Trip Ideas By Activity
There are so many ways to vacation with your children.
City explorations, museum sleepovers, condo-style rentals, road trips, mountain and lake cabins, beaches, cruises, and all-inclusive vacations stretch budgets. Resorts run the gamut from moderate to pricey. Staying midweek or during shoulder season saves money.
Dream trips—African safaris, Galapagos treks, polar bear watches—deliver the thrill of wildlife encounters but at a hefty price. Farmstays, state and national parks, and hikes through Costa Rican rain forests let you enjoy animal encounters at a fraction of the cost.
Time travel fascinates kids. At living history parks, march with the militia and meet pioneers. In Europe, tour centuries-old castles, climb atop medieval walls, and stroll streets laced with 18th-century buildings. Go back millions of years to the dinosaur era. Satisfy your kids’ curiosity by going on a dinosaur dig, walking in dinosaur footprints, and ogling fossils of these fierce critters in museums.
Build sandcastles at the beach, canoe and fish at a lake, get tossed, twirled, and dropped on rollercoasters at an amusement, ski downhill, or snowshoe through snowy woods.
Stay overnight, for a few days, or a week. Plan carefully, allow for spontaneity, know that things will go awry, and maintain your sense of humor. Have fun.
The Caribbean’s Best All-Inclusive Resorts
Travel Tips and Trips||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Adventures, All-inclusive Vacations, All-inclusives, Babies to 2 Year-Olds, Beach Resorts, Beaches, Best Family Resorts, Caribbean, Bahamas & Bermuda Destinations, College Age & Adult, Cruises & Resorts, Family, Family Travel Tips, Grade-Schoolers Ages 6-9, Multigenerational, Preschoolers Ages 3-5, Teens Ages 13-17, Trip Ideas, Tweens Ages 10-12Where do you go in search of a great Caribbean all-inclusive resort?
Try the Dominican Republic, home to five of TripAdvisor’s 10 Travelers’ Choice award-winners for Caribbean all-inclusives.
TripAdvisor selects top properties based on a mix of the quality and quantity of users’ reviews. It’s wise to remember that such methodology tends to favor larger resorts in popular destinations since more rooms booked more often can translate to more potential reviewers. That could explain while some smaller properties on less visited islands don’t appear on the list.
Some of the crowned properties, such as the Reserve hotels at Paradisus Punta Cana and at Paradisus Palma Real, both in the Dominican Republic, are boutique enclaves within much larger resorts. Despite special services, rooms, and, sometimes restaurants, a stay at these hotels means you share the entertainment and often the beach and the larger pools with the crowds reveling at the main property. At some of the larger properties, as at many other big Caribbean resorts, earnest guests claim pool and beach chairs before breakfast.
Nonetheless, all-inclusive resorts offer good value and the comfort of knowing just what you will spend.
TripAdvisor’s Best Caribbean All-Inclusive Resorts
1. Luxury Bahia Principe Cayo Levantado Don Pablo Collection, Samana Province, Dominican Republic.
The 268-room, adults-only resort is situated on a private island off the Samana peninsula. Sun at three pools and at the beach. From the shore you might spot migrating humpback whales between November and May.
2. The Reserve at Paradisus Punta Cana, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Targeted to families, Melia’s The Reserve offers 170 one- and two-bedroom suites, a children’s program for ages 1 to 12, teen activities, a pool, children’s pool, dining room, family concierge, and more. The Reserve is situated within the 685-room Paradisus Punta Cana.
3. Iberostar Grand Hotel Bavaro, Bavaro, Dominican Republic
The 272-room, adults-only resort fronts pretty Bavaro Beach. Guests can choose from five restaurants (including four specialty dining rooms), and relax at three pools.
4. Iberostar Grand Rose Hall, Rose Hall, Jamaica
The 317-room property in Montego Bay, Jamaica, offers a main buffet restaurant, a snack bar plus four specialty restaurants. Kids are supervised in the resort’s Mini-Club.
5. Galley Bay Resort & Spa, St. John’s, Antigua
Even on an island known for its abundance of beaches, Galley Bay Resort & Spa’s three-quarter-mile stretch of white sand is notable. With 98 rooms on 40 acres, guests have ample room.
