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My top 3 family travel secrets

Yokohama's Minatomirai waterfront (courtesy POHAN on Flickr CC)Which places in the world are not as well known (nothing is really a “secret”) for fun travel with kids?

I was recently tagged to answer this question by the globe-trotting SoulTravelers3, in a blog post about her family’s travel secrets.

The whole meme was started by Tribase in this post – I’m supposed to tag three more bloggers but sorry, don’t quite have the bandwidth these days to figure out who hasn’t already participated.   Still, I’m happy to play here….

You know how tough it is to pick just three? Sigh.

And of course I feel compelled to cover the planet….here goes my best shot:

In the United States

My choice is Memphis, Tennessee.

Go here for coupons/discounts from the city’s CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) because remember, a CVB’s whole job is to ensure a happy visit.

Memphis is big enough to have a variety of things to do, but not so sprawly as to wear everyone out.  Amenities and lodging are reasonably priced, and so is good food.  Summer is hot and muggy, but there’s always the Memphis in May festival.

We’re big music fans in my family, and the Birthplace of the Blues offers many ways for even young children to learn more about this country’s musical history and offerings.   For starters, the popular Beale Street historic district is actually pretty open to kids (I call it a civilized Bourbon Street) and when we visited, the guys at the door at several venues let the whole family in to listen to live music as long as it was fairly early in the evening.  There’s also the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Sun Studio (where Elvis and many others were launched) and the Center for Southern Folklore.

Before we arrived I showed my preteen an Elvis documentary (to try to explain the hype) then took her through his home at Graceland.  Believe it or not, she’s now an Elvis fan and the envy of her friends because she’s been to Graceland. Boring and weird Mom wins again!

Take the kids to see the formerly segregated Lorraine Motel (an important US civil rights landmark) where Dr. King was killed – it’s now part of the acclaimed National Civil Rights Museum.

Other kid-friendly places include Mississippi River attractions like the Mud Island River Park (including the Mississippi River Museum and a scaled down version of the river that begs for barefoot splashing) plus the Memphis Zoo, a children’s museum and in season, Redbirds minor league baseball at the downtown AutoZone Park.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn at Peabody Place, which was perfectly located downtown and was also attached to a small mall that occupied certain wiggly toddlers when needed.

In Europe

In a previous blog post here (titled Wonderfully off the tourist beaten path: Wadden Sea / Waddenzee Islands with kids)  I’ve written about the tongue-twisting but lovely Dutch islands of Texel and Terschelling.

They are only a short drive and ferry ride away from Amsterdam, but they’re very laid back, very Dutch and very nice for a beachy getaway.  Settle in, get some bikes for everyone (of course – it’s the Netherlands) and relax.

Here is the related Dutch tourism Web site about the islands – check it out.

If you can figure out how to pronounce the island of Schiermonnikoog, more power to you.

In Asia

I love the buzzy energy of Tokyo, and it’s a perfect destination with preteens and teens, but a bit too mind-blowing for little ones.  The crowds that older children find exciting are simply overwhelming when you’re two feet tall.

That’s why I like Yokohama, the seaside city south of Tokyo.

Make no mistake; it is Japan, so it is crowded, but somehow the location near the sea makes it feel more open.  There’s a big mall/hotel highrise called Landmark Tower (with a Pokemon Store – yay!) and it’s surrounded by an amusement park and wide pedestrian seawall.

This Frugal Traveler article in the New York Times about exploring Tokyo through its ramen shops mentions the terrific Ramen Museum in Yokohama, where you can get lots of different kinds of ramen to eat and walk through a sort of living history museum.  Super for families!

Here’s one of my very early posts on this blog: Kids in Tokyo – Escape to Yokohama.

There are my three family travel secret places; please share yours down in the comments!

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Europe

Olympian Good Times: Family Travel to Lillehammer, Norway

Family Trip to Lillehammer, Norway (Scarborough photo)

Ever wonder what they’re going to do with all of those great 2006 Winter Olympic venues in Turin, Italy?

