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.
Top Family Attractions: Bermuda
Family.Orbitz.com||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Adventures, Beaches, By Age, Caribbean, Bahamas & Bermuda Destinations, College Age & Adult, Family, Grade-Schoolers Ages 6-9, Historic, Multigenerational, Museums, Nature Vacations, Preschoolers Ages 3-5, Teens Ages 13-17, Trip Ideas, Tweens Ages 10-12With clean streets, pink-sand beaches, a touch of British élan, and more golf courses per square mile than anywhere else in the world, Bermuda offers a high-style vacation with lots to see and do.
Destination highlights
Beaches
Bermuda is known for its beautiful beaches, especially the calm waters and pink sands of Horseshoe Bay and Warwick Long Bay. Sometimes crowded, Horseshoe Bay has onsite lockers, lifeguards, a snack shop, umbrella rentals, and a shallow area perfect for young kids. Elbow Beach is another wide swath of pretty sand and inviting surf. Shelly Bay Beach in Hamilton Parish is the North Shore’s largest beach with facilities. Young kids like the playground and the grassy area.
Additional Info: 800.BERMUDA, www.bermudatourism.com
Shipwreck Diving
Couple underwater visibility of 70 to 100 feet with more than 350 shipwrecks and you get waters worth diving in. Popular wrecks include: the Rita Zovetta, a 360-foot Italian cargo ship that ran aground in 1924; the Mary Celestia, sunk in 1964 and now adorned with a coral encrusted paddlewheel, her nine-foot long cannons scattered about; and L’Herminie, a French gunboat that crashed in 1838. For interesting coral formations, dive Tarpon Hole as well as the South West Breaker.
Additional Info: 800.BERMUDA, www.bermudatourism.com
Royal Naval Dockyard: Bermuda Maritime Museum and Dolphin Quest (Snorkel Park)
Completed in the 1820s, the former British fort now houses shops, restaurants, and art galleries. In the six-acre inner fortress known as the Keep, the Bermuda Maritime Museum displays artifacts ranging from 1878 sounding machines to harpoons and whale vertebrae. At Dolphin Quest, the museum’s most popular program, ages five and older can pet and swim with friendly bottlenoses. Newly opened, Snorkel Park is best for beginners, and features a marked trail as well as floating rest stations. Know that when cruise ships pull into port, the Dockyard’s facilities become crowded.
Dolphin Quest: 441.234.4464
Additional Info: 800.BERMUDA, www.bermudatourism.com
Railway Trail
The Railway Trail, the route of Bermuda’s defunct railroad, runs east-to-west across the island. Vehicles are prohibited on this mostly paved path, thus making it a great place for family hikes, bike rides, and picnics. Popular sections include the three-mile stretch from Warwick Pond to overlooks of the south shore beaches, and the paths from the fishing boats at Black Bay to Middle Road and South Road junctions.
Additional Info: 800.BERMUDA, www.bermudatourism.com
Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo
This is a great attraction for young kids. The centerpiece of the aquarium, the 145,000-gallon North Rock coral reef tank, holds hundreds of brightly hued fish. Other exhibits showcase a Galapagos tortoise, harbor seals, a wallaby, and a two-toed sloth. In the Discovery Room, kids ages two to six find out about animals through stories and songs. Check the schedule for program dates and hours.
Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo: 441. 293.2727, www.bamz.org
New Zealand Adventures
Great Family Vacations||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Adventures, Australia & Pacific Destinations, By Age, College Age & Adult, Family, International Parks, Non-U.S., Lake Vacations, More Lodging, Nature Vacations, Ski and Mountain Vacations, Teens Ages 13-17, Trip Ideas, Tweens Ages 10-12This year for our family vacation we wanted a dollar-stretcher destination in a country that likes Americans, blooms with spectacular scenery, offers eco-adventures not available in the U.S, but bundles these with comfortable lodging and good food. Because the Euro shrinks our greenbacks to a mere 77 cents, we cut the Continent from our list. Since we‘ve traveled often to the Caribbean and Canada, we longed for someplace different.