6. Royalton Cayo Santa Maria, Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba
TripAdvisor reviewers comment on the resort’s tasty food and excellent beaches. The adults-only, 122-room property ranked as the number one all-inclusive resort in the world on TripAdvisor’s 2014Travelers’ Choice list.
7. The Reserve at Paradisus Palma Real, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
A Melia property, The Reserve at Paradisus Palma Real serves as a family-friendly, 210-room enclave within the larger, 484-room Paradisus Palma Real. The oversized rooms offer separate sitting areas and hydromassage tubs beckon on the balconies. Kids make friends at the play area.
8. Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus, Bayahibe, Dominican Republic
Aimed at couples and families, this Iberostar resort offers 504 rooms. Lucy’s Club provides supervised activities for ages 4 through 12.
9. Sandals Royal Plantation, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
With only 74 rooms, this Sandals’ resort features butler service—yes, he will draw you a bath. Dine at five, on-property restaurants or take advantage of Sandals Play at 2 Program, an option that allows you to sample the 16 restaurants at nearby Sandals Ochi.
10. Melia Cayo Coco, Cayo Coco, Cuba
An adults-only property, the resort features four restaurants and 250 rooms, some of which are bungalows located over the lagoon. Enjoy meals at four restaurants.
Travel Insurance: Yes, It’s Worth It
Travel Tips and Trips||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Family Travel TipsFor big ticket vacations that require hefty deposits months in advance, especially for international trips, don’t leave home without travel insurance. Because you never know. Not convinced? Then say these words: “Hurricane Joaquin” or plug in any unanticipated event that might stop or stall your travel – your mother-in-law’s death, your eight-year-old catching chicken pox two days before you board your family cruise, a train strike in Italy or a terrorist attack in Paris.
The right travel insurance can cover you for all or some of the non-refundable fees you already paid.
And what happens if you break your leg skiing the Swiss Alps? If your current medical insurance is not accepted by the foreign hospital, you may need to plunk down a huge stack of cash in advance before staff treat you.
“Basic travel insurance can be as low as $16 a day,” says Matt Pufall, product director of Protect Your Bubble.com, a company that sells travel insurance and rental car insurance as well as policies that protect smartphones, tablets and electronics. On average, budget around 8% of the total trip cost for a policy.
Before purchasing anything, however, read the fine print. “Understand the exclusions, the definitions of terms and the limits of the coverage,” states Stan Sandberg, the co-founder of TravelInsurance.com, a site that compares the benefits and costs of travel policies from six companies.
Policies can vary widely. If in doubt about whether your situation will be covered, call the provider. Be aware that travel insurance can vary in different states. To decide how much coverage you need, think about how much money you’re willing to lose by gambling that everything will be fine.
Here’s a travel insurance primer:
Trip cancellation, delay and interruption
Many things can cancel, delay or interrupt your trip—hurricanes, illness, terrorism.
If your airline remains grounded for days because of Hurricane Joaquin, then you typically get a refund. “To be covered for a cancellation because of a hurricane or inclement weather, most policies require that you purchase this insurance within 14 to 30 days of paying your initial deposit,” says Sandberg. “Once the storm is named, you cannot buy insurance to protect against it.”
Pay attention to the coverage terms. “Some policies cover children age 17 and under for free,” says Pufall. Some policies will refund only 50% to 75% of your down payment. Most policies require you to notify the insurance company at least 24 to 48 hours in advance of your departure.
Trip cancellation, delay and interruption insurance also covers you for your illness and that of an immediate family member. If your ninety-year-old mother has a stroke three days before your European vacation, you should be covered.
If suicide bombers blow themselves up in a Paris suburb within 30 days of your departure or your arrival in that city, then you qualify under terrorism insurance. The caveats: the U.S. State Department has to declare the incident a terrorist attack and the geographical area has to be in the zone defined by the policy. In the Paris example, in some policies all of Paris would be covered plus a one-mile perimeter around the city. However, you would not be covered if you canceled your trip to Nice, 580 miles from Paris.
