Eileen’s Kids Guides featured on ABCNews.com
Eileen’s series of Kids Guides to great American cities was featured on ABCNews.com.
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Marriott Vacation Club Opens the World for Traveling Families
Maybe you should check out Marriott Vacation Club. Backed by the Marriott name and celebrating its 30th anniversary, it’s a far cry from those old school timeshares
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Eileen talks spring break ideas on Rudy Maxa’s World
Eileen talks with Rudy Maxa’s Travel World about ideas for family spring breaks. Listen to podcast.
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Teen Ambassadors offer unique perspective on 9/11 Memorial Museum
David Rothblatt and Fia Hargil are among the six members of the inaugural class of teen ambassadors trained to work with children who visit the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which opened at the new World Trade Center this past May.
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A quirky new hotel in San Francisco makes you feel special
Welcome to the Hotel G, San Francisco’s newest boutique hotel with 151 rooms just north of Union Square but miles away from the big-box chain hotels in the neighborhood. Incidentally, there have been hotels in this building since just a few years after the 1906 Earthquake.
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Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries
At the Presidio in San Francisco, top chef aims at kids menus
Award winning San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins wishes American restaurants would take a page—a menu page—from their counterparts in other parts of the world. “The United States is one of the only places in the world that has special meals for kids,” she said. “We are conditioned to teach kids to eat differently than we do and that is a mistake.”
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Off the slopes snowshoe fun at Northstar California
Rather than ski, I’m going to have some fun in the snow a different way—hiking on snowshoes in the woods, though the lack of snowfall does impede us a bit.
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Families love concierge level for informality
“I love it here,” said Martha Kramer, enjoying an early dinner with her two kids, including one with special needs. She could have gone to the first rate restaurant downstairs Manzanita with her husband and his business colleagues, she said, “But this is more relaxing.”
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At Northstar CA, moms get pampered with special ski progam
This program at $295 is less than an all day private lesson. The women are grouped according to their ability, no more to four to a group. They might end up with a private coach all day. The day includes a lift ticket, the latest demo equipment and at the end of the day, champagne and canapés during a “tech talk” about equipment. Considering that a lift ticket is over $100 and demo equipment $70, this is a bargain.
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Winter is a great time for a family visit to a zoo or aquarium
The human kiddos laugh and giggle at the antics of the animals all day at the St. Louis Zoo. It’s one of three major free zoos left in the country along with the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
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Audiences of all ages love the Blue Man Group
It all started nearly 25 years ago, when three college-friends — Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink — developed a bald and blue character they called Blue Man (to evoke the word Human), who delighted audiences at this small theater
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Pack the family and check the cold bleak winter at the gate
The tropical weather and scenery, and numerous beaches are the perfect backdrop for Coconut Bay Beach Resort & Spa in Vieux Fort on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
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Fun in the snow at YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado
You’ll certainly be warmly greeted at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch, and many of the welcomes will come in the way of furry kisses by the adorable and powerful Snow Mountain Ranch dog sled team.
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Fun off the slopes: learning to build a snow sculpture in the mountains
Mountain resorts across the country offer an ever-growing array of off-the-slopes activities where the kids — and you — can get inspired to build your own sculpture either at home or near where you are vacationing in mountain country
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At the 9/11 Memorial Museum with unique teen guides
David Rothblatt has been a New Yorker all his life but his sole memory of 9/11 was being with his mom as she searched for a store to buy milk. Fia adds that next year’s high school freshmen will have been born after 9/11. “Kids need to know even if it is hard,” she and David agreed.
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The New York Met and Madame Tussauds with teens
If only the Metropolitan Museum of Art had life-sized wax figures of Degas, Monet and Picasso. I’m joking, of course, but I was thinking that watching how much fun our group of high schoolers was having at MME Tussauds NYC.
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A taste of Olde England and its literati in St. Louis, MO
We’re not in England though it feels like it. We’re in suburban St. Louis at the locally owned Cheshire, celebrating its 50th anniversary.
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Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Volunteer & Service | Weekly Column
Teaching the kids about civil rights at our national monuments
If you want to expand on what the kids are learning in school, then head to a national park. That’s right. There are many national historic sites that figured into the fight against slavery and the civil rights movement and are ideal for out-of-the-classroom learning opportunities, especially when so many are offering special activities this month.
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In Northern Italy, a little-known gem of history and culture: Mantua
You won’t find that many tourists here, but you will find the quintessential Italian experience — restaurants spilling out onto cobblestoned piazzas, locals starting their morning with a cafe, the weekly market that takes over the entire Piazza Sordello
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Kid tips for hitting the slopes for Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month
If you are a newbie, there is no better time than January, the nationally designated Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month to hit the Colorado slopes.
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Beach Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Parks & Outdoors | Weekly Column
To Jumby Bay, Antigua: A unique all-inclusive resort in the
Many families have a special vacation spot — a snow sports resort, a lake where the kids caught their first fish, a beach where they build giant sand castles. Jumby Bay is one of them.
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The Kids Guides, city-by-city, week by week: Orlando
Featured on ABCNews.com: The Kids Guide to Boston
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The Kids Guides, city-by-city, week by week: Orlando
Featured on ABCNews.com: The Kids Guide to Boston
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Eileen quoted in NY Times Travel article
Eileen is quoted in New York Times Travel article: “Pint-Size Activities With an Adult Twist”
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Soaking up the family holiday spirit at a theme park
Across the country, theme parks are adding new and bigger holiday attractions every year, enticing more and more families to come through the gates, glad to forsake holiday shopping and cooking for a few hours, even though it can be a costly afternoon or evening.
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Beach Vacations | Cruises & All-Inclusive | Destinations | Families & Groups | Lodging | Travel Diaries
Not just any sandy beach, Jumby Ban is a private island family paradise
Karin Allyn is celebrating a birthday on a beautiful stretch of white sand beach under a thatched umbrella with her children and grandchildren. But not just any beach—she’s at Jumby Bay
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Beach Vacations | Cruises & All-Inclusive | Destinations | Families & Groups | Food and Dining | Lodging | Travel Diaries
Fish fit for a king, or a snorkeler, at Jumby Bay, Antigua
We’re at Jumby Bay on its own island just off the coast of Antigua–an all inclusive where the food isn’t like any other all inclusive I’ve seen—of course this is one of the most exclusive resorts in the Caribbean.
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Beach Vacations | Cruises & All-Inclusive | Destinations | Families & Groups | Lodging | Travel Diaries
A friends getaway to Jumby Bay, Antigua; an upscale all-inclusive resort
Here on a pre-holiday annual getaway with my three oldest friends, I’m glad to be ensconced in this villa within the upscale all inclusive
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Backyard Vacations | Destinations | Families & Groups | Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries | Volunteer & Service
Aboard the USS Iowa searching for a charming mutt named Vicky
The USS Iowa, now a museum in Los Angeles Harbor, has a storied history but the story of its mascot, a little mutt named Vicky, charms visitors of all ages.
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At Disneyland without the kids? Like yeah!
It might seem counterintuitive, but this past trip to Disneyland, we opted for grownups-only visit to the home of everyone’s favorite Mouse to take in all the holiday decorations.
