Taking full advantage of Halloween season
You don’t need to wait till Halloween to put on costumes, not when theme parks, resorts and haunted attractions have already kicked off special Halloween events
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10 fall festivals for families
There are literally hundreds of Octoberfests around the country this fall — some kid-friendly — but there are also plenty of apple, pumpkin and harvest festivals from which to choose
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Fall is Family Time on Mexico’s Pacific Coast
Fall is family time along Mexico’s Pacific Coast whether you want to take a bike ride around town, practice your Spanish, head to a local festival or relax at an all-inclusive resort
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Spa or Slime or Both? Last Day at Nick Punta Cana
The beautiful Vassa Spa at the new Nickelodeon Hotel & Resort in Punta Cana has an 11-step “ritual hydrotherapy “program that comes with a spa treatment, complete with a “spa butler”
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Are Kids’ Clubs passe? At Nick Punta Cana Families Relish Time Together
The just-opened Nickelodeon Hotel & Resort in Punta Cana has a well-appointed kids’ club with cooking lessons, arts and crafts, a wide selection of toys, games (video and board games) and a slide that lands you in a pool of brightly colored plastic balls. But most of the families I’ve met have been keeping their kids with them.
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When your grown-up kids take you for a hike in the mountains
I always suggest parents and grandparents let the kids lead some of the time on vacation, even when they are in grade school. They will take you in unexpected directions
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Aspen/Snowmass in the summer and fall – Affordable for Families
The scenery is beautiful. There are plenty of activities. And you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars for lift tickets to have fun in the summer or fall in Aspen/Snowmass CO.
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Yurts Give Families a Modern Alternative to Camping at YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch
By staying in a yurt at YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch, you can enjoy the outdoors without the annoyances of lurking bears, determined bugs and cumbersome sleeping bags.
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Exploring history and viewing the modern at Disneyland
Walt Disney was tapped out. The construction of Disneyland was taking nearly every penny he had. A kid-friendly, upscale hotel next to a theme park seems like a slam-dunk, but not in the early ’50s
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Snowmass in Summer – cool air and lots of family activities
After an arduous 16 mile hike yesterday, I’m at The Spa at Viceroy Snowmass while an experienced massage therapist ministers to my aching legs and shoulders.
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Hiking Crested Butte to Aspen – again – the good, the bad and the better
If I’ve learned one thing from travel—especially with kids—is that you have to take the bad with the good. That’s a good lesson for the kids to learn, along the way, of course. And perhaps there is no better time to remind you of that adage than on an outdoor adventure. We certainly were reminded on the hiking trail.
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Summer in Crested Butte CO – a family vacation haven
Crested Butte bills itself as the Wildflower Capital of Colorado and there is a Wildflower Festival going on with everything from art classes, guided wildflower hikes, photography classes and more.
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Saving on a family summer beach vacation
A trip to the beach is a perfect summer getaway — and a bargain too. As long as you opt for a destination that’s off-season in summer — like the Caribbean or Arizona — you can have your pick of deals.
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Celebrating July 4 with the kids
There are plenty of ways to celebrate, starting with your local parade. When my kids were small and we lived in Evanston, Illinois, that parade was a highlight of the summer
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Rained out in Austria? No chance
We’re about an hour northwest of Vienna—a great place for a respite after city touring, The entire area is famous for its abbeys, churches, castles, picturesque villages and hiking and cycling. The best part—It’s not at all crowded!
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Baseball, the Dodgers and the Honorable First Pitch
The particular game that I attended in April was a rivalry game against the San Francisco Giants. This series was tied at 1-1.
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Learning about our presidents from visiting their homes
All around us on a recent sunny Sunday, families were picnicking outdoors, gaping at all of the wild game heads inside and walking on the nature trail at Teddy Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill home.
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Off the beaten cruise tourism track on Italy’s Amalfi Coast
Every day, Maria Grazia, 80, walks thousands of steep stone steps to and from her home in Minuta, a tiny hamlet high above the Amalfi Coast in southwestern Italy that is among the oldest towns here, dating back before medieval times.
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Taking the Kids on a once in a lifetime adventure
Millennial families, according to the new 2016 MMGY Portrait of American Travelers, are more likely than millennial couples or singles, to travel internationally
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Truffle Hunting in Tuscany – Day 2 of Carnival Vista Med Cruise
We’re on a shore excursion in Tuscany off the Carnival Vista cruise ship, which is sailing the Mediterranean this summer. We’re with experienced truffle hunters Salvatore Cucchiara, a retired policeman, and his son Massimo
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To Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Welcome to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the country with nearly 10 million visitors a year — twice what the Grand Canyon gets.
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On an adventure closer to home this summer
Will we be safe? Everywhere I go people have the same question about travel this spring and summer. So what’s a travel-loving family to do this summer?
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10 Family Pleasing activities in Edinburgh, Scotland
Check out Daigon Alley! Not at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando or Hollywood, but in Victoria Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, where J.K. Rowling famously wrote the first Harry Potter book while seated in a local coffee shop.
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National Parks Week is the time to introduce your kids to the outdoors
Throughout National Parks Week, many parks will also host Every Kid in a Park events, which encourages fourth-grade students to visit national parks and other public lands by offering a free annual pass.
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In Albuquerque: an historic Inn and Organic Farm
Check out the peacocks! Smell the lavender! Tonight we’re at the family- owned Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm in Albuquerque, which was established in 1934.
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Green Chile Cheesburgers and Bubbling Hot Springs
It’s a risk as well as an adventure – stopping for a green chile cheeseburger lunch (a New Mexico specialty) at a grocery store/gas station along the state’s Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail.
