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.
‘Taboo travel’: Tours to Iran and North Korea
USA TODAY||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Adventures, Africa & Middle East Destinations, All-inclusive Vacations, All-inclusives, Asia Destinations, Destinations, Trip IdeasCurious about those destinations which are always depicted as troubled in the news but which few Westerners other than diplomats and politicians visit?
Consider a train trip into Iran or a journey through North Korea.
These new options for 2014 are offered by MIR Corporation, a tour operator that began its out-of-the-ordinary focus more than 25 years ago with tours to the just opening up Soviet Union. Some label such trips to politically sensitive and or formerly off limits areas as “taboo travel” or “dark tourism,” although Annie Lucas, MIR’s vice president, eschews those terms.
“Our trips are all about enlightenment, “says Lucas. “We cater to the more well-traveled, to people who want to see a place for themselves and make up their own minds,” says Lucas. “Most of these people aren’t just ‘country collectors.’ They want to use travel as a vehicle to understand and to experience cultures.”
MIR has hosted tours to Iran for 15 years, largely for Europeans and New Zealanders. So what’s new? “The film Argo helped pique Americans’ interest,” says Lucas, “and this is the first time a European private train has ever been allowed into Iran.” Rail journeys afford convenience—you only unpack once to see many locales. “You cover greater territory by land because the train travels at night, “says Lucas.
Departing or ending in Budapest, the 15-day tour rolls through Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey before spending four days in Iran, visiting UNESCO sites such Imam Square, Isfahan, and the ruins of Persepolis.
The 11-day trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a.k.a. North Korea, is MIR’s first venture into that country. Departing and ending in Beijing, the tour visits Pyongyang where you watch the spectacle of 100,000 performers moving in sync at the Arirang Mass Games, as well as visit a national park and the demilitarized zone.
“People who had relatives who fought in the Korean War and heard stories about Korea,” says Lucas, “tell me they are excited to see the place they never thought they’d be able to go to in their lifetimes.”
Details: Jewels of Persia, 15-days, Oct. 14-28, 2014; Oct. 27-Nov. 10, 2014; March 31-April 14, 2015; April 13-27, 2015. From $12,995 per person. Opening the door on the DPRK (North Korea), July 24-August 3, 2014. From $5195 per person for 6-16 travelers, plus internal air.
What’s the most tranquil beach in Florida?
USA Today||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Adventures, Beaches, Cruises & Resorts, Family, More Lodging, National and State Parks in the US, Southern United States Destinations, Trip Ideas, United States DestinationsFlorida’s beaches are famous. They lure the cold weather weary and put the sparkle in the Sunshine State. But the sands that edge the Atlantic from Amelia Island in the northeast south to Miami and beyond differ from those that stretch along the Gulf Coast from Fort Walton Beach in the northwest’s panhandle to Marco Island on the southwest.
USA TODAY celebrates Florida’s beaches with an east coast- west coast smackdown. Like all classic choices — tea or coffee, dogs or cats — each pick has its ardent proponents.
“Dr. Beach,” aka Stephen Leatherman, professor and director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, Miami, assisted us in selecting contenders in five categories.
This week’s rivalry: tranquil beaches. Anastasia State Park on the east coast faces off against Don Pedro State Park on the west coast. To cheer for your favorite beach by turning it into a champ, vote below.
East coast: Anastasia State Park
Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, Florida.
With 1,600 acres, more than four miles of beach, plus a tidal salt marsh, Anastasia State Park is a heavyweight contender. “It’s a laid-back beach, a quiet, low-key place to visit,” says Leatherman, one that’s an easy five-mile drive from St. Augustine. The distinctive reddish color of the sand “comes from the Anastasia formation, a mix of coquina shells, limestone and coral,” says Leatherman.
Non-motorized watersports keep the peace. Bicyclists can pedal on the coarse, hardpacked sand and the “wide beach gives visitors plenty of room to spread out” says Martha Robinson, spokesperson for the Florida Department of State Parks. Kayakers paddle on Salt Run, a tidal marsh, and fishermen cast for flounder or snook in the surf.
Anastasia’s campgrounds are popular. The formation of the beach with its offshore ledge, notes Robinson, “is why you hear the waves breaking more loudly than at some other beaches. People find it very relaxing to listen to the tide at this beach.”
