, and it’s not all produce and housewares. Ancient designs and fine craftsmanship have made Uzbekistan a hot destination for fashion designers, so the jewelry and textiles you bring home will put your teen right on trend. (Zulya can also introduce you to some of the country’s top designers.)

Zulya finds that kids aged nine and up get the most from a trip to Uzbekistan. That way, your whole family can stay in a nomadic yurt camp, ride camels to a picnic in the Kyzyl-Kum desert, and fully participate in Uzbekistani culture.

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

We Had the Best Family Trip in Whistler and We Never Put on Skis

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Even in summertime, there is still snow at the highest elevations. Photo: Tim Baker.

The Inukshuk rock statue on Whistler Mountain was created for the 2010 Winter Olympics. An inukshuk is a collection of rocks that may have been used as a navigation reference point for the Inuit. Photo: Tim Baker.

The family takes the podium outside the Roundhouse Lodge atop Whistler Mountain. This is as close as we’ll ever come to winning an Olympic medal. Photo: Tim Baker.

Mountain bikers from around the world cruise down the mountains. Photo: Tim Baker.

Bikes and bikers fill a gondola up the mountain. Bikers and hikers usually ride up in separate gondolas. Photo: Tim Baker.

Bikers and hikers are kept separate on the mountain too. Photo: Tim Baker.

Doug tries his balance on a teeter-totter in Whistler’s bike-skills park. Photo: Tim Baker.

Doug powers over the bumps at a park along the Fitzsimmons Creek in Whistler. Photo: Tim Baker.

A lull in the action on our Green River rafting trip. Photo: Tim Baker

The view from the summit of our RZR adventure. Photo: Tim Baker.

Blink and you can miss the bobsleigh. If you plan to shoot photos of family and friends riding it, practice on preceding runs. Photo: Tim Baker.

Connecting Blackcomb and Whistler mountains, the Peak 2 Peak gondola set multiple construction records. Photo: Tim Baker

The 20-minute ride travels up to 1,427 feet above the ground. Photo: Tim Baker.

Two of the gondolas have glass-bottom floors. Photo: Tim Baker.

We saw many signs warning about bears, but the only wildlife we saw was this hoary marmot posing for photos at Blackcomb. Photo: Tim Baker.

Charlie speeds through the last corner of the Westcoaster Slide in the Blackcomb Adventure Zone. Photo: Tim Baker.

The boys battle each other in floating circular rafts in the Blackcomb Adventure Zone. Photo: Tim Baker.

Whistler Village has plenty to offer families in summer. Photo: Tim Baker.

Kids at play in Whistler’s Olympic Plaza. Photo: Tim Baker.

The boys are attracted by a hand-operated water pump and race leaves down the sluice. Photo: Tim Baker.

The Whistler farmers’ market takes place Sundays from June through October and on Wednesdays in July and August. There’s plenty of fresh local produce and homemade snacks to fill up on. Photo: Tim Baker.

The mini golf course in front of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, our home base for our trip. Photo: Tim Baker.

From the gondola, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Photo: Tim Baker.

At our table in The Grill Room at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, Charlie picks the size of his cut of Dry Aged Prime Canadian Rib Eye. Photo: Tim Baker.

Tomato Gin Soup being prepared at our table. The soup was as great as the presentation. Photo: Tim Baker.

Chocolate fondue with fruit and cake for dessert in The Grill Room at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Photo: Tim Baker.

One of our many “designer” hot chocolates in the Gold Lounge of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Photo: Tim Baker.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club is nestled into the mountains. Photo: Tim Baker

Even if you are not a golfer, the clubhouse at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s golf course is a nice place to enjoy a sunset cocktail or meal. Photo: Tim Baker.

At the Britannia Beach Mining Company, a mining drill is demonstrated inside a tunnel. Photo: Tim Baker.

Inside the ore-processing building of the Britannia Beach Mining Company. Photo: Tim Baker.

Shannon Falls Provincial Park is a perfect place to stop and stretch along the Sea-to-Sky Highway. Photo: Tim Baker.

Tourists have been visiting the 450-foot Capilano Suspension Bridge near Vancouver since 1889. Photo: Tim Baker.

Besides the Bridge, Capilano has many more suspension bridges and displays that explain the flora, fauna, and history of the area. Photo: Tim Baker.

Note from Wendy: If you need a vacation spot that’s gorgeous, uncrowded, not too hot, and not too far, Canada is a destination you should be seriously considering for this summer. Last summer, my family went to Whistler, and here’s what my husband, Tim wants other families to know about it.

Everyone knows Whistler’s reputation as a winter sports mecca. It hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics—and so far this season has had more than 32 feet of snow, with all 200 trails open. But did you know Whistler is an adventure-packed summer destination too? Wendy and the boys and I had a blast there last summer, and we strongly recommend it to other families. Here are ten reasons why:

1. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola

It’s not a thrill ride per se, but the Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a thrilling ride, to be sure—especially when there’s a light breeze. This gondola connects Whistler and Blackcomb mountains and holds world records for the longest (2.7 miles) and highest (1,427 feet) gondola, with the world’s longest unsupported span: 1.88 miles. The ride takes about 20 minutes. Two of the gondolas—the silver ones—have glass-bottomed floors; while that’s kind of cool, the view down wasn’t much better than the view out of the almost-all-glass gondolas. Be sure to watch the short video in the lodge atop Whistler Mountain on how the lift was constructed and its safety systems. You’ll want to ride this more than once to fully appreciate the engineering.

2. The Olympic Bobsled

The Olympic Bobsleigh at Whistler Sliding Centre has been adapted for summer use: Rubber tires have replaced the bobsled’s rails. You buckle your helmet and strap into the sled for a run that takes less than a minute. It’s sensory overload: You hold on tightly, blink, and it’s already over. One run is not enough. If you do a second run, you might have time to actually look out and enjoy it.

3. The Via Ferrata

We climbed to the top of Whistler Mountain, aided by steel rebar rungs drilled and epoxied into the mountain face. See I Can’t Believe We Did This: Mountain Climbing in Whistler. It was one of the most rewarding adventures we’ve ever had as a family. While often we’re just passengers in our adventures, this climb totally depended on you! We had a great feeling of accomplishment upon reaching the summit. Surprisingly, this 3- to 4-hour Via Ferrata climb is still under the radar. Even locals don’t know about it. You’ll work up an appetite, so I suggest the all-you-can-eat barbeque at the Roundhouse Lodge afterward as a tasty reward for your efforts.

4. The Sasquatch zip-line

If you need to add North America’s longest zip-line (1.6 miles) to your zip-line collection, the Sasquatch is for you. The first step is a true leap of faith, as you’ll be traveling about 60 miles per hour at up to 700 feet above the valley floor. It’s an adrenaline rush, but it’s not our family’s favorite. (This one’s our family’s favorite.) Next time, we’d like to try some of the other ziplines in and around Whistler. Here’s a video of the boys riding the Sasquatch.

Sasquatch from Timothy Baker on Vimeo.

5. RZR driving

Of all our activities, Dads, this one is for you! You race off-road up and down fire breaks on a nearby mountain in a four-seat, four-wheel-drive dirt buggy. Maybe I liked this RZR adventure so much because whenever I drive the kids on roads of similar condition to our favorite hidden lake in California, I’m always pulling a fishing boat, trying to avoid the potholes, ruts, and washboards. In these speedy little RZR buggies, though, you just power over them! Just hit the gas and hold on for dear life. Then back way off the gas because you’ve scared yourself to death. This was freedom and fun! Granted, I had the steering wheel and the kids just sat there holding on to the grab bars, but they loved it too. Full props to our guide, who saw us languishing behind a much slower tandem ahead of us and called base for a new guide just for us. I had a hard time keeping up with the new guide, but it sure was fun trying. Check out this video of our ride:

Wendy RZR from Timothy Baker on Vimeo.

6. Mountain biking

In summertime, instead of brightly outfitted skiers and boarders bombing down Whistler Mountain, you see brightly outfitted mountain bikers. Only trail dust subdues their colorful outfits and skid protectors. Speed is a must; control seems to be optional. We saw wipeouts but, fortunately, we viewed from a safe distance as we rode up and down the mountain on the chairlift. Lifts are designed to carry bikes up the mountain, and shops in town that sell and rent skis in winter cater to all sizes, abilities, and pocketbooks of mountain bikers. We saw groups of bikers from around the world posing for photos with their national flags.

Our resident biker, Doug (who was 11 at the time), wasn’t quite ready for the mountain, but Whistler Village has a free public bike-skills park that is perfect for beginners. We rented a mountain bike from one of the many shops (about $20 for a couple of hours) and rode over. Doug loved it and built up course confidence by handling all the obstacles (the teeter totter, the whoop-dee-doos) at his own speed. When we visit again, he’ll take advantage of one of the many classes available on the mountain.

7. Whitewater rafting

The Whistler area has a variety of whitewater rafting runs, ranging from beginner to advanced. We chose an easy one and had a few thrills and spills. Here’s a little sample:

Whistler Raft from Timothy Baker on Vimeo.

8. Golf

The boys and I played a few holes at the scenic Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club. Designed by Robert Trent Jones II and nestled into the slopes of Blackcomb Mountain, the 6,635-yard course is Audubon Certified. That means that the operators appreciate their stewardship of the land. They’ve reduced water and chemical usage and are managing habitat for the wildlife living on or near the course, including a “hotel” (wooden nest) for bats. You can drink water from the glacier-fed Blackcomb Creek that flows through the course. Even if you don’t play golf, you can enjoy the scenery by having a drink or meal at The Clubhouse. We ate there at sunset.

9. Blackcomb Adventure Zone

Our boys are getting older (they’re now 12 and 13) and now require a little more adrenaline than what was on offer at the family adventure zone in our hotel’s backyard. The pint-sized race cars, Westcoaster Luge, and Kiss The Sky Bungy Trampoline are perfect for the younger set. The Mario & Friends Mini Golf was challenging enough to be enjoyed by all ages. We played several times, early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid the crowds.

10. Our home away from home: The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

This is the grand dame of Whistler, and we loved it. The Fairmont Chateau Whistler rises from the valley the way Cinderella’s Castle rises from Disneyland. You can see it from many spots on the mountain, and it looks every bit the place you want to call your home. The staff was friendly and efficient, from the valet who opened our car door when we first arrived to the guy who brought umbrella drinks to us in the hot tub at 10:30 pm.

Our room was mountain-themed without being too heavy-handed or theme-parky.

The highlight of the hotel for the kids was breakfast in the Gold Lounge each morning, thanks to the amazing, artistic hot chocolates with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Each morning the boys’ hot chocolate was decorated differently, as if the staff was having a competition to decorate each mug better than the last. Dinner in The Grill Room was another highlight for the boys. I devoured the dry aged prime Canadian rib eye, carved to order at our table. If there is a must-have, we all loved the Tomato Gin Soup, flambéed tableside. Be ready with your camera.

If there was one time I wished we were there in winter, it was when we were soaking in the giant Jacuzzis on the pool deck looking onto Blackcomb Mountain. I could imagine myself there after a day of skiing, just soaking for hours under the stars. But it was a wonderful summertime antidote for our adventure-weary bones too—an antidote made even sweeter by the late-night cocktail service.

Getting there from Vancouver

We drove the 70 miles from Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway at a leisurely pace. If I had any regret about the trip, it’s that the drive was too short and I just wanted to keep driving. The roads are easy and the scenery spectacular. We enjoyed trying to pronounce the Indian names for the towns and areas we passed, and we were always intrigued to find out what was around the next mountain.

En route to Whistler we stopped at Shannon Falls Provincial Park, right off the Highway, and the boys had a great time scrambling over rocks around the falls. On the way back we stopped at the Britannia Mine Museum; with a bright yellow 235-ton mine truck in front, it’s pretty hard to miss. The highlight for the kids was riding the train into the mine and seeing (and hearing) the drills and mucking machine being demonstrated. I was awed by the size, scale, and heavy-duty engineering of Mill 3. The fact that we learned so much about mining seemed almost incidental to the visit.

For the grand finale, as we neared Vancouver, we made one last stop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which has been a tourist stop since 1889. The 450-foot-long bridge itself is way cool, but the rest of the park was a perfect place to let the kids loose again before heading back to the city.

Planning the Ultimate Itinerary

We got indispensable itinerary help from Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for Western Canada, Marc Telio. If you’re looking for a British Columbia specialist to design a custom-tailored once-in-a-lifetime adventure for you, read Marc’s Insider’s Guide to British Columbia, and reach out to him via this trip request form so you’re marked as a WendyPerrin.com VIP traveler.

Disclosure: Tourism Whistler invited our family to Whistler and arranged for a complimentary stay at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, as well as a rental car. In keeping with WendyPerrin.com standard practice, there was no request for or expectation of coverage on Tourism Whistler’s part, nor was anything promised on ours. You can read the signed agreement between Wendy and Tourism Whistler here.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Great Deals on Kenyan Safaris Are Happening Now: Don’t Miss Out

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If you’ve been even toying with the idea of taking a safari, now is the time to book it. KLM has just announced a flash sale of airfare to Nairobi, starting today through March 14, for trips taken through May 31. Fares out of several major US cities start as low as $723. Even better news: Those aren’t the only flight deals right now. Dan Saperstein, one of our Trusted Travel Experts for East Africa and South Africa Safaris, reports that British Airways and Swissair are also offering fares right now for less than $800 (he’s even seen a few for less than $700), and that some discounted fares are extending through July and August. “These are all excellent deals,” he says, “as this airfare is usually anywhere from $1,100–$1,500 per person for these airlines (KLM can be upwards of $2,400 at times).”

In addition to the airfare deals, there are two other big discounts that travelers can take advantage of if they head to Kenya in spring:

1. Accommodations: “Pricing for the camps and lodges is also less expensive these months of the year,” Dan explains. “Rates typically go up around June 15^thin East Africa, so combined with the airfare, you can see significant savings traveling during these months.”

2. Visas and fees: In an effort to encourage more family travel, Kenya just changed its entry visa policy so that all children under the age of 16 get into the country for free, effective immediately (adults are still $50). In the same vein, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that from July of this year, all park fees will be reduced and that VAT charges will be removed. Dan says, “It may not appear to be a huge difference on a daily basis, but it certainly adds up to a huge savings over the course of one’s safari, especially when traveling with a family.”

As for the key question of whether spring is a worthwhile time to take a safari, Dan says “absolutely it is. Rains can occur this time of year, but the ever-changing global weather patterns make it a worthwhile time to visit, as the animals are there to be seen year-round; they certainly don’t go inside if it happens to rain!”

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How to Keep Your Kids Happy on a Cruise

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the Flow Rider on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

Allure of the Seas has a park in the middle. Photo: Timothy Baker

central park Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

Growing trees at sea is hard, but Royal Caribbean has managed to do it. Photo: Timothy Baker

Central Park is a mid-ship oasis of calm, at any time of the day or night. Photo: Timothy Baker

kiddie pool Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

The ship has pools for kids... Photo: Timothy Baker

hot tub Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

And the ship has pools for adults. Photo: Timothy Baker

Boardwalk on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

There’s always something going on at the Boardwalk—including free donuts in the morning and free hot dogs in the afternoon. Photo: Timothy Baker

surfing the Flow Rider on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas

The surfing staff is highly experienced at teaching beginners how to enjoy the Flow Rider. Photo: Timothy Baker

Flow Rider on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas

Doug’s surfing lesson paid off. Photo: Timothy Baker

Flow Rider staff show on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas

Even if you yourself don’t want to try the Flow Rider, you can enjoy the spectacle. Here, the surfing instructors put on their own show. Photo: Timothy Baker

Royal Promenade on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

Among the eateries and bars on the Royal Promenade are Kate Spade, Michael Kors, and Guess boutiques. Photo: Timothy Baker

The Aqua Show features acrobats in a modern circus-like atmosphere. Photo: Timothy Baker

Aqua show on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

The Aqua Show stage, as viewed during a rehearsal. The diver (at top left) is jumping off a 60-foot-high platform. Photo: Timothy Baker

Ice show on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

The “How to Train Your Dragon” Ice Show Photo: Timothy Baker

friendly officers on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship

Officers aboard Allure of the Seas pose with King Julien, the lemur from Madagascar. Photo: Timothy Baker

Hi. I’m Doug. I’m 12 years old, and I just took my 12th cruise. It was on the Royal Caribbean ship Allure of the Seas. If your kids are 9 to 14 years old, and you want to be sure they have a great trip and don’t complain, here are the things onboard that you should do with them because they will enjoy them the most.

The Aqua Show: It will make your jaws drop. Divers dive off tiny platforms higher than the Olympics’ highest platform. They dive into a small pool that is only 11 feet deep. It will stun you.

The Flow Rider: It is a surfing and boogie-boarding simulator. Even though the lines are super-long, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Izumi: It is a super-funny hibachi dinner. The chef started out saying, “Hi, I’m Ryan, and I will be your fake Japanese chef today.” He cooks in front of you and says things like, “These eggs came all the way from…yup, you guessed it… Kentucky.”

The Ice Show: The ice rink has many shows—like How to Train Your Dragon and Monopoly. It has many jokes for adults and kids. You will probably end up talking about it all through dinner.

Central Park: Central Park is a nice place to relax. It is always very calm there. It has great restaurants. Nobody knows that you can even go there for breakfast: The Park Café has bagels with different flavors of cream cheese and toppings, and you can get them to take out and walk around the ship with.

The pools: There are 7 pools and 12 hot tubs—and that doesn’t include the pools and hot tubs that only parents can go in. Some hot tubs have huge TVs so you can watch a sports game. Each pool has its own theme and is equipped with a soft-serve ice-cream machine. There are pools for all ages. There are no water slides, but there’s a water volleyball court.

The Boardwalk: The Boardwalk is a place to go with your family and have fun. There’s a carousel, an arcade, a ring toss, a bean bag toss, a Johnny Rockets, a hot dog stand with all different kinds of hot dogs, a candy shop, and an all-night buffet that Mom and Dad didn’t even know about. There’s a zip-line above the Boardwalk but, once you’ve done the Labadee Flight Line, it’s not very exciting.

The Royal Promenade: It’s a huge shopping mall in the middle of the ship with a floating bar that goes up and down three decks. There’s a parade there on the last night of the cruise. It has shops like Kate Spade (parents might want to know that).

The ship’s staff: The officers and crew are very nice. If you ask them to do something, they’ll do it. They’ll even play ring toss with you. They are very loyal and don’t get mad. Overall the staff is much nicer to kids than the staff on most other ships.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How to Ace Long-Haul Flights with Young Kids

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When I decided to take my four-year-old son to Asia, the trans-Pacific flight loomed large in my mind. How would we get through 18 hours on a plane?

I needn’t have been so worried about the flight; while there were a few tough moments, we passed the time surprisingly easily. Flying that distance with a baby or toddler would have been much more trying, but by four years old, kids are better able to entertain themselves, and to adhere to expectations of good behavior. So, aside from advising fellow parents not to let a long flight derail their travel plans, here’s what I learned:

Treat the flight as a highlight of the trip, not a chore. Most of us have forgotten the romance of air travel—and for good reason. Kids, however, are primed to find the idea of soaring through clouds and landing in a new part of the world—in the middle of a new day, even—downright magical. Present the flight as a fun adventure. Tell your kids how lucky they are to get to sleep overnight on the plane; bring pajamas and any other portable parts of their bedtime routine.

For a better chance of having more space, I always book window and aisle seats at the back of the plane. Photo: Ryan Damm

Strategize for more space. I always book window and aisle seats at the back of the plane, leaving the seat between two of us open. These aft middle seats become the least desirable and often go unfilled, giving us more room to stretch out. If another passenger claims the seat, we simply trade them one of our window or aisle spots.

Get to the airport early so you can find ways to burn off your child’s energy. Photo: Ryan Damm

Burn off some energy. Before a long flight, get to the airport extra-early so that your kids will have ample time to run around before boarding. Find an empty gate and set up an obstacle course using the chairs, garbage cans, and whatever else you can find. The more ya-yas you get out on the ground, the fewer you’ll have to deal with in the air.

Establish ground rules. Explain to your kid what constitutes proper plane etiquette. Don’t expect them to automatically know not to speak loudly, rest their feet on the seat in front of them, or take off their seatbelt during turbulence. Balance this with positives: They alone can control the window shade or armrest, for instance.

Don’t act as activity director on the plane. On previous flights, I’ve lugged along a huge bag of toys and activities, most of which go unused. This time, I gave my son unlimited use of the seat-back entertainment system and an iPad (a boon for him, since screen time is very limited at home). This allowed me to be well rested for the trip ahead, and it also trained him to be a much more pleasant flying companion.

Flights don’t have to be a chore: Kids are primed to find the idea of soaring through clouds downright magical. Photo: Ryan Damm

Test before takeoff. I kept my son’s new iPad a surprise until we boarded the plane—a huge mistake, once I realized that several of the movies I thought I’d loaded onto it weren’t working, and many of his favorite apps now had new purchase requirements. Next time, I’ll road test any new devices first.

Bring lots of food. No one likes airplane food, least of all picky kids. My son refused to even uncover one “kids’ meal” that was served to him, based on the odors emanating from under the tinfoil. Bring enough food to keep your kids satiated throughout the flight; The best flight advice I got from Andrea Ross, the Trusted Travel Expert for Southeast Asia who designed my kid-friendly Asia trip, was to pack instant noodles in a cup, to which the flight attendants will happily add water for a hot meal.

What are your tricks for surviving a long flight with children?

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Spring Vacation Idea: Flower Festivals Worth Traveling For

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Massive displays of spring blooms have an irresistible appeal, drawing millions of people to parks and gardens around the world. In Tokyo, several hundred thousand people pass through Ueno Park every day during cherry blossom time, which lasts barely two weeks. And in Holland, Keukenhof Park attracts more than a million visitors during its two-month tulip season.

If you’re also finding yourself drawn to colorful bouquets and floral aromas now that spring is approaching, check out this short list of top flower festivals around the world. The cherry blossoms, tulips, and other spring blooms are all worth traveling for.

Keukenhof Tulip Festival, Holland (March 23–May 21)

Claim to fame: Billed as “the most famous and largest flower park in the world” Keukenhof, near Amsterdam, plants seven million tulip bulbs each year, as well as hyacinths, daffodils, orchids, roses, carnations, irises, lilies and other flowers.

Good to know: The park is accessible by public transportation from Amsterdam. You can order your tickets online and receive them by email. On Saturday, April 22, Holland’s annual parade of flower-bedecked floats and automobiles travels a 42-kilometer route from Noordwijk to Haarlem, passing Keukenhof at around 3:30 p.m. The floats remain on view in Haarlem through Sunday.

More info: Holland.com

Flevoland Tulip Route, Holland (April 14–May 8)

Claim to fame: Central Holland’s 100-kilometer-long “Tulip Route” passes through nearly 2,500 acres of flowering fields in East and South Flevoland, the country’s biggest flower-growing region.

