Travel reports and advice for families for the best outdoor experiences, including national and state park visits, camping or glamping
Taking the Kids Correspondent Andrea Timpano chronicles three days in the beach towns of Maine. Day 2- OGUNQUIT
Taking the Kids Correspondent Andrea Timpano chronicles three days in the beach towns of Maine. First stop Old Orchard Beach.
With the families and generations at Cooperstown Dreams Park, which draws 104 Little League baseball teams each week to its 22 pristine fields spread out over 150 acres.
We’re at Westeras Farm, which has been in the Westeraas family since the 17th Century, with the Adventures by Disney group touring Norway
Fresh trout for lunch? Of course you have to catch them first. And drive two and a half hours on roads with hairpin turns, the fog so thick at times you can barely see in front of you. Good thing I’m not driving!
A day on road with a new Adventures by Disney tour, passing a lot of the sites that inspired the hit movie Frozen —the fjords, the glaciers, the small villages and of course Norway’s famous Stave Churches
No we’re not at Disneyland or Disney World. We’re actually in Norway exploring the famous West Norwegian Fjords with Adventures by Disney and I’ve counted at least 18 waterfalls
We are on the second day of an Adventures by Disney new itinerary designed to show guests not only the glorious fjords and small farming villages of Norway but to explain the inspiration behind the hit film Frozen.
I couldn’t have asked for better after arriving in Bergen, Norway this morning to join a new Adventures by Disney tour of this beautiful but sparsely populated country.
We’re at Busch Gardens state of the art Animal Care Center where guests can watch the park’s vets do surgeries (like repairing a Bald Eagle’s broken wing), wellness exams and more as the park’s vet team works to keep 1200 animals healthy.
This is the Cooperstown Dreams Park, where every week more than 100 Little League teams comprised of 12 year olds convene for a week of baseball.
At the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, NY, Peg Young is making bread, fried bacon and potato balls all over an open fire. There will be rhubarb pie for desert.
There is a lot to read at every exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, celebrating its 75th anniversary this month. This iconic place inspires conversation with parents and grandparents
Alison Tibaldi’s recent visit to the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa in Costa Rica was the antithesis of the cookie-cutter experience that you get at some chain hotels.
Ski country in summer, especially Colorado: you won’t run out of things to do. Many who live in ski towns say they originally came for the snow but stayed because they love the summer
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant Act, which set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove as the first protected wild land in the country — the first time scenic, wilderness lands were set aside specifically for preservation and public use by the federal government.
It’s all in the technique. That’s what we learn when we destroy two borrowed oyster knives at the Tomales Bay Oyster Farm north of San Francisco in Marin County.
June 6 marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and many families, even if they can’t visit, will be thinking about grandfathers and great-grandfathers, sons, uncles and cousins who fought and died here.
In two hours, we were immersed in an alpine landscape that looked straight out of “The Sound of Music”.
Even the glitteriest magic wand won’t cut it at Walt Disney World these days. But wave a MagicBand and see what happens.
I love it when hotels make it easy for parents to get a break on vacation. And there’s no place they need one more than Orlando.
Really, any day can be Mother’s Day — like on your next family vacation. All you have to do is declare: “This day is for you, Mom!”
Welcome to Boston’s Freedom Trail, the 2.5-mile-long route over cobble-stoned streets that lets you travel back in time to when Boston was still a colony and people argued about what to do about the increasingly difficult demands from the king of England.
Why would three sane adult males drive five hours for a day-and-a-half of skiing and snowboarding with a group of five high school boys when there are bigger and fancier ski areas much closer to home? A guys weekend of course.
As many of us head off to warm climes and cruise ships on spring break, it’s especially important to be mindful of water safety, particularly if young kids are along for the trip.
Spring break these days is more for families than for college kids, as parents find it easier to grab a few days off in spring rather than summer when the kids have jobs, summer school, camp, sports practice and everyone at work is vying for the same vacation days.
Families come to Turks and Caicos to relax, but also to enjoy the fishing and water sports, like kite-boarding on South Beach.
After years of Taking the Kids, on this trip we’ve followed our 22-year-old daughter Melanie here to Nicaragua, which many say is fast becoming the next eco tourist’s must-see destination, offering volcanoes, cloud forests, rain forests, pristine beaches and a growing number of eco resorts.
The holiday season is an excellent time to visit Colonial Williamsburg and see firsthand how 18th Century Virginians celebrated.
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.
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.
We are at the famous Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach, where the massive allied assault on the Normandy on June 6, 1944 aimed to liberate France and defeat Nazi Germany.
I’m on a different kind of cruise—a River Cruise on the Seine in France on Avalon Waterways Creativity—just 140 passengers on this 361-foot long barge and with just 70 staterooms and two suites.
At the time, no one expected the speech to be a big deal. Lincoln had merely been asked to make a few remarks at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, here in the Pennsylvania countryside, just four months after the searing battle that turned the tide of the Civil War.
We’re sitting in a family dining room in a tiny French village eating chicken cooked in champagne and sipping champagne. This is the Champagne Region of France afterall.
My favorite exhibits were the ones that allowed me to feed the animals. I loved the feel of the giraffe licking my hand as he munched on lettuce leaves. My daughter had tropical birds land on the top of her head and drink sweet nectar right out of her hand.
The State Fair of Texas Downtown Parade in Dallas traditionally kicks off the annual state fair, which runs through October 20. Locals and tourists lined the streets to watch dozens of colorful floats, marching bands, drill teams and cheerleaders.
The Appalachian Mountain Club is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the mountain huts — the oldest hut-to-hut network in the country. The AMC is even older. Founded in 1876, it’s the oldest conservation and outdoor recreation organization in the country with more than 100,000 members and supporters. Today, a big part of its mission is to encourage families to get outdoors.
Today we are all diving as a family. The Wreck of the Rhone is just off Salt Island in two big pieces 60 to 80 feet down, but there are many smaller pieces.
I’ve kayaked before, but never with the intention of following a historic route. In early August, I ventured out on a 20 mile kayak trip along the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway in Northwest Wisconsin along the Minnesota border.
Certainly you could spend all of your time in Washington, DC without paying to enter a museum—there are plenty of free ones to choose from. In fact, Washington DC likely has more free attractions than any city in the country.
Fall, in fact, we discovered, is a terrific time to gather the grown gang in Colorado. The days are sunny — warm enough for stand-up paddle-boarding and kayaking — and the evenings crisp. There’s plenty to do, whether you want to browse in Aspen’s shops, peruse the Saturday farmer’s market, hike or bike or even attend a film festiva
Thirty miles off the coast of Massachusetts, Nantucket is as famous for its more than 30 miles of bike trails around the island — you see adults and kids with bikes everywhere — as for its 80 miles of spectacular beaches.
Being in Rockford for a travel writers conference—Travel Media Showcase– and talking to a lot of people from Midwest cities and States—Peoria and St. Paul, the Quad Cities in Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa, Fort Wayne and Kansas City—made me realize once again how much the Midwest has to offer families.
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) is celebrating its 45th anniversary and it is a great place to learn more about the spectacular environment here—and the creatures who call it home, whether you visit in summer, fall or winter.
“It’s about the experience,” says our guide Trevor Clapper from the Little Nell Adventure Shop, which offers trips that end in Basalt, about 20 miles downriver. Clapper says of everything people want to do in the summer or fall when they come to Aspen—off road jeep tours, guided hiking trips, white river rafting—fly fishing is the most popular.