How families celebrate the New Year Bahamian Style
In the Bahamas, they start ringing in the New Year on Boxing Day with the annual Junkanoo Festivals, with cowbells, goatskin drums, conch horns and incredibly colorful costumes.
Travel and ideas for specific destinations such as cities, countries, parks, or areas of interest
 
			In the Bahamas, they start ringing in the New Year on Boxing Day with the annual Junkanoo Festivals, with cowbells, goatskin drums, conch horns and incredibly colorful costumes.
 
			The holiday season is an excellent time to visit Colonial Williamsburg and see firsthand how 18th Century Virginians celebrated.
 
			If you arrive at night, you might not recognize Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. The millions of lights that cover 1,500 Christmas trees give the theme park a fantastical holiday makeover and transform it into Christmas Town.
 
			In New Hampshire for the holidays, we sleep and hike with the Appalachian Mountain Club, visit the historic Omni Mt. Washington Hotel, tour the treetops at Bretton Woods Ski Area and are pulled by a sled dog team that includes a pair of amazing canines.
 
			Taking the Kids correspondent Allison Tibaldi and her teen-aged son Alec enjoy their last day on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas with a port of call in St. Thomas, USVI, and ride on the Kon Tiki Sightseeing and Beach Cruise.
 
			In Paris with a “Paris Greeter,” one of 360 volunteers who offer some 3,000 free tours every year. There’s likely a Greeter organization in any big city near you and all over the world.
 
			Taking the Kids contributor Alec Tibaldi, who joined his mother on a Royal Caribbean cruise and visit to Universal Orlando, describes his first visit to the theme park and provides an excellent video.
 
			Taking the Kids contributor Allison Tibaldi reports on a two-for-one holiday with her son on a Royal Caribbean cruise along with a visit to Universal Orlando Resort.
 
			A vacation can inspire you to take a different path—or in some cases, inspire a new industry. That’s what happened when Clemente and Claire Poncon vacationed at Lapa Rios Ecolodge on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.
 
			At Morgan’s Rock, one family visits a local school to donate supplies the day before Thanksgiving, while others visit the farm for a look at the cows, chickens and ducks and a breakfast feast of fresh eggs, gallo pinto and hand-made tortillas.
 
			Morgan’s Rock in southwest Nicaragua is about as far from a typical beach resort as you can get, from waking up to the howler monkeys to activities that include jungle walks, horseback riding on the beach and zip lining nearby.
 
			At Jicaro Island Ecolodge almost everything is locally sourced and sustainable. The food is delicious. And the scraps from the kitchen feed the pigs on a nearby farm whose waste produces methane cooking gas for the local farmers.
 
			Karen Emanuel came to Nicaragua on vacation. She left with an island — and a new dream — Jicaro Island Ecolodge, a beautiful resort on the largest lake in Central America.
 
			There may be 21st-century LED holiday lights all over Boston, but we’ve time-traveled back to 1773 — Dec. 16, 1773 to be exact — the night that literally changed the course of American history.
 
			We’ve followed our 22-year-old daughter Melanie here to Nicaragua, which many say is poised to become the next eco tourist’s must-see destination with volcanoes, cloud forests, pristine beaches and tiny eco resorts like Jicaro Island Ecolodge.
 
			this time of year also means winter fun and what better way to ring in the season than to go ice skating in Bryant Park in the heart of Manhattan.
 
			Virtually every town and city in the country has holiday festivals and displays. You just have to make time to enjoy them. Skip the mall Santa (my kids always bawled) and take them someplace where you can all gawk at spectacular light displays
 
			We’re seven strangers ranging from 22 to 60-something standing in a Paris afternoon outdoor market trying to decide. We’ve signed on for a cooking class with La Cuisine Paris, one of just a handful here that offers classes in English.
 
			Today, we’re touring this hip foodie neighborhood with Edouard Morhange who live nearby and is on the board of the Paris Greeter organization, which offers some 3,000 free tours every year given by 360 greeters.
 
			We’re in Gerard Merlot, a shop famous for macarons in the St Germain district of Paris, with guide Genevieve, who we’ve met through a terrific company called Tours by Locals.