The result: two-weeks of fun in New Zealand’s South Island.
The trip—about 13-hours non-stop from Los Angeles to Christchurch—is well-worth the haul. We found friendly people, fjord cut lakes, glaciers to hike as well as food and lodging we could afford. Because one U.S. dollar currently delivers $1.40 New Zealand, we even splurged on a few upmarket lodgings and award-winning restaurants. Plus, we admit it. The “Lord of the Rings’ ” movie images of milky blue lakes and valleys ringed with misty mountains piqued our interest. With just two weeks to explore, we focused on the scenic South Island, particularly the UNESCO World Heritage site in the southwest.
Milford Sound, Te Wahipounamu, New Zealand
The South Island:
Heli-Hiking on a Glacier: From the helicopter, Franz Josef Glacier, part of Westland National Park, looks like a field of frozen white peaks sliced by translucent blue rows. After landing on a flat patch of snow high on the glacier, we attach talons to our boots and begin. For two hours we scramble over ice boulders and around pinnacles, wedge ourselves between crevasses and slither through ice caves. It feels like playing on a cloud at the top of the world.
Tramping the Milford Track: To reach the trailhead of the Milford Track, dubbed “the finest walk in the world” for its spectacular vistas, we cruise for an hour on Lake Te Anau, gliding by mountains streaming with waterfalls. Hearty trekkers take four days to complete the legendary 34-mile trail, but with limited time, we opt for Trips ‘n’ Tramps day-long adventure. Our 6.6 mile loop winds us through beech tree forests feathered with mosses and ferns and past huge rimu trees. We picnic alongside the fast-moving Clinton river and also walk a boardwalk trail through a wetland that opens to a wide glade rimmed with the green peaks of the Castle and Wick mountain ranges.
Relaxing at a Country House Hotel: A sheep ranch and luxury hotel, Grasmere Station spreads out on 13,000-acres in the heart of the Southern Alps. At this 13-room country house hotel, we read by the fire, play billiards before dinner, stroll alongside pastures green with rye, meet a few sheep, swim in the pool, horseback ride in the hills and admire the stars in the inky black sky. Grasmere also offers trout fishing in two lakes, nature trails and access to nearby Arthur’s Pass National Park. This good life getaway proves a welcome respite in our hike and drive vacation.
Fox Glacier and Surrounding Peaks at Sunset in New Zealand
Information
Heli-Hike: The Helicopter Line has twin-engine helicopters. 64 3 752 0767. www.helicopter.co.nz
Franz Josef Scenic Circle Hotel, 64 3 752 0729 www.scenic-circle.co.nz
Milford Track: Trips ‘n’ Tramps, 64 3 249 7081,
www.milfordtourswalks.co.nz
Te Anau, a small lakeside town, serves as the base for Fiordland National Park explorations.
Te Anau Hotel & Villas, 64 3 249 9709, www.teanauhotel.co.nz
Grasmere Lodge, 64 3 318 8407, www.grasmere.co.nz
Tips:
New Zealand’s seasons are opposite ours. October through March, the Kiwi spring and summer, are the best months to visit for temperate weather. If you want to cash-in your frequent flyer miles for complimentary seats, call 11 months in advance. That’s when the airlines first release the freebies. But keep calling as seats open up periodically.
For more information, 866-NEW-ZEALAND, www.NewZealand.com
Beau Tests Pet-friendly Hotels
Cleveland Plain Dealer||by Candyce H. StapenCategories: Pet TravelIt’s true. Checking-in with a dog is even less complicated than registering with children. Unlike a toddler, a well-trained pup will sit and stay when told, and unlike a teenager who wants CDs and expensive souvenirs, your canine companion craves nothing more than an “atta-boy” and a bowl of cold water.
Such reasoning, coupled with new pet-friendly hotel policies plus laments about missing our dog from my daughter at a Boston college and from my son living in Manhattan, sent my husband and I down the highway. We drove from our home in Washington, D.C. for a family rendezvous in New York City accompanied by Beau, our 140-pound Newfoundland, who has a big heart, a playful attitude, and, often, a mouth full of drool.
