Ultimate Vacation Spots

posted by Travel Cat on Jun 10

Hello again, and welcome to the first summer Traveling With Kids Carnival in 2009 – and so far the weather has been great!

Me and my nephews have been charging around the countryside looking at the animals and the amazing butterflies that are filling the skies this year.

Its no wonder people are thinking about camping this year and traveling closer to home – it’s cheaper and can be just as fun as going miles away, and you know you are just a short drive from home should anything go wrong!

Savings Toolbox picks up on this with their post: Camping as the Perfect Money Saving Vacation as it hits home about not only the money you don’t spend on flights and eating out all the time – but the adventures you can have for virtually nothing! 

RV Journeys are on the mind of Bob Erwin in his Thoughts Before Going On a Family RV Travel Trip - which covers a few driving past-times but also some great little games to consider if traveling by road.

Joshua’s article has some tips on how to encourage kids to learn a new skill or improve an existing on during the long summer vacation – rather than just shipping them off to a club without researching what your kids actually want to do: Tips for Learning during Summertime

Billeater follows with some ingenious ways to keep your kids busy without breaking the bank – even if you don’t even go anywhere – take a peak at Summer Entertainment for Families on a Budget to find out what he has in store……

Nui Loa has a bit of fun after raiding her kids CD collection and finding quite a lot of things she likes!  What a great way to bond with your kids if you can actually listen to their tunes without thinking ‘what a racket!’  Try out some of her choices before stocking your kids collection with tunes you really like yourself at Our Five Favorite Kids’ CDs for Grownups

The last 2 articles are short vacation stories.  The first is about surviving a flight with kids and the other is a tiring but enjoyable family vacation to Orlando!

One Family tells the short tale of their personal experiences of using a certain airline that they enjoyed and which helped the kids relax and certainly passed the time better than just watching the TV screen in the backs of the chair! So enjoy their story in Southwest Airlines – An Experience

Then Amy @ The Q Family presents their vacation diary of Friends, Family, Food and Floating Tube with some great photos to add to the dramas!

Enjoy these – and I hope the weather stays good – and you send in more of your adventures…… 

posted by Travel Cat on May 10

Welcome to another edition of this great Traveling With Kids Carnival, with BlogCarnival.

We get straight into it with a quick comment on international travel, as I am hoping that the current global news regarding a certain health scare hasn’t put people off traveling, but maybe has pushed a few people to consider a more local vacation this May – perhaps a road trip or camping in a National Park for a change!

Let me know your thoughts on this and how it has affected you and your family – if at all!

Right, first up is just a fun one with tongue twisters to keep the kids (and adults) entertained for a while.  I had great fun last week getting my mum to even say the thing in the first place – let alone repeat it!  So get going with First installment: Indoor activity and let me know how YOU get on!

2 nice personal stories here: one from a mum living in France with her ‘kid’ as she calls him – so Christine presents Basel Back Pack Hostelwith some snaps! And the other about living in Central America and an un-cooperative Barney! So join Marina for Where Can I Get a Pony Ride?

Just a different angle on the whole holiday thing with this eco friendly option from Erika: Ecotourism in the Amazon Rain Forest not specifically to do with kids themselves – but certainly related to the world we are leaving them!

And finally, an amazing story of a family’s long-distance vacation by bike! Not only did it make me very jealous as I sit here at home, but also inspiring that people take on such challenges as opposed to everyday boring life! So, Marjorie Morgan presents GO! Girls Outdoors | Alaska to Argentina by bike, with family

Bye for now…..

posted by Travel Cat on Mar 10

What’s going on here?  Is noone going on vacation anymore with their kids?  There has been a shortage or articles this past month – so either parents are too busy to plan a vacation – or they are having so many, they don’t have time to write about them!!!

One things for sure – we all want to keep the kids quiet in the back of the car.  Every month someone has some great ideas to try and this month is no exception.   Shortcut Sleuth offers up some more great tips in Surviving Family Road Trips and virtually all of these don’t involve some expensive toys – just the very place you are driving through.  What great fun – and certainly games I used to play in our car!

Jenafer has a story about what her little monkeys got up at the other end of the car journey in Camping with a little outdoor story with great pictures of the kids enjoying themselves!

If you visit SJ at Is Traveling During Pregnancy Safer By Air Or Land? you will find a detailed debate about traveling while pregnant.  The other posts on the site may also offer opinions on other aspects of pregnancy at home or away on vacation!

Anyway – get going on vacations with your family – and let everyone know the tips that made it a success - or things that went so wrong, you want to help other families avoid them!!! 

posted by Travel Cat on Feb 10

Hello again to the Kids Carnivals, and we have a great mixture today from different writers, from snow tubing to festivals in Argentina, from campsite games to time share tips.

So lets get started…..

Erika presents Events and Festivals in Argentina which briefly details what’s going on at what time in the country. So if you are planning a family vacation in May or a September horseback trip to South America, you can see what will be going on.

Similarly Travel Advocate lists some tips and locations for the best snow tubing sites in the following post: Top Snow Tubing Travel Destinations Revealed

But onto the things that happen when kids are involved are the following 4 articles, starting with 2 posts from Smart Camper. The first gives advice on planning a trip with Preparing for a Backpacking Camping Trip, and the second suggests things to do once there – Great Campground Games.

Here is a more common ‘kid’ dilemma – a story of disaster in the air with More than just a mother with her take on the delights of kids in tow – Flying high which has a few comments in agreement of it’s own already……

Finally 2 general articles which may be of assistance to families: Choosing a Summer Camp for Your Childby Kristen and the advantages (yes, there are some) of Time Shares as a family investment from Jim: Timeshares Are Good Investments

Have fun reading them and checking out other articles on their sites……

posted by Travel Cat on Jan 10

Welcome to new year of vacations – and perhaps a few more nearer to home this year.

Money is not something we want to give away so easily these days, so when booking your family vacation and traveling around with your kids – it’s time to think about how you can make the most out of a tight budget or a long drive.

Only yesterday was I sitting in the launderette finding a poor child having to entertain himself for the hour he was sitting there while his dad read a book!  Needless to say, he annoyed his dad (and everyone else) during that time by screaming, crying, running around and generally doing what a child would do anywhere else – but by the time he got to leave – his father had already cancelled all bed-time stories and taken his trucks off him!!

How can we expect children to behave if we don’t give them the opportunity to be good! And Emma Evans did the ‘travel’ equivalent of what the father should have done, and aims at the kids point of view to get her own satisfaction.  Read Family vacation can be fun or a disappointment – the choice is yours. to see how she did it.

However, Bridget Smith seems to have learnt things the hard way in her description of An Unexpected Adventure.  They got there in the end, but are not planning to make the same mistake twice!!

A final article is more on a serious note regarding Hidden Hotel Travel Dangers Safeguarding the Room for Kids as detailed by Travel Advocate.  Danger is all around when you have children, but if you plan ahead, you can avoid silly accidents and keep your vacation fun, rather than a terrible story to tell your friends when you finally get back home!

Thanks again for the contributors, and I hope you like their stories.  More next month.

Travel Cat