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Welcome to Bluefields Bay Villas—the most unresort-like resort I’ve ever visited — in Jamaica, about an hour and 15 minut4es drive from Montego Bay in the small community of Bluefields Bay.
Honestly, I don’t know how we all do it over the holidays — with a smile no less — even when the guests are oh-so-annoying, the visiting toddler grinds cracker crumbs into the carpet, the tween refuses to eat anything she’s served and the uncle falls asleep on the couch, snoring loudly.
This isn’t any ski resort. For one thing, there is only one lift and no bathrooms–just an outhouse. Apres ski means a beer or a coke in the chilly tent that serves as a base lodge. It’s heated by a wood stove.
Where you sleep, eat breakfast and meet other travelers, after all, can be just as memorable as what you’ve seen that day and that doesn’t necessarily mean the hotel has to be the most expensive one in town either. It could be a hostel, or even a tent…
It is pitch black and we are kayaking through red mangroves, trying to dodge the roots, on our way to the Bioluminescent Bay Laguana Grande at Las Croabas, Fajardo in Puerto Rico—one of three on the island, I learn from our guide Joel from GSI Adventures.
Eileen’s guest blog “Traveling with Grown-up Kids” now posted on Four Seasons’ Have Family Will Travel
Eileen is interviewed by FoxNews.com on the topic of coping with visits to or by the relatives over the holidays.
Snow resorts around the country are pulling out all the stops for families this winter with everything from alpine coasters (Park City Mountain Resort, Breckenridge) zip lines (Crested Butte, Colo., Big Sky, Mont.) and family festivals (Sunday River, Me., Mount Snow, Vt.)
Eileen’s blog about traveling safely with babies on airplanes is posted as a guest blog on CheapOair.com
All my plans for this week have gone awry. The freak snowstorm that struck the Northeast over the weekend knocked out our power in Connecticut and we have no clue when it may be restored. But thinking back just two short months, I determined that when plans go awry on vacation, it’s not always a bad thing.
Whatever the reason, it’s not too late to turn Thanksgiving into a mini vacation with the kids. You’ve already got half the week off from work and school anyway. Tell the relatives you’ll see them at Christmas or, if you like them enough, invite them along.
Everything on a plane — including coffee pots — has to be restrained during takeoff and landing and in times of turbulence–everything, that is, except young children sitting on a parent’s laps.
Disney employed more than 100 local consultants to advise them on everything from storytelling to music to architecture. Local fish and produce are served at the resort restaurants and children can learn to snorkel with Hawaiian fish in the artificial Rainbow Reef.
Even in the same family, travel styles—and travel dreams—differ widely. One person’s dream is another’s nightmare. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever been backpacking with someone whose idea of roughing it is a hotel without a blow drier or room service.
Neighborhood trick-or-treating is so old school. It only lasts one night, after all. What if it rains — or snows? What if it’s cold? (Coats really don’t add much to a princess or vampire ensemble.) What if one of the kids is sick? What if you’re stuck at work, despite your best efforts to get home early?
There are already 1,000 weddings a year at Walt Disney World in Orlando–upwards of 20 per cent among blended families, says Korrie McFann, who oversees Disney’s e wedding and honeymoon business around the world. The company anticipates Aulani to rival Orlando for the wedding business.
So go ahead. Bring the little ones. You don’t have to stay a week. And you don’t have to see everything. You can’t even if you try.
We’re sitting on woven mats under the stars listening to the best Ukulele playing I’ve ever heard. Rather than a huge luau with terrible food and hackneyed performances, Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa on Oahu has opted to celebrate Hawaiian culture with the Aulani Starlit Hui
“This isn’t passive entertainment,” promises Bill Vollbrecht, the LEGOLAND Parks designer who walked me through just before opening. “Kids aren’t just being entertained here. They are part of the process.”
Laniwai (the name means freshwater heaven in Hawaiian) is supposed to embrace the Hawaiian connection to nature. I think it can enhance family connections too both by encouraging families to enjoy the facilities together and on their own
There’s so much to keep kids busy right here at Aulani–the water slides and ides and lazy river, the Rainbow Reef snorkel lagoon, the chance to interact with the stingrays and play in the calmest lagoon I’ve ever seen.
Ready to learn the Coconut Walk? “Aunty,” who actually is well known Hawaiian entertainer Sonya Mendez, leads the children as they clap Coconut shell instruments together around the outdoor restaurant. In between songs, Goofy, Minnie and other Disney Pals—all decked out in Hawaiian gear—stop by for photos and hugs
What I like most is that this big resort—when it is fully open it will include 359 rooms and 481 two-bedroom condo units—is that it will up the ante for family resorts in Hawaii and elsewhere, improving the family experience in the process.
After a frenetic 10-day business trip that took me 10,000+ miles and included a final stop in Orlando, I decided to spend my last night at the Ritz (including a blissfully solo dinner at the hotel’s Vineyard Grill) and indulge in a couple of hours at the Ritz spa. I was so glad I did.
when you are traveling with kids, there is nothing worse than being stuck in a large group for hours on end. Believe me, I’ve been there — in Europe, Alaska and the Caribbean. We left one tour at the Roman Forum because of a “stomachache” (quickly remedied by a gelato). Opt to go off on your own — especially if you’re a family
We’ve just finished the most spectacular dive of the day off of Grand Turk Island called “anchor” so named for a historic 10-foot anchor deep in the water. We’ve seen a Manta ray and sea turtle, hog fish, huge grouper, eel garden ray, that flounder and all kinds of other big and little fish–blue and purple, silver and spotted…as well as all varieties of coral.
By the end of the week, you’ll feel like this is your personal yacht,” promised Captain Maurits Groothuis. At the very least, the crew knows our names and strangers have become fast friends. In the evening, we can make believe we’re on “our” yacht when dining on deck as areas are retooled as intimate venues with white tablecloths, the waiters attentive to every desire and the sails billowing in the wind. We’re free to dress the way we like too. (No fancy duds required.)
Welcome to an excellent exhibit at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, where an amazing interactive exhibit for children about refugees– Nansen and I– has recently opened. At the same time, the Center is showcasing Transit, a terrific photo exhibit about Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen and refugees of today…. (more)
The hotel was first built in 1620 for the Fonseca family and it has been a hotel since the end of the 18th Century when many wealthy Americans embarking on the Grand Tour stayed here. In 1891, a winter garden was built in the hotel’s inner courtyard and today, it has a crystal ceiling reflecting sunlight along with a statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and war.
We’ve opted to tour Ancient Rome –the center of the Empire for some 500 years–with a guide both to maximize our time and to avoid the lines where we’d have to wait at least 45 minutes to get in. We start at the Pantheon with its giant hole in the middle (and drains in the floor for rain)..
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