Good to know: You can explore a 19-kilometer portion known as the “Garden Route” by bicycle, stopping at gardens along the way.

More info: Holland.com

Istanbul Tulip Festival (mid-April to late May)

Claim to fame: Begun in 2006, Istanbul’s annual festival boasts more than 14.4 million tulips of 270 different varieties planted along the city’s avenues and throughout parks, squares, and roundabouts.

Good to know: Emirgan Groves, Göztepe Park, and Sultanahmet Square host activities such as live music, glass-blowing demonstrations, and art exhibitions. From the top of Büyük Çamlıca Korusu, you have a great view of the city, surrounded by 500,000 tulips.

More info: HowToInstanbul.com

cherry blossoms in Ueno Park Tokyo Japan

Ueno Park, in Tokyo, is Japan’s most popular cherry-blossom-viewing spot.

Ueno Sakura Matsuri, Tokyo (late March to late April)

Claim to fame: Japan’s most popular cherry-blossom-viewing spot has more than 1,000 cherry trees lining the street that leads toward the National Museum and around Shinobazu Pond, as well as 1,000 lanterns that light up the park at night during cherry-blossom time.

Good to know: Ueno Park is a five-minute walk from JR Ueno Station (Yamanote Line). The Japanese Tourism Office’s countrywide bloom-forecast chart predicts the first blossoms will appear in Tokyo on March 22.

More info: Japan National Tourism Office

Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Tokyo (late March to late April)

Claim to fame: Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, once the samurai residence of the Naito family, has been famous for its cherry trees since the Meiji Era (1868–1912).

Good to know: The garden is a ten-minute walk from JR Shinjuku Station (Yamanote Line), or exit at Shinjuku-gyoen-mae Station (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line).

More info: Japan National Tourism Office

National Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington, D.C. (March 15–April 16)

Claim to fame: The annual festival, which commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the city of Tokyo, welcomes more than 1.5 million people per year. First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two trees on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park.

Good to know: Photographer David Coleman, a D.C. resident, keeps a Facebook page called Cherry Blossom Watch, where you can follow the progress of this season’s buds. The National Park Services defines the “Peak Bloom Date” as the day on which 70 percent of the blossoms of the Yoshino cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin are open. And a tip from the official festival website: “Hop aboard a water taxi to the Tidal Basin from Georgetown (or from the Tidal basin to Georgetown–DC’s shopping and dining hot-spot), and enjoy viewing the blossoms from the water along the way. Tickets are $15 round trip or $10 one way, and must be purchased online in advance from www.DC-Watertaxi.com.”

More info: NationalCherryBlossomFestival.org

Chelsea pensioners look at ‘Peter Beales Roses’ in the Great Pavilion at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London. Photo: RHS/Hannah McKay

RHS Chelsea Flower Show, London (May 23–27)

Claim to fame: Organized by the Royal Horticultural Society, Britain’s most prestigious flower show has been held on the grounds of London’s Royal Hospital Chelsea since 1913. The RHS website advertises the show as “the place to see cutting-edge garden design, new plants and find ideas to take home.” The number of visitors has been capped at 157,000 since 1988.

Good to know: The show sells out quickly and you must purchase tickets in advance; do so via the RHS website. This year’s highlights include the Greening Great Britain Garden, a garden exhibit designed to celebrate plants in urban areas, as well as exhibits from more than 100 of the world’s best florists and nurseries.

More info: rhs.org.uk

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Adventurous, Exotic Travel with Young Kids: It Is Possible

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Having a baby changes everyone. One of the biggest adjustments for me was putting away my passport. I went from visiting three continents in my first six months of pregnancy to managing nothing more exotic than Cabo San Lucas during the first four years of my son’s life—and all-inclusives certainly weren’t going to scratch my travel itch. That’s when I called Andrea Ross and April Cole, two of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts for Southeast Asia. Andrea had raised her kids in Cambodia and traveled with them all over the region. I asked her: Could I have the sort of enriching trip that I longed for—but one that my four-year-old son would also enjoy, not just suffer through? Not only did she assure me that it was possible, Andrea told me she’d plan it, crafting a two-week itinerary that got us to Angkor Wat and Siem Reap, in Cambodia, plus Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An, and Saigon in Vietnam.

Let me be honest: The trip wasn’t all smiles and cooperation, like the Facebook feeds of those friends you envy (appearances can often be deceiving). We probably averaged two tantrums a day, which is definitely higher than the at-home norm for our reasonably mellow kid. But am I happy we went? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Of course—now that I’ve had a few months to recuperate. Here’s my advice for those wanting to travel adventurously with small kids in tow:

A Vietnamese family played their collection of traditional instruments for us in Saigon. Photo: Khoa Nguyen

Book with a Trusted Travel Expert. I’ve done plenty of independent travel. But leaving the planning to Andrea this time meant that I could focus on my family rather than rustling up that night’s hotel confirmation or figuring out how to get from A to B. And having done it all with kids herself, Andrea could anticipate our needs, choosing hotels with truly useful perks (free laundry at Siem Reap’s Unique Boutique), kid-friendly guides, and cultural experiences that we never could have booked on our own, such as meeting a Vietnamese family who played their collection of traditional instruments for us—and then invited our son, Zeke, to bang away on them to his heart’s content.

By building anticipation about our Halong Bay boat trip before we left home, Zeke was thrilled to hop on board when the time came. Photo: Ryan Damm

Build anticipation. Andrea advised us to look at maps with Zeke, borrow books about Southeast Asia from the library, and discuss the itinerary with him. This also helped prep Zeke for the most unfamiliar moments of the trip: While he was initially reluctant to sleep on a boat in Halong Bay, I talked him into it by showing him photos of our junk online, and explaining that he’d be the only kid in his class to have spent a night on a boat. By the time we got there, he was thrilled to hop aboard.

Don’t look to your bucket list for inspiration. Since you probably won’t get to every place worth visiting (see Rule of Four, below), this isn’t the time to fulfill that lifelong dream of seeing Machu Picchu or experiencing the Australian Outback. It is, in fact, a great time to revisit a place that you already love. I’d been to Siem Reap eight years earlier—even stayed at the same hotel—and so everything felt familiar. This made it easier for me to get around with a kid, and to accept that I’d be spending my afternoons at the pool rather than poking around town.

Follow the Rule of Four (or more). At least four nights in each location, that is. Andrea set a quick pace so that we could see all the major highlights of Vietnam; the downside was that we had to spend only one or two nights in several locations in order to squeeze it all in. If I had it to do over again, I’d stick to just two or three destinations and stay in each longer. After our fourth night in Siem Reap, Zeke was finally getting comfortable with our surroundings and the hotel staff—just in time for us to move on.

Help your child create a “Things that Are Different” or “New Things I Tried” book. This brilliant advice came from Andrea, who devised it as a way to turn potential negatives into positives, and to engage kids in really seeing what’s around them. Before we left, Zeke helped pick out a blank Moleskine notebook; during the trip, he drew tuk-tuks and trees on its pages, and dictated stories about houses on stilts and shops without doors. I left pages blank so that I could add photos from each day, and I plan to use the same notebook on our next trip—thus creating a journal of Zeke’s early travels.

Don’t focus on the flights. Long-haul flights are to family travel what diapers are to early parenthood—the thing that feels like it’s going to be a huge deal, but really isn’t. Stay tuned for an upcoming article with my tips on making the best of a long flight with a young kid; in the meantime, rest assured that however distant your destination, the flying time is a small fraction of your overall trip (I say this even after spending almost 38 hours in the air over the course of our two-week trip).

Presidential Palace in Hanoi Vietnam with kids

Zeke plays outside the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. Toys can be helpful for when your kid just doesn’t want to walk through another museum. Photo: Ryan Damm

Don’t skimp on toys. Andrea cautioned me not to pack light with a kid in tow. How I wish I’d taken her advice and brought more to keep Zeke occupied during our downtime. Next trip, I’ll pack a new small toy for each day, which I can bring out for that moment when Zeke doesn’t want to walk through another museum, or when I simply need a rest. Balloons are also great: They’re small and light for packing, and a quick distraction when blown up.

local artist and kid sketching in Mekong Delta

The highlight of the trip was the day we spent in the Mekong Delta, during which Zeke got to help cook puffed rice, make rice paper for spring rolls, and sketch a truck with a local artist. Photo: Ryan Damm

Prioritize doing, not seeing. Interaction is key to a kid’s enjoyment of the trip. Anything we did that allowed Zeke to participate was a hit. The highlight of the trip was the day we spent in the Mekong Delta, during which Zeke got to help cook puffed rice, make rice paper for spring rolls, and sketch a truck with a local artist. Andrea warned me that the experiences she had planned for us there were a bit more touristy than the biking or walking tours she arranges for adults—but taking part in all the local industries was right up Zeke’s alley. Another highlight for him was the Artisans d’Angkor silk farm and workshops in Siem Reap, where he got to finger spider-web-fine threads of silk and take a crack at carving soapstone. When Zeke got bored wandering around yet another ancient temple, simply handing him our camera to take photos bought us another half-hour of happiness.

Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre, Siem Reap Cambodia

To break up temple visits, we stopped at the Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre in Siem Reap. Photo: Ryan Damm

Plan at least one thing each day for the kids. Use that activity as a motivator to get through the rest. When Andrea wanted us to see several smaller, less crowded temples outside the Angkor Wat complex, she sweetened the day for Zeke by adding a stop at the fabulous Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre.

Schedule downtime. Even kids who don’t nap at home will need to rest each afternoon, given the added stimulation of a foreign country. On the days that we failed to make this happen, we paid the price with an extra-cranky kid. Andrea also wisely planned two days at the Hoi An Beach Resort in the middle of our trip, which were essential for all of us to recharge. A bag of sand toys bought from a roadside stand for Zeke, umbrella drinks for my husband and me, and we were once again a happy family.

Gather playground intel. In cities, where your hotel room is bound to be small, you’ll need somewhere to burn off energy. Public spaces dedicated to kids are largely a luxury of the developed world; in Hanoi, when Zeke voiced his displeasure with the city tour we had planned, our guide brought us to Tini World, a play area inside a high-rise mall. Sure, we missed Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the Fine Arts Museum, but we still got to chat about contemporary Vietnamese culture with our guide while Zeke played in the ball pit and painted a ceramic crocodile.

Employ a private driver. The money you’ll spend is well worth it. We could have hired a tuk-tuk to drive us around steamy Angkor Wat—but taking breaks inside our air-conditioned van, with cold towels and icy drinks at the ready, kept Zeke’s energy from flagging and meant that we were able to do more touring. It also allowed us to leave a bag in the vehicle with spare clothes, water, toys, and other in-a-pinch supplies, carrying in my backpack only the essentials (which for us included sunscreen, tissues, and tangerine-scented hand sanitizer—which Zeke would sniff as we strolled through pungent Asian markets).

Don’t push unfamiliar food. So much about being in a foreign country is overwhelming to kids; let them find some comfort in their meals. English menus with a “western food” section? It’s the last thing I’d want in a restaurant when traveling alone, but my first priority with a kid. Be proactive about keeping blood sugar high—if ever there was a time for unlimited quantities of whatever you limit at home (in our case, bread and ice cream), this is it.

Manage your expectations. I went into the trip imagining that Zeke would emerge from his bubble of relative plenty and discover how much less most other kids make do with; instead, Zeke focused on his own deprivations. Let me tell you, it’s humbling to have your kid whine for sparkling water and insist on being carried when you’re surrounded by children whose parents have sent them onto the streets to sell postcards and trinkets for a living.

Bend your parenting rules. Travel with young kids is hard. Cut yourself some slack, whether this means offering unlimited screen time or resorting to bribery. (Zeke often ended up on our shoulders midway through a temple visit. With the promise of a single packet of M&Ms, I got him to walk on his own through all of Banteay Srey.) Don’t worry about setting a bad precedent; children understand that things will go back to normal once you’re home.

Splurge at the end. Through most of our trip, my husband, son, and I were fine with sharing a single room. Early on, it would have been a waste to have a suite, as jet lag was waking Zeke up at night. But by the end of the trip, my husband and I were starved enough for adult time that we tried to sneak out after putting Zeke to bed (a Skype call from laptop to smartphone serving as our baby monitor)—only to find that our hotel’s bar had been taken over by a cruise-ship group for a loud performance. As we gulped down our drinks on our room’s cramped balcony, I vowed to end our next trip in a suite.

At the Artisans d’Angkor silk farm and workshops in Siem Reap, we got to take a crack at carving soapstone. Photo: Ryan Damm

Keep your eyes on the prize. If your main goal is to relax, this isn’t the right kind of trip for your family. But if you want to foster a love of travel in your kids, and a curiosity about the world and all its differences, it’s best to start young. I had to remind myself many times that the goal of our project was to expose Zeke to new things—which doesn’t have to be enjoyable to be worth it. Zeke still talks about our “big trip,” even mentions Cambodia and Vietnam by name. They’re now his touchstone for a part of the world where things are different. And that, to me, is worth everything.

What lessons learned have you learned from traveling to exotic places with young kids? Share your own tips below.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Disclosure: April and Andrea and their partners provided most elements of the writer’s trip (hotels, intra-Asia airfare, guides, ground transportation, and sightseeing entry fees) free of charge. In keeping with WendyPerrin.com standard practice, there was no request for coverage on their part, nor was anything promised on ours. You can read our sponsored travel agreement here.

Italy Vacation Ideas for Every Age

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When it comes to family-friendly destinations, Italy is near the top of the list—and not just because of all the pasta and gelato. Italians simply love kids (but really, is there anything they’re not passionate about?). They’ll welcome your rambunctious toddler into their restaurant, pinch your baby on the cheeks, give your teen all the free samples of local cheeses she can handle.

That said, not every part of Italy is perfect for every age. Here are examples of where you might not want to take your kids, and a better alternative for each.

For beach lovers

Don’t…

Expect a relaxed beach vacation on the Amalfi Coast; all those picturesque cliffs lack childproofing. If your kid isn’t old enough to reliably obey your instructions, you’re sure to be stressed. Plus, the best beaches are always a long walk or a boat ride away from wherever you’re staying.

Instead…

Base yourself in Lucca, and get your sun and sand in the towns of Forte dei Marmi, Pietra Santa, Viareggio, all of which have sandy beaches that gradually give way to gentle surf. Lucca itself is a flat city, and you can easily circumnavigate the old town on bikes without worrying about losing track of the kids.

For city lovers

Venice, Italy. Photo: Leprince/Pixabay

Don’t…

Risk losing your kid in Venice. It’s hard enough for adults to find their way around this maze of a city; imagine trying to retrieve a four-year-old who zipped around a corner ahead of you and now is nowhere in sight.

Instead…

Wait a few years; there’s simply no other place like Venice, and it’s great for families with kids seven and up. Arrive by train, and hustle out of the station first, camera in hand, so you can capture that magical moment when your kids truly grasp a city where the roads are made of water.

For Sporty Families

Lake Como, Italy. Photo: Fototeca ENIT/Gino Cianci

Don’t…

Plan to get around by bike in Tuscany. They’re called hill towns for a reason—you’ll be sweating for your groceries, either with offspring who leave you in the dust or groan about all the hills you’re making them climb.

Instead…

Head to Lake Como for waterskiing, wake-boarding, hiking, canyoning, and plenty of other ways to keep your kids’ veins running with adrenaline. For more mellow multigenerational groups, Mara recommends a kayaking-and-walking day trip from Bellagio, paddling around the point in boats and then re-crossing the peninsula on foot.

For the Overscheduled, Media-Obsessed Teen

Milan italy city center photo by Igor Saveliev Pixabay

Milan, Italy. Photo: Igor Saveliev/Pixabay

Don’t…

Drop your family in the countryside and then pack your days with outings to stave off teenage boredom.

Instead…

Spend an entire week in Milan or Naples, with little on the agenda other than coffee-drinking and people watching. Teens are attracted to things that feel relevant to their lives, and these two modern, vibrant cities fit the bill without feeling overrun by tourists.

For Wine Connoisseurs

Outdoor dining. Photo: Homebase Abroad

Don’t…

Pack your days with vineyard visits, even if there are bocce courts or hobby horses to keep your kids occupied at the wineries. Travel as a way to bring families together, not separate them.

Instead…

Do as the locals would, and don’t drink without food—an excellent example to set for kids, by the way. The right trip designer can arrange for a sommelier and chef to come to your villa and present a menu of local dishes paired with regional wines. The sommelier will help you understand how the two go together, and their guidance can be calibrated to any level of experience.

For a WOW trip in an Italian villa or estate for a groups large and small, Ask Wendy.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

What Really Makes a Hotel Kid Friendly

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Listen up hotels! I’ve stayed at a lot of you, and some of you are definitely more kid-friendly than others. I’ve written before about things that could be improved at specific hotels (the Sonnenalp in Vail, the Mauna Lani in Hawaii and the Four Seasons Bora Bora), but since readers of my Travel Babbo blog have given me feedback as well, I want to create a comprehensive list of everything you need to do in order to be a kid-friendly dream hotel. If you already meet the criteria on this list, please get in touch with me! I really, really want to find the perfect hotels and resorts for families. And if this list does not represent things that you currently do, on behalf of families everywhere, we would love for you to implement them. Without further ado, my dream hotel checklist:

1) Rooms that can accommodate two parents with two, three or four kids. I don’t expect every room to be able to do this, but it would be great if hotels had at least a few rooms designed for families. And if your rooms can accommodate only four people total, please have connecting rooms! It’s not convenient to split up when we’re on vacation together. And it’s really not convenient when we’re given two rooms two floors apart, as happened at the ACHAT Plaza Zum Hirschen in Salzburg.

Mauna Lani hotel in Hawaii by Travel Babbo

At the Mauna Lani in Hawaii. The patio of one of our connecting rooms. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

2) Easy booking for families of five or more. Go to any hotel website and click on Reservations. Now tell me if it’s clear how many people their rooms can sleep. Still looking for a site that provides that information up-front? So am I. On most hotel sites it’s difficult to find out the maximum number of guests per room, but then they expect you to know that figure before searching for reservations. A lot of hotels have at least some rooms/suites that can accommodate five or six people. But when you go to a website like the Grand Wailea‘s and try to get a room for two adults and four children (an option in their drop-down menus), you immediately get an error message stating that no rooms are available and that six guests “may exceed the occupancy limit.” So it’s up to you to guess whether that means that there aren’t any rooms that meet your guest numbers or any rooms available at all. It’s then back to the search screen to try again with multiple rooms and different numbers of adults/kids in each room, now guessing as to how to divide up the family into two rooms.

I would LOVE for hotels to have a note on their booking screens that details the maximum number of people that their rooms can accommodate. As it is, I usually have to search through the room descriptions, and then more often than not I have to email the hotel to see if a “max of four people per room” includes small children. Basically, I want easier booking!

3) A family rate. If you’re going to ask us to split up into two rooms, connecting or not, please offer a discount for the second room. And please, please, please do not tie it to your highest rack rates that are never really charged to guests. I see this all the time. Hotels always have specials: bed and breakfast rates; fourth night free; seasonal promotions. Then sometimes they offer a family rate for a second room, but it’s never a discount off of the other specials. For example, the Four Seasons Bora Bora used to offer a fourth night free (which worked out to 25% off) or a second bungalow at 50% off. But if you chose the 50% off, you no longer received the fourth night free. So while it’s nice that they had a family rate, in actuality it worked out to roughly the same as the other specials, and nowhere near the 50% savings advertised since guests wouldn’t have been paying the full price anyway. (Math: A $1,000 bungalow discounted for a free fourth night, assuming you are staying four nights, means an average nightly rate of $750, or a 25% discount. Two $1,000 rooms for four nights with 50% off the second room means a total charge of $6,000, or, wait for it, $750 a night—the same as the other special. So there’s no real family discount, unless you are staying for a number of nights not divisible by four.)

I get that hotels have an economic incentive to maximize revenue and to only offer one discount per room. But what if you think of it as a marketing expense? If you provide families with better rates, that means happier parents who are more likely to make return visits. And when kids make multiple visits to a hotel growing up (our kids stayed at the Mauna Lani in Hawaii eight straight years), guess where they’re going to want to return with their kids someday?

4) Something at check-in for kids. Colored pencils. Coloring books. Beach balls. Beach toys. Stuffed animals. I’ve seen it all when checking into hotels, and our kids have loved all of it. When they get something at check-in, not only does it give them something to occupy themselves with and enhances the vacation, it also makes them feel welcome and it gives them a connection to the hotel.

Stuffed bears from FAO Schwarz were a huge hit with my kids at the St. Regis Aspen. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

5) Proactive recommendations for kid-friendly things to do. It’s not always easy to find great lists of kid-friendly activities online. I would love to automatically receive a sheet or twofrom a hotel detailing the nearest parks, playgrounds, aquariums, kid museums, kid-friendly cooking classes and other local things that families have rated highly. It wouldn’t require more than a few hours of work from the concierge to create and maintain the list, and it would enhance the visit of every family. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I ask the concierge for ideas of local things to do with kids and the concierge directs me to the hotel’s kids club (yes, this has happened more than once).

My daughter sketching in the travel journal she got at check-in at the Westin Times Square by Travel Babbo

My daughter sketching in the travel journal she got at check-in at the Westin Times Square. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

6) A little extra space in the rooms. Families of young kids may need to set up Pack’n Plays. Most families have extra luggage. And there’s always going to be in-room down time when you don’t want to be crammed into the room with very little extra room. I understand that hotels can’t magically make their rooms larger, and I fully appreciate that historical hotels typically sacrifice space for character. I’m just saying that it’s great to have rooms that are a little more spacious.

7) A kid-friendly pool and hot tub. Obviously this isn’t applicable to all hotels. But if you have a pool and you want to attract families, have a shallow section in the main pool. And have either a separate hot tub for families, or allow kids to use the main hot tub without keeping it way too hot. Basically, look at your pool from the perspective of families and see if it’s somewhere that they would really want to spend a day, and where parents can let their younger kids play in the pool without necessarily being in there with them (but still supervising, of course). And please don’t force us to show armbands or room cards to get towels. At any hotel, big or small, I want to be seen as guests and not as room numbers.

8) A Kids Club that’s open all day with no extra charge. Please don’t make families pay $50–$100 a day, and commit to a whole day, for kids club activities. This is one of my favorite elements of Four Seasons and Rosewood resorts. Kids can get out of the sun and stop in and do crafts, play games or watch a movie when they want, or go on excursions around the hotel with club staff. Our kids usually don’t want to be there for more than an hour or two at a time, and we usually don’t know in advance when they’re going to want to do that, so flexibility on the part of the kids club is a must. Hotels can’t think of kids clubs only as places for parents to check their kids in for a full day; club rooms should also be areas for kids of any age to relax out of the sun for a little while.