My family’s enjoyable experiences in Lillehammer, Norway (site of the 1994 Winter Games) showed that the ski slopes, bobsled runs and apres ski places will continue to get plenty of good use by tourists and winter sports enthusiasts. We combined our trip with a visit to Oslo.

Start your planning at the Lillehammer tourist Web site, where you’ll find plenty of links and guides to area activities. There are many hotel and guesthouse options; we stayed at the friendly Oyer Gjestegard hotel in the village of Hafjell-Hunderfossen, right near the slopes and only a short bus ride from the town of Lillehammer.

Arrangements were made online quite painlessly, with one quick confirmation telephone call. Our room was small but clean and comfortable, and the generous Norwegian breakfasts prepared us well for busy days in the snow.

Hotel Oyer Gjestegard, Hafjell, Norway (Scarborough photo)We have only one real skier in the family, so there was some concern about keeping kids occupied, but we needn’t have worried. Our activities ran the gamut in terms of variety, and they were all easy to book at the local Hafjell tourist office.

There was a stately horse-drawn sleigh ride around the village, contrasted with a thrilling blast down the Olympic bobsled and luge track.

Younger kids can go down the course in a “bob-raft,” which gives plenty of speed thrills but a bit less danger.

Our very favorite sojourn was night-time sledding down rural roads just outside the village. We were driven by truck up one of the mountains with a Danish family and deposited with our sleds onto a snowy road. No one spoke much English, and we were clueless about what to do next, so we simply followed the lead of the laughing Danes and found ourselves roaring down deserted country lanes.

After a seemingly endless run through thick forests and sledding madly around curves, we finally arrived at some farmhouses at the bottom, where I managed to plow right into a mailbox. My kid’s response? “Oh, let’s do it again!” Everyone loaded back up on the trucks and we did go back up and down the mountain two more times, followed by drinks and cake with a local farm family. A super evening.

Ski School, Hafjell, Norway (Scarborough photo)

My family enjoyed skiing at our different levels of expertise, including my own first cross-country ski lesson with a very patient instructor from the Hafjell Ski Skole.

Once I negotiated the ski lift and stopped falling over like some confused drunk, I actually made some progress down the absolutely silent and beautifully-groomed trails.

Foot of the slopes in Lillehammer, Norway

Our last day in the Lillehammer area, we decided to go dog-sledding. The kids loved the dogs, but the adults wondered what we’d gotten ourselves into when it became clear that we would drive our own sled.

Our children were on a sled with somebody competent, fortunately, but my husband and I worried that we’d somehow drive off a cliff.

We should have given our dogs and our instructors more credit.

Everything went fine, we didn’t fall off the sled or get lost and we all ended up in a snowbound tent drinking warm drinks by a fire, marvelling that we’d just finished mushing dogs in Norway.

Update 15 March 2007: Budget Travel has some interesting ideas for Norwegian homestays, especially on farms and in rural areas.

The author dog-sledding (much to her own amazement)

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Europe

Urban fun and natural beauty: Oslo, Norway

Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway (Scarborough photo)

Our family trip to Oslo was in the month of March, with snow everywhere and downtown ice skating, but this Norwegian capital city is a great destination year-round. The Olympic venues in Lillehammer aren’t too far away, either.

Norway isn’t exactly a top American tourist destination, so the country is a mystery to many beyond pictures of fjords, skater Sonja Henie, the obscure Edvard Grieg biopic “Song of Norway” and the dark plays of native son Henrik Ibsen.

A typical complaint about Norway is the expense, especially any sort of alcohol at restaurants. When I worked at a NATO headquarters, most of my Norwegian colleagues recommended slamming down a few from a bottle kept in your hotel room. With children in tow, getting blotto before dinner didn’t seem like such a great idea, but I appreciated their input.

The entire trip was planned with the Internet and a few phone calls. Most Norwegians speak English, and the well-designed tourist Web site Visit Norway is simple to use.