Saliva aside, big pets, unlike “pocketbook” pooches, get turned away at city hotels, the majority of which only let sleeping dogs lie if they weigh less than 15-25-pounds.
That’s why we overnighted at Loews Philadelphia. All 19 properties welcome four paws of any size and their “people” pay no additional cleaning fees. As part of the Loews Loves Pets program, Beau, at check-in, retrieved a welcome bag with bowls, chew toys, and carob and peanut butter nibbles. I, alas, got nothing but the room key.
Settling in, Beau munched his treats and slurped some water, while I, hungry from passing up the roadside eateries that bar anything that barks, fought off the temptation to try the “all natural” canine candies—at least for 15-minutes. Then, I bit in. Don’t bother. Dog biscuits give new meaning to the term “bone dry,” plus they’re bitter.
Eschewing the food we packed for Beau, we crossed the street to the Hard Rock Café. Taking their neon “Love all, Serve all” sign at face value, we ordered burgers to go for lunch, then browsed Anthropology, Urban Outfitters, and other dog-friendly Center City shops.
For dinner, we grabbed a sidewalk table at Rouge, across from grassy Rittenhouse Square. We chatted with passersby who liked Beau’s teddy bear looks so much they scratched his tummy. We also met the ‘regulars,” the bulldog, Labrador, boxer and Chihuahua who frequently waddle to Rouge with their humans for a warm hello and the biscuits the hostess keeps in a jar near the door.
But later that night, when Beau and I walked back alone on a quiet section of Walnut Street did I truly discover how dogs turn strangers into friends. Even with a big dog, I remained nervous along the several yet-to-be-gentrified blocks. Just when I wanted Beau to step lively, he spooked, backing up into traffic. Despite my death grip on the leash, I couldn’t pull Beau back on the sidewalk before the light changed causing cars to barrel towards us.
In seconds a group of men–the hangers-out and the homeless I worried about– converged to help. Two stopped traffic, two monitored the periphery in case Beau took off, while the others assisted me in calming Beau, advising that I re-route him around the block. I thanked them, genuinely touched by their kindness and ashamed at my own city-bred assumptions.
Wiser, the next day we headed to the heart of the “Big Apple:” New York’s Times Square and the W hotel, a newly dog-friendly property that welcomes canines up to 80-pounds. That would still leave Beau without a room at the inn, except that the W Times Square accepts well-behaved big dogs at the discretion of the manager. Despite the drool, we knew Beau qualified.
Even though the gift dog collar, pet bed, bowl, and ball proved too small for a big boy like Beau, he liked the hotel with its view of flashing Broadway lights and its tiled entranceway and bathroom floor on which he endlessly dumped his water bowl so that he could stretch out on the damp tile, a decidedly Newfoundland joy.
After his walks, Beau sashayed in the W’s lobby, the Living Room, planting sloppy dog kisses on the willing and receiving hugs. In a city where most canines come in miniature, Beau amazed even usually blasé New Yorkers, drawing them into conversations with us.
He especially savored his doggy massage, available at all five Manhattan W hotels. (Don’t laugh). Just as a good rub down eases your aches and soothes your mind, it does the same for dogs. Licensed animal therapist, Lisa Veyka, kneaded Beau’s spine, worked the acupuncture points along his ears, “milked” his thigh muscles, stroked his paws and massaged his muzzle. After a few minutes, Beau sighed, snored, passed gas, and fell into a deep, sweet sleep.
The only real city problem for Beau: a bad case of the gotta-find-a-tree near Broadway blues. We walked and walked, pointing out the virtues of trashcans and fire hydrants, but to no avail. Accustomed to greener places, Beau held out for Central Park, a bladder-defying 13-blocks away. That is until Sunday morning. When David, my husband, crossed the street with Beau who lifted his leg and let go, David and the W’s doormen cheered as if Beau had scored a winning touchdown.
Acclimated to concrete, crowds, and the clatter of cars, Beau’s ready for a return visit. And so are we. My children loved seeing him, and we enjoyed the instant friends Beau found for us.