Tips
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Choosing the Perfect Family Beach House: Tips for Renting a Beach House
There’s a first time for everything, which means there’s a first time for renting a beach house. It’s easy to get pulled into the pictures of beautiful rooms and seashell decor, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the perfect fit for your family’s needs. Not all beach houses are the same. And not all families are the same. It’s important to really assess your needs and come up with some priorities before you turn on your computer and get hunting. House hunting fatigue can set in quickly and it can sap the joy out of planning, so we’ve come up with some tips for renting a beach house that will…
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Managing Jet Lag: Tips for Travel with Kids
The absolute pain of being awake when you just don’t want to be. I still have seared into my brain the discomfort of struggling to stay awake in high school classes, fighting to keep my eyes open in the passenger seat of late night car rides, forcing my eyelids open during early morning meetings. I would envision white, crisp sheets and heavy, down comforters wrapped around my body, lulling me. I’d get comfortable, then battle my way back to semi-clearheaded consciousness. It’s the same dreaded war I often wage when we travel (particularly when we fly east), except this time I’ve got kids. So, I’ve come up with some fool-proof…
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Gifts for Families That Travel: Gifts for Every Age
Most families who travel (and a whole lot who don’t) will tell you that it’s the experiences that matter, and we tend to agree. But that’s not always an easy gift to give. It can be expensive, time consuming, and difficult to plan. Luckily, we’ve rounded up some of the best non-experience gifts for families that travel, no matter what the age. Infants (under 12) Muslin Blankets There is just no item as versatile as a muslin blanket. In a single layer, it is thin enough to let air move while still keeping little bub’s skin free from direct sun. Folded over many a time, and its thickness becomes an…
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Your Outer Banks Vacation: 10 Things to Know Before You Go
No two beaches are alike, which is why you can’t just claim that if you’ve seen one beach, you’ve seen them all. Simply not true. So, we set out to see as many beaches in as many places as we can. But you know what? We also keep coming back to one in particular: the Outer Banks (OBX). Every year we look forward to it, and construction paper countdown chains get made in anticipation of the moment we go on our Outer Banks vacation. By now we have the trip down to a science, but at first? It wasn’t so pretty. There was overpacking, underpacking, and daily trips to the…
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Must Have Gear for Traveling with a Newborn
Traveling with a newborn is bliss. I mean, really, it is. I don’t think it gets any easier as far as traveling with kids is concerned. They don’t really complain. They have erratic sleeping schedules so are pretty happy to keep whatever pace you want to set. Food isn’t a problem because they have yet to disavow anything green and pledge their tastebuds solely to chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup. Their clothes take up practically zero space. But their gear? Well, the gear for traveling with a newborn, it, you know, takes up space. Kind of a lot of space. And that comes from someone who despises carrying more than…
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Family Vacation Packing Tips: 10 Tips for Packing with Young Kids
No one needs that "What did I forget" voice nagging the folds of their brain. And there's few things worse than feeling exhausted and defeated by luggage, especially before the trip has even started. Just a little planning and plotting can quiet that voice and make dealing with luggage as easy as a walk in the park.
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15 Best Activities for Toddlers on a Plane
Oh flying. Flying isn’t so bad for most people. Now throw in a toddler or two (maybe even three). And that’s where parental fear sets in. Here’s the thing: it’s great when it’s over, but sometimes that in-between time can be, well, to put it nicely, difficult. Distraction is really every parent’s best friend, and it’s no different with flying. But what really works on those three hour flights? What about the seventeen hour flights? After setting off on fifteen hour flights and three hour flights, with one, two, or three little ones in tow, we’ve found a way or two to distract the wiggly ones. So read on to…
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10 Travel Items We Can’t (Or Really We Don’t Want To) Live Without
I’d like to pretend we have this packing thing down. And we do. And then something happens, like a season changes or one of the little people gets a bit older and it’s like starting over again. Mostly. I mean, yes, there’s the clothes. Always the clothes. And the diapers. And the medicines. And all the other little travel items. But what about all that those other little travel items? Over the past seven years of traveling as a family, I’ve figured out that less is more. I always aim to bring just enough. Still, there are a few things that have stood out to us as travel items that…
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Disney with a Newborn: Tips for What to Pack for the Park and How to Pack It
Life with a new baby: those sweet smells, those itty bitty squeaks, those snuggles in the crook of your neck. It’s like being in a cocoon those first few months. A cocoon of newness and naps and a lost sense of time. And a cocoon of diaper bags and back packs and extra clothes and too many things that rattle. It’s bringing a pouch filled with pacifiers, one more blanket, and an extra extra pair of socks. It’s stuff you need and a whole lot of stuff you really don’t. And that’s where going to Disney with a newborn gets a little rough: balancing being prepared with being burdened by…
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Why a Road Trip Around Sicily Should be on Your Family Travel Bucket List
There are so many reasons to go on a road trip around Sicily with your little people. So, don’t be like us. Don’t go on a road trip around Sicily by accident. (Or do be like us and do it by accident. Who cares how you land there, just as long as you do it.) I’m not always really sure how we pick where it is we end up traveling to. Some times it depends on a certain climate we want, coupled with an available flight. Other times it might be that the length of time we have is what dictates where we go. And then there are still those…
