Tag: vacation

Categories
Blog Philosophy

It’s been a great run, but it’s time to go

The Scarborough and Fancher family photo 2010 (courtesy Korey Howell)I started this blog on February 10, 2006 at the recommendation of journalist friend and tech expert Dwight Silverman;  I was retiring from the Navy and planning to be a writer, and he said, “If you’re going to be a writer, you need to have a blog.”

Hmmm, well alrighty, then!

It was worse than the blind leading the blind – I was clueless and had no one leading me, either.  At least I had enough sense to know, even back in the mellower online world of 2006, that it would be better to write about a niche travel topic rather than try to break in as a general travel writer.  I chose family travel simply because I’d done it all over the world thanks to Navy assignments and could speak to the issues, not because I’m wildly maternal (as my kids will attest.) 🙂

My first post was the standard welcome to this new blog greeting, then the second was a fairly pointless one about American Express traveler’s checks. I finally said something useful when I wrote about Mini-Europe in Brussels, Belgium, and from there it was off and running.  I blogged to fill my spare time and to build an online presence in between print writing assignments, but instead found myself on the cusp of a publishing revolution.

I had no idea that blogging would become the impetus for covering motorsports like NHRA drag racing, meeting bloggers and startups in China, doing a lot of social media workshops and speaking plus launching an online course in social media marketing for tourism (all of which is about to lead to a book on tech-based entrepreneurship for people over 40.)

While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing for and representing my host the BootsnAll Travel Network, my daughter Nancy started college this fall;  even though my son is still at home, it seems like a good time to turn this blog over to another parent who wants to tackle the joys of Walt Disney World, or safe flying with kids or top tips for kids in Tokyo.

As far as I know, Boots hasn’t selected a replacement for me yet, so if you’re interested (yes, it is a paid position) then I suggest you check the BootsnAll Travel Writer Platform page.

There is, of course, unfinished business.  I wasn’t able to complete the 50 States Series (got stuck on Mississippi for some reason) so I may try to pick that back up and continue it in some form elsewhere. There is a video or two that I never got around to editing, and a notebook with post ideas that I haven’t tackled yet.

Not to worry – I still write for the Perceptive Travel blog, do guest posts for other blogs and also plan to make Fridays a travel post day on my personal blog, Sheila’s Guide to the Good Stuff.

Thank you so much to all of the faithful readers who have been here since the beginning, and those who may have found Family Travel more recently.  I’ll never forget meeting some of my readers for the first time in person, at the BlogHer conference in 2007. It is the most wondrous feeling to have someone walk up and say, “Hi, I read your blog….”

I’m so grateful that you’ve all been along for the ride.  Let’s stay in touch, shall we?

Categories
Florida Photos USA

Photo of the Week: Florida flamingo gathering at Homosassa

Flamingo section of Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Florida (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

This is the flamingo area at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Citrus County, Florida (south of Tampa.)

It’s a wonderful place for the kids to see West Indian manatees year-round.

Nope, no oil spill problems there as of this writing, so check it out!

Categories
Hawaii USA

For Oahu and Maui travel tips, say Aloha to local bloggers

@ParkRat at Waiola Shave Ice, Honolulu, HawaiiFor tips and insights into Hawaii with keiki (kids) you can look at the visitor’s website for Hawaii, but also consider some kamaaina local bloggers who live right there in the islands with their families.

We met many of them during the So Much More Hawaii bloggers tour, when they served as our hosts and guides.

**  Oahu – we spent a memorable day in and around Honolulu with Russ the ParkRat, who writes ParkRat’s Playground. He took us to eat chilly delights at Waiola Shave Ice, we all toured the USS ARIZONA Memorial and we spent the evening at the beach crabbing with him and his kids by flashlight.

He also spends a lot of time thinking about food (a man after my own heart) so he and I both like Melissa and her Urban Mix Plate blog. So ono! Liza, author of A Maui Blog, and my son

**  Maui – Liza authors A Maui Blog, and she and her family were fantastic hosts.

They took us all around the island, including a drive up the Haleakala volcano (ooh, silverswords) a scrumptuous meal at the Paia Fish Market (where my picky son actually ate seafood,) a delightful afternoon at the Maui Ocean Center and then some boogie-boarding and bodysurfing at the neighborhood beach.

You can also read Nathan Kam’s Kam Family Blog, Homespun Honolulu and watch videos on Beach Walks with Rox.

For more local flavor, turn to Alltop’s list of Hawaii blogs.

Categories
Blog Texas USA

Psyched to visit Lubbock, Texas. Really.

Eclipse Windmill and horsedrawn water tank at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock TX (courtesy West Texan on Flickr CC)Way back in 2006, I wrote a post on this blog entitled “Why the bleep would I want to go there?”

In it, I wrote about taking the kids to visit places that seem crummy, but really aren’t, and how you can’t have an opinion about seemingly crummy places unless you’ve been there yourself.

I wrote….

“Let’s take Lubbock, Texas, for example.

The city that Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings got the heck out of. Sights include, hmmm, the National Ranching Heritage Center (exhibits of spurs and bits!) and ummm, the American Wind Power Center (windmills!)

“Lubbock or Leave It,” sing the Dixie Chicks.

The legendary folk/country Texas vocal group the Flatlanders (Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) didn’t name their group “Guys from a Nifty Place,” they named it “Flatlanders.” ‘Nuff said.

OK, so why am I whipping up on poor Lubbock? Because I just don’t think you can designate a place Yuckyville until you have physically been there to investigate.

Ergo, I need to travel to Lubbock before I can pop off about it.”

What was amazing about that post was that people showed up to leave comments on it about how much they liked Lubbock, including someone from the Buddy Holly Museum. I was touched and even more intrigued after that.