Playing complimentary pinball at the Four Seasons Orlando Resort. by Travel Babbo

Playing complimentary pinball at the Four Seasons Orlando Resort. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

9) Easy food options for kids. I love when a hotel has a casual restaurant with a great menu and a (for backup) kids menu. Or if there is a nicer restaurant, have a casual section—maybe outside—for families. It’s great when the kids can run around a little while waiting for dinner to come, and always nice to have an option to pick things up and bring them back to the room if you don’t feel like dining out.

The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs by Travel Babbo

Enjoying wine while the kids run off and play at Ristorante Del Lago at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

10) An easy/inexpensive laundry option. At a lot of hotels the only laundry option is The List. You know The List—it’s in the closet attached to a plastic or canvas sack, and it indicates that the hotel will wash your pants for only $5 and your socks for only $2. That’s not family-friendly! Kids get dirty. Some hotels provide free washers and dryers, which we took advantage of at the Mauna Lani and Four Seasons Bora Bora this year. Others provide coin-operated machines, which is still fine. I’d love for more hotels to provide access to machines, or at least to have an option to have a load of laundry cleaned for a reasonable price—say $15. And knowing that you’ll have access to laundry at your hotel makes packing that much easier.

The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah in Bali has the most family-friendly laundry service that I’ve seen. The hotel will wash six things a day per person for free. Even when we forgot to place dirty clothes in the laundry bag in the morning, we would find them washed and folded for us that evening. How cool is that?

A kid-sized bicycle at the Sonesta Hilton Head. by Travel Babbo

A kid-sized bicycle at the Sonesta Hilton Head. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

11) Kid-sized things. It’s great when hotels have kid-sized robes for us in the rooms. And it’s also nice to have sinks at a height that’s good for adults but also reachable by kids. At most hotels our five-year-old can reach the sink, even if it’s on tip-toes, to brush her teeth or wash her hands. But we’ve been to some hotels where the kids are forced to (unsafely) turn over trashcans as improvised steps just to reach the sinks.

12) An overall kid-friendly vibe. Last, but not least, I want to feel like our (well-behaved) kids are welcome. You can be the nicest, most formal hotel in the world, and your staff can still treat kids like valued guests and not like potential nuisances. I love when staff members go out of their way to talk to our kids and ask about their vacations, or give suggestions of things to do the next day. This can be housekeepers or managers or pool staff—anyone who comes into contact with the kids. I’ve stayed at large resort hotels where the staff weren’t overly friendly, and at European city hotels where the staff just had great interactions with the kids and which, in turn, made it more fun to return to the hotel in the evenings.

Three kid-sized robes waiting for us at the Rosewood Mayakoba by Travel Babbo

Three kid-sized robes waiting for us at the Rosewood Mayakoba, in perfect lengths for my kids. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

Those are the top twelve things I’m looking for in kid-friendly hotels. What have I missed? What would you include? What hotels have you found that meet all of those criteria?

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Meet our writer

Eric Stoen, the founder of Travel Babbo, travels around the world constantly with his three kids. Wendy met him when he won Condé Nast Traveler’s Dream Trip Contest a few years ago and was so impressed with his travel savvy that she invited him to contribute to WendyPerrin.com.

How Disney’s New Ticket Prices Will Impact Your Family Vacation

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Disney made two announcements last week that will affect trips to Disney World and Disneyland. We checked in with Susan Kelly, Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for Disney trips, to learn more about how these changes could impact any family vacations you may be planning to the happiest place on earth.

The first news was that annual passholder rates have gone up and benefits have changed. “Now visitors have options between different levels of passes at different price points,” Susan explains. “The most expensive Platinum Pass includes parking, park hopping, a photo pass, and no blackout dates.” Conversely, the least expensive option has blackout dates and excludes the extra perks.

These passes are geared toward visitors who go to Disney a lot, Susan points out, so the change might not affect you at all if you’re planning a one-off family vacation.

The second announcement will have a greater impact if or when it is eventually implemented: surge pricing. When demand for tickets is highest (holidays, school breaks), tickets will be most expensive; when demand is lowest, tickets will be cheaper.

“The current park admission model has everyone paying the same flat rate to enter the parks,” Susan explains. “A four-day pass is the same price, no matter when those four-day visits occur. The new pricing being considered will have different prices for each day, based on what season and what day of the week you visit. A visit to Magic Kingdom on the Saturday of Christmas week will be more expensive than a visit on a Wednesday in early September. You will save by visiting on weekdays and designated off weeks.”

One reason cited by Disney for this potential change—apart from the obvious goal of making more money—is crowd control; the theory is that cheaper tickets offered at low-peak times will help spread out the high peaks and valleys of visitor numbers throughout the year. “Hopefully it will do something to alleviate the crowds,” Susan says. “The number-one question travelers ask us is: ‘When can I go when it is not busy?’”

And how can families still make a Disney vacation affordable? It’s all about planning: “You will save more the longer you visit,” explains Susan. “It’s the family visiting for only one or two days that pays the most per day. There is the opportunity to save up to 45 percent on park admission if you visit for more days. Knowing that, it’s smartest to plan for one big trip. It is better to visit once for eight nights than to do two shorter visits of four nights each.”

Susan also recommends taking advantage of any promotions that Disney runs. “Part of our free service is that we keep our ears to the track on discounts as they are released, and we work to apply them to existing reservations. If there are no discounts available at the resort the traveler booked, we give them the option to move to where there is a savings.”

Your best strategy? Reach out to Susan to book your Disney vacation for the smartest dates. (She knows when they are.) And keep in mind that if the only time your family can travel is during a peak week, and you hate crowds, Disney might not be the right place for your family at that time.

“I think that one hand of Disney is trying to find ways to manage the crowds by providing a financial incentive to visit during ‘off’ times,” Susan says, “but the other hand has over-built and over-promised that ‘magical’ experience. You can’t skip down Main Street with 25,000 people in your way!”

Remember also that Disney can be so expensive on some dates that it might actually be more affordable to take your family overseas! For ideas, check out our list of European Cities that Are Surprisingly Kid-Friendly and contributor Eric Stoen’s guide to a perfect family vacation in Paris.

Florence Can Be Kid-Friendly: Just Follow These Tips

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When I won Condé Nast Traveler’s Dream Trip contest three years ago, it was based on my essay about wanting to take my kids to Florence, a city I loved but that I didn’t think of as kid-friendly. Wendy and her WOW List expert Maria Landers crafted a great two-week trip for us—so great that Florence quickly became our family’s favorite destination, and we’ve now returned to the city every summer since the prize trip.

My advice to families heading to Florence for the first time? Embrace what Florence is known for—namely art, architecture, history and food. Here are my recommendations for how best to do that with kids:

Embrace the Art

visiting Pitti Palace with kids Florence Italy

Our guide Elvira (arranged through CIU Travel) showing our kids the art of the Pitti Palace. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

Art is everywhere in Florence—in the public squares, in the museums, and even on street signs. Our kids loved the Bargello, Academia, and Uffizi Museums with Elvira, our extraordinary guide arranged by Concierge of Umbria. At each museum we were able to skip the long lines and we had decidedly kid-friendly tours, focusing on lesser-known important pieces, as well as the major works. We never spent more than an hour in any museum, and every stop involved not only seeing the art but also interacting with it. Elvira arranged scavenger hunts and sketching sessions for us around town. After my kids saw David, they went out to patio of the Academia and drew photos of what they thought Goliath looked like. And our private tour through the Uffizi’s Vasari Corridor was extraordinary. Our kids still remember the corridor above their heads every time they cross the Ponte Vecchio.

We’ve also done private art sessions. Paul Bennett, another Trusted Travel Expert on Wendy’s WOW List,, set up a fresco making session with a Florentine artist. And through Arte al Sole the kids had a sketching class combined with a scavenger hunt through the Boboli Gardens. The best thing about the Arte al Sole class? We, the parents, weren’t involved at all. We dropped the kids off with their art expert Andi and picked them up three hours later at the entrance to the gardens. It’s the only time we’ve separated from the kids in Europe and they loved it!

Embrace the Architecture

The Palazzo Vecchio in Florence reflected in a puddle. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

My favorite way to get the kids to appreciate the architecture of Florence? Climbing to the top of the Duomo. Buy tickets in advance across the street, get there early and enjoy! And don’t fall for this “private tour” scam.

This year we also added in a scavenger-hunt-with-a-twist through the city using cards from Tava Adventures. The cards are for kids and show the major sites of the city, like the Uffizi, Santa Croce, and the Duomo, along with some games for the kids to play during downtime. But since our kids had been to Florence several times they already knew the information on the cards, so we tested the kids by letting them lead us to each site in the city based on the cards. That challenged their navigation skills and memory (and our patience a little!) but they got us to all of the sites successfully.

The last thing that we do is to make an annual visit to Piazzale Michelangelo above the city. It’s a great place to enjoy the sunset, but we let the kids point out to us all of the elements of the skyline so that they remember, for example, the difference between the churches of San Lorenzo, Santa Croce, and Santa Maria Novella. The Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and Ponte Vecchio are all visible from there as well.

Embrace the History

Flag throwing with the Bandierai degli Uffizi, Florence Italy

Flag throwing with the Bandierai degli Uffizi. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

History is obviously intertwined with art and architecture, but there are some excellent museums that are more historical than artistic—like the Bardini, Galileo and Stibbert museums—that our kids really enjoyed. We also had a great visit to the Torrigiani Gardens with Elvira and Maria, which included a tour of the gardens (Europe’s largest private garden) by the owner of the property and a private demonstration by the Bandierai degli Uffizi, one of the most prestigious flag carrying/throwing groups. Such a cool afternoon, all rooted in Florence’s history.

Take walks with one or more of the kids at sunrise; you’ll have the city to yourselves. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

My favorite thing to do in Florence, sometimes with one of the kids and sometimes by myself, is to walk around the city right at sunrise. There are a few locals out but very few tourists, and it’s amazing to have all of the sites virtually to myself. I love standing in the middle of the Piazza della Signoria, closing my eyes and thinking about the Medici, artists, and others who have walked through that exact spot. Florence isn’t particularly enjoyable in the middle of a summer day with hordes of tourists and day-trippers off of cruise ships, but early in the day, as the sun is rising and the city is coming to life, it’s magical.

Embrace the Food

Become a regular at a restaurant during your trip and you’ll soon be treated like family. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

We love the food in Florence. Every year we return to our favorite restaurants and also make a point of trying new places. Even when we don’t love a trattoria we rarely have a bad meal. My primary dining advice to people when traveling to Europe applies in Florence just like it does in Paris or anywhere else: become locals! If you find a place that you love, go back again and again. You’ll find the service is completely different when the staff recognizes you and appreciates that you’ve returned. We typically eat at our favorite casual place three times a summer. The staff remembers us even when we haven’t visited in 11½ months and greets us with handshakes and hugs. We sometimes get a local discount. And this year we were given a bottle of our favorite wine as we were leaving the final time. The restaurant is barely in the top 50 percent of Florentine restaurants on TripAdvisor, but to us it has some of the best food in the city and the service is great. Find your own favorite place and go back again and again! I promise it’s worth it.

A cooking class is a great way to introduce kids to local cuisine, and to continue the memories once you get home. Photo: Eric Stoen/Travel Babbo

Beyond restaurants, we’ve done many cooking classes in and around the city. We’ve learned how to make pizza, gelato and pasta. We’ve made chocolate, tiramisu and salads. We’ve cooked chicken, pork and zucchini flowers using only local ingredients. Every cooking experience has been excellent and our kids have loved every minute. Maria and CIU Travel set up several of the cooking classes for us. We’ve also found others through TripAdvisor—simply search for Florence, and then go to Things to Do and choose Classes and Workshops and then Cooking Classes in the menu on the left (here’s my full guide on how to use TripAdvisor to find great things to do). Our last class was extraordinary, through Let’s Cook with Jacopo and Anna, but there are a lot of highly-ranked classes.

Overall, we’ve found Florence to be extraordinarily kid-friendly, but it’s kid-friendly because we’ve gone out of our way to find family-friendly guides who make the art and history of Florence come alive, and we’ve made walking around and sightseeing highly interactive. Food is no longer something to order; it’s something to learn how to make, and then to build on that when we get home. Take your kids to Florence! But do it right.

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6 Great American Road Trips

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The end of summer is the perfect time for a road trip. They’re the ultimate feeling of freedom: just you and the open road, and maybe some friends and family in the backseat.

Over the past few weeks, Wendy has been hand-picking the coolest American road trips, so that no matter where you are in the country, it’ll be easy for you to get in the car and drive.

In case you missed her all-American itineraries, we’re sharing them again here. Find your route and hit the road!

Midwest
America’s Great River Road will steer you all the way from Canada to the Gulf Coast, passing through country dotted with historic villages, wineries, wildlife, and sweeping vistas. Wendy recommends the section that runs along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, starting in Minneapolis.

Northeast
Pop in an audio book and cruise through the country’s literary past. In New England you’ll find historic sites related to some of our best writers and philosophers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson.

Northwest
Drive through Oregon and you’ll get the best of two trips all rolled up into one: a relaxing meander through the Willamette Valley’s wine country, and an invigorating exploration of the natural beauty —and adventure sports—of the Cascade Mountains.

South
You can’t explore the South without stopping for some good BBQ. So why not make that the theme of your next road trip? Start in Blue Ridge, Georgia, for some hickory-smoked ribs at Joe’s BBQ, voted the No. 1 BBQ joint in America by TripAdvisor readers. Then stop frequently to fill up (and nap) as you eat your way through Nashville, St. Louis, and Kansas City.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park California

The drive through California’s Anza-Borrego Desert is beautiful in February and March, when the wildflowers bloom. Photo: Visit California

Southern California
Summer isn’t the ideal season for every road trip. The drive through the Anza-Borrego Desert’s buttes, canyons, and badlands is best in February and March, when the wildflowers bloom, and is also great in November, when deals abound.

Southwest
Make a loop from Albuquerque back to Albuquerque, stopping in Santa Fe and Taos, and you’ll hit the best that New Mexico has to offer—mesas, museums, margaritas, and art markets, as Wendy puts it. Check out her full itinerary and start planning!

What’s your favorite American road trip?

I Can’t Believe We Did This: Mountain Climbing in Whistler

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“In Whistler we’re doing the Via Ferrata,” Wendy announced proudly. Sounds good, I thought. Must be like “doing” Las Ramblas in Barcelona. But with an Italian twist. Never having been to Whistler, I pictured some street lined with cappuccino and gelato shops and small tables for people-watching. “Not exactly,” she said. “Via Ferrata means ‘iron way’ in Italian. You use iron rungs drilled into the rock face to climb a mountain. We’ll be climbing Whistler Mountain.”

Wait. What? Wendy had signed the family up to climb a rock face? The boys would love it, of course—they’d bungee jump from a moving space shuttle if they could. But I had just had total knee replacement surgery six months earlier. And, while I love Wendy, her rock-climbing abilities are minimal. Did we really need to climb Whistler Mountain? A chairlift goes right to the summit. Whose idea was this anyway? “Steve Ogden from Tourism Whistler.”

Please note that if I, and not Steve, had suggested Wendy climb a mountain, my compos mentis would have been called into question and proceedings to institutionalize me started. But Steve from Tourism Whistler had suggested it. And the Via Ferrata is one of the mountain’s best-kept secrets; very few locals have heard of it. So, of course, Wendy was willing to try it. Anything for a story.

The group ahead of us (at lower left) is dwarfed by the mountain. Photo: Timothy Baker

And so, on a perfect mountain afternoon, we met our guide, Josh Majorossy, at the Whistler Alpine Guides headquarters a little above Whistler Mountain’s Roundhouse Lodge complex (elevation 6,069 feet). I saw a group returning from the morning climb and, trying to glean a little intel, asked how it was. “Brilliant,” they delivered in a British accent. Okay. But is there anything I should know about it? “It was just brilliant.” Thanks.

Josh was an extremely patient and laid-back fellow—a professional mountain guide who does the climb twice a day and has led hundreds of groups. He assured me that my knee would be fine. He assured Wendy that mountain-climbing novices of only average fitness can do this. “If you can climb a ladder, you can climb the mountain.”

After waiver signing (a popular Whistler tourist activity), we each got kitted up with a hard hat and a harness with two lanyards and carabiners, and we had a brief safety chat. Safety rule #1: One of your lanyards and carabiners must be attached to the safety cable at all times. Rule #2: Yell “Rocks!” if any are dislodged. Rule #3: When someone above you yells “Rocks!,” don’t look up. Rule #4: Only one person at a time can be attached to a segment of safety cable; that way, if you stumble and fall, you won’t take out the people below you.

Earlier in the season, when snow is present, you traverse the snow to the spot where the rungs start. In early August, though—when we did it—you hike down and back up again to the trail. The hike down was a simple walk, but the hike up was actually what mountain climbers call “scrambling.”

Carrying a broken ski pole he found, Doug scrambles through a crack in the rock. Photo: Timothy Baker

Scrambling is climbing and clambering over rocks freestyle, with no set trail. The boys were in boy heaven. I was worried because we weren’t to the beginning of the safety cable just yet. If they fell, other rocks would break their fall.

Wendy is more at home in the canyons of Manhattan than scrambling up a mountain peak. Photo: Timothy Baker

In the distance, we could see the group ahead of us. So we could see where we were expected to go. Up there? Really?

Charlie stops for a little natural refreshment. Photo: Timothy Baker

At the starting point of the climb came our first gut check. There were several aluminum ladders attached via cables to the mountain and going almost straight up.

Our first gut check. Josh leads the way up the ladder to the start of the trail. Photo: Timothy Baker

Each of us clipped both our lanyards to the first safety cable. We started the climb, leap-frogging one set of lanyards and carabiners over the other every six feet or so past where the cable was anchored.

Doug climbs the first series of rungs. Photo: Timothy Baker

As Dad, I was constantly watching everyone’s lanyards to make sure that the carabiners had properly attached and closed. If one of us were to stumble and fall, we would fall only as far as the next safety-cable anchor.

A natural ledge makes a perfect place for Charlie to use panorama mode. Photo: Timothy Baker

On several occasions we witnessed natural rock slides: Steamer-trunk-sized boulders, probably loosened by the weight and thawing of the snow and ice, broke off the mountain peak and slid down the snow chute well away from our vertical trail.

Back on the climb. Photo: Timothy Baker

The rungs themselves are not actually iron. They’re steel rebar inserted into holes drilled into the rock and epoxied in place. (“Via Rebar” just doesn’t sound exotic enough for marketing.) The experience is sometimes like climbing a ladder, but sometimes the rungs are at uneven intervals, or are offset, or both. In several spots there were no rungs at all, as there were natural handgrips and footholds in the rock. Josh challenged us to try not to use the rungs if we could use the natural rock (while still attached to the safety line, of course). The boys took the challenge whenever they could. Wendy did not.

There were a couple of tricky sections (called “technical” by real mountain climbers) where a bit of reach was needed to grab the rungs. On the toughest section, it was a little like a game of Twister. (Left foot blue. Right hand blue.) In that section Wendy needed encouragement from Josh (and his climbing rope).

Mountain guide Josh gives Wendy a little physical encouragement. Photo: Timothy Baker

If the toes of Doug’s shoes give out, I’m wearing him. Photo: Timothy Baker

From below, we could see the early group on the last section of the climb. Photo: Timothy Baker

Wendy uses a natural foothold where there weren’t any rungs. Photo: Timothy Baker

We probably took a little more time than most groups because I didn’t want to unnecessarily stress my knee or my wife. The final “push” to the top of the trail—at 7,160 feet—was straight up. As we cleared the top of the trail, it was a little weird to see all the people who had ridden the chairlift up.

The summit. The views were our reward. Photo: Timothy Baker

Typically we are them: mere passengers in our adventure travels. This time, though, we had gotten up there the hard way—and it gave us a sense of accomplishment that is rare. We also felt relief that (1) we were coming back with the same number of (un-mangled) kids we’d started with. (2) I didn’t need to be winched off the mountain because of my knee. (3) None of my cameras had smashed into the rocks. This was Alpine Climbing 101 and a great introduction to a sport I will never take up.

In the end, the Via Ferrata turned out to be a wonderful family experience—and probably yielded our 2015 Christmas card photo. Yes, we had sore muscles, but we were able to soothe them that night with umbrella drinks in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s hot tubs.

From now on, when we hear of a ski or mountain-bike competition at Whistler, we’ll smile to ourselves and think: We conquered that mountain!

Need to know:

Via Ferrata can be found all over the world.

Bring a wide-angle lens and wear your camera strap so that the camera won’t smash against the rocks.

Bring a light jacket or windbreaker. The weather can get a little chilly at the summit, even when it’s warm down in the valley.

Hiking boots are very useful, but 11-year-old Doug had no problems with a harder soled sport shoe.

Long pants are a good idea. They can handle scrapes better than your skin.

Go at your own pace. Take the afternoon trip so you are not worried about holding up another group. You may want to hire a guide for a private tour.

Bring a bottle of water. If the streams are running, empty out the bottle and refill with that delicious water.

We left our sandals and comfortable shoes at the Alpine Guides hut. Nice to get off our boots and put those on after the climb.

Light gloves are suggested. The safety cable can have a few burrs in it, and you may find yourself grabbing it.

Use the bathroom before you start.

Don’t forget to enjoy the magnificent panoramas.

Would You Take the Plunge Into an Icelandic Volcano?

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Note from Wendy: During our Iceland adventure last month, while I made a day trip to Greenland, Tim and the kids ventured deep down inside a volcano. Here, Tim describes the experience—and his advice for anyone thinking of trying it.

Like adventure? How about being lowered the equivalent of 40 floors—in a window washer’s scaffold—into a volcano in Iceland? Never mind that its last eruption was 4,000 years ago and some scientists say there is no such thing as an extinct volcano. Or that Iceland is one of the most active volcano and earthquake zones in the world, and earthquakes could dislodge rocks onto the visitors below. Or that, if the power goes out or there is a malfunction with the scaffold, you’ll be stuck down there in the dark. Still interested? For this five-hour experience, they charge more than $300 per person.

If those facts haven’t deterred you—as they didn’t deter us—then maybe a trip Inside the Volcano is an adventure for you. Located a short drive from downtown Reykjavik, and across from the town’s closest ski resort, is the Thrihnukagigur volcano and the Inside The Volcano experience.

After a bus ride from our Reykjavik hotel, we took a 40-minute hike through lava fields to the basecamp. The path is rocky, and we needed to watch each step, but it’s a reasonably flat trek to the basecamp.

We hiked along this gravel trail to the volcano. Photo: Timothy Baker

Arriving at the basecamp, Doug tries to take a photo of a young Arctic fox as the fox plays with his camera strap. Photo: Timothy Baker

At the basecamp, we were outfitted with a hard hat; a harness, carabiners, and a lanyard to keep us from falling out of the elevator system; and a safety briefing (that assumed everything would be fine). Our favorite part of the safety briefing was learning to avoid the “iPhone Drop Zone”—meaning, the area directly under the scaffolding. It seems people using their iPhones as cameras tend to lose their grip on the device and…oops!

