Travelocity and TakingtheKids collaborated on a new poll asking families just that — where they’d take their kids on their “dream trip,” if money was no object. According to the results from the 1,500 people polled, it’s clear that no matter how bad the economy, when it comes to our vacation wish list, we dream big.
It’s the most unique shore excursion I’ve ever seen and it doesn’t cost a penny. We’ve just arrived at our first Croatian port, Rovinj, aboard the 315-passenger Wind Surf—one of Windstar’s distinctive sailing yachts and the largest in the three-ship fleet. The Ship’s executive Chef Ronald Waasdorp has invited guests to follow him to the local open-air market and 28 of us have taken him up on his offer.
You wouldn’t think Venice’s Doge’s Palace—arguably the top site in this city along with the Basilica San Marco—filled with centuries-old art would be a good place for a scavenger hunt but it is. We’re joined by guide Luisella Romeo who says with kids, it is important to “pick and choose what you see. “You can tell them all the dates and the history,” she adds, “But they won’t remember any of it without the stories.”
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of city where there are no roads, where people keep their cars in large lots outside and get around either on foot or by public boats—kind of like subways on the water. “Everyone walks and you meet people you know everywhere you go,” Rodigheiro says. In the old days, wealthy families had their own gondolas.
A polar bear sighting (we’ll see 16 before the week is out), a whale (two enormous blue whales swam and played right by the ship), sea birds (imagine thousands nesting on high cliffs) or walrus (60 of the huge creatures weighing a ton or more lolling right in front of us on a beach) are all reason enough jump out of bed, bolt from lunch, forgo a shower or get off the ship’s treadmill. It’s why the 145 guests have paid thousands of dollars and traveled thousands of miles to cruise through ice.
This is called Arctic Desert, the man with the rifle—naturalist and geologist Jason Kelley tells us. While hiking in the land of the polar bears, our guides always carry rifles. We stop to look at huge whale bones that date back to the 18th Century and tiny fossils of crinoids stems (they look like flowers) that are 180 million years old. Then we see the Walrus.
Louv’s work has stimulated an international conversation about the relationship between nature and children. His new book has just been named to Oprah’s summer reading list He as the chairman and co-founder of the Children and Nature Network, and hopes to inspire the many parents and grandparents on board to realize how important it is to get kids engaged with nature on trips like this as well as at home.
It’s drizzly and cold but no one on the deck is moving—not when a bear and her cub can be seen on the ice in the distance –and much closer through the scope, binoculars or the long camera lens they’ve got. We’re the guests here so we speak in whispers so as not to disturb the bears.
We’re 950 miles from the North Pole. While some of the crew and naturalists scan the horizon—all we see is blue sky and floating ice of all different sizes and shapes—the captain explains that as much as 30 feet of the ice bergs are below water… This ship, of course, is built especially to handle ice. “Potentially any floe can have bears,” he says.
Because of Lindblad’s partnership with National Geographic , there is now a new Expedition Photography Initiative, which means that there are certified photo instructors aboard all ships in the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic fleet who can help take our photography skills to the next level, from composition to proper exposure. There are special sessions for kids too.