To get there from our home in the Netherlands, we flew Ireland-based Ryanair from their euphemistically-named Frankfurt Hahn airport (actually 110 kilometers west of Frankfurt) to the also euphemistically-named Oslo Torp airport, which is quite a bit south of Oslo and requires a two-hour bus ride to take you to the center of the city. This use of outlying airfields helps to keep Ryanair fares ridiculously low, but the downside is dealing with “planes, trains and automobiles” transportation hassles at airports in the middle of nowhere.

After we arrived at Torp and admired the huge piles of snow all around, the Torp Express bus met us and our fellow passengers right outside the terminal. The ride to Oslo was comfortable, with the exception of a frozen onboard toilet. A quick cab ride from the city bus/train terminal brought us at last to the hotel.

For lodging we took advantage of the tourist board’s Oslo Package that included a hotel, breakfast buffet and Family Oslo Pass. We chose the Best Western Bondeheimen, very well located in central Oslo. The breakfast was typically Norwegian, meaning quite generous, with plenty of variety to please picky eaters. I was the only one in my family to develop a taste for pickled herring in tomato sauce; my daughter wrinkled her nose to express displeasure with Mom’s morning fish breath.

Also beware the tubs of brunost, traditional Norwegian sweet soft brown cheese. It tastes good, but it looks just like peanut butter, so check before you load your bread. As usual in Europe, each morning we found it wonderfully difficult to get a bad cup of coffee.

Oslo is a compact, pedestrian-friendly city of only half a million. It is small by the standards of European capitals, but its location at the head of a fjord, surrounded by hills and trees, gives it a close-to-nature feel. For tourist sightseeing, the Oslo Pass is a terrific deal in what can be an admittedly expensive country — it gives you free admission to numerous family-friendly museums, free use of city transportation plus discounts on local attractions and restaurants.

After our breakfast we hopped aboard a city bus to the Bygdoy Peninsula, where many of the museums are clustered. From April to October, a scenic ferry runs across the Oslo Fjord from the city center to the peninsula, but the winter bus was fine. We spent a lot of time at the Norsk Folkemuseum, a large open-air cultural complex with representative buildings from all over Norway, including a lovely wooden stave church. There were plenty of activities such as folk music performers and handicraft demonstrations (the kids spent time watching a bread maker and potter) and I thought the buildings looked most appropriate with lots of snow mounded high on their roofs.

The outdoor part of the Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo (Scarborough photo)Another winner was the Kon-Tiki Museum, housing anthropologist explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s original balsa wood raft that he and his crew sailed 4,300 miles across the Pacific in 1947.

A good way to prepare older kids is to have them read Heyerdahl’s book about the voyage, which he made in order to prove that the ancient ancestors of South Pacific islanders could have come from South America on rafts, using the prevailing trade winds. It is also well worthwhile to show your budding explorers the superb Academy Award-winning 1950 movie “Kon-Tiki,” shot onboard during the astonishing journey.

We enjoyed just walking around the city; I wouldn’t call it particularly quaint or architecturally striking, but I liked the nice, laid-back atmosphere. I loved watching the skaters at the central outdoor rink near our hotel (no skates to rent though; the locals must think it ridiculous that anyone wouldn’t own a personal pair of skates.)

We could even have seen some Tennessee Williams at the National Theatre, where “A Streetcar Named Desire” was playing. It would have been a hoot to hear Blanche speaking Norwegian with an American Southern accent.

Continue reading “Urban fun and natural beauty: Oslo, Norway”
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Europe

Is Amsterdam a good choice for a family vacation?

Earlier this year I was talking to my beau about visiting Amsterdam. Or should be wait until we have kids? Then, the first things to come in our mind were the Red Light District, the museums, the cafes and the architecture. How could a city known for its guilty pleasures be a good destination for a family vacation?

Well, it’s possible and Amsterdam is one city you won’t regret you’ve visited with the kids. The things to do in Amsterdam with kids include visiting the Science Center NEMO, discovering the world of music at the Sound Garden (workshops are in Dutch), enjoying the nature in Amsterdam Bos, visit the Anne Frank house, see the replica of The Amsterdam (which is the ship that sailed from the Netherlands to the Far East with cargo for the VOC settlements) or learn about the tropical parts of the world at Tropenmuseum Junior.