Charlie gets geared up at basecamp. Photo: Timothy Baker

Properly geared and trained (?), we walked the final push up the hill to the top of the volcano. A steel structure spans the 20-foot mouth of the volcano, and the scaffolding and loading ramp hang beneath it.

The final climb from basecamp to the entrance to the volcano is a little steep. Photo: Timothy Baker

Even in the middle of July, there was still some snow on the ground. Photo: Timothy Baker

We strapped onto a safety line to walk the plank to the scaffold, then re-clipped the line to the scaffold itself. Along with a lift operator and five guests, we took deep breaths and secretly prayed that now was not the time for one of those frequent Icelandic earthquakes!

Doug is the first of our group to walk the plank to the window washer’s scaffold. Photo: Timothy Baker

The scaffold can hold six to seven people. Photo: Timothy Baker

The ride down is a slow and steady seven-minute crawl. Wheels on the scaffold that would ordinarily be pressed against the side of a building are needed only for the first couple of meters of rock before you are dangling free of the walls. Nerves can be frayed here (especially after a small unexpected jolt on the scaffold), but already the lights on the scaffold are illuminating the extremely colorful rock walls and a blackened lava tube inside the volcano.

The feeling of being lowered on a window washer’s scaffold into a dark hole is a cross between sheer terror and exhilaration. Photo: Timothy Baker

The wheels of the window washer’s scaffold that would normally rest against a building rest against rock on the narrowest part of the trip. Photo: Timothy Baker

From the outside, the volcano looks more like a mound than a classic volcano. But on the inside, it is shaped more like a giant jug. You enter through a small neck at the top of the jug and pass through several meters of the narrow neck before opening into the massive magma chamber. We felt the air cool. Inside, the temperature is always in the low 40s Fahrenheit.

The main cavern comes into view. Photo: Timothy Baker

Doug checks out the view straight up. A rounded Plexiglas roof keeps rain and small rocks from dropping onto you from the surface. Photo: Timothy Baker

Thrihnukagigur is an exceptional volcano. Most volcanoes fill up with their own lava and harden. But Thrihnukagigur either emptied its lava or the lava sunk back into the earth and left the chamber exposed.

About 400 feet from the top, the scaffolding stops. We were struck by the sheer size and beauty of the place. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen—and, when I travel, I’m always on the lookout for things I’ve never seen. The Statue of Liberty could easily fit inside this volcano. Another way to appreciate the scale of the chamber is to watch the lift system return for the next batch of visitors as a gauge to the size of the chamber.

We start our exploration at the bottom of the main chamber as the lift goes back for more people. Photo: Timothy Baker

The lift enters the neck of the volcano. Photo: Timothy Baker

Floodlights illuminate the rock walls without overpowering the entire scene. This is a cathedral of geology. The rock walls are like giant fractals, with vivid patches of greens, blues, yellows, reds, oranges and golds. And every shade of black. It’s like looking at minerals through a powerful microscope, except that these minerals are the size of cars. Our guide told us the colors were caused by the extreme heat of the eruption superheating the naturally occurring minerals.

The scale and colors of the main chamber are breathtaking. Photo: Timothy Baker

Scorched walls of the chamber indicate extreme temperatures that were there thousands of years ago. Photo: Timothy Baker

The next batch of visitors arrive at the bottom. Photo: Timothy Baker

The footing is a little treacherous, so we didn’t stray too far. We couldn’t just wander about without watching our every step because of loose rocks (probably rocks that fell to the bottom during the last earthquake). Ropes mark some of the trails and the no-go “iPhone Drop Zone”. With the floodlights directed to the walls and the small light on our helmets, we could see the floor. But only dimly.

Our time at the bottom was only about 30 minutes and went by in flash. We all wished we could have spent much longer. We re-boarded the scaffolding for the ascent and were soon back on terra firma. Well, as firma as Iceland gets!

Charlie checks out our ascent. Its 400 feet straight up to daylight. Photo: Timothy Baker

Charlie unclips from the safety line on the plank. Photo: Timothy Baker

While we were down inside the volcano, two helicopters bringing more travelers had parked near the basecamp. The helicopter ride, while much more expensive, is a great time saver for those on a short airport layover and is also an option for those who can’t do the 6km hike to the basecamp and back.

At the basecamp we were given traditional hot Icelandic meat (sheep) soup to help take the chill off the low-40s temps inside the volcano and the coolness of a cloudy Icelandic summer day.

Also at the basecamp, we got a chance to get close to and even hold a young Arctic fox that had adopted the base as its home. I don’t know how much longer it will be before its teeth and claws grow to a point where you won’t want to hold it and it doesn’t want to be held.

The highlight of the experience for the boys was holding the young Arctic fox. Geez, I hope they remember something when they study volcanoes in science class. Photo: Timothy Baker

Doug found a stick for the fox to gnaw on. Photo: Timothy Baker

Doug explores a collapsed lava tube on the walk back. Photo: Timothy Baker

After turning in our gear, spending time with the fox, and warming up with the soup, we started our 40-minute walk back to the main road for the ride home, stopping to learn more about the lava field and to explore several lava tubes.

Besides being able to say we were lowered into a volcano in Iceland, it was a truly unique experience and one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, manmade or natural. It was well worth the angst and cost.

Tips:

* You do need to be in reasonable shape to attempt walking round-trip to and from the basecamp. The climb from the basecamp to the volcano is somewhat steep. But just take your time.

* Hiking boots were handy but any harder-soled shoe will work. Doug was fine in his cross-training shoes.

* It is chilly and you may want a fleece. Even in the summer.

* A small flashlight can be handy, especially for adjusting your camera.

* If you have a wide-angle lens, this is a great time to use it.

* If you can set your camera to different scenes, use the night-scene-plus-flash setting.

* You can buy t-shirts and other apparel at the basecamp.

My Extreme Week in Canada: Photos

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I’ve been in British Columbia this past week, being dragged along on every adventure-sport activity you can imagine. My son Doug says he wants to move to Whistler because “everything you could ever want is there.” Of course, that all depends on whether what you want is to climb a mountain peak, speed down an Olympic bobsled run, or scream across the longest zip-line in the U.S. and Canada. Before Whistler, we were in the Discovery Islands, where we soared in helicopters and seaplanes, snorkeled with pink salmon, and fished for chinook.

While I’m not exactly Ms. Extreme Sports, I’ve been enjoying this shot of Canadian adrenaline with my boys. Here’s a look at some of the fun experiences we’ve had this week, along with a few of the mouthwatering B.C. foods we’ve been tasting. I’ll be sharing much more detailed information and advice about all these places and activities soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy these Instagram photos from our trip, and let me know in the comments where your next great adventure will take you!

Helicopter ride up the Strait of Georgia to the Discovery Islands and @sonoraresort.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 28, 2015 at 9:53pm PDT

My biggest tip for @sonoraresort: Bring your long lens. You're in the wild, not in a zoo. Second biggest tip: Don't pack outerwear. The resort provides it all, including Mustang jackets with built-in flotation devices. #travel #adventure #islandlife

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 29, 2015 at 7:37pm PDT

Approach to Campbell River, British Columbia. Thanks, @sonoraresort, for the magical #seaplane ride. #travel #ExploreBC

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 29, 2015 at 11:20pm PDT

Fishing guide Mike from @sonoraresort says hi. He's teaching Doug about the sounder (the GPS/sonar navigation system). It tells us what's below the #boat. #fishing #travel

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 30, 2015 at 11:11am PDT

Caught and released: Pink salmon. About four pounds / 16 inches. (Fishing guide Mike once caught a 50-pound chinook here.) #salmon #fishing #vacation @sonoraresort

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 30, 2015 at 12:17pm PDT

We made it! Greetings from the top of @whistlerblackcomb. #ExploreBC

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 31, 2015 at 11:20am PDT

The New Jersey bobsled team never misses an opportunity to practice. @whistlerblackcomb @slidingcentre

A video posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 31, 2015 at 9:01pm PDT

#Iwasterrified #thekidswanttodoitagain #ViaFerrata #mountainclimbing @whistlerblackcomb @whistlerguides

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Aug 1, 2015 at 7:49pm PDT

"Pie in a Jar" from Portobello, @fairmontwhistlr's deli-café-bakery, at Whistler Farmers' Market. #pie #yum #OnlyInWhistler

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Aug 2, 2015 at 5:51pm PDT

#chocolate #fondue @fairmontwhistlr: #Nirvana

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Aug 2, 2015 at 10:23pm PDT

Here's Doug about to zip down @ziptrek's Sasquatch line at @whistlerblackcomb. At 1.6 miles, it's the longest #zipline in Canada and the U.S.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Aug 3, 2015 at 2:54pm PDT

Answer: Five of them.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Aug 3, 2015 at 10:43pm PDT

Boy oh boy are the boys going to miss Whistler and all the zipping and soaring and swinging and sporting. There's so much that's #OnlyInWhistler. We'll just have to come back!

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Aug 4, 2015 at 5:19pm PDT

Where In the World Am I? Follow Along on My Surprise Birthday Trip

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Last night my husband, Tim, bundled me and the kids off to the airport for a surprise trip. I was told to pack—hard to do when you don’t know where you’re going—and the only clues Tim gave me to work with were: I needed my passport, swimsuit, Gore-Tex parka, and hiking boots.

This isn’t my first surprise trip. Ten years ago, when the boys were toddlers, Tim whisked me away on a romantic ski trip to Andorra. That was our first vacation alone together after the kids were born, and the element of not knowing our destination added to the thrill, as it did this time.

But, this time, I figured it out as soon as we got to the airport. Can you tell from this clue?

Leaving #NYC. En route to…I bet you can guess from the clue.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 12:17am PDT

I’ve been wanting to go to Iceland for years now—to explore the otherworldly volcanic landscape, soak in the renowned geothermal pools, and eat my way through Reykjavik. I’ll be snapping photos the whole time, so follow me on Instagram (I’m @wendyperrin) to see what happens next. We can all be surprised together!

#Rusty #weathered #shed #Keflavik #iceland A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 4:12am PDT

Nice way to recover from an overnight flight. Soothing and reinvigorating, plus you get a shower and silica mud facial. #BlueLagoon #Iceland A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 6:23am PDT

#BlueLagoon #Iceland A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 6:42am PDT

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere. Smoothies and slushies from the Lagoon Bar. (Yes, that’s mineral moisturizing cream still slathered on our faces.) #BlueLagoon #Iceland A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 9:22am PDT

Where #Iceland’s president lives.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 11:43am PDT

If you can pronounce it, they oughtta give it to you. #Iceland A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Jul 13, 2015 at 12:18pm PDT

How to Save Time and Tantrums in Amusement Parks: A 13-Year-Old’s Advice

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Note from Wendy: The best way to beat lines, crowds, and meltdowns at amusement parks is, in my experience, to choose small, homespun ones and to go when the local children are in school. My family has done this everywhere from Paris to Sonoma, California, to Wildwood, New Jersey. But most families end up at gigantic theme parks—of the Disney, Universal, and Six Flags variety—on peak summer days. I’ve shared advice for how to save money at such places, but my 13-year-old, Charlie, has advice for how to manage your time:

The long lines and crowded pathways of large theme parks today mean you need to have a plan. With massive changes at major theme parks, such as the remodeling at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Universal bringing in Nintendo, and Six Flags’ constant addition of new attractions, it’s important to be a step ahead of the game.

At Legoland in Florida when he was 11.

Start with a ride at the back of the amusement park.

When you enter the park, your child will want to run to the first attraction he sees. But the ride at the entrance to the park always has a much longer wait than it’s worth. At Universal Studios, the “Despicable Me Minion Mayhem” ride is the first one, resulting in a wait time of 80 minutes, when it should really only be 30. It’s better to start with a ride toward the back of the amusement park and work your way around in a circle or the closest you can get to one.

Sleep in and stay up late.

Most families have a strategy of waking up early to be at the park within an hour of opening time, and that gives them a parking advantage. But those families go home well before the park closes because the parents are tired, because it’s late, or because the parents say it’s too late as an excuse for being tired. When those families leave, the number of people in the park is cut by about 65%, leaving 35% to enjoy short waits during the last three or four hours the park is open. If you arrive at the park later and depart later, you’ll get more bang for your buck. (Here’s an example: When our family went on the Disney Dream cruise ship, there was a 45-minute wait for the Aquaduck water slide during the day but no wait at all at 11:30 pm; I managed about ten rides between 11:30 pm and midnight.) In addition, some theme parks can be very pretty at night, so try to stay almost until the park closes.

Make breakfast or dinner reservations, but not lunch.

Theme parks often consist of one to three fine-dining establishments, and the rest of them casual dining or just small stands. Unless you make plans at the fine-dining places for breakfast (before you explore the park) or dinner (when you’re done), you shouldn’t try to get to a certain restaurant at a certain time because it may require that you traverse the entire park to get there, or require you to leave the park and re-enter when you are done. This could reduce your time in the park by a lot more than you think, and it could also throw off your system of traveling through the park. At lunchtime it’s best to just go with the place that’s closest, especially since many of the places serve the same food anyway.

Give your kids a five- or ten-minute time limit in the gift shop.

Gift shops in theme parks contain tons and tons of kids’ favorite characters, so your kids likely will drag you into them. You can give them a dollar amount they’re allowed to spend, but they will take forever deciding what to buy, since they will want something that does not deliver too much change back to their parents. I recommend giving them a five- or ten-minute time limit, depending on the store size. If you see a gift shop with a line, you should just avoid it altogether.

Doug and Charlie loved The Great Nor’easter thrill ride at Morey’s Piers.

At Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, NJ, at the age of 13.

To avoid gift shops completely, make that a condition of going to the amusement park in the first place.

If you want to spend absolutely no time in gift shops, which is in no way a bad idea, tell your kids this at the same time that you announce that you’re going to the amusement park, to save them complaining when you get there.

How to Keep the Peace on a Family Vacation

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There’s the fantasy of a family vacation, and then there’s the reality. There are days—often a dozen times a day—when everybody wants to do something different, go somewhere different, eat someplace different. And then, just when agreement has been reached and everybody’s in a good mood and the weather is cooperating, a child gets an ear infection or a work crisis erupts or your flight is cancelled…and you’re back in meltdown land. I’m no psychiatrist, and Lord knows every family is different, but I’ve now taken my kids (now 11 and 13) to more than two dozen countries and at least that many states, and I know how many of my fellow parents are in desperate need of a harmonious vacation, so I thought I’d be so bold as to offer up a few strategies that have worked for my own family when it comes to keeping the peace—not just with the kids but between the parents:

1. Before you and your spouse start the planning, determine your mutual trip goal.

What is your main shared goal for this vacation? Is it to do nothing on a beach? Explore a destination? Learn to surf? See relatives? Avoid relatives? Sleep? Determine your mutual trip goal so that, whichever parent is making arrangements, you’re both shooting for the same result. Make a mission statement, and check it during the trip.

2. Give each family member ownership of a portion of the trip.

Put each parent and child (who’s old enough) in charge of one day of the vacation, or in charge of one activity each day. Or—at the very least—let each choose one activity during the trip that everybody does together. (If your child is very young, at least let him pick a lunch spot.) The more each family member is invested in the itinerary and has a say in the activities, the less family discord.

3. Set a trip budget, but one that allows for a few splurges.

You don’t want to argue during the trip about how much you’re spending, nor do you want to argue about it after the trip when you get the credit-card bill. When you’re doing a money-bleeding activity such as going to an amusement park, make your child C.F.O. of the trip that day. Seriously, when our 13-year-old is in charge of the budget, it’s remarkable how many strategies he’ll come up with to make us stick to it. (And we feel good because he’s learning a valuable lesson.) Remember that every museum, monument, or aquarium exit is through the gift shop; set not only a budget for gift shops but also a time limit.

4. Choose accommodations that will ensure everyone gets enough sleep.

The last thing you need is a bed configuration that means one family member (parent or child) can’t sleep, putting him/her in a cranky mood that infects everyone. A suite such as the type you find in an extended-stay hotel—where you’ve got a door to the kids’ room that you can close at nap time or bedtime—allows you to have some space, light, and time to yourself, rather than having to tiptoe around in the dark. A house rental provides more space and beds, but be warned that if it comes with no housekeeper or other niceties that a hotel infrastructure provides, it can mean that one parent spends way too much time doing household chores.

5. Choose a soothing activity for shortly after you arrive.

On a trip, your mood tends to dip lowest during the first ten percent of the trip. That’s when you’re dealing with a lot of logistics—possibly including a long drive or flight, jet lag, and sleep deprivation—to get to your destination. Counteract the negative mood that will afflict the family by planning a soothing and reinvigorating activity upon arrival at your destination. A swim for the kids and a massage for the parents can make everyone feel better.

6. Exhaust the kids.

The earlier you can get them to bed at night, the more time you will have alone with your spouse. Tim and I exercise the boys every chance we get during the daytime. If it’s a city trip, that means walking miles each day; if a road trip, it means pit stops at fields where they can play Frisbee; if we’re stuck in a hotel room, it means 100 karate kicks. A simple tennis ball consumes little space in a carry-on and can be a lifesaver.

7. Plan for “couple time.”

In my experience, the best way to ensure you and your partner get a shot at romance — possibly even two or three date nights—is to have easy access to free child care that is your children’s idea of Nirvana. Many resorts and cruise ships offer complimentary supervised kids’ clubs; my children happen to love them. Or consider giving a relative a free trip in exchange for being the babysitter.

8. Carve out “me time” too.

Each parent needs time for himself on vacation, preferably to accomplish something tangible—say, reading an entire novel, or perfecting your golf swing. Having free time and proof of it (e.g., the finished novel) will put you in a better mood around your partner. Again, what I’ve found enables this to happen is built-in child care. On a cruise, for instance, everyone in the family gets “me time.”

9. Pack an outlet splitter.

Let’s face it: When you’re squeezed together like sardines on long car rides and flights, electronics are often the easiest and, for today’s teens, sometimes an essential way to keep the peace. Pack whatever you need to keep everyone’s devices charged in transit; that may include a power inverter for the car and an outlet splitter for the airport gate and hotel rooms.

10. If you must work, do it when it won’t detract from a family activity.

Sometimes you can’t avoid having to work on vacation. Do it while your kids are sleeping or productively occupied in the kids’ club, or while your spouse is in the shower or finishing up that novel. When I’m on deadine I often skip activities that my kids can enjoy alone with Dad (e.g., mini-golf or fishing) in favor of activities that are unique to the destination or that we’ve never done as a family before.

I’d love to hear: What strategies do you have for keeping the peace on a family vacation?

In Search of the Extraordinary in British Columbia: Got Recommendations?

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This summer I’m taking Tim and the kids to Canada. I know what some of you are thinking. Canada? A big yawn. The frozen north. So bland even its sports award is gray (get it? the Grey Cup). Why Canada when there are so many exotic places in the world?

Well, you can keep your preconceptions about Canada because while you’re scorching in the heat and fighting traffic to the beach, I’ll have all that wide-open space, natural air-conditioning, and dramatic nature to myself—not to mention melting-pot cities, scrumptious food, and an exchange rate that buys me 20% more for my U.S. dollar than it did last summer.

My trip goal is, of course, to find out how not boring Canada can be. I found the exotic, dramatic, and colorful in Newfoundland the summer before last, and this time I’m seeking it at the other end of the country: British Columbia. It’s been a while—ten years since I was last in Vancouver, five since I was last in Victoria—so I’d love suggestions from any of you who’ve been to B.C. lately: How should my family and I make this trip extraordinary? Better yet, give us things to test for you—and if we can squeeze it into our itinerary, we will. Can’t wait to hear your recommendations—and challenges!

Why Qatar Could Be Your Next Extraordinary Vacation

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Last month I was in Qatar, checking out Anantara’s new Banana Island Resort. Ever since Doha was chosen to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar’s capital city has been attempting to rival Dubai as the Gulf region’s It destination. It’s succeeded in some areas (creating a top-notch national air carrier, attracting high-end hotels from all the big names—St. Regis, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Kempinski), and failed in others (the highly publicized FIFA bribery scandal related to the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, and reports about the country’s human rights issues and the high number of migrant worker deaths).

I was in Doha in May, about two weeks before the FIFA arrests were made, and since I spent most of my time on the private Banana Island or at tourist sites in Doha, I didn’t see much about these issues first-hand. That doesn’t excuse them, however they pan out, but it does echo an experience that travelers have all over the world, no matter where we go: Unless we’re there specifically to explore difficult aspects of day-to-day local life, we don’t often get close enough to see them.

Certainly bribery, workers’ rights, and government abuse are not vices limited to the country of Qatar. Two weeks after my trip to Doha, I was in South Africa—and no one would ever say that that government always had the right idea about human rights. But it’s still an amazing place to visit and I would recommend it without hesitation (and I do in another article). A week after that, I came home to New York, where the wealth gap is almost as staggering as in Qatar and hunger still persists. And now there’s Charleston. And still, I would tell anyone that both of those cities are must-visit destinations (in fact, I’m a tour guide here in NYC). I don’t want to get too depressing, but my point is that no place is paradise. Even paradise. Sad stories of people being horrible to each other can be found everywhere—and that is part of the reason many of us travel: to find the good stories and the wonderful people and the amazing places and the eye-opening experiences.

When I came home, I felt that Doha was one of those eye-opening places worth visiting. It’s different (culturally, socially, in terms of gender roles, lifestyles, food, art and architecture)…and also so much the same (for example, brand names matter just like in any fashionable cosmopolitan city, and our group even stumbled on a Shake Shack and a Magnolia Cupcakes at a mall).

I greatly enjoyed my time in the city and at the Banana Island Resort Doha by Anantara, where I was hosted. I met good people there who had interesting stories and cool talents, and who are working hard to make a luxury vacation spot for anyone who’s interested. Right now, most of who’s interested are locals of the Gulf Corporation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE); but Europeans are starting to arrive and the hope is that Americans will too.

Here are five reasons that struck me as to why Doha is definitely worth a visit.

1. At this moment in time, Qatar is changing fast, and it’s fascinating.

View of the city from the Museum of Islamic Art

A peninsula country that sticks out into the Persian Gulf and is land-bordered only by Saudi Arabia, Qatar is all but surrounded by almost-fluorescent turquoise water. It’s very safe (virtually no crime), very modern, and very wealthy.

The country is a Muslim monarchy run by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (who peacefully took over from his father in 2013). The whole peninsula is only 100 miles long, with a population around 2.3 million. What I found fascinating is that only something like 12% of the population is actually Qatari, and the wealth of local Qataris is staggering. They have one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world (about $100,000 per head) and citizens also get free food and healthcare, all funded by the country’s wealth from natural gas. The rest of Qatar’s population is made up of expat professionals and migrant workers, many who’ve arrived in the past few years to help build up Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Thanks to all the eyes on Qatar now, along with the government’s own agenda to make the city very visitor-friendly, the city is likely to change a lot over the next few years. If you go now, you’ll see that transition take place. As always, a good guide will be able to explain more about the social context and lift the curtain on some of the cultural complexities you’re not likely to fully grasp on your own.

