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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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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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What to Do in Manchester, Vermont: A 3 Day Family-Friendly Itinerary
When we rolled up into Manchester, Vermont that first time, it was already a bit dark. We made a few wrong turns, but each turn took us back to a main road. With each quiet street we came to the realization that maybe Manchester wasn’t that big. Maybe it was small. Maybe it was the escape from our home in Brooklyn we were looking for. But what would we do for three days we wondered? Well, after the addition of three littles and after ten years of escaping the grit of NYC in Manchester, we’ve finally pegged exactly what to do in Manchester, Vermont when you’ve just got three days…
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Plimoth Plantation with Kids: the Perfect Pit Stop
We had no real plan on our weekend adventure to Plymouth, Massachusetts beyond going to Edaville Family Theme Park (also known in the Pre-K playground as ThomasLand). So what else should we do, we wondered…we had heard that Plymouth Rock was, well, just a rock. And Plimoth Plantation with kids? We had our reservations. Our middle little doesn’t understand the difference between yesterday and tomorrow let alone hundreds of years ago. Still, it was a sunny Spring day and we wanted to be outside. Plimoth Plantation is outside. And other than the basics of what we grown ups remembered from our elementary school days, we didn’t know much else. At…
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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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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…
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Our Ten Day Itinerary for Traveling Sicily with Kids (the Good and the Not as Good Choices)
We were prepared for this trip. Sort of. I had read and researched what to do in Sicily with kids. Again and again. I had bought books (which admittedly collected some dust on them until about a week or so before we left (I mean I am a mother of three little people; I gave up reading a long time ago (like almost seven years ago))). Still, we had a general idea of what we wanted to do, some suggestions if you will, culled from here and there, but nothing sealed in stone. Part of the reason we were trying to be fluid is we wanted our little people to…
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Three Kids and an…Italian Doctor (a Tale of Traveling with Sick Kids)
The moment our pediatrician saw the bottle, her eyes widened. “Just throw it away” she hastily replied as she swept her hand through the air. “I have no idea what that is, but you shouldn’t keep it,” she scolded. It had been hot in Italy that summer, but I can’t say we didn’t expect it. In fact, we had planned for it. It’s sort of what you have to do when you’re the proud mother of a child who is basically a tiny, squishy, sweaty oven. On a good day. Anyway, I had spent days researching and locating baby-safe sunscreen that didn’t leave a thick layer of butter on her…
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Five Things I Wish I had Realized Before Visiting Scotland with Kids
We had a whirlwind seven days spinning around Scotland with kids, which, I think, officially makes us experts. Not true. Not at all. The only thing that it taught us, like really really taught us, is that we need to dedicate a lot more time to this little nation that has so much to offer beyond kilts and bagpipes, haggis and Scotch. We cruised through farmlands, hills, mountains, and cities. Found islands and shorelines. We made our home in city apartments, mountain resorts, and small village inns. And in all of that movement and in each nook and cranny we crawled into, we met amazing people, ate food rich in…