Convinced yet? Then maybe one of the free things to do in Amsterdam will make you start looking for hotels and cheap tickets to Amsterdam . Spend some time in the flower market or walk through the Jordaan neighborhood. Vondelpark is also a good destination to enjoy some nature and just relax after a day of sightseeing.

Amsterdam is definitely not a place for small children, but once they are old enough to read and write, don’t hesitate to bring them here. Visiting a foreign country is the best way to learn history and geography without even trying too much. When they have fun, children don’t even realize they learn. But it sure pays off in the long run.

Photo credit

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Europe

Family Vacation in Bilbao

Bilbao doesn’t exactly strike anyone as a family friendly travel destination. Situated on the banks of the river Nervión and with a mild climate, the city is an excellent choice for families with children old enough to explore museums. The rainy climate makes it difficult cu plan a day at the beach, but it’s heaven for those who like lush, green nature and want to plan hikes on the near-by hills.

Bilbao is served by an airport and, as you know, finding cheap flights to Spain is not hard . Large airlines such as Lufthansa, Spanair, Air France, Air Berlin and Iberia serve the city; but you can also grab low-cost airfare from airlines such as Vueling, easyJet or Air Europa.

After you’ve booked the flight, make sure to look for cheap Bilbao hotels before you leave. Depending on what facilities you look for, rooms range between €19 and €30 per night in cheap hotels. But when you travel with the kids you might also look into renting a vacation apartment for the duration of your stay.

As for the things to do in Bilbao , the kids will definitely have a lot to learn when visiting the museums and exploring the Old Town. The Guggenheim Museum is an art work itself and houses permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists. Then you can explore Mercado de la Ribera, one of the biggest covered markets in Europe, and try some of the local food. If you happen to visit Bilbao during the summer, you can attend an open air concert at the Kiosko del Arenal.


Photo credit

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Europe

Don’t miss the Carpet of Flowers in Brussels

Carpet of Flowers at the Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium (courtesy Yabby at Flickr CC)It only happens every other August.

It’s happening in August 2010.

It fills the center of the magnificent Grand Place with the most gorgeous, colorful carpet of painstakingly arranged real flowers.

You can read more about it on the Brussels flower carpet website.

There are fun things for kids to do in Brussels….plus everyone gets to eat lots of frites, mussels, chocolate and naturally there is great Belgian beer for the adults.

You should go!

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Europe

Top 10 Ways for Families to Save on Travel in Europe

(This is a guest post by UK-based reader Ben Doyle of HouseTrip.com, about all sorts of ways to save on your family vacation to Europe. Thanks so much for contributing, Ben!)

Top Ten Ways for Families to Save in Europe

1. Where and when to go is obviously the first part of your planning. Central and Eastern Europe are typically cheaper than the West (think Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and the Baltic countries.) The UK, France, Italy and Spain are certainly more expensive, although with the decline of the pound and Euro against the dollar, they are still affordable. You can also save money by avoiding high season – city trips are just as good in winter, but without the crowds, prices are much more favorable. Spring and Fall are a good compromise.

Platform 9 and 3 quarters of Harry Potter fame, Kings Crossing, London (photo by Sheila Scarborough)
Platform 9 and 3 quarters of Harry Potter fame, Kings Crossing, London (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

2. Shop around for flights. Before you can save money in Europe, you’ve got to get there – and it’s not cheap. There are occasionally excellent deals, such as these incredibly cheap flights from New York/Newark to London. Otherwise use a meta-search such as Kayak or Skyscanner to get an idea of the carriers to investigate. If your dates are flexible, you can then go to the individual airline websites for a closer look – certain dates are normally cheaper than others, and it can be hard to find this information from meta-searches.