2. Qatar is an easy introduction to the Middle East, and it’s easy to get to.

Qatar Airways has just added nonstop flights from Boston to Doha and will start direct flights from LAX in January 2016, making the city more accessible than ever. Like its fellow mid-east airlines, QA has raised the bar in business-class travel. The lie-flat seats are very comfortable, the food is very good, and as a result the flight turns into its own enjoyable part of the trip.

The airline is also trying to promote the city as an ideal stopover location—a place to add on a few days of vacation before or after a business trip, or in conjunction with another trip to the Middle East. The airport alone is worth spending a few hours in; there’s a pool, squash courts, and a spa.

The pool at Doha’s Hamad International Airport

3. Anantara has created an ideal place to stay.

Banana Island Resort Doha by Anantara

Many familiar luxury hotel brands have staked out spots in Doha, but Anantara has created a pretty special retreat, on the private Banana Island, a 20-minute water taxi ride from the mainland. The taxi plies the waters all day long, and the port—more like a luxe hotel lobby—is a short distance from all the city’s main sites. This means you can duck into Doha for the day, visit the stunning Museum of Islamic Art, the lesser-known but equally fascinating Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the bustling Souq Waqif, and then buzz back to the resort for a relaxing evening of good food and long views of the sea. What’s interesting is that locals are coming in droves to the island on the opposite schedule: Anantara sells weekday evening packages that include water-taxi tickets and a credit at one of the resort’s restaurants. The nearly 250 daily takers aren’t required to stay overnight; instead, they get to enjoy the island as a night out.

One of the Anantara corner suites, where I stayed

For guests, the food options are available anytime. And most of it is really good. Six restaurants cover a range of cuisines, including an “American” diner called Ted’s (I didn’t even try it). More interesting are the Arabian options at Al Nahham (camel shawarma, giant grilled shrimp) and 14 kinds of hummus at Q Lounge (beetroot and walnut, fig, artichoke, beef bacon).

Grilled shrimp on a sword

A lot is likely to be made of the fact that this is a dry resort—meaning, no alcohol—in order to follow cultural norms. But this seeming “lack” is anything but. Personally, I am not a big drinker, and I’m often disappointed that friends get to indulge in bright, fruity and interesting cocktails while I sip seltzer or some supersweet mocktail. Here, the nonalcoholic creations blow away any boozy concoctions you can imagine; they are their own delicious category. The driving force behind the creativity is the resort’s mixology director, Alexandre Hersent, who gave us a behind-the-scenes demonstration of how he prepares some of the molecular-gastronomy-inspired beverages, like the “Z daiquiri” of smoked apple juice with spice-infused honey, or his science-experiment twist on the city’s ubiquitous traditional lemon and mint drink. Hersent’s version (pictured below) has a semi-frozen ball of lemon and mint that pops open in your mouth. As usual with creative types, the limits seem to have made the food and beverage programs all the better here.

Lemon and mint drink, Anantara-style

4. Once you’re back from the city’s sites, there are activities galore.

The pool and the sea beyond

The Persian Gulf is so turquoise blue here, it’s enough just to sit on a balcony or patio staring at it. But for more active types and those with kids in tow, this resort is full of family-friendly activities: You can kayak, snorkel, get scuba certified, go windsurfing, or hit the surf pool. There’s a kids’ club with a giant indoor climbing-obstacle-course thing; a teen center with foosball, air hockey tables, and PlayStation nooks; a bowling alley; tennis courts; and a movie theater complete with buckets of popcorn.

For adults, there’s both a spa and a wellness center. Guests at the wellness center first see a specialist who determines their needs and then helps them choose from a suggested menu of holistic-health treatments like lymphatic drainage massages, infrared detox, nutritional consultations, and time in a zero-gravity float pod. You get the idea.

The wellness center’s zen garden

In a totally different part of the island, you’ll find the spa, where indulgences and pampering are the focus. Here, men and women divide into separate areas, and all have access to the usual high-quality Anantara menu of massages, facials, etc. The standout experience is definitely the hammam, where you’ll be soaked, steamed, covered in mud, massaged, exfoliated, and at the end doused with icy water. Invigorating to say the least.

The hammam

5. Doha is safe and family-friendly.

Overall, Doha felt very safe. We saw families almost everywhere we visited, and observed a range of dress codes (though all conservative and covered). Shopkeepers were friendly, used to tourists, and just as ready to take our money as anywhere I’ve traveled.

Personally, I would recommend hiring a guide to take you through the city, not necessarily for safety reasons but more because, as with so many travel experiences, you will get more out of it if you have a plugged-in guide to talk you through the context and point out things you might not otherwise notice or understand.

The I.M. Pei–designed Museum of Islamic Art

The resort itself feels comfortable and secure. Everything you need is onsite, and the staff (who speak English and come from 60+ countries) are constantly interacting with the guests. You can’t pass anyone who works here without them saying hello to you; buggies regularly traverse the grounds to take you wherever you need to go; and I noticed good-service indicators like guest names and arrival dates listed on a whiteboard in one of the restaurant kitchens. What’s more, the lack of alcohol means you won’t run into any rowdy nightlife seekers, though the scene here is still lively; on weekends, guests stayed out late socializing and smoking scented shisha pipes at one of the restaurants overlooking the water.

Camels outside Souq Waqif; we were told they were the police department’s camels

* Full disclosure: I was hosted by Anantara and my flights, on Qatar Airways, were paid for. That said, Wendy and I don’t accept any travel experience we don’t believe will be up to our readers’ standards, and as Anantara properties have long been favorites of luxury travelers, and as the brand is quickly ramping up its presence in the Middle East, we agreed it was an ideal time to explore the tourism options here.

In keeping with WendyPerrin.com standard practice, there was no expectation of coverage on our hosts’ part, nor was anything promised on ours. You can read our signed agreements with Qatar Airways here and with Anantara Hotels & Resorts here.

Is America’s Most Up-and-Coming Retro Summer Vacation Spot on the Jersey Shore?

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How does a town that’s barely changed in 60 years become the #1 destination on the rise in the U.S.? I’ve been wondering this ever since the tiny beach town of Wildwood, New Jersey, topped TripAdvisor’s list of destinations on the rise for 2015. Wildwood had its heyday back in the 1950s and 60s, and its best hotels have no more than three stars, so how could it be the spot that’s seen the greatest increase in positive feedback and interest on TripAdvisor?

I wanted to find out. I live just 150 miles from Wildwood so, last weekend, I made a little trip there with the family. What I found is a slice of Americana that may be close to the population centers of the northeast but feels very far away. I also found a quintessential retro summer vacation spot. Here are six reasons for the buzz about Wildwood—just in case you’re interested in checking it out for yourself.

Nostalgia

Wildwood is like a time capsule from the 1950s and ‘60s. It’s a return to the seaside resort of yesteryear, complete with two-mile Boardwalk, dozens of small motels with names like Sea Kist and Pink Champagne Motel, and seemingly a hundred places selling hot dogs, frozen custard, and salt water taffy. What with Mad Men, Universal’s new 50s-themed Cabana Bay Beach Resort in Orlando, and America’s current obsession with mid-century art and design, the 50s and 60s have been making a comeback, so that probably plays into the town’s popularity. Wildwood also has the largest seaside amusement park in the Western Hemisphere, so there are plenty of classic rides that Mom and Dad will remember from their childhood and can now enjoy with their kids.

On the Wildwood Boardwalk you’ll find rides that remind you of your childhood.

You can see salt water taffy being made—and fed into a 62-year-old taffy-wrapping machine.

You’ll spot all sorts of small-town Americana. We stumbled upon this Veterans of Foreign Wars parade.

Authenticity

Part of the reason Wildwood—or, more accurately, the Wildwoods, as the town blends together with its neighbors Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood—feels like a time capsule is that it’s undiluted by the chain stores and strip-mall fixtures that have invaded so many places in America. The Boardwalk is lined with local mom-and-pop shops and eateries—not a Starbucks or Pizza Hut in sight. “How many places have you been to in America where, if you didn’t know where you were, you could be anywhere?” points out Will Morey, CEO of the aforementioned amusement park, Morey’s Piers and Beachfront Waterparks, itself a local family-owned business. “Many places start to look and feel the same. But Wildwood is unique.” It’s not some Disneyfied version of an American beach town either: There’s plenty that’s edgy and tacky on the Boardwalk—from eyesore dollar stores to body piercing and tattoo parlors—and there’s a ton of kitsch (think motels with fake palm trees by the pool). But all that makes Wildwood the real thing.

A typical Wildwood motel, complete with fake palm trees

A small slice of Wildwood’s two-mile Boardwalk

Lifeguards grabbing a bite on the Boardwalk

Amusements

The amusement “park” is actually three enormous piers packed with more than 100 rides and games, plus two of the “world’s largest oceanfront waterparks.” This makes Wildwood a bit like Orlando, only without the logistics or the waits for rides—and with real Americana, as opposed to fake Americana. Wildwood is easier to navigate than Orlando: Accommodations are small motels, not giant resort complexes, and you can get around by bike rather than car.

The biggest seaside amusement park in the Western Hemisphere: Morey’s Piers and Beachfront Waterparks.

Biking in Wildwood Crest. This was the view from our balcony at the Port Royal Hotel.

Bikes for rent in Wildwood

Comfort food

On the Boardwalk you’ll find endless supplies of carnival-style and soda-fountain food, from funnel cakes and corn dogs and Philly cheese steaks to fresh-squeezed lemonade and root beer floats to fried just-about-anything-you-can-think-of (fried Oreos, fried Snickers, fried Twinkies, fried Pop-Tarts, fried ice cream….) You could spend hours just sampling the different types of whipped cream fudge on offer. My kids did.

Doug and Charlie tried funnel cakes—and loved them.

Did you know fudge comes in hundreds of flavors?

Family-friendliness

From its free beaches to its carousels, Wildwood is kid-friendly in the extreme. “Our target market is kids ages 3 to 17,” says Morey, whose family owns not only the amusement piers but also five of the area’s better retro-style hotels, including the StarLux and the Pan American. “Those kids tell their parents where they want to go for vacation.”

A tot on the beach in Wildwood Crest

Many large family groups seeking a budget-friendly vacation choose Wildwood—including this group posing at one of the beachfront landmarks.

Doug and Charlie loved The Great Nor’easter thrill ride at Morey’s Piers.

Quirkiness

The Wildwoods are just quirky enough to be interesting. You’ll find surprises each time you walk up and down the waterfront. There’s a 25-foot-tall fire hydrant on Dog Beach, for instance, and there’s an artBOX on one of the amusement piers where you can drop in spontaneously and take an art class (jewelry making, painting, screen printing). Every summer weekend brings events galore. Last weekend we stumbled upon the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum & Bugle Corps having an informal jam session by the beach, a Veterans of Foreign Wars parade, the 2015 New Jersey Jeep Invasion (which brought to the beach about 500 jeeps of every size, color, and off-roading option), and a group of Life Rolls On volunteer surfers taking paraplegics out of their wheelchairs and putting them on surfboards so they could surf. You just never know what you’re going to find in the Wildwoods. That might be one reason people keep coming back.

Public art in Wildwood: This 25-foot-tall fire hydrant sits on Dog Beach.

artBOX, an “artists’ village” made from shipping containers, sits on one of the amusement piers and offers art classes. Photo courtesy Morey’s Piers.

Local artist David Macomber teaches origami at artBOX.

Veterans of the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps having an informal jam session by the beach.

Volunteer surfers enabling paraplegics to surf as part of the nonprofit Life Rolls On program.

You just never know who or what you’ll see in the Wildwoods.

But wait. Stop. Before you book a trip to Wildwood, know that Cape May, its far more picturesque and charming neighbor on the Jersey shore, is—with its Victorian architecture, fine restaurants, and art scene—much better suited to sophisticates. The two towns are like yin and yang, and an optimal family trip would combine the two: a dose of Cape May for the grownups, a dose of Wildwood for the kids.

5 Free Things to Do in America’s Cities

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You know who loves free stuff? Everybody. Especially when you’re traveling. So whether you’re taking a summer vacation across America or enjoying a staycation in your hometown, you’ll be happy to know that some of the coolest and most iconic attractions are no-cost.

So put your wallets away and bookmark this list of free worldly pursuits from New York City to Los Angeles and many cities in between. You can see my full list over on the TripAdvisor blog, but here’s a sneak peek so you can start checking these American must-do’s off your travel bucket list asap. After all, it’s not like you’ve got anything to lose.

The Freedom Trail, Boston
Many Boston neighborhoods feel like outdoor museums, but the Freedom Trail is the ultimate. Follow the red line and you’re on a 2.5-mile historic trail that leads you past unique historic sites from the American Revolution. The Freedom Trail app isn’t free, but the $4.99 price tag goes to preserve the buildings you’ll see.

The Getty Center, Los Angeles
This complex of art, architecture, and gardens is rated the #1 thing to do in L.A. by the TripAdvisor community. In summertime on Fridays and Saturdays it’s open till 9:00 pm so you can enjoy the sunset and twilight views. The Getty Villa, the collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, is free too. There’s a parking fee of $15 per car, but that fee covers parking at both sites, and the sites are also accessible by public transit.

The National September 11 Memorial, New York City
Entry to the September 11 Museum costs $24, but you can take in the Memorial for free. #4 on TripAdvisor’s list of the most popular landmarks in America, it’s an eight-acre park with twin reflecting pools that sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in North America.

New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park, New Orleans
This is the place for free live educational jazz performances, presented both at the Old U.S. Mint and at the Park’s French Market Visitor Center. Even the park rangers perform! Concerts are live streamed; listen in here and you’ll be itching to book a trip to NOLA.

The Smithsonian Museums, Washington, D.C.
Is there any U.S. city that’s a better bargain for museum lovers than Washington, D.C.? The National Gallery of Art (rated the #1 thing to do in D.C. by TripAdvisor travelers), the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (rated #5), the National Air and Space Museum (#10), and all the other favorites on the National Mall are free, as are top landmarks such as the Lincoln Memorial (rated #2), the Washington Monument, and much more.

Read Wendy’s full list of outstanding free things to do over on her blog at TripAdvisor.

5 Steps to the Best Family Vacation You’ll Ever Have

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Traveling to almost 30 countries with young kids I’ve learned a little something about crafting vacations that the kids love and remember but that are also sophisticated and fun for the adults. Here are five tips for making summer travel gratifying for the entire family:

Our tour of The Marais with Paris Muse. Photo by Eric Stoen/TravelBabbo.com.

1) Book a family-oriented walking tour.

No matter where you’re going, there’s likely a company that offers walking tours through certain neighborhoods or museums. Select one that’s geared toward the kids. Good walking tours are interactive and highly educational, without the kids even realizing how much they’re learning. And given that we parents have forgotten most of the history that we learned in school, they’re great for us too! My family has now done walking tours in Paris, Florence, Athens, Ephesus (Turkey) and Valletta (Malta). I particularly like those we’ve done with Context Travel and Paris Muse. An added benefit: By arranging museum tours in advance, you can generally skip the lines. With our guide from Paris Muse we walked right past an hour-long queue at the Louvre.

My daughter making pici pasta at Boscarecce Cooking School. Photo by Eric Stoen/TravelBabbo.com

2) Consider a cooking class.

What better way to let the kids be creative, teach them life-long skills, and introduce them to local cuisine? Our kids always come home wanting to cook the things that they made abroad, and they’ve become better eaters as well. And how many kids prefer to make their own pasta instead of buying it at the grocery store? Ours do, after we learned to make pasta at Boscarecce Cooking School outside of Florence. We’ve already booked a pita-making class in Greece for this coming summer.

3) Look into day camps.

When we go on a family vacation, we generally don’t look for activities where we can drop off the kids for seven hours at a time. But there are some week-long day camps that are so cool that we’d be excited for our kids to enroll. Arte al Sole has workshops throughout Italy that incorporate art projects (think frescos and mosaics), cooking classes, walking tours, history and even movie-making for kids 6 to 12, and parents can participate in some of the activities (such as museum visits) with their kids. An added benefit is that your kids will make friends from all over the world. If a camp or workshop doesn’t fit your travel schedule, it’s worth asking if they can arrange something that does. When my nine-year-old and I were in Bali in March, we stumbled upon a three-day ceramic camp at Gaya Ceramic that looked like a lot of fun. Gaya doesn’t pre-schedule family-oriented workshops, but they can arrange group or private workshops at a very reasonable cost.

My kids feeding the fish from our dock at the Rosewood Mayakoba. Photo by Eric Stoen/TravelBabbo.com.

4) Find a hotel that’s both romantic and kid-friendly.

Impossible? Nope. Both Wendy and I have had great stays with our kids at Rosewood Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The hotel has many romantic touches—including private plunge pools, outdoor showers, moonlit restaurants, and a sensuous spa—yet it’s also got a kids’ club, kid-friendly cooking classes, a children’s breakfast buffet, a kid-friendly pool and beach. There’s even a snow cone machine by the pool. Four Seasons resorts also tend to achieve that balance of sophistication and kid-friendliness. Our overwater bungalow at the Four Seasons Bora Bora is one of the most amazing places we’ve stayed, with a spectacular view and a definite honeymoon feel, yet the hotel staff also set up an entire inflatable water playground for our kids, and let us know that they would open up the kids club and plan activities just for us anytime we wanted.

The Torrigiani Gardens, which CIU Travel got us access to. Photo by Eric Stoen/TravelBabbo.com.

5) Ask Wendy for the right family-friendly travel agent.

Most of the experts on Wendy’s WOW List create trips for families and can suggest (and get you into) unique places that you couldn’t access on your own. Our best vacation ever was two weeks in Florence planned by Maria Gabriella Landers of CIU Travel. We made pasta, pizza, gelato, chocolate, frescoes and books. We went through the normally off-limits Vasari Corridor. We saw a private flag-throwing demonstration in the amazing Torrigiani Gardens. We did kid-friendly visits to all of the major sites and museums. It was literally a perfect trip—and it made our kids love Florence so much that we now go back annually.

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Sleep With the Fishes (and Lions) at These Zoo and Aquarium Sleepovers

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Note from Wendy: When my sons got the chance to spend the night at New York’s American Museum of Natural History my youngest, Doug, was so impressed that he wrote a blog post detailing the reasons why everyone should sign up for a museum sleepover. So when I saw that our friends at Yahoo! Travel had rounded up zoos that offer similar slumber-party programs, I immediately wanted to share the info. See their article below. For help planning memorable family vacations, take a look at my WOW List of Trusted Travel Experts. For more specific recommendations, email me at questions@wendyperrin.com and I can connect you with the right travel specialist for your family.

This article originally ran on Yahoo! Travel

By Jordi Lippe of Yahoo! Travel

Going to the zoo and aquarium can be a magical experience. You get to see animals you’ve only ever read about in real life—monkeys, penguins, sharks, whales, etc.—up close. But have you ever wondered what happens at these parks after all the tourists leave and the lights go out? Now kids of all ages can find out. Some of your favorite attractions offer overnight stays, so you can literally sleep with the fishes—and other wild animals. Here are 10 zoos and aquariums where you can actually spend the night.

Resident Camp at SeaWorld, various U.S. locations

SeaWorld in Orlando. (Photo: SeaWorld/Facebook)

What do dolphins look like when they sleep? That’s a question you can have answered by attending one of SeaWorld’s Summer Resident Camps, where students grades four through college can spend a few nights sleeping next to beluga whales, manatees, and dolphins. When the sun comes up, participants also get to do cool stuff like follow zoological professionals as they handle penguins, take a swim in the dolphin stadium show pool, and prepare educational presentations to share with park guests. Bonus: This program is offered at SeaWorlds across the country.

Snore and Roar at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Washington, D.C.

Two lions at the Smithsonian National Zoo. (Photo: Smithsonian’s National Zoo/Facebook)

Typically, when spending the night in D.C., you hear city sounds like cars honking and people yelling. How about trading those in for wolves howling and sea lions barking? Just head to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo for its overnight program. You can pitch a tent on Lion/Tiger Hill before taking an exclusive animal-keeper-led tour through the exhibits and animal territories. With both family and adult-only versions available from June through September, it will be the wildest experience you’ve never had in our nation’s capital.

Also from Yahoo! Travel: Nearly-Extinct Turtle Is Coming Back With Help From Zoo

Overnight Safari at the Bronx Zoo, Bronx, New York

Two sea lions at sunrise at the Bronx Zoo. (Photo: Joey/Flickr)

Trade your zebra-print skirt for an actual zebra on your next night out in New York City. The Bronx Zoo hosts Family Overnight Safaris to which you can bring a tent, sleeping bags, and a picnic dinner and enjoy an evening of animal-themed activities and classic camping rituals like roasting marshmallows. Be sure to stay up late to hear the wild calls from the various species on the grounds. But no need for an alarm clock—zoo officials say the sea lions provide a natural wake-up call.

Sleepover With the Sharks at National Aquarium, Baltimore

Blacktip shark at the National Aquarium. (Photo: JJ Jackson/Flickr)

Total darkness + sharks isn’t usually an equation you want to find yourself in the middle of. But when you participate in Sleepover With the Sharks at the National Aquarium, you get to see these beautiful creatures sans the sheer terror. Overnight guests set up sleeping bags in the underwater viewing area as the kings of fish swim overhead. Included in the program is a behind-the-scenes tour, reserved seating in the dolphin amphitheater, a 4D immersion film, dinner, and breakfast.

Big Cat-Nap Campout at Zoo Miami

A leopard at the Miami Zoo. (Photo: Zoo Miami/Facebook)

Each year during the Big Cat-Nap Campout, families are invited to pitch their own tents for the night in the zoo’s “grasslands” before heading off on a behind-the-scenes tour and enjoying a campfire complete with s’mores. Participants also get breakfast and free admission to the park the next day and, of course, a T-shirt to commemorate the totally awesome experience.

Also from Yahoo! Travel: You Have to See It to Believe It — Lion Shocks Tourists by Opening Car Door on Safari

Adult Overnights at the Philadelphia Zoo

A red panda at the Philadelphia Zoo. (Photo: National Geographic Image Collection/Alamy)

While there are overnight programs for children and teens throughout the year, the Philadelphia Zoo sometimes lets adults in on the fun, too. Go behind the scenes at the attractions, have up-close encounters with live animals, tour the park after dark, and have a light dinner. And what’s a night out without some cocktails? Enjoy a happy hour surrounded by exotic species.