Medical travel and evacuation insurance
Consider medical insurance for all those things you don’t ever want to think about. Policies that cover medical reimbursements for hospital costs and treatment as well as medical evacuation to a qualified facility are especially important when traveling overseas. Your domestic coverage may not be accepted overseas and, even if it is, some foreign hospitals and medical evacuation companies want money upfront before assisting you.
Caveats: Decide whether you want primary insurance, the first used in an incident, or secondary insurance, coverage that pays out later after your primary coverage is applied or declined.
Most medical insurance excludes pre-existing conditions for 60 days (some have longer exclusionary periods) prior to departure.
Do you plan on bungee jumping, parachuting, sky diving or backcountry skiing? If you break your arm or otherwise get hurt, you may not be covered unless you purchased adventure sports insurance. “These activities have a higher risk so they are typically covered under special policies. These policies often include coverage for any special equipment,” says Sandberg.
For solo travelers, being confined to a foreign hospital can be especially confusing and lonely. Some policies pay for transportation for a loved one to visit you if you are or will be hospitalized for more than seven days. “We will pay the cost of a single round-trip economy ticket and up to $250 per day for five days for expenses for hotels, meals and local transportation for one person to visit your bedside, provided you are traveling alone,” says Pufall.
Cancellation for any reason
This policy is not just for would-be travelers who cannot make up their minds, although those vacationers are covered too. Think about life’s changes. You book your expensive 12-day safari to Botswana nine months in advance to take advantage of frequent flyer miles, but five months later, you change jobs and no longer have 12 days of vacation. You plan a honeymoon a year in advance, but break up three months before the wedding. Life just happens. This insurance covers you, but it is expensive. Pufall estimates that, on average, insurance that allows you to cancel for any reason insurance costs 50% more than other insurance.
For an Autumn Outing, Try Hilton Head’s Beaches
Travel Tips and Trips||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Adventures, Beaches, Family, Family Travel Tips, Southern United States Destinations, Trip Ideas, United States DestinationsAutumn, as any beach aficionado knows, is the best time to visit. The water’s still warm and the weather’s balmy but the crowds have gone and room rates have dropped.
In September and October, you get more beach for your buck.
Hilton Head Island, SC, offers 12 miles of sands, 30 golf courses (24 open to the public), and some 200 miles of trails for cyclists and strollers. Unlike many other shore destinations, Hilton Head also sustains a significant portion of its Lowcountry natural habitat.
Resorts are set back from the sands so the buildings don’t seem to be devouring the shore. The beach is alluring, dune bordered, wide and, in fall, quiet enough to really hear the sea gulls call. Palmetto palms and live oak trees edge the roads. You can hike or horseback ride past stands of oak, pine, bay, and sassafras trees in the 605-acre Sea Pines Forest Reserve. In fall the preserve is an especially good spot to admire the thousands of migratory birds flying in “V” formations that head south along the Atlantic flyway.
Kayaking or boating offshore and through the island’s salt marshes gifts you with more wildlife encounters. On a Commander Zodiac outing through Braddock’s Cove, an inlet lined with oyster beds and bordered with thick cord grass, we pass egrets standing on pilings and a great blue heron stretching his thin, white neck into the shoals in search of minnows. In Calibogue Sound, a placid stretch of water between Hilton Head and Daufuskie Island, it doesn’t take long for us to find a playful pair of dolphins, breeching the water’s surface in a series of graceful arcs.
The Coastal Discovery Museum sponsors a variety of ecological outings, including naturalist-led beach walks, dolphin research excursions, shrimp-trawling cruises, kayak trips, and marine science boat explorations of nearby Bluffton’s May River.
Good places for watching the sunset are next to the iconic red-and-white striped lighthouse in Harbour Town, the main village in Sea Pines Resort, one of Hilton Head’s communities, and at Skull Creek Boathouse, a popular dockside seafood restaurant. Casually upmarket Red Fish serves tasty seafood and features a 1,000-bottle wine shop. What more do you want?
Along with Sonesta, Westin, Omni, and Marriott hotels, Hilton Head has many condominiums (villas) and private homes for rent. Contact Resort Rentals of Hilton Head Island, hhivacations.com. For more information about Hilton Head Island, contact Hilton Head Island Visitor & Convention Bureau, hiltonheadisland.org.