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Five favorite urban parks for families to visit this spring
Urban parks have lots to offer visiting families — not the least of which is the chance to meet local families, or the chance to learn more about the city at a local museum.
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Angeleno Goes Full Cowboy in Colorado
At the Vista Verde Guest Ranch, it turns ranch life ain’t so bad. It also turns out, a city slicker can really look really really ridiculously awesome wearing a Cowboy hat.
At the Vista Verde Guest Ranch
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In Aspen, a hotel with great vibes and amenities – The Limelight
We’re atop Ajax—as Aspen Mountain is known—with just a handful of others for “First Tracks” at 8:15 a.m.—before the Mountain has opened.
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The mountain or the ranch – so many great choices
The staff at Vista Verde Ranch, about 25 miles outside the ski town of Steamboat Springs has obligingly left us an Evening Sky Map for this month.
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A visit to Strawberry Hot Spring Park in Colorado
Nestled in the hills about 10 miles outside the town of Steamboat Springs, Strawberry Hot Springs is a natural hot springs fed by heated underground aquifers that come to the surface to make a number of heated pools
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Combining ski vacation and dude ranch in the Colorado Rockies
This year, I decided to mix it up—opting to spend half our winter ski week at a dude ranch, Vista Verde Ranch, on 500-plus gorgeous acres about 25 miles outside of Steamboat Springs and as far away from the crowds and tumult of a major ski area as you can get.
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China Lights brighten the night in New Orleans through May 1
Welcome to China Lights, the exhibit of more than 30 bright silk-covered structures that will light up the Botanical Garden in New Orleans’ City Park through May 1.
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Zika virus and spring break: how to keep safe
A lot of families are concerned about spring break plans as the Zika virus continues to spread through the Caribbean and Mexico — popular spring break destinations for families, as well as their college students.
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Bumpkins on a river cruise in Jamaica. Seriously
Seriously. We are at River Bumpkin Farm and have floated down about 1.5 miles of the 75-mile long river.
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Discovering the history and culture of Berlin, Germany
From the time the Berlin Wall went up in August 1961 till it was torn down in November 1989, thousands of East Berliners made their escape the short distance to the West in the most ingenious ways. At least 2,000 died trying. Today, it’s hard to believe this beautiful city was once divided by an ugly wall.
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Learning Jamaican heritage on a walking tour of Falmouth
In the early 19th Century, when grand balls were held at the famous courthouse in Falmouth, Jamaica’s oldest seaport, young women would sew fireflies into their gowns so they would literally sparkle.
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Setting standards for family vacation – Half Moon Resort Jamaica
John Bartels has no interest in going home. He, his two sisters, and his parents have been spending a vacation week at Half Moon, a Rock Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, that has been setting a high bar for resorts here for more than 50 years
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Getting the whole family outdoors in winter
There’s nothing more fun than trying something new — wasn’t that one of your new year’s resolutions — especially in such spectacular country? And there’s no better time than January, which is designated Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month.
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Safari Clothing Packing List: What women should wear
The result of packing for a safari cannot be the scene of Meryl Streep traveling to the Ngong Hills in Out of Africa, and it doesn’t need to be.
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A fortress castle, a toy museum and a huge Christmas market
Nuremberg has long been a center of toy making and this museum is one of the city’s top tourist attractions. More than a dozen local toy manufacturers developed model railways and Nuremberg’s toymakers were known for coming up with new ways to make toys move.
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Where holiday lights build family traditions
For many families, sharing holiday displays, whether at a theme park, a hotel or a nearby neighborhood is an annual tradition that gets everyone away from pre-holiday chores and stress. It’s just these days, you’ll find Santa, elves and millions of lights at the ready long before the Thanksgiving leftovers are gone.
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To Montana, which offers outdoor fun all year
I love Yellowstone in winter — no crowds, lots of animals and the chance to see Old Faithful and other thermal features without any crowds. (Did you know Yellowstone has more thermal features than anywhere in the world — 10,000 bubbling mud pots, hot springs and geysers?) Honestly, we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
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Baseball teaches an important American history lesson in Kansas City
They were among the best baseball players in the United States, traveling cross-country to play the game they loved before cheering fans. But they were often forced to sleep on their bus and eat peanut butter crackers.
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Ireland’s Ashford Castle: very popular with American families
Ashford Castle, in western Ireland on 350 acres along the shores of Lough Corrib and the River Cong, is famous for its fishing and falconry but if you’re a boy just staying in a bona-fide castle is the real attraction.
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To a Colorado resort that’s no longer hard to reach
Tiny Telluride is a popular place. Nestled in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, the mountain range has the highest concentration of 13,000 and 14,000 foot peaks in North America
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Time to celebrate Halloween everywhere all month
No, I’m not a little early, though Halloween is nearly a month away. That’s because everyone from hotels to theme park to attractions to campgrounds to museums now have special Halloween doings that typically go on all month long.
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Get away from electronics to a fall festival or pumpkin patch
Take advantage of the glorious fall weather wherever you live to get them away from electronics — you too — for a day or a weekend and head to a fall festival, an apple orchard or a pumpkin patch.
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Getting out of the car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Are you a windshield tourist? That’s what they call the many visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park who simply traverse the park’s famous 30-plus mile Newfound Gap Road through the park and don’t get out of the car much, if at all.
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Touring Kyoto with locals and on bikes: seeing more than temples
Kyoto is famous for its Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. This morning, we’re cycling a 14-mile loop with Kyoto Cycling Tour Project with stops at the Golden Pavilion and Ryoanji Temple with its world-famous rock garden – two of the city’s and Japan’s top tourist attractions.