Harbor Discoveries Camps at the New England Aquarium, Boston

Flame jellies at the New England Aquarium. (Photo: New England Aquarium/Facebook)

This Boston aquarium is already pretty cool, what with animals like penguins and jellyfish. So why not take it up a notch and slumber alongside some of these sea creatures? Families sleep in the west wing and get a tour of the main aquarium, admission to an IMAX movie, and breakfast, all while learning about life in the ocean.

Also from Yahoo! Travel: With its Aquarium and Miniature Forest, Vancouver Is Canada’s Coolest Airport

Zzzoofari Slumber at the Nashville Zoo

Two barn owls at the Nashville Zoo. (Photo: Art Directors & TRIP/Alamy)

It’s as if you’re going on a camping trip, only this one has giraffes, red pandas, and kangaroos. During a night under the stars at the Nashville Zoo, families are treated to a tour of the zoo, play games and do crafts, have a marshmallow roast, and enjoy hayrides before falling asleep to the sounds of apes and exotic birdcalls. Plus, there’s breakfast the next morning.

Seashore Sleepovers at Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey Bay, California

Photo: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Enjoy an evening with live music, a wine tasting, and … stingrays. Guests participating in one of the aquarium’s Summer Nights Seashore Sleepovers get to explore the property after the doors close to the public at 8 p.m. There’s also a bedtime snack and a late-night nature movie before you go to bed in front of your favorite exhibit. Wake up with the fishes and enjoy a continental breakfast in the café.

Zookeeping 101 at Busch Gardens Tampa

Busch Gardens Tampa

If exotic land animals are your thing, you’ll love the Zookeeping 101 overnight summer program at Busch Gardens Tampa. Created for high school and college kids, campers assist zookeepers with their daily routines, including preparing diets, training animals, and providing veterinary care for a variety of animals from giraffes to hippos to lemurs. Of course, they also get to try out all the fun rides after the crowds leave. Camper lodging is in dormitories inside the park.

Is a River Barge Trip Right for Your Family?

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Question:

Hi Wendy, I have enjoyed reading all of your travel advice on your new site. Thanks! Can you give me your take on river barges? Our family of 12 adults is planning a river trip in France, and I have done some research on the barges. I wonder if booking the entire barge would be right for our family, rather than a typical river cruise. We enjoy good food, wine, travel and much needed time together. However, we do enjoy some luxuries as well. Any suggestions? Thanks! –Debbie

Answer:

Debbie, I absolutely recommend opting for the barge. You’ll have just your family onboard—as opposed to 150 other people—and you’ll get to dictate your schedule and call the shots. You’ll get to see off-the-beaten-path villages and countryside that would be hard for you to see any other way (vs. on a river cruise, where the cities along the river are easy to access in other ways). And, if you choose the right barge, you’ll find excellent food, wine, and “luxuries.”

Read our Insider’s Guide to European Barge Cruises and you’ll get a feel for the biggest differences between barge trips and river cruises: First of all, barges ply canals, which are narrower than rivers and give you a more close-up view of the sights you’re floating past. Second, barges move much more slowly, which gives you time to really soak up the landscape and get perfect photos. Third, barges are much smaller than river ships. They’re usually 8 to 14 passengers, as opposed to 160 passengers on river ships.

Our Insider’s Guide to European River Cruises should also be helpful to you as you compare the two modes of travel. My sense is that river cruises might hold more appeal for first- and second-time travelers to Europe who have a to-do list of famous landmarks they want to see (because river cruises cover a lot of territory and tend to include a hit parade of popular sights), whereas barge trips are more enticing to travelers who have been to Europe several times and now are looking for a more off-the-beaten-path experience.

The very best advice I can give you is to reach out to Ellen Sack, the most expert travel agent I know when it comes to barge trips. She’s inspected and tested them all, and she can work miracles for you. The best way to contact Ellen is via this trip-request form. That way she’ll know you’re a WendyPerrin.com traveler and make you a priority (she’s very busy).

Have a wonderful trip! I’m awfully jealous!

Family Cruise Advice, from Wendy and Cruise Critic

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Wendy chatted with Cruise Critic readers today, sharing her best advice and insights on family cruises. Here are a few highlights from the conversation, including how to make your trip less stressful, the best regions for cruising, and additional tips from Cruise Critic editor in chief Carolyn Spencer Brown.

Read the whole conversation at CruiseCritic.com.

Cruising with a family can be stressful. What are some of your tips on how to cope?

Wendy Perrin: Get a balcony (for extra breathing room) and a cabin location convenient to the kids’ club, the sports deck, or wherever the kids will be spending most of their time. (By “convenient,” I mean within two or three decks, so you can take the stairs rather than having to wait for the elevator.) Feed the kids at the buffet rather than making them sit through a long meal in the dining room. I’ve actually got cruise hacks for acing your family cruise.

In your opinion, are there better regions to cruise to than others?

Wendy Perrin: Yes: groups of islands (archipelagos) because a cruise is an economical, efficient, and logistically easy way to get between them and see a lot of islands you wouldn’t otherwise get to see.

Carolyn Spencer Brown: Also, beware that some ports of call, particularly in Europe and Asia, are deceptively far from where ships actually dock. Bangkok is one, Rome is another. This means a lot of time on a bus just to get there…very exhausting and not much time to really have an experience. Alaska is a particularly good place to cruise because a lot of its key places to see are only accessible via ship. Same goes for the Galapagos!

What European river would you recommend for someone taking their first river cruise? What about for someone who is more adventurous?

Wendy Perrin: Well, for my own family’s first river cruise, I chose the Danube, which gives you four countries in one trip and a mix of important cultural capitals and picturesque landscape. If you’re looking for adventure, I’m not sure a river cruise is the answer. Then again, you can make any river cruise adventurous just by doing your own unusual thing in each port.

Carolyn Spencer Brown: The Rhine is another excellent choice for a first-time cruise because the ports vary—you’ve got cities that are fabulous for cathedrals and others that are more recreationally oriented. But the Danube has the prettier scenery :)

What are some of the pitfalls people can make when they book a river cruise?

Carolyn Spencer Brown: The biggest mistake we see passengers making on river cruises is they over-sightsee! Partly that’s because many of the river tours are complimentary and so people want to take ’em all, get their money’s worth.

Wendy Perrin: They can pay a lot for a balcony they never use. Or they can assume their whole itinerary is on the river. In fact, here are 7 river-cruise mistakes you think you’re too smart to make.

What do you think of Disney’s announcement about river cruising. I think my kids are too young for Europe and river but not sure.

Wendy Perrin: I think it’s terrific that somebody is finally focusing on river cruises for families. I’m excited to watch the Disney partnership with AmaWaterways unfold! I’m not sure how old your kids are, but here’s what my 12-year-old thought of our European river cruise—and the advice he has for parents.

Check out the rest of the conversation at CruiseCritic.com, and when you’re ready to book your own cruise, be sure to check Wendy’s WOW List of Trusted Travel Experts for the best cruise specialists. The right travel agent has sailed many times on the cruise line you’re considering, knows all its ships’ pros and cons, knows the head of the cruise line, and can get you excellent rates and benefits you couldn’t get on your own.

Yes, It’s Possible: A Villa Vacation That Keeps Every Member of the Family Happy

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You already know the benefits of choosing a rental villa over a hotel for your family vacation: More space, more privacy, more local flavor, and—if your group is large enough to fill every room in the house—significant savings. What you might not know though, is just how much the property itself—its layout, location, amenities—will affect the group dynamic. So will decisions ranging from which activities you pre-plan to which type of car you rent to whether the fridge is already stocked when you arrive on a Sunday and the grocery stores are closed. As someone who has rented homes for multiple generations of my own family in locales from Tuscany to Jamaica, I am here to tell you that renting through an expert who will level with you about the pros and cons of the neighborhoods and homes at your destination is a priceless advantage.

Mara Solomon, my Trusted Travel Expert for large Italian villas (read her Insider’s Guide to Italian Villa Vacations) does even more than that. Part magician, part psychologist, she can predict potential conflicts within your group…and make them disappear via smart planning. Mara, who specializes in properties that have four or more bedrooms, has compiled 11 tips for a successful villa vacation, and they’re a must-read as you start to plan your summer villa trip:

1. Manage everyone’s expectations. Travel might be the ultimate test of relationships (besides politics according to my mother). We all do it differently and spend time and money according to our own priorities. Manage everyone’s expectations for time together and time apart, for planned activities versus kicking back, very early on. Use Skype or a similar tool to bring the relevant decision-makers together, hash out the basic structure of the holiday and get everyone on the same playing field. A well-structured villa vacation ensures an elder is not over-taxed, a sporting parent gets the exercise they seek, and the kids are well engaged.

2. Divvy up the work and establish authority. Group travel—whether an extended family or group of long-standing friends (with or without children)—does take planning and it is essential for each group to decide who is making the decisions. Then make sure everyone gets behind them and sticks to the agreed upon plan. It’s also important to decide how the planning work is being shared. One person, maybe two if they work well together, is best for spearheading the choice of villa, but there are other tasks. The wine enthusiast can be put in charge of provisioning wine for the house and selecting wineries to visit, for instance.

3. Determine what really matters to your group. If your first conversations are less focused and people are less than candid, that is ok. Listen closely and you will have the keys to success. One person may need nothing so much as a fabulous bathroom. Be sure you have a plan for mornings out walking or taking coffee up to your own balcony or terrace if you need alone time. Maybe your nuclear family runs at a different speed and needs an excursion without the entourage of in-laws and cousins. Americans are used to enjoying their freedom. Be sure to rent enough cars so someone can make a quick get-away if tension mounts.

4. Make the most of the intelligence and insight of the people who have seen the house and know the area. Villa travel is, by definition, different from any other form of travel. The point is to have space as well as time and experiences together. The house matters greatly, even if you are a get-up-and-go group. Sooner or later your paths will return you home. Get this figured out in the early stages. How? Talk to the person or people who have been there and know the house. The accumulated wisdom of their experience can mean you avoid any nasty surprises. We greatly appreciate a chance to share our knowledge and our talents with our clients. This is what we are paid to do and besides the villas themselves, it is what our clients most appreciate.

5. Build into the structure of your holiday as much service as you can afford. You may think you don’t want a full-time cook but we can say from 20 years travel experience cooking services in the house are the amenity our guests appreciate the most and derive the most value. Inevitably people cancel restaurant meals and stay home because the food is so good. And enjoying it all in the privacy of your own Villa in black tie or pajamas (as you prefer) is a priceless gift to share with people you love. Meal organizing, shopping, preparation and clean up is an every-day responsibility for most of us. It becomes a true vacation when you can be at home without the everyday responsibilities.

6. Plan organized group-wide events or activities. Creating joy-filled moments elevates a get-together to the status of life-long shared memory. An excursion of interest to everyone, a special meal with a well-chosen menu or some fun and easy activity local to your destination generates enthusiasm and excitement. But don’t overdo the planning. In Italy, as with so many destinations, the most transcendent moments are often unplanned, so you want to leave room for those as well.

7. Consider seriously the layout and amenities of the property you are selecting. Quality time for relaxing and playing together in various combinations is essential for successful villa travel. The point is to come together in different times and different ways. Where will you gather for apperitivi before dinner? Are there enough chairs? A friendly bocce competition makes great fun all week long and you can end with a tournament complete with prizes.

8. Staying in one place longer makes for a richer, more rewarding experience. One week is most always not quite enough. Ten days is much better but two weeks is really recommended. I know, you may be thinking people will be bored, but I encourage you to give it consideration. A two-week stay means you sink in and get to know the place, find yourself unwinding in ways you may have forgotten. Your group of teenage boys will be transforming a mound of potatoes into that night’s gnocchi. Maybe you find yourself deep in a long conversation that is years overdue. You will have more flexibility in group configuration and size, as not everyone has to be together the whole time. And a well-located villa will have more to do than you think. We hear this quite often when our guests return: “I wish I pushed for that second week in the villa…”

9. It is Your Vacation too. We do not believe in ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’. A visit to the Leaning Tower of Pisa could be a highlight or the worst day of the holiday. It depends. It depends both on things you control and those you don’t. Make sure you work with people who are listening closely to what matters to you and are facilitating that experience for you. If you are working with someone who really understands your group, the necessary insights, contacts and arrangements can be deployed in a way that meets your needs. And, that travel consultant will have you prepared for the variables beyond your control that are an essential part of the villa experience. Yes, the Blue Grotto is special, but we think having your own boat and exploring the other relatively deserted grottos around Capri is much more rewarding. And if you want to skip Capri altogether, that is fine too.

10. Success is in the details. Location, location, location counts when planning villa travel. With villa travel you might not know what questions to ask, so we suggest you work with people who know the house, setting and local area well enough to tell you what you need to consider. The Amalfi Coast is not well suited to those who cannot manage steps. Do you need running room for rambunctious children with soccer balls? Do you have shoppers or fitness buffs or serious scholars? What about food allergies? Can the staff find gluten-free pasta and almond milk easily if needed?

11. Plan on enjoying yourselves and having fun together. We invite our guests to plan on enjoying themselves and doing things differently. Use your phone or tablet for photos, not for email with the office. Eat gelato at least once every day. Have fun getting lost –you will be rewarded with at least a great story to share over apperitivi back at the house. You are sure to encounter an awe-inspiring moment, great memento or new friend for life. Remember what it is to have a day to fill as you like, without an agenda. This is what we strive for at Homebase Abroad–a well-structured trip whose cadence best matches the needs and preferences of your family and friends. We promise you will be rewarded with an exceptional experience. Maybe even the best vacation of your life.

Thanks, Mara, for letting me share your tips with WendyPerrin.com travelers!

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Cruise Hacks: 14 Tips for Acing Your Family Cruise

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Many of us prefer small ships, but sometimes a large one is your best option. Maybe it’s what your children need (only large ships have water slides and mini-golf), or it’s what your group can afford, or it’s the itinerary that best suits your schedule. Last month my family ended up on the biggest ship we’ve ever sailed on, Norwegian Cruise Line’s 4,000-passenger Norwegian Breakaway, because it’s one of the few ships that sails from New York to somewhere warm in the dead of winter. While a large ship can be a smart vacation option for busy kids and their exhausted parents, it can also feel crowded and chaotic, especially when chilly weather keeps everyone indoors for half the cruise. Since it was my husband’s and my tenth cruise with our kids, now 11 and 12 years old, I thought I’d share our hard-earned tips for maximizing the advantages, and minimizing the drawbacks, of a giant ship.

1. Choose a cabin suited to your children’s ages.
The larger the ship, the more confusing the cabin choices. A family of four can feel very cramped in one stateroom, but it can be hard to find connecting cabins or an alternative configuration that works. One thing to be wary of is cabins with upper berths. When we’ve had such rooms, we’ve been so concerned that the boys would roll out of their beds in the middle of the night that Tim slept in the first upper berth, the second went empty, and the kids slept with me below. When the boys were younger than eight, we were comfortable in a “mini-suite” where they could share a double sofa bed. Since then we’ve needed two connecting cabins. My strong recommendation is to book your cruise through a highly knowledgeable cruise specialist such as Tom Baker of Cruise Center: Tom knows the pros and cons of all the cabins on all the ships and has the clout with the cruise lines to get you the one you want.

En route out of NY Harbor. In 19-degree weather. Can anyone guess what ship we’re on?

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 15, 2015 at 12:34pm PST

2. Insist on a balcony. A balcony gives you breathing room, fresh air, great views, lots of sunlight, and private outdoor space. When the boys were small, we opted against one because they could have climbed over the railing. By the time they were four and six, we felt we could risk it, and today it’s non-negotiable. (A balcony isn’t nearly as necessary on a small ship…but that’s a different article.)

See that mist above the Atlantic? That’s because the air temperature (23 degrees) is lower than the sea temperature (48 degrees). We’re off North Carolina, headed south. #NorwegianBreakaway #nofilter A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 16, 2015 at 5:03am PST

3. Pinpoint the most convenient cabin location.
A great location for families is on an upper deck near the aft: It’s a quick walk to the places you need to get to most often—the pool deck, the sports deck, the kids’ club, the buffet—and you can avoid elevator waits and crowds.

Charlie working the #NorwegianBreakaway’s ropes course, 16 decks above the water, with a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean (and the rest of the ship).

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 20, 2015 at 10:36am PST

4. Bring Post-It Notes, a European plug adapter, and highlighters. Post-It Notes are handy for your cabin door: When your kids are old enough to check themselves in and out of the kids’ club (which means they’re old enough to wander the ship on their own), they can leave you messages as to their whereabouts. If your family needs to charge an array of electronic devices daily (and whose family doesn’t?), bring a European plug adapter because your cabin might have only one or two U.S. outlets; don’t let European outlets go to waste. As for highlighters, the daily shipboard program delivered to each cabin door lists so many activities and events that each child will want a highlighter to mark his or her favorites.

You can do all these things aboard #NorwegianBreakaway. Or you can sit on your balcony and read novels like I do. #whenImnotcheckingemail A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 16, 2015 at 4:32pm PST

5. Throw your kids’ swimsuits in your carry-on.
On embarkation day, it can take some time for your luggage to be delivered to your cabin. If you’re embarking in warm weather and you’ve got the kids’ swimsuits with you, they can jump in the pool and use the waterslides right away. One parent can watch the kids while the other walks around the ship doing recon and making spa and dinner reservations.

6. Switch your child’s cell phone (and yours) to airplane mode.
If your child will be using his smartphone as a camera, switch it to airplane mode immediately after leaving your U.S. port for international waters, so that international text messages can’t be sent or received. Otherwise you could get socked with charges. Keep your own phone on airplane mode so you don’t fall prey to roaming charges. (Keep it on airplane mode when accessing the ship’s Wi-Fi too. The great news is that cruise-ship Wi-Fi has improved a lot recently in terms of speed, reliability, and cost.)

7. When everybody else on the ship is zigging, zag.
My family avoids crowds by doing the opposite of what everybody else is doing. Between 6 and 7 pm, for instance, when everybody else is getting ready for dinner or already dining, that’s when we take advantage of the empty sports courts, Ping Pong tables, or hot tub.

8. Find your own serene shipboard hideaway.
In addition to a balcony, you’ll want space to stretch out in tranquility somewhere on deck. There’s almost always an empty area with lounge chairs somewhere. Sometimes it’s the Promenade Deck; sometimes it’s an area up top that people just haven’t discovered.

On every busy giant #cruise ship there’s always one hidden quiet deck area you can retreat to. On #NorwegianBreakaway in winter, it’s Deck 8.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 21, 2015 at 12:38pm PST

When the weather is too cold to be outdoors, you may crave an indoor pool or hot tub. Often the spa has a heated indoor pool you can access for a fee. On the Breakaway, access to the spa’s Thermal Suite for $199 for the entire seven-day cruise turned out to be a good value.

The spa’s hydrotherapy pool. #NorwegianBreakaway A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 17, 2015 at 6:53am PST

9. Study the children’s weekly program schedule before making dinner reservations.
If your kids are like mine, certain scheduled evening activities will appeal to them and others won’t. Pirate Night is a must, Hollywood Night is not. If you’re making dinner reservations for the family, choose nights when the kids won’t complain about being with you rather than with their friends.

10. Ace the buffet.
It’s usually the most casual way to grab a bite on the ship (except for room service), and it can be jam-packed. Four tips: (1) Avoid the buffet on embarkation day, when it’s at its most chaotic. (2) When you do eat at the buffet, make a beeline for the Asian and Indian food. The kitchen staff is frequently Asian and Indian, so what you get is their home cooking, and it’s delicious. (3) Often one side of the buffet is open and the other is closed; if you can’t find empty seats, go to the closed side. (4) Feed your kids at the buffet, then go elsewhere for a proper adult meal. Like this:

This is the first raw bar I’ve seen on a cruise ship. How about you? #NorwegianBreakaway

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 20, 2015 at 6:07pm PST

#yummy A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 20, 2015 at 6:19pm PST

11. Have your child wear a watch.
There are few, if any, clocks on the ship. If you’ve instructed children to meet you in a certain place at a certain time, the only way they’ll know is if they’re wearing watches.

12. Ensure room keys don’t get lost.
Bring a lanyard, or punch a hole into your child’s key card, so it can be worn around the neck.

13. Don’t activate your kid’s room key for purchases.
On ships you use your room key card for purchases, and kids lose room keys. They accidentally leave them in the games arcade—where other kids may find them and swipe them in the machines—or by the pool, where adults may find them and use them to buy a round of drinks. I’m not kidding; this happens with surprising frequency. When you check in for your cruise, the check-in agent will ask whether your kid’s key should be enabled for shipboard purchases. Just say no, unless you’re certain your child won’t lose the key. And if you’re certain your child won’t lose the key, please share your secret with me!

14. Read my 12-year-old’s advice that parents should know before booking a family cruise.

If anyone else has tips for sailing on megaships, I’d love to hear them. Chime in below!

Disclosure: This was my family’s fourth cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line. We’ve always paid our own way in the past; this time the cruise line provided us with complimentary accommodations. In keeping with my standard practice, there was no request for or expectation of coverage on Norwegian’s part, nor was anything promised on mine.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How to Have a Kid-Friendly River Cruise: Advice From a 12-Year-Old

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Note from Wendy: River cruises are not known for being kid-friendly. Ships are small, with no space to run; there are no children’s facilities or eateries; and there are rarely other kids onboard. But my 10- and 12-year-old sons loved their Danube cruise on Viking River Cruises’ Viking Alsvin. We sailed over the Thanksgiving school break, which worked well because the kids didn’t miss too much school and most Christmas Markets were open. The trip was fun, educational, and logistically a breeze, so I asked my older son, Charlie, to share his advice for parents who might be wondering whether they should take their kids on a river cruise.

Hi. I’m Charlie. I’m 12 years old, and I’ve been on ten ocean cruises, but this was my first river cruise. To me and my brother Doug’s dismay, we were the only kids on the ship. But we made the most of it. In the end, we had a great trip because we found fun things to do on the ship and because we were in port walking around most of the time anyway. Here is my advice for parents:

1. Get a ship that’s almost always in port.
We spent every day—and almost every night—walking around a new port. The ship served mainly as just our overnight hotel, so we never felt like we were stuck on it.

We walked all day. This is Passau, Germany.

And we walked all night. This is Budapest’s castle.

Mom made sure we returned to the ship exhausted.

2. Get an interesting observation deck.
We had shuffleboard on the observation deck, so we made a series out of it. Every day was a game, and whoever won the most games would win, so we were motivated to play every day. And while we played we could see views of the ports we were in.

That’s Budapest’s Chain Bridge.

Those are locks between Budapest and Bratislava.

3. Check out the locks.
Try to be up on the observation deck when going through locks because it’s interesting to see how they work.

4. Find playgrounds in port.
European countries tend to have more exotic things in their playgrounds, and your kids likely will be wowed.

A playground in Passau

The playground had a ropes course.

5. Don’t go around with the group from the ship.
They go too slowly for kids and are not interested in the same things you are. It was easy to get around on our own on foot or by subway.

On the ships’ tours they don’t dip candles.