3. Investigate your travel options within Europe. Budget airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair offer extremely cheap flights, but it’s still worth booking ahead. Rail pass information is available on www.raileurope.com, or take a look at destination tourist sites such as www.visitlondon.com for information about local transport. London’s excellent Underground tube network offers cheaper tickets if you buy an Oyster Card, while day travelcards are normally available for unlimited daily travel.

4. Resist the temptation to move around too much. Focus on one city, region or country in depth instead of travelling large distances. You can easily base yourself in one place and take day trips – by doing this you will save on transport fees as well as the difficulty of long travel times with young children.

5. Look at budget hotel chains first if you want to stay in a hotel. Brands such as Ibis, Travelodge, EasyHotel and Etap offer simple, no-frills rooms for a fair price, and you can often find good deals if you book ahead. It’s worth enquiring whether the hotel can squeeze in an extra bed, as turning a double into a triple or a triple into a quad will invariably be cheaper than having to take another room. Hostels in Europe can also be a good alternative, with far more options than just dorm rooms. Many hostels offer private rooms that are ideally suited for families, and staying in a hostel also gives you the option of self-catering.

6. Consider a vacation rental. Holiday apartments, as they are often known in Europe, are widely available in both cities and countryside locations, and normally offer far more space than a hotel or hostel for a similar (or cheaper) price. They often represent better value than other forms of accommodation, especially for longer stays, and also allow you to spread out and experience life as a local, rather than a visitor. There are many good sites offering holiday apartment stays.

7. Try camping if you want to go rural. Campsites in Europe, especially France and Spain, are normally well maintained and offer a range of excellent facilities. For exploring the countryside, they can be an excellent alternative. Alan Rogers guides are the market leader and a lot of free information is available online at www.alanrogers.com. If sleeping in a tent isn’t your thing but you would like to explore the countryside, farm stays are an interesting alternative and offer a great cultural experience for your children (and you!)  If you’re considering going rural, it is also worth investigating car rental, to make it easier to transport your belongings – although remember that gasoline in Europe is much more expensive than in the US.

8. Start with free activities. Europe offers many free attractions and activities that will be enjoyable for all the family. Try www.FreeToDoEurope.net for ideas. After that, always investigate the possibility of family tickets for museums, attractions, tours and public transport. Local tourist offices normally offer good advice.

9. Eat out less and make lunch your big meal of the day if you’re eating out. Many restaurants offer excellent lunch deals, but try to stay away from tourist spots. Places that are full of tourists don’t offer the best eating experience or the best price. Menus translated into English are often another sign to look elsewhere. Instead, take a guidebook (look out for one with translations of food) and follow the locals to places that are slightly off the beaten track. And be careful not to overtip. Tips are often included and Europeans only tend to tip 10%, anyway. Ask fellow diners if you’re not sure.

10. Eat in, even if you don’t cook! If you’re staying in a hostel or holiday apartment, or if you’re camping, you can save a lot of money by preparing your own meals. Local shops and markets are a great cultural experience for all the family. But even if you’re staying in a hotel, you can still grab food for lunch, and you don’t have to go to much effort: locally produced breads, cheeses, meats and salad make a great meal. You may even find a delicious local wine to enjoy once the kids have gone to bed. Just don’t forget a corkscrew!

Ben Doyle is a British travel enthusiast and entrepreneur. He is one of the founders of www.HouseTrip.com, an online marketplace for European holiday apartments. He currently blogs at blog.housetrip.com.

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Europe Tips USA

Looking back at Dr Pepper, the Little House and London Calling

I love poking around in my archive attic, especially with this blog’s 4th Anniversary coming up in February 2010….

A year ago on the Family Travel Guide, we had fun talking about:

***  Sugar overload at the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, TX

***  Nautical fun in Norfolk, VA

***  Some TSA tips for dealing with kids through airport security

Want to go back further?

In December 2007, we looked at:

***  Cool US museums you’ve never heard of (brief summary plus link to an article I did for Education.com)

***  Holidays with kids in New York City

***  Whether the airlines should provide harnesses for kids

***  A reminder to make travel plans to see March Madness games

***  One of my very first videos (eek!) of the site of the original Little House on the Prairie in Independence, KS

Even further?

