Here’s a recent TripAdvisor review of the Hotel Casci in Florence; I’m happy to see that it’s still the same great place where I stayed with my family.
The staff is super-friendly, the location is good, the rooms are family-sized (by the standards of metro Europe) and the price is right for a central hotel in a major tourist city.
Related Family Travel post: Pisa & Florence with kids
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(Updated 29 May 2006.) This is an article from the LA Times (this post originally linked to the same one in the Chicago Tribune but the URL changed.)
I can vouch for the London County Hall hotel that is mentioned; the location is unbeatable for getting around, with quick access to three different Tube stations plus lovely walks and views along the Thames looking across at Westminster.
For those who want family travel info with a bit less emphasis on penny-pinching, there’s always Travel and Leisure magazine’s Family section. Whoop it up!
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine is one of my favorites; it appears to be written by imaginative people who have limits to their wallet size but not their sense of adventure. Here’s a link to their diverse articles on family travel….
Here’s a bit from Gadling on outdoor wonders in New Jersey, a much maligned state that is actually quite beautiful if you get off of the infamous Turnpike.
Did you know that the chocolate factory tour in Hershey PA isn’t the real working Hershey plant, but a very sophisticated simulation? No matter to most kids (including mine) because they do a decent job, but here’s an update on the tour from the “USA Today” Travel section.
Planning a trip to London this year? Here are a couple of my favorite links to get you started….try LondonTown; on their homepage right now is a downloadable PDF file on London for Families.
For all of us who love Harry Potter movies, don’t miss a chance to see where the scenes were filmed. The comprehensive Visit Britain site has a section that will guide you to London locations from the books and movies , plus lots of others outside the city and around Britain.
I highly recommend London Walks for moderately-priced and well-executed guided strolls around London. They go to familiar tourist spots, but the rather obscure neighborhood or theme walks are even more interesting and fun.
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My older daughter and I went on their Pub Walk (she got to drink lots of lemonade.)
We sauntered along the Thames at sunset, saw the outside of the restored Globe Theater, popped into the Tate Modern for a good view, rounded a corner at night to stumble upon a replica of Sir Francis Drake’s “Golden Hind” Elizabethan warship floating in front of us….and of course enjoyed local company in several pubs.
Have a great time, but pack your brolly/umbrella.
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Here is an item at Jaunted about a fun family stop in Brussels called Mini-Europe.
It’s scaled-down miniatures of famous European buildings and places.
Walk around the Parthenon in Greece, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (with a little bit of the Berlin Wall as it used to look,) even a small-scale Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa.
My kids really enjoyed our visit, perhaps because finally those grandiose buildings were scaled for little people and they got to play like Godzilla.
Tons of goofy photo-ops!
That strange atomic-looking thing behind the “Buckingham Palace guard” IS supposed to look like an atom — it’s the giant Atomium, built for an Expo in 1958.
It makes a cool backdrop for the Mini-Europe mini-buildings.
Related Family Travel post: Visit bountiful Brussels
The home page of James Trotta’s site for vacation/trip itineraries features some great ideas for a trip to Washington DC. Not all of it would work with kids, but a lot of it would be terrific. Trotta is running a contest for travel itineraries if you want to check it out, and this is one of the entries written by Denise Neary.
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Feeling overwhelmed by Tokyo’s bustle and sprawl? Take a subway ride just a bit south, to the relatively compact seaport city of Yokohama.
It has the largest Chinatown in Japan, plus the attractive waterside Minato Mirai park area, with its skyline-dominating Cosmoworld amusement park Ferris wheel and the soaring Landmark Tower shopping and hotel complex.
There is a much more relaxed atmosphere here, especially near the water.
Many of the elaborate shopping complexes around Minato Mirai will feel much like your local mall, with brand-name shops and a Hard Rock Cafe.
Still, let’s face it; sometimes your kids (and maybe you) just want something that feels familiar. This can also be good for a rainy day or a slow evening (shops are open till around 8 p.m., and restaurants till later.)
Pokemon enthusiasts will find the Pokemon Center shop in one of the indoor shopping complexes, with every imaginable item branded with the cartoony little creatures. Best option is a chopstick set or a kid’s bento (lunch) box.
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You Hello Kitty fans will find plenty of that in this mall as well, including neat little washcloths with the Kitty in various guises around Tokyo neighborhoods.
Take a pleasant walk over the water bridge to the World Porters area if you haven’t had enough shopping, or stroll past it even further to the Red Brick Warehouse (Web site in Japanese) where there is an outpost of the beloved fresh cosmetics company Lush.
Also at the Warehouse is Motion Blue, a smaller version of Tokyo’s dinner club and performance venue Blue Note, with some terrific jazz musicians on the schedule. Good for older kids.
Does your son or daughter like ramen, the noodle soup that blossoms in the microwave in just a little water? Check out the real stuff at the unique Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum.
Once you pay a small fee to enter, you are transported back to late-1950s era shitamachi Tokyo, right down to the advertising signs, street performers, a little toy shop and eight different actual ramen restaurants, each serving different styles of the iconic noodle bowl, at very reasonable prices (including perhaps a Kirin or Sapphoro beer for the adults.)
Some of the museum street performers tell Japanese adventure tales to children using special painted story-boards.
Watch their technique of building up to an exciting point in the story and then quickly showing a new picture: this is one of the cultural foundations of today’s anime styles.
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The gift shop has noodle-related knick-knacks including Naruto, who is a very popular manga character with his own action show on American TV.
His name comes from the traditional small decorative egg item with a swirl that is placed on top of bowls of ramen.
HOW TO GET THERE: Take the subway from Tokyo to the Sakuragi-cho subway station and walk out the Minato Mirai exit.
There is a tourist booth just outside the exit where you can get maps and directions to all of the attractions in Yokohama. The Ramen Museum is a few minute’s walk from Exit 8 of the Shinyokohama subway station on the Yokohama City subway line.
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Update 8 October 2006: There’s a nice LA Times article on taking a side trip from Tokyo to Nikko.
I haven’t been there myself but it looks like a wonderful option with older kids (and would be closer than Kyoto.)
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