And they don’t ride ferris wheels. That’s Vienna’s Riesenrad.

And they don’t go swimming at the Gellert Baths. This is the outdoor pool.

The ship’s concierge arranged kid-friendly experiences for us too. For instance, in Austria at Melk Abbey we got to see the Minerals Room.

Melk Abbey’s Minerals Collection

There were lots of precious rocks.

Doug and I took a photo of almost every rock.

The only time we went with a group from the ship was when we took a bus to Salzburg because Salzburg isn’t on the Danube.

6. While you’re walking around all day, try new foods.
There are many foods that you can find in Europe that you can’t find in the United States. There are also many European foods that you can find in the United States but they taste much better in Europe.

A donut at the Schönbrunn Palace Christmas Market in Vienna

A ½-meter würst at Passau’s Christmas Market

7. Back on the ship, eat upstairs on the Aquavit Terrace.
The food came quickly. It made for a yummy family dinner without having to sit in the dining room for two hours. The menu had six entrees, and I promise your kid would like at least one of them. We also loved Milan, our waiter who was so nice to us.

Eat here for a kid-friendly meal.

Our friend Milan on Austrian night

8. Look for kid-friendly movies and TV shows in your cabin.
In our cabin they played The Sound of Music, which was great because we went to Salzburg where they filmed the movie and we recognized the gardens where the Von Trapp children played.

The gardens in Salzburg

9. Find board games in the ship’s library.
Our ship’s library had Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, chess, checkers, and backgammon. There were also two computers there, so I could catch up on schoolwork when my laptop wasn’t working.

We played board games here.

I had to do homework during the cruise.

10. Talk to the older passengers.
They liked talking to me and Doug, and they were easy to talk to. One even asked to play shuffleboard with us.

So my advice to parents is: If you plan on spending a lot of time in port, and if your kids are at least nine to ten years old, and you think they are mature enough, then you can consider bringing them on your next river cruise.

My dad has advice too:
The Easiest Way to See Europe: A River Cruise

And here’s my mom’s advice:
How to Make a Low-Season European River Cruise Awesome
Europe’s Christmas Markets: How to Plan the Perfect Trip

I also have advice for parents thinking of taking their kids on ocean cruises: Things to Know Before Booking a Family Cruise: Tips From a 12-Year-Old.

Stunning Photos: An Ice-Filled New York Harbor in Winter

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One of the biggest reasons to travel by ship is the views as you come into port. Yesterday, as my family sailed into an ice-filled New York Harbor—the final stop of a winter cruise to the Bahamas—I was reminded that certain amazing sights in this world can be seen only by ship. Even though I’m a jaded New Yorker who grew up in midtown Manhattan, the scene was otherworldly. It was well worth waking up at dawn, and shivering on my balcony, to capture it. Enjoy!

Pulling into New York Harbor at 7:00 am on a Sunday in February. #NorwegianBreakaway #NYC #skyline

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 22, 2015 at 4:08am PST

#tugboat breaking up the #ice for us in New York Harbor. #NYC #NorwegianBreakaway A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 22, 2015 at 4:18am PST

It’s rare sights like this that are the reason to sail out of (and into) New York. #tugboat #NYC #ice #NorwegianBreakaway @norwegiancruiseline

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 22, 2015 at 4:22am PST

42nd St. as viewed from the Hudson River on a Sunday morning in February. No zoom, no filter. Pulling into #NYC aboard #NorwegianBreakaway. A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 22, 2015 at 4:28am PST

4,000-passenger ship pulling into an icy Pier 88, NY Harbor, 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday in February. Home safe.

A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 22, 2015 at 4:40am PST

Home safe. Biggest ship we’ve ever sailed on–which has its pros and cons. “The best thing about the cruise,” the boys say, “was the friends we made.” Isn’t that always true about travel? It’s the people you meet that make a trip. A photo posted by Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin) on Feb 22, 2015 at 7:09am PST

What’s your favorite port in the world to sail into?

How to Make a Low-Season European River Cruise Awesome

European river cruises have grown so popular that often the only time you can get a cabin is low season. But is a low-season cruise worth doing? I’ve taken six European river cruises now—at different times of the year—so I thought I’d lay out for you the pros and cons of low season; how to choose the right ship, cabin, and week; and how to transform a low-season cruise from average to extraordinary. The photos are from my extraordinary Danube cruise from Budapest to Passau aboard Viking River Cruises’ Viking Alsvin in November 2014. The seven-day itinerary hit four countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany.

The Pros and Cons of Low Season

Three Pros:

1. You pay less.
A cruise can cost $1,000 per person less in March, April, November, or December than in July or August. Airfare is lower too. Also, when the weather is cold, there’s no pressure to splurge on a balcony, since you won’t spend much time sitting on it. (I recommend a cabin with a “French balcony.” See below.)

These are the colors of low season. That’s Schönbühel Castle, in Austria’s Wachau Valley, near Melk.

2. River towns are less crowded.
In high season, river towns can be packed with cruisegoers. In low season, they’re delightfully empty.

In low season you needn’t fight crowds at famous sites—such as inside Melk Abbey’s famed library of 16,000 ancient books.

3. Holiday markets
Festive Christmas markets, which tend to run circa November 22 – December 24, make every port more charming and fun. I’ve now gone Christmas-market-hopping in Central Europe via rental car, train, and boat, and the latter is by far the easiest. (For the reasons why, plus photos and tips, see Europe’s Christmas Markets: How to Plan the Perfect Trip.)

Bratislava, Slovakia, is charming both with a Christmas market and without one—but it’s better with one.

Three Cons:

1. It’s nippy up on that observation deck.
My favorite place on a river ship is the top deck, where I can watch history glide by and try to sneak into the wheelhouse to chat up the captain. But it’s chilly and windy up there in March and December, with temps in the 30s and 40s. Then again, that’s nothing that the right outerwear won’t solve. Of course, you can always descend one deck to the indoor glass-walled observation lounge and enjoy the neverending free supply of hot chocolate and cappuccinos.

Passengers were bundled up as we passed the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest.

2. Your river photos will be grayer.
Compare the photos in this post—all shot on a Danube cruise in November—with those from my July 2014 cruise on the same stretch of river.

Dürnstein, Austria, November 2014: Misty but delightfully uncrowded.

3. Darkness falls early.
Fewer hours of daylight mean fewer hours for sightseeing. In November and December, it’s dark by 4:30 p.m. That’s no problem on a Christmas markets cruise, though; it’s a plus, in fact, since nighttime is when the markets light up and are at their most festive.

Here’s an example of the fun things you can do at night at a Christmas market. That’s my 10-year-old in Bratislava.

How to Choose the Right Ship, Cabin, and Week

Time it right.
I’m convinced I chose a great week of the year for my Viking cruise on the Danube: Thanksgiving. The Christmas Markets had just opened, the weather wasn’t too cold yet, the kids didn’t have to miss too many days of school, and the cruise fare was the lowest of the year. Fares for late-November 2015 start at about $1,760 per person for Viking, $1,900 for AmaWaterways, $2,500 for Uniworld, and $2,600 for Tauck. If you’re not going for Christmas markets, look for value in late April or early October.

Vienna’s holiday market at Michaelerplatz two days before Thanksgiving 2014.

Ask yourself what shipboard décor, ambience, and indoor creature comforts you’ll want.
Given the cold weather, you’ll be spending almost all your time on the ship indoors. Do you want to live in a plush palace? That’s the ambience you’ll find on Uniworld’s splendidly furnished ships. The S.S. Antoinette, for instance, is the Versailles of river ships and has an indoor cinema and an indoor pool. When it’s freezing outside, splurging on such cold-weather niceties may make sense. If your goal is to spend as much time as possible off the ship exploring, however, you may prefer to spend your money on experiences in port, rather than on shipboard bells and whistles you may never utilize. On my six European river cruises, I have never once watched a movie in my cabin, let alone in a cinema; I’ve been too busy watching the river.

This was my veranda stateroom on the Viking Alsvin—a little tight, but comfy, warm, and efficient.

Decide how important it is to you to have a second shipboard restaurant for gourmet dinners.
Uniworld and AmaWaterways ships have two restaurants: the main dining room, and an alternative small restaurant featuring special creations of the chef. If sitting down to a two-hour, four- or five-course dinner each night is your idea of Nirvana, those ships are for you. If you’re like me, though, you’re snacking on so many delicious local specialties onshore throughout the day (especially if you’re at Christmas markets) that when you get back to the ship, there’s barely room in your belly for one course, let alone five. What I and my family loved about our Viking longship was that we could skip the two-hour dinner in the main dining room and instead grab a quick, easy meal upstairs on the indoor/outdoor terrace—an express-dinner option that exists on few other river ships.

Here’s the dining room on the Viking Alsvin.

Think about whether you’ll want a heated indoor pool, a hot tub, a sauna, or spa treatments.
After traipsing around in the cold all day, such things can be nice. Some ships have them, some don’t. The Viking Alsvin has none of them. Which was fine with me because I’d rather spend my money, and my precious time in Europe, getting my pool-and-spa fix off the ship. So my family went to the legendary Gellert Baths in Budapest—which had all the local atmosphere we could have wanted.

The Gellert Baths in Budapest have a ton of local atmosphere.

The Gellert Baths’ pools beat a tiny river cruise ship’s any day.

Consider a cabin with a “French balcony.”

On ocean ships I’ve got to have a balcony—I spend a ton of my time out there—but on river ships I find I don’t use one. That’s because only one side of the river is visible from your balcony, whereas if you’re up on the observation deck or in the indoor lounge, you can see both sides at once. My personal preference, no matter what time of year, is a “French balcony.” A French balcony is basically either a floor-to-ceiling glass door or an enormous picture window that you can open—for fresh air and photos—without paying for outdoor sitting space that you’re not going to use. (You can enjoy your open-air view while sitting indoors.)

How to Transform a Low-Season European River Cruise From Average to Extraordinary

Dress up your cruise with special insider experiences in port.
On our Viking cruise, we made some unusual advance requests of our shipboard concierge. As a result, we ended up with unique local experiences that we will never forget.

 The first was in Bratislava, where my goal was for the kids to visit a Slovak school. The ship arranged for a guide—a mom with a child at a local school—to pick us up at the ship and give us a tour.

Here’s our lovely guide showing us her son’s school in Bratislava.

Kids are the same in all countries.

My children played soccer in the schoolyard with new friends.

The best surprise was yet to come.

Our guide walked us back to Bratislava’s Old Town and to its 13th-century Franciscan Church, where an organist would be giving a concert.

Doug got handed the key to the church.

Bratislava’s Franciscan Church features a Baroque organ.

We got to sit upstairs with the organist while she played the concert, and then she let the kids try. They got to play the organ and hear their notes resound through Bratislava’s oldest church.

The kids got such a thrill out of playing the famous pipe organ (as did their parents).

My other unusual request to the Viking concierge was for our stop in Melk, Austria. I had been to Melk Abbey twice before and wanted to do something new this time. The ship arranged for a guide to take us inside the Abbey’s Minerals Collection—a “library” of semi-precious stones housed in the former private library of the abbot. It’s not on the regular Abbey tour; it’s usually closed to the public, and you need a special key and guide to gain access. It’s an exquisite collection of at least 1,000 stones from around the world. Melk Abbey collected great rocks for the same reason it collected great books for its world-renowned library: Its goal was to capture the finest wisdom from around the world—both literary and scientific. Here’s a list of the minerals on display.

Melk Abbey’s Minerals Collection

Cool minerals

More cool minerals

The boys were fascinated. They took dozens of photos.

The good news is that Viking says it can replicate these special-access experiences for other interested travelers. In fact, Viking plans to roll out a pre-trip concierge service in 2015, so that booked passengers can make unusual requests like this well in advance of their cruise.

Book through the right Trusted Travel Expert.
The Trusted Travel Experts on my WOW List create similar WOW experiences in cruise ports worldwide. As an example, on my AmaWaterways cruise on the Danube last July, Gwen Kozlowski, my Trusted Travel Expert for Central Europe, had me making Habsburg-era strudel from scratch with a renowned chef in Budapest; touring the normally-off-limits Bergl Rooms at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna; and getting inside historic private wineries in Austria’s Wachau Valley with a local wine aficionado.

If you’re seeking the right travel agent to match you to the right cruise ship and cabin, reach out to Tom Baker, my Trusted Travel Expert for European River Cruises, but contact him via this trip-request form so he knows you’re a WendyPerrin.com traveler.

Not sure which which Trusted Travel Expert to contact—or which cruise line to choose? Click to Ask Wendy and shoot me your question.

Returning to our floating home after our day in Melk, Austria.

Stay tuned for my 12-year-old son Charlie’s article about how to transform a normally non-kid-friendly type of travel—a river cruise—into a super-kid-friendly experience. Meanwhile, you may find these other articles helpful:

The Easiest Way to See Europe: A River Cruise
Which European River is Most Interesting for a River Cruise?
Europe’s Christmas Markets: How to Plan the Perfect Trip

Full disclosure: Viking River Cruises gave my family two complimentary cabins. In keeping with my standard practice, there was no request for or expectation of coverage on Viking’s part, nor was anything promised on mine. The other river cruise lines I’ve sailed on—so you know what I’m comparing Viking with—are AmaWaterways, A-Rosa, Grand Circle, and Uniworld.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Great Paris Hotels for an Airport Layover at Charles de Gaulle

1 Reply

Question:

Hi Wendy,

You have great suggestions for the best hotels for a London (Heathrow) stopover. Can you help with Paris (Charles de Gaulle)? We’ll be en route from Africa to California, landing at CDG in the mid-afternoon and departing at 10:30 a.m. the next day. We’ll be tired and would prefer to stay near the airport rather than going into Paris. (We’ve been lucky enough to have seen Paris many times.) But none of the obvious CDG hotel choices look that appealing.

Thanks,
Jane

Answer:

Jane, I presume by “obvious CDG hotel choices” you mean the Sheraton Charles de Gaulle (Terminal 2), the Hilton Charles de Gaulle (Terminal 3), and the citizenM across the road from the Hilton? I’ve stayed at the Sheraton—because it’s conveniently located at the entrance to the train station where you can zip into the city center—and you’re right: There’s no real reason to stay there unless you want to pop into Paris for an afternoon and evening.

Here are four alternatives, suggested by one of my Trusted Travel Experts for France, Jack Dancy of Trufflepig, who until recently lived in Paris and is now based in Burgundy.

1. The Auberge du Jeu de Paume is an estate in Chantilly that is a 24-minute ride from the airport. It’s a Relais & Chateaux property with a two-Michelin-star restaurant and a brand new spa. “The rooms look onto the gardens of the Château de Chantilly, which is truly splendid and which, in fact, houses one of the largest French Masters collections outside the Louvre,” says Jack. “The town of Chantilly itself is very lovely. Chantilly housed the Royal Stables, and there is still a superbly picturesque race course in the town. You can visit the Royal Stables and the ‘Living Horse Museum’ quite apart from visiting the château and gardens. And nearby is the equally pretty town of Senlis, well worth heading to for lunch and a stroll.”

2. The Château d’Ermenonville, close to the town of Senlis, is also a 24-minute ride from the airport. (Take a taxi or have the hotel send a car to the airport to pick you up.) Located in a forest, it works “for a grandiose quiet night in a château complete with moat,” says Jack.

Should you feel like a little exercise between long flights, Jack can send a guide, with bikes for you, for an afternoon of biking in the Senlis area, through rolling countryside and the royal hunting forests. That way you’re sightseeing and exercising simultaneously–a nice way to spend a stopover.

3. Should you want to pop into Paris after all, stay just inside the Périphérique (the city ring road), in the 18th arrondissement (Montmartre) or the 20th, since these locations are only a 20-minute taxi ride from CDG. “I like the Hotel Particulier Montmartre,” says Jack. “You reduce your travel time to CDG compared to a downtown hotel by anything up to 40 minutes at high-traffic times (i.e., when you’re leaving for your morning flight back to North America). For a one-night stay, it can be fun to be up in Montmartre in particular because people often don’t want to dedicate a whole Paris stay to that neighborhood, but for a final night are happy to be a little out of town, especially with the added benefit of an easy departure.”

4. If you opt for the 20th arrondissement, “to experience a less touristy part of town,” Jack recommends staying at Mama Shelter. “From both the Hotel Particulier Montmartre and Mama Shelter, you can get directly onto the Périphérique, avoiding all city traffic.”

For imaginative travel solutions in Paris or anywhere in France, connect with Jack Dancy via this trip-request form (so he knows you’re a WendyPerrin.com traveler).

Enjoy your stopover!

European Cities that are Surprisingly Kid-Friendly

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You’d be amazed how many of our frequent-traveling families prefer European capitals of culture to the beach. So we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite European cities for vacations that are exceptionally kid-friendly yet also sophisticated enough for culture-vulture parents:

Berlin

The fantastic public transportation network is what puts Berlin over the top as a family-friendly destination. “Every place of note in the city is well served by public transportation,” says Gwen Kozlowski, who is one of the Eastern Europe travel specialists on Wendy’s WOW List of Trusted Travel Experts and who frequently takes her young son on European scouting trips. “Getting around as a family is easy and a good value. The Berlin Welcome card provides from 48 hours to 6 days of unlimited transportation on the metro, S-Bahn (elevated train), and city buses, and each card covers one adult and three kids 6 to 14 years old; children under 6 are free.” For families Gwen recommends the Adina Hackescher Markt hotel, where a two-bedroom suite costs less than a standard room in many of the city’s five-stars. Expose your kids to history at the Checkpoint Charlie House—but only later in the day, she advises, after all the tour buses have left.

For the best possible family-friendly trip to Berlin and to be marked as a VIP, contact Gwen through Wendy’s questionnaire. Read reviews of Gwen’s trips here.

Paris

Paris is filled with parks and playgrounds. That’s Wendy’s son Doug in the Jardin du Luxembourg when he was eight.

When you’re traveling with kids, you want engaging activities, easy transportation, and great spaces for downtime, and the City of Light ticks all of these boxes. Paris also has an increasing number of pedestrian zones and neighborhoods closed to traffic on certain days, and strollers, scooters, and various bike set-ups can easily be rented to get around. Many Paris museums have kid-friendly spaces and self-guided tours; make sure to download the children’s activity book before tackling the Eiffel Tower. If you’re seeking special private experiences, nobody is more plugged in than Jennifer Virgilio, one of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts for France, who can arrange hands-on activities such as an éclair-making class or an out-of-the-box tour that focuses on the city’s street art. Renting an apartment in the right arrondissement can be a smart move for families too. Finally, when all you need is to burn off some energy, head to one of the many neighborhood parks and playgrounds, all well maintained and fenced in for safety.

Read Jennifer’s Insider’s Guide to Paris with Perks and, for the best possible family-friendly trip to Paris and to be marked as a VIP, contact Jennifer through Wendy’s questionnaire. Read reviews of Jennifer’s trips here.

Dijon

Burgundy might be best known for its wine, but there’s plenty else to keep the underage set happy in the region’s capital. Dijon, you see, was the capital of the Valois Dukes—who were once more powerful than the king—so the old center is full of well-preserved medieval architecture. At the farmer’s market, France Trusted Travel Expert Michael Eloy arranges for kids to help an organic farmer run his stall. He also sends families to the Parc de la Colombière, where young and old can tackle a treetop ropes course, and to the Place de la Libération, where parents sit and enjoy a respite at a café while the kids play in the fountains.

Read Michael’s Insider’s Guide to Burgundy, and for the best possible family-friendly trip to Burgundy and to be marked as a VIP, contact Michael through Wendy’s questionnaire. Read reviews of Michael’s trips here.

Florence

Florence, Italy. Photo: Shutterstock

“At first glance, Florence is intimidating for families because many of the famous attractions are museums and monuments that seem grandiose and overwhelming, even to adults,” says Maria Landers, Trusted Travel Expert for Italy. “But with a little research and planning, Florence—and by extension, Italy’s Renaissance history—can be made vibrant and interesting for younger visitors. Several of the city’s museums, including the Palazzo Vecchio and the Museo Galileo, offer guided itineraries for children, and the Bardini and Boboli gardens are perfect outdoor spots for romping and picnicking. Don’t forget to reward yourselves with healthy doses of gelato as you go!”

Read Maria’s Insider’s Guide to Florence, and for the best possible family-friendly trip to Florence and to be marked as a VIP, contact Maria through Wendy’s questionnaire. Read reviews of Maria’s trips here.

Istanbul

Galata Tower and the street in the Old Town of Istanbul, Turkey. Photo: Shutterstock

Many of the city’s sites naturally appeal to youngsters: “The Rahmi M Koç Industrial Museum’s interactive displays are great for kids, who also love going underground to the Byzantine Cistern and spying fish in the water,” says Earl Starkey, Trusted Travel Expert for Turkey. Earl uses art as a kid-friendly window into Turkish culture, arranging private classes on pottery and ebru (the Ottoman technique of paper marbling), as well as cooking. Even the pickiest palates will be satisfied with pide—best described as Turkish pizza—and Istanbul’s ubiquitous fresh-squeezed juices. To escape the city’s hustle and bustle, take a ferry to the car-free island of Buyukada, where you can rent bikes or hire a horse-drawn carriage.

Read Earl’s Insider’s Guide to Istanbul, and contact him through Wendy’s “Start a Trip” questionnaire to be marked as a VIP and get the best trip possible.

London

Many museums in London are free, including the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Photo: Michael Heffernan/London and Partners

Free museums make London a great choice for families. The Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum, the National Gallery, and the Museum of London are only the start. “Anywhere else, visiting even half of these would ring up costs of at least $100 per person,” notes Jonathan Epstein, Trusted Travel Expert for the British Isles. He adds that traveling to London removes the language barrier that can trip up some kids—especially on their first adventure abroad. Epstein’s young son is a devotee of the pirate-ship climbing structure at the Diana, Princess of Wales’ Memorial Playground. And then, of course, there’s Harry Potter: Families can visit sites featured in the books, or even tour the studios where the movies were filmed. Don’t miss this London advice from Wendy’s 14-year-old son: Dos and Don’ts For Your Trip to London.

Contact Jonathan through Wendy’s “Start a Trip” questionnaire to be marked as a VIP and get the best trip possible.

Barcelona

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia looks to some like a child’s masterpiece in sand. Photo: Pixabay

The Mediterranean climate makes it almost always pleasant to be outdoors (who wants to be cooped up inside with kids?), and there’s a fantastic beach area where can spend your afternoons after mornings spent exploring the city. Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia looks to some like a child’s masterpiece in sand—maybe that’s why kids are so drawn to his buildings and to the other Catalan Modernist structures sprinkled throughout the city. You could spend an entire day exploring how nature and architecture are woven together at Parc Guell. And did you know that chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spanish? There’s a chocolate factory in Barcelona that will have your kids begging for a second trip.

