Month: October 2006

Categories
Philosophy

Holidays Somewhere Else

London Eye, looking from Bankside (Scarborough photo)I saw this post about Christmas in London over at About’s Travel With Kids, and I got to thinkin’….Do we always have to spend our holidays in our hometown?

Yes, I’m all for tradition and continuity, and waking up to Santa or whatever in my own cozy abode, but take a moment to consider going somewhere for a holiday.

It can build great memories and make that year a real standout for the kids.

Maybe lots of you already do this, and I’d love to hear your comments about how you make it work.

If not, let me suggest that you consider going someplace wonderful with the kids to celebrate Thanksgiving, New Year’s, or whichever winter holiday you celebrate in your family. Someplace that you’ve been meaning to go anyway, or someplace that you love already but would like to see all dressed up in lights and holiday cheer.

I’ve been to London and Key West for New Year’s, and let me tell you we all had a marvelous time (especially when Big Ben rang at midnight.) Many places now have First Night celebrations that are kid-friendly, so that helps. We were in London with family friends and Key West with grandparents, so there were plenty of jollies to go around.

Kinda spooked about breaking tradition? I vote for starting with the Thanksgiving holiday, as long as you aren’t really enamored with cooking some giant meal in your own kitchen every year. So many hotels and restaurants now put on a delicious spread that you don’t need to cook or clean up after; you can relax, enjoy and be thankful for the company of family and friends, which is the whole point of the holiday, right?

You probably want to go to a Thanksgiving destination within decent driving distance, since I can’t imagine more hell than wrestling with kids and luggage in an airport during that time of year. We popped down to New York City from Rhode Island one year — with the sparkling lights and decorations already up in most places it was like a holiday two-fer.

Just think about it, maybe not for this year unless you move fast, but maybe next year (if Aunt Mabel or whomever needs time to get used to the idea that you’re going to miss the annual trek to her place, just this once.)

Update 01 December 2006: There are apparently a lot of Australians who travel for the holidays as well (and many do it to escape the non-fun of family events that have become a raging pain in the ^#$%. I’m starting to really appreciate my own fairly low-impact family!)

Categories
Tips

Geez, Get the Passport, Already!

We all know that the true crazy season for family stuff is about to begin.

There are outdoor festivals and events to take advantage of nice fall weather. Halloween is practically a month-long event (even longer if you tack on Dia de los Muertos.)

You may want to make travel plans for Thanksgiving, and my favorite organizer, the FlyLady, has already posted her tipsheet for early Christmas/winter holidays prep.

A kid and her passport (courtesy Flickr)

So, before it gets too nuts, resolve to get you and your entire family set with passports if you are US citizens.

Starting in January 2007 (that would be in two months!) you will need a passport to get back into the United States through airports, even from some of the countries where we’ve never had many re-entry requirements (the list includes Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, Panama, Central and South America and most Caribbean islands.)

Stand by for January 2008, when the requirement will also be in force for seaport and land crossings into and out of all of the countries above….are you listening, cruise fans?

This very good New York Times article mentions that the State Department estimates that 73 percent of Americans don’t have passports. Even though not all are going to run out and get them, there is good potential for a big ol’ clog in the bureaucracy as the system tries to respond to demand in issuing these documents.

Remember, for first-time applicants, you’ll need to go in person (usually to a local post office, county clerk office or library) and it’s $97 each for adults and $82 for kids under 16. Ouch.

The official US State Department Passport Page is here, with all of the latest requirements and links to other info pages.

So, how many of you have already beaten the rush? Full disclosure: I need to renew. How about you?

Categories
Philosophy

A Place To Come Home To: Successful Blog

I’m a few months off from the inevitable author navel-gazing that accompanies a blog’s birthday — my first post was February 2006, so there’s some time left before Family Travel’s one-year anniversary.

But I want to take this opportunity to note a few blogs that have really helped me along the way, and one very special one in particular.

Here are the authors and blogs that I look to for inspiration and guidance:

**  Darren Rowse over at (or actually Down Under at) Problogger, for his professionalism and straightforward posts, especially advice for beginners.  As long as we’re Down Under, I also like Yaro Starak’s thoughts on increasing your blog traffic.

**  The Free Money Finance guy, who is a prolific poster and wrote this multi-part series on building and growing a blog.

**  For blogosphere news, I check RSS feeds from The Blog Herald, the Bloggers Blog and Easton Ellsworth’s Business BlogWire.  Hey, there’s a lot of news breaking out there; gotta keep up. 

**  Pam at BlogHer’s Travel section always has something well-written and cogent to say about both travel and the art of blogging.

But when I’m ready to really kick back, grab a cuppa joe and hang out with a blogging master (mistress?) there’s only one URL to visit….

ME “Liz” Strauss and her Successful Blog. 

Continue reading “A Place To Come Home To: Successful Blog”
Categories
Tips

When Your Kids Encounter a Squat Toilet

There’s no getting around it in some countries; you’ll have to figure out how to use a squat toilet and so will the kids.

Warning: relatively high gross-out factor in post below.

When we lived in Japan, our house had a squat toilet but you could buy a plastic converter thing that fitted over the toilet on the floor and allowed you to sit down above it.

Your business does not go into a water pool as it does in a European toilet. It just sits there, waiting for the toilet flushing action to wash it away. One of my more vivid Japan memories is a really cold morning when I thought I was dying of a disease; my morning offering was literally steaming.