West coast: Don Pedro Island State Park
At 230 acres Don Pedro Island State Park, part of a chain of barrier islands off the Gulf Coast, has the charms of an off-the-beaten-path challenger. Situated between Knight Island and Little Gasparilla Island, Don Pedro can be reached only by the year-round ferry, Pirates Water Taxi, or by private boat. That lessens the number of visitors, making sunning and walking more solitary and serene than on easily reached shores.
Leatherman gives points to Don Pedro and its one mile of sand for beachcombing. “Don Pedro is one of the best places in Florida to find shark’s teeth. These black petrified teeth belonged to sharks millions of years ago.”
The park offers a respite for day-trippers; no overnight camping is allowed. You can fish as well as canoe and kayak in Lemon Bay and the island offers good wildlife watching. “You can spot southern bald eagles, royal terns, American oystercatchers and other birds,” says Robinson. “Between November to April you can see endangered manatees from the shore. In summer loggerhead turtles lay their eggs on the beach.” For more quiet, take a gentle hike on trails laced with ferns that cut through the park’s interior.
Arthur Frommer: ‘We believe in guidebooks’
USA Today||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Family Travel TipsArthur Frommer, the guru of travel guides, together with his daughter and travel expert Pauline Frommer are relaunching Frommer guidebooks. With 30 titles in two formats, the books reach stores Nov. 1.
Why did the Frommers reacquire the rights to publish their books?
“We believe in the future of guidebooks, “says Arthur Frommer. “We do not accept the conventional wisdom that print guides are dead. A significant percentage of the public wants to carry a book with them.”
Forget about the 500-page behemoth books of the past Frommer series. The new guides are quick, easy to carry reads. The EasyGuides at 252 pages and the Day by Day volumes at 184 pages fit into pockets and purses.
Frommer’s 20 EasyGuides, priced at $10.95 each, cover top destinations such as New York City, Washington, D.C., Miami and Key West, London and Paris. The 10 Day by Day Guides, $13.95 each, are organized around neighborhood itineraries and shopping, arts, the outdoors and other interests. Titles include Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Prague and Rome.
We had the opportunity to talk with the Frommers about their guides and travel tips.
What makes your guides standout in a crowded marketplace that includes websites, apps and print products?
Pauline: We don’t think the “medium” — print vs. electronic — is what’s important. We understand that some readers will prefer paper, while others will want the information on their devices, and we’ll have our guides in both forms. What’s important is how these books are prepared, which is: by actual travel journalists, most of whom live in the destination. What we’re offering, therefore, is true expertise rather than disguised marketing, which is a huge problem for much of the content on user-generated websites and finely curated information.
Arthur: We are cost conscious to an extent you do not find elsewhere. We stress value. That’s what has made the Frommer series the leading series for 50 years. One out of every four guidebooks sold in the USA were Frommer’s guides.
What are five tips for getting the most out of travel in the 21st century?
Arthur: Visit off-season to avoid the crowds. That is the absolute key to having a better experience.
Pack light. Do not weigh yourself down with the burden of heavy luggage.
Use local transportation facilities to experience the city as a local does.
Pauline: Nobody has unlimited money. Figure out what’s important to you. If you really want to do scuba diving, then consider a less expensive lodging so that you have the money to do more scuba diving.
Take advantage of the power of the Internet to connect with locals. There are all kinds of meet-ups and clubs where you can have conversations with locals. Call all of your friends ahead of time to see if they know anyone in Prague or Taipei or wherever you are going. Offer to take friends of friends out to dinner.
Arthur: That dinner will be the most memorable evening of your trip.
What are some travel trends?
Arthur: The single strongest trend in recent years that people are substituting apartment rentals and vacation home rentals for hotel rooms. Travelers are contacting local rental agencies, and sites like FlipKey and Airbnb.
Pauline: Staying in a home instead of a hotel gives you a more authentic experience and it’s often cheaper than a hotel stay.
What are the most surprising new destinations on the horizon and why?
Arthur: Central America is becoming popular. Costa Rica and Panama and even Nicaragua is starting to receive visitors. Some of that has to do with airfare. With airfare is remarkably low even from distant regions like Maine.
What are some places on your personal bucket lists?
Arthur: There are very few places we haven’t been. I have never been to Tibet and I regret that. A tragedy in travel in recent years is the elimination of many countries in the Middle East as safe destinations. Everyone should see Egypt.
Pauline: I have been traveling since I was 4 months old with my parents and then on my own, but the world is vast. I have not yet been to New Zealand.