Contact Spain expert Pablo Calvo through Wendy’s “Start a Trip” questionnaire to be marked as a VIP and get the best trip possible.

What European cities would you add to this list?

Be a smarter traveler: Read real travelers’ reviews of Wendy’s WOW List and use it to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter @wendyperrin, and Instagram @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

How to Transform a Disney Trip from Average to Extraordinary

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Just thinking about a vacation at Disney World conjures all kinds of images: Mickey Mouse, princesses, rides, parades, smiles, magic…big crowds, long lines, overtired parents, overstimulated children. Of course, you can have all of the good with none of the bad, but it requires some planning—and a lot of know-how. After a recent trip to Orlando, we’ve got you covered with our own tricks, as well as advice from our Trusted Travel Expert for Disney vacations, Michelle Allen, who can help ensure an all-smiles, no-stress trip with all the best activities and experiences (and oh yeah, she costs nothing to you; Disney pays her fees). Here are five foolproof ways to transform a Disney World trip from average to extraordinary.

After a day at the park, the sleek and sophisticated design of the Four Seasons is a welcome respite from its over-the-top surroundings.

1. Stay at the new Four Seasons

Disney World has a lot of really great hotels at a wide variety of price points, but the newest addition to the lineup really stands apart. The Four Seasons Orlando just had its grand opening this fall, and provides all the luxury and service you’d expect from a Four Seasons property—attentive staff, beautiful rooms, a full-service spa, customized beds—plus all of the official Disney services, thanks to its location inside park boundaries (e.g., free buses to parks and attractions, an on-site desk for tickets and reservations, discounts for Disney-property guests). “It’s still on campus, so you’re not giving up the location that you would have had to in the past to stay somewhere different—it’s really right there within,” Michelle says. “And while Disney does deluxe, this is really luxury.”

The hotel’s best perk might just be the visual and mental break it provides from its over-the-top surroundings. After a day of crowds and craziness (or instead of one), the hotel’s nearly-mouse-free design, sleek adults-only pool, cocktail-carrying pool staff, and full-service spa are a welcome respite. Not that families are forgotten here—this is Disney World after all, and the hotel is a very kid-friendly home base with a complimentary kids club, two water slides, a lazy river, a zero-entry family pool, a rock-climbing wall, sand volleyball courts, and a splash zone water playground. There’s even a character breakfast.*

The mosaics in Epcot’s Morocco showcase were crafted by master artisans. And since only Allah can achieve perfection, they left a crack or a flaw in every work. Photo by Billie Cohen.

2. Splurge on a VIP Tour

We’re not saying this isn’t expensive, we’re just saying it’s a pretty failsafe way to make your time in Disney World more extraordinary. Hire a VIP guide and you’ll be picked up at your hotel and ushered into the parks of your choice through special back-lot entrances. Once inside, your guide will map out the most efficient way to hit every ride, parade, and snack spot on your wish list, FastPassing you to the front of lines and character meet-and-greets, scoring VIP seating at parades and fireworks, and dropping all kinds of Disney secrets and trivia along the way. Wondering who’s on those portraits in the Haunted House? Why there’s an intentional flaw in EPCOT’s Moroccan fountain? I was repeatedly impressed by how much my guide knew, and her narrative made my day more than just a series of rides. Apart from the fun of all that Disney geekdom, it’s the personalized attention that really makes a VIP Tour attractive: The stress of crowds, lines, far-far-away bathrooms, parking—they are all removed from the equation. At a price, of course: rates range from $1,890 to $3,000 for a six-hour-minimum tour, depending on the season and whether you’re staying at a Disney resort, and that fee does not include park admission. On the bright side, that fee is the same whether you’re one person or ten, so if you’re traveling as a family or two, the cost can be shared…or mitigated another way, as Michelle has seen from her own experience: “There are some people who may stay at a moderate resort and put that money toward a guide instead,” she says.

Pick up a MagicBand and you can leave pretty much everything in your hotel room—even your room key. Photo courtesy Walt Disney World.

3. Embrace technology

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can reserve three FastPass rides before you step foot outside the hotel (or even before you leave home). “It used to be that you had to get to the park before opening,” Michelle recalls. “The rope would drop, you’d get a FastPass, hop on a ride, then run to the other end of the park to get another FastPass. But now you can reserve guaranteed board at Space Mountain between 10:30 and 11, so guess who gets to have a leisurely breakfast? You do.” Guests staying at a Disney resort can also use MagicBand bracelets, which are registered online and then used for various functions, including park admissions, FastPass reservations, Disney PhotoPass accounts, paying for food and merchandise, and even unlocking your hotel room door.

Tying it all together is the My Disney Experience app. From your phone, you’ll be able to check ride wait times, change up your FastPasses, make dining reservations, and find character greeting locations. Plus it has GPS, so you’ll be able to see where you are in relation to that Dole Whip you’ve been craving.

Silhouettes and abstract images of the renowned mouse are hidden throughout the parks and resorts of Disney World. This one is embedded in a giraffe carving at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Can you see it? Photo courtesy Walt Disney World.

4. Go surfing… or backstage

Some of the parks feature special activities that really do make you feel special. Typhoon Lagoon offers surf lessons before the park opens to the masses. At Hollywood Studios, you can dine with a Disney Imagineer. And at Magic Kingdom, the Keys to the Kingdom tour lifts the curtain on the whole Disney show, bringing you to backstage areas, leading you through the secret underground tunnels used by staff to get around without being seen, and pointing out a ton of hidden Mickeys disguised all over the park.

5. Use our Trusted Travel Expert
Yes, yes, we’re tooting our own horn here, but we have no qualms about it. Booking a trip with Michelle Allen won’t cost you a thing, but booking without her most certainly will. You’ll end up paying in time, stress, and yeah, probably dollars because she can not only make sure you get access to great activities, she can also find you deals (and let you know when something simply isn’t worth the price). There’s just so much to navigate, reserve, and organize when it comes to planning a Disney vacation. Why do it alone? Read more about Michelle’s background and her tips for Disney World.<

*Disclosure: Four Seasons Orlando provided me with a three-night stay free of charge, and Disney provided me with a VIP Tour so that I could test it for our readers. In keeping with WendyPerrin.com standard practice, there was no request for or expectation of coverage on Four Seasons’ or Disney’s part, nor was anything promised on ours. You can read the signed agreement between WendyPerrin.com and the organizers of my trip here.

8 Secrets to a Stress-Free Flight With Toddlers

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There’s nothing like flying with a toddler to make a solo trip in coach feel downright luxurious. Nevertheless, bringing the kids onboard doesn’t have to be torture. Here are my road-…er, air-tested tips for surviving a flight with young kids. (At the end of my most recent trip with my three-year-old, two nearby passengers paid the ultimate compliment, declaring me the best-prepared mom onboard.)

Don’t fly during nap times.

Whenever possible, choose flights that don’t coincide with your toddler’s periods of sleep. You might think that flying during a nap will give you a little time off. That might work with an infant, but toddlers are different: They have a much harder time falling asleep on a plane, and it typically involves lots of tears. When I fly cross-country with my son, I book a 6:00 a.m. departure: It’s much easier to wake him up a few hours early than to try to get him down for a nap on the plane.

Avoid bulkhead seats.

Before Zeke turned two (when we had to start buying him his own seat), my husband and I would book aisle and window seats toward the back of the plane, where we had the best chance of getting a row to ourselves. This gives your kid more room to spread out playthings, and it relieves you of the stress of shielding a stranger from your child’s noise and energy. Whatever you do, avoid bulkheads: The armrests don’t move, so you can’t easily share space with your kid, and you won’t always have access to your bags, which must be stowed in the overhead compartments.

Arrive early.

Give yourself a cushion for security—in my experience, bags full of small objects have a knack for requiring secondary screening—and allow plenty of time to walk through the airport to your gate. I turn this part of the journey into a game, telling my son what number to look for and having him guide me at his own pace. Letting Zeke burn off some energy also makes him more agreeable about staying in his seat onboard (translation: fewer trips up and down the aisle).

Don’t eat just before takeoff or landing.

Those first and last moments of a flight are often the toughest, when the change in cabin pressure hurts your kid’s ears. Eating and drinking can help, and your child is more likely to chew and swallow if he or she hasn’t just had a meal. I like to bring lollipops for these moments; it’s a special treat with some lasting power. (Don’t starve the kid, though: Mid-flight snacks are essential in preventing the low-blood-sugar grumps.)

Have new toys on hand.

In the weeks before a trip, scour the library book sales and Target $1 bins for inexpensive options; extra credit for play things that encourage open-ended, imaginary play. Some of my favorites: play dough, pipe cleaners, magnetic playsets, and reusable sticker pads. On one flight, a pack of small monster trucks entertained Zeke for a good 30 minutes. Just make sure that you liberate toys from their plastic clamshell packaging at home, while you still have access to scissors! Too busy to shop? Order a Busy Kit.

Wrap everything.

Not just the new toys, but old reliable ones, snacks, even a cube of Post-It notes for small drawings. Opening each package helps small tots with their fine motor skills and makes each new event last a little longer; use old newspapers to cut down on waste. This works better with the younger set, though: My three-year-old now tears through the wrapping quickly.

Know your kid.

Whatever appeals to him or her at home will be a good bet in the air. For Zeke, that’s playing trucks and drawing. We never fly without a generous helping of small vehicles, Crayola washable crayons (the best I’ve found), and scrap paper.

When all else fails, treat your kid to some screen time.

I like to leave this as an option of last resort—we’ve gone through entire flights without pulling out the iPad. Many parents swear by them, but if you limit screen time at home, your kid (like mine) might not have the attention span to sit through more than a few minutes of it on a plane. Don’t forget to load some new apps and videos onto your device before the flight, while you still have a fast Internet connection.

What strategies work for you and your kids?

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

10 Tips for a Perfect Family Vacation in Paris

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Every summer we take advantage of school holidays and head to new places with our three young kids—26 countries in the past eight years. But we also find ourselves returning again and again to favorite destinations. Paris is one of them. Since November is a perfect time to start planning travel for next summer, it’s also the perfect time to share a few valuable lessons we’ve learned over the course of several trips to the City of Light. These ten tips make our vacations fun for the kids (and adults) and largely stress-free.

In an apartment we feel like locals. Photo by Eric Stoen.

1. Try a rental instead of a hotel.
We love renting apartments instead of staying in hotels. In an apartment we feel like locals: We have a kitchen—with all the dining flexibility that it brings—and we have far more space than we would in a hotel. Plus, since there are five of us, we would require two hotel rooms, and that becomes expensive. When we spent time in Paris this summer (as part of our six-week trip through Europe), we rented a house through Airbnb, complete with a courtyard, and it was the perfect place to return to after a day of exploring.

Additional tip: We always stay in the 7th arrondissement. It has the markets of Rue Cler as well as the Eiffel Tower, both of which are landmarks that make it really easy to find our way back home from anywhere in the city.

The Musée de la Chasse is fun and quirky for kids. Photo by Eric Stoen.

2. Search out smaller museums.
The major museums like the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre are absolutely worth visiting (see my next tip), but there’s much more to explore in Paris than just the big-ticket attractions, and you’re missing out if you don’t take the time to suss out the unusual and unique small spots in any city. They are often less crowded, just as interesting (if not more so), and easier to see with kids with naturally shorter attention spans. Two of our favorite small museums are the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Musée Marmottan Monet. The Musée de la Chasse is fun and quirky for kids: There are a lot of interactive animal-related displays in a setting that reminds me of a Wes Anderson film. The Monet Museum lets kids get up close to amazing Impressionist art (without the crowds) and to see Monet’s progression as an artist—something you don’t necessarily see at large museums that focus on major works.

Additional tip: Save the museums for a rainy day. Even when the weather is bad, the smaller museums are rarely crowded.

One of the highlights of our summer trip was a private tour of the Louvre with Paris Muse. Photo by Eric Stoen.

3. If you’re going to a major museum, book a kid-friendly private tour.
One of the highlights of our summer trip was a private tour of the Louvre with Paris Muse. Not only did we avoid most of the lines and crowds, but the kids had a great time completing word puzzles and being led on a treasure hunt that included a wide spectrum of Babylonian, Greek, French Medieval, and Italian Renaissance art and antiquities.

Additional tip: There are numerous groups that lead kid-centric private tours, including Paris Muse and Context Travel. Search on TripAdvisor for “Paris Activities” to see tour reviews, or check Wendy’s WOW List of Trusted Travel Experts to find someone who can arrange special activities wherever you’re traveling.

4. Think picnics.
Every summer that we return to Paris, we find ourselves having more and more picnics, both for lunch and dinner. We’re able to sit and enjoy wine while the kids run around and play—and the breads, meats, cheeses and tarts bought from local markets can’t be beat.

Additional tip: Bring a thin linen blanket from home (which, in addition to being perfect for picnics, can be used as a towel or a sarong) and buy disposable plates, cups and utensils at the local supermarché.

5. Walk. A lot.
The Métro is great for reaching farther-afield areas of the city and for giving legs a rest, but the biggest mistake that first-time visitors to Paris make is that they take the Métro from major site to major site and miss out on the neighborhoods and the transitions between arrondissements. There are great parks, churches, cafés, and shops outside of the major tourist areas, and some of our best days have been the ones when we did the most walking.

Additional tip: We like picking a destination in the morning or the night before, taking the Métro there, exploring that area, and then slowly walking back to our apartment in the afternoon, buying things for dinner along the way.

Whether you’re into pizza, baguettes or pastries, you can find a cooking class for it in Paris. Photo by Eric Stoen.

6. Learn to cook.
We’ve always loved macarons. So this summer we learned how to make them with Cook’n With Class in Montmartre. Our kids were involved in every step, from preparing the dough and fillings to final assembly—and, best of all, they got to take home everything that they made. Whether you’re into pizza, baguettes or pastries, you can find a cooking class for it in Paris. And it doesn’t even take up a whole day—a short course is a perfect morning or afternoon activity.

Additional tip: If you find a class that looks great for your family but is geared to adults, ask the school if they can offer you a kid-friendly version.

7. Become regulars.
On Rue de Grenelle near Champs de Mars there is a little Italian restaurant. We’ve eaten there six times over the past two summers, and every time is better. When they see us they seat us right away. They anticipate the kids’ drinks. They give us extra appetizers, sweets, and after-dinner liquors at no cost. We always get the same waiter and expand on our conversations each time, as much as possible in French. It makes for a much better experience than simply being one-time visitors. The same holds at boulangeries, where the lovely lady behind the counter would anticipate our pain au chocolat order every morning, or at the local fresh fruit market, where they gave us frequent discounts for not-really-noticeable produce blemishes—but only after we had gone there several times.

Additional tip: Always try to speak French. Even if it’s just one or two sentences that you quickly looked up on Google Translate, it gets you a better level of service than walking in and assuming that the staff speaks English.

One of the best carousels for spearing brass rings is at Luxembourg Gardens. Photo by Eric Stoen.

8. Stop at every carousel.
There are a lot of carousels in Paris. Every one is different, and our kids love all of them, so we never say no when we’re passing one. The brass rings are always a highlight because you don’t see them in the U.S. very often anymore. There’s rarely a wait, and it’s a nice chance to relax after a lot of walking.

Additional tip: The best carousels for spearing brass rings are at Luxembourg Gardens (by the playground) and at Champs de Mars park, near the Eiffel Tower.

My kids love the Jardin d’Acclimatation. Photo by Eric Stoen.

9. Skip the big amusement parks.
Forget Disneyland Paris. Head to the Jardin d’Acclimatation instead. It’s a much more authentically Parisian experience, easier to get to, and a lot less expensive, with a small entry fee and then pay-per-ride attractions. Go early, before the park gets crowded.

Additional tip: Bring swimsuits and towels. Our kids love the water area.

My daughter and I have a tradition of walking around the Eiffel Tower area at least one night during our trip. Photo by Eric Stoen.

10. Stay up late.
A few years ago when we landed in Paris, my wife and two of the kids were jet-lagged and went to sleep early, but my oldest daughter and I felt wide awake. So we quietly left the apartment and walked all around the Eiffel Tower, the Champs du Mars, and the Trocadero area for two hours, including several trips around the Trocadero carousel. It was great one-on-one bonding, and we got to see more Parisian nightlife than we usually do. Since then, it’s become a tradition for the two of us: We always head over on our first night, and then once or twice a week after that.

Additional tip: I especially enjoy walking at night after it’s rained. The reflections are magical.

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An Affordable Christmas Vacation Idea

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Question:

Hi Wendy,

We are hoping to go away over the Christmas holiday. We’re willing to spend some money, but don’t want to spend $15K just for a week in Hawaii with lots of crowds, if you know what I mean. We were originally thinking of Mexico—or, someplace warm and sunny that’s a little less expensive then Hawaii but where we could still have some adventure. We are really open to any non-ski destination, as long as it’s affordable and fun. We live in San Francisco and have two young boys, 9 and 6. Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Nancy

Answer:

Nancy, if I were you I’d go back to thinking about Mexico. There’s still availability and good value to be found during the Christmas/New Year’s period in certain pockets of the country. I spoke to a few trusted Mexico travel specialists, and here are some of your options:

* Colonial Mexico. “Haciendas and resorts in the Colonial interior—like Merida, Oaxaca, Cuernavaca—offer a festive atmosphere, great food, cultural and archaeological sites, and great weather, and there is still availability,” says Ada King of Connoisseur’s Travel.

* San José del Cabo. “This year Cabo has more availability during Christmas week than over New Year’s, says Julie Byrd, one of my WOW List Trusted Travel Experts for the Caribbean. Nonetheless, there are many smaller villas available both weeks, as well as rooms available at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos over Christmas.”

* Oaxaca, Huatulco, Puerto Escondido, Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo, Puerto Vallarta. “Both the city of Oaxaca and the coast nearby—Huatulco, Puerto Escondido, and the coast in between—have space left and are a good value,” says Zach Rabinor, one of my Trusted Travel Experts for Mexico. “Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo and Puerto Vallarta also have availability and are exceptional value for coveted coastal destinations, including hotels and villas.” Zach adds that the following resorts in Mexico still have availability, “subject to dynamically changing conditions”: Fairmont Mayakoba, Las Alamandas, Viceroy Riviera Maya, Capella Ixtapa, Qinta Real Huatulco, Rosewood San Miguel Allende, and Viceroy Zihuatenejo.

Nancy, I could suggest a few other destinations that would be affordable, relatively warm over the winter holidays, and fun for both kids and adults simultaneously—San Diego and Charleston, South Carolina, both come to mind—but Mexico will be the sunniest. Zach Rabinor, who lives in Puerto Vallarta and has two kids of his own, is one of my Trusted Travel Experts on The WOW List, and I’d strongly suggest you contact him to learn current availability and the best pricing for your time frame, as well as to get his recommendations custom-tailored to your family’s needs. As a wendyperrin.com traveler, you’ll get VIP status with Zach, as well as my trip-monitoring service, as long as you contact him via this trip-request form.

Have a happy holiday, Nancy!

How to Pack for a Family Vacation

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Note from Wendy: One of the biggest, saddest obstacles to international travel with kids is the perception that you’ll need to haul around a ton of luggage. It’s a misperception, as Eric Stoen, the founder of Travel Babbo, shows us. Eric is a frequent international traveler whom I met when he won Condé Nast Traveler’s Dream Trip Photography Contest, and he uses many of the same strategies I use when packing for my own family.

This past summer we took a Disney Cruise from Venice to Barcelona and then, with suggestions from the kids (and a little research on TripAdvisor), kept adding on European destinations post-cruise. What started as two weeks in Europe turned into six weeks. Those six weeks included everything from a formal night on the cruise to operas in Salzburg to hiking and swimming, with temperatures ranging from the 90s in Turkey to the 50s in Austria at night. We were still able to pack everything for two adults and three kids (ages 4, 6, and 8) into just two suitcases and two carry-ons. Here are our packing suggestions—based on this trip and many others—and they work just as well for a one-week trip as for a longer vacation:

1. Use packing cubes. In our case, each adult gets two and each kid gets one. These allowed us each to pack enough clothes for four to five days each (which was sufficient, given that we would have laundry access at several points during the trip or could do laundry in hotel sinks and bathtubs when necessary). The cubes have the added benefit of neatly organizing our clothes, which comes in handy when we are in non-connecting hotel rooms and need to place each person’s things in the correct room.

We packed everything we needed for two adults and three kids (ages 4, 6, and 8) into just two suitcases and two carry-ons. Photograph by Eric Stoen.

2. Pack empty duffels, and be prepared to ship things home. We packed two empty duffels in our suitcases and filled both (with souvenirs and new school clothes for the kids) over the course of the first four weeks. In Austria we bought boxes at the post office, loaded them up, and mailed them home. It was inexpensive, and all of a sudden we had empty duffels again for shopping at our remaining destinations. We always have to bring back several bags of Batticuori cookies from Italy, after all!

3. Limit your colors. It’s often said but bears repeating: Take clothes that mix and match.

4. Forget formality. Hauling around a sport coat for six weeks that you’ll use on only one or two nights doesn’t make sense. My son and I were fine in slacks and button-down shirts for both the “formal” cruise dinners and the operas. The girls found it easy to make a few skirts and dresses fit any occasion.

5. Eliminate shoes that aren’t practical. Does anyone really need more than three pair of shoes on a trip? Each of us brought one pair of comfortable walking shoes, one pair of flip-flops or sandals, and one pair of slightly nicer shoes for dressing up. No heels: If it can’t be worn on cobblestone streets, it wasn’t allowed in the suitcases.

6. Bring kid medicines. We bring an assortment of medical items that may not be easy to locate in foreign cities. Our emergency kit consists of Pepto-Bismol and Tums for kids, Band-Aids, Neosporin, hydrocortisone, and children’s ibuprofen—the chewable pills, not the liquid. Every trip we (unfortunately) need to use most of those items at least once.

7. Don’t forget sun hats and sunscreen. If we forget sun hats, we have to buy them at one of our first stops. It’s not fun being somewhere like Ephesus for hours with no shade.

8. Take a linen blanket. We find ourselves at the beach frequently and often have impromptu picnics in parks. A large, thin linen towel or blanket works for both: It’s a towel for wet kids, or a picnic blanket. It can also double as a skirt/sarong for the occasional church that doesn’t accept visitors in shorts, and it can be used to pack breakable items on the way home.

9. Don’t spurn electronics. Books are great at home, but on the road we rely on lightweight iPods and iPad Minis. They’re lifesavers on airplanes, as well as at long European dinners when it takes 45 minutes to get the check.

Once our extra duffels were filled, we bought boxes at the post office, loaded them up, and mailed that stuff home. Photograph by Eric Stoen.

10. Remember packing and repair supplies. We bring a small kit with scissors, packing tape, blue gaffer’s tape, and a Sharpie. We use these for everything: shipping boxes, labeling cups, wrapping fragile souvenirs, taping up shampoo tops before flights, and on-the-fly repairs.

What’s your best family packing tip?

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