Out in town or on the highway, we looked for the bathroom stall for the disabled, which generally had a European-type toilet. I don’t see how anyone with bad knees or other malfunctioning lower extremities can get in the ol’ squat position to start with, much less maintain it for, ahem, bigger business.

And what do you do with pantyhose? Or skirts? And do your jeans have to come all the way off? (Pretty much, I’ve found.)

And you sure can’t read a magazine on a squat toilet — or maybe my technique is lacking.

Remember when Mom said to always carry some Kleenex to use as toilet paper?

Friends, it is time to listen to Mom. If there’s no t.p. in the stall of a squat toilet, there’s trouble in River City.

In many parts of the world, there is never toilet paper. You use water, poured down your bottom. God bless Frank Bures, a fearless writer at World Hum, who provides us detailed insight into this process:

World Hum travel advice guru and Vagabonding author Rolf Potts has also seen a few squatters in his day. “In places like India, and many parts of Asia,” he told me, “a bathroom won’t have toilet paper. It will have a little cup of water. Basically, after you’ve done your business, you take your left hand and wash the exit hole of fecal matter, then wash your hand. That’s why nobody shakes hands with their left hand in most of Asia and the Middle East, because that’s your a**-wiping hand.”

A Thai squat toilet with the requisite water. Courtesy Hobo Traveler.

Ah, another one of life’s little mysteries explained.

So, for those who may be contemplating a trip with the family to the domain of squat toilets, march off to the airport secure in your knowledge of operating procedures, and well-armed with something to use as toilet paper.

Kids may as well learn that not everyone around the world does things the same way, but do prepare them before you go.

Update 06 November 2006: This post and others were featured on Surfing Mama’s Blog Carnival, which has “Only stuff that matters. For mums.” Thanks!

Categories
Blog Book Reviews Philosophy Product Reviews Site reviews Tips

What you see here is what you get: new FTC rules and this blog

Many of you may have seen news items and/or blog posts about the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules pertaining to blogger disclosures and celebrity endorsements.   They take effect on 1 December 2009 and violations will incur fines of up to US$11,000.

I have rather strong opinions about bloggers who get freebies, including free travel, and then don’t disclose to their readers when content is based on those nice opportunities.

For myself, I think there are rules about that sort of thing, so I’ve posted my thoughts in a new permanent Page: the Blog Disclosure Policy for the Family Travel Guide.

You can see the link in the upper right corner of the blog Home page, under Family & Travel Resources.

In sum, I say that if I get free stuff to write about, you’ll know it because I’ll disclose it.

I prefer to pay for my own stuff, though, so I can be truly mouthy about it.  But you kind of expected that from me, right?

For more detailed thoughts on the new FTC rules, you may wish to bounce over to one of my other blogs and read: What do new FTC blogging rules mean for press trips and fam tours?

Keeping it real, so you know what you’re getting….

Categories
Philosophy

Slow Travel & Getting Local This Fall

I enjoyed a recent post by Pam over in the BlogHer Travel section (her Nerd’s Eye View piece on appreciating the US after overseas travel really grabbed me a few months ago.)

Pam talks about travel fatigue — trying to cram too much into a visit and ending up not really getting to know a place — and she talks about “slow travel” as the antidote.  This is a takeoff on the Slow Food movement, which proposes that food should be something that is grown locally, prepared well and not shoved in your face after a Taco Bell drive-through.

Not that I regularly order the 3 Taco Supreme meal (and isn’t the bucket of soda that it comes with a bit gross?) 

It is very easy to try to do too much during a trip; I’m certainly quite guilty of stuffing 10 pounds of poop into a 5 pound sack, as we used to say in the Navy.  If you’ve saved up money for a dreamed-for trip, and/or you’ve traveled a long way to see a place for the first time, you don’t want to miss anything.  This is how we end up on those “1-2 days in each city” tours of Europe that leave our heads spinning and conjure up memories of the old movie “If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium.”

What you’ve got to believe is that if you want to return to a place badly enough, you will.  It does not need to be the only trip to, say, Paris, that you ever take in your entire life.  Just decide that travel is a budgeting priority for you.  Others may buy plasma TVs, you go to New York City.  Or Paris. Or Buenos Aires. Or Mumbai.

Just do it.

While you’re sitting in your local equivalent of the Beltway Traffic Jam, pick a place you wish to go this autumn, and really plunk yourself down there, with a home exchange , apartment rental or Stateside rental so the hotel bill doesn’t kill you.  Get to know the neighborhood, the subway system, the trattoria or bistro around the corner.  The upside of this with kids is that they can spread out in a house or apartment, and they can also soak up local culture without feeling that they are just being dragged from one museum or cathedral or historical site to another.

I also recommend that you consider your own town, county or state for a fall or Thanksgiving vacation.  It’s not a vacation if you’re so wasted when you get back home that you….need a vacation.  Buy a guidebook to your local area, as though you were a brand-new tourist, and go visit places that are only a shortish drive from your home (my definition of shortish may be more longish than others; I’d say out to about a  2-3 hour drive is good for us.) 

Here in Texas, my father jokes that before he sees Buenos Aires he needs to go out to West Texas and see the Marfa Lights. 

So, while I certainly encourage some family travel fun this fall, and the ideas here and here….plus ideas for Europe here….are worth investigating, consider what is in your own time zone or even Zip code. 

Don’t be like the New Yorkers who never get around to seeing the Statue of Liberty.