In December 2006:

***  Support your parks and pay a visit (based on an overnight at the CCC-built cabins in Bastrop State Park, TX)

***  Tips and advice when it’s London Calling (with one of my favorite photos of my daughter when we visited)

***  Me as a non-skier kvetching about constant travel articles about skiing this time of year

Thanks for wandering down memory lane with me!

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Europe UK

What Lies Beneath? Intriguing Cold War online exhibit from Britain’s Imperial War Museum

A recent letter from one of my readers led me to a terrific “online exhibition” about British experiences in the Cold War – it is very well done and would be suitable for tweens and teens, whether they’re on a trip to the UK or not….

From reader Tom:

“Hi Sheila,

My name is Tom and I’m from the UK. Just getting in touch as I have a great suggestion for a family activity in London.

I recently had a day out with my kids at the Imperial War Museum. Whilst we were there, we saw this being advertised….

(If you can’t see the box below, here’s the direct link to the video URL.)

This short video is an ‘introduction’ to this [site] https://www.whatliesbeneath.org.uk

When we got back we went online to investigate. It’s a site that acts as an online exhibition of sorts, looking at the Cold War. Clearly it is aimed at slightly older children, but my eldest boy (who is 12) absolutely loved it (probably something to do with the fact that he wants to be James Bond!) I thought it was an excellent way to finish the trip, but I think it could even be a good stand-alone activity. It’s fun and interactive and they can learn a bit at the same time, which is always a bonus. It can also act as a bit of an introduction to the [Imperial War Museum] itself if perhaps people are unsure if they want to visit or not.

I’d like to help spread the word a bit so as other parents and their children can get as much enjoyment out of it as we did, so it would great if you could post it.”

Sure, Tom, and thanks very much for sending the info!

This seems like a great way to learn history in an interesting, interactive way (and not least because I discovered the James Bond books as a teen myself, and was enthralled.)  Check it out online, follow the Museum on Twitter, and plan a stop at the Museum the next time you’re in London.

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Asia Blog Europe Middle East Philosophy USA

It’s been over 3 years: time for some Greatest Hits

fireworks-taa-daa-courtesy-mikul-at-flickr-ccI just want to say that this blog post’s title is totally awful SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ’cause I’m feeling like a REBEL. 🙂

Those who know me, know how my mental gears grind and how I over-analyze.

I prefer to think it’s my massive intelligence coming to the fore, but mostly I think it’s plain old worry-wart perfectionist tendencies.

Anyway, after crying in my beer this week about blog ranking, I dug around in the Family Travel Logue archives to find some posts to bring back out into the light.

This allows my readers some discovery fun and also helps me to remember that blogging is not all about whether I dominate Google for certain search terms in exchange for some ad dollars.

….because, you know, I could have my way with Google if I really wanted to (she says with a lot of bluster.)

In between the dust and cat hair, here are some of my family travel blog favorites pulled from the Archives attic. Please excuse any broken links – some of the posts have been around awhile and the Web keeps moving:

***  Travel in Second Life.  Because I don’t get enough of it in First Life and I like my Goth avatar.

***  Inexpensive Travel Souvenirs.  Because I was just starting to figure out video and I combined total vlogging inexperience with all of my worldly shopping from all over my house. Yay!

***  Best US family beach vacations. Because it’s summer, you know?

***  Survivor’s guide to Walt Disney World.  This was when I figured out that I ought to listen to my readers even though I’m not personally a huge Florida theme park fan.

***  Visit bountiful Brussels and What my daughter learned in Belgium’s Flanders Fields.   We never felt more immersed in Europe than in Belgium (and the Netherlands, so here’s Rotterdam for you.)

***  Winner of the who-knew-I’d-love-it award:  Big Country – the Kansas Flint Hills.

***  Two of my first big hits: Paris with kids – The Louvre, followed by High above Paris: a meal in the Eiffel Tower.

Continue reading “It’s been over 3 years: time for some Greatest Hits”