Well, I’m pumped to announce that my chance to investigate has finally arrived – I’ll be speaking with my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray in Lubbock, Texas on August 12 at the annual conference for TACVB (Texas Association of Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus.)

Our topic is blogger fam (familiarization) tours and press trips with today’s wired writers and content creators.

Before and after we speak, though, I get to explore Lubbock and its environs, plus check out what’s between Lubbock and the Austin area when I drive there (like a museum about women pilots during World War II who flew from Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.)

Yes, I’m psyched to finally see Lubbock. Really.

Categories
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!

Categories
Blog

Stats Woman: posts and info you love on Family Travel

Hugs and friends are good things (courtesy Clare and James on Flickr CC)Most bloggers like to keep up with their blog’s statistics and analytics, to see how we’re doing over time with our readers.

I’m no exception, and I thought you might be interested in some of the data from the last six months about popular items on this blog.

The source of my data is Google Analytics, the free and incredibly comprehensive analytics package from Google.

Sorry, don’t think I can share specific readership numbers, but let’s say that it’s more than just my Mom but less than a million.

Your Favorite Posts

*** Military family travel to Hawaii: 11 affordable places to stay

I’m former Navy myself and used to live in the islands, so this was a logical post for me to write. It also made sense to highlight lodging on islands other than Oahu, not only for visitors but for the military families in living in Hawaii as kama’aina (locals.)

*** Where I’d take my kids: best US family beach vacations

This was a search engine no-brainer. People plan to take their kids to the beach all the time, and they’re searching for that info year-round. The fun thing about this post for me was that I was able to highlight many of my own family’s favorites in one post, while still providing popular content that readers and search engines would like. Since I often write about rather obscure things, it’s fun to “go mainstream” and be successful in the search engine battle for those keywords, but not feel that I was just cranking out crap for Google bots.

*** When your kids encounter a squat toilet

Awesome. I hope this one hangs on in the upper tier forever. I wrote it because we had to deal with this topic when we lived in Japan and traveled in Asia, and you should write what you know. Again, if I’m wrestling with a kid looking at that toilet and yelling “What do I do?” then I know other parents are, too.

*** My top tips for travel with kids to Tokyo, Japan

This was what I used to call a “lazy” post because it’s simply a roundup of info that I’d previously published on this blog, the Perceptive Travel Blog and some other publications. I used to think that every post had to be a sparkling example of Pulitzer Prize-winning originality, or I was a blogging failure. I got over it and figured out that the occasional roundup of related content was helpful, not lazy.

*** Finding the best iPhone and iPad apps for kids

I don’t own either device (my smartphone is an Android) but I could see amongst my parenting peers how popular iPhones and iPads were becoming for keeping kids reasonably entertained on the road. My friend Christine Lu uses her iPhone kid’s games with her son all the time.  This post basically points you to another friend’s resource blog on the topic, but that’s what blogging is all about for me – sharing great info.

***  Kids in Tokyo: escape to Yokohama

I am so glad that people still like this one; it’s one of my very early posts. While in Tokyo, I found myself going down to Yokohama a lot because the waterfront was so spacious and nicely laid out.  Having a local show me the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum in town was a major bonus.

Where You Come From

About half the traffic is from search engines: sure, Google is the top one, but I do get significant traffic from images/photos (which is why I use the ALT tag religiously) plus Yahoo and Bing.

StumbleUpon likes it here, too.

Most visitors are from the US, but we do have readers in the UK, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. As a three-time expat myself, I do try to keep my international audience in mind.

Words You Use to Find Us

People type in words like “family travel,” of course, but we’re also found by people looking for info on whether TripIt is safe, cool travel souvenir ideas and stuff for kids to do in Michigan.

What is fun for me is that a lot of the posts I wrote because I was looking for certain information are favorites because apparently you were looking for the same info.

That makes me very happy. Thanks for reading.

Categories
Texas USA

Peek behind the scenes with stingrays at SeaWorld

SeaWorld San Antonio shark mouth demo during a tour (photo by Sheila Scarborough)Breaking news….

….stingrays have very soft little vacuum-cleaner mouths.

I know this because when SeaWorld San Antonio hosted a group of Texas-based bloggers this past week, they took many of us on one of their educational tours (available to any visitor) to see some of the working areas of the park.

One stop included a small tank of young stingrays, and boy, do they like to eat!

Here’s a two-minute video with me, my son and one of our blogger group (Kristi and her family from Frugally Thrifty) perfecting our stingray feeding techniques. It was like being brushed with a cotton boll when they sucked the fresh fish bits from between our fingers.

Nope, no one was poked by any barbed tails.

Thanks, SeaWorld San Antonio and the San Antonio CVB, for hosting us!

Here’s the direct link to the stingray video on YouTube, if you can’t see the video box below:

Categories
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.

Categories
50 State Series

Family travel in Nevada

Nevada Day parade in Carson City (courtesy MrMitch on Flickr CC)Every week or so until we run out of states, I’ll be posting about family-friendly vacation ideas, attractions and events in each one of the US states, taking input mostly from Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, I know how to search for travel ideas on a destination or attraction Web site, but a tweet or a Facebook Wall recommendation is a much more engaging and public way to spread the word.

Please don’t email suggestions to me; that’s nice but it is one-to-one communication. Tweet me and/or Facebook me, so that all of our networks can see what’s cool about your state.

We’re going in alphabetical order but started with the end, so our first state for the series was Wyoming, then we investigated Wisconsin, West Virginia,  Washington,  Virginia,  Vermont,  Utah, Texas,  Tennessee,  South Dakota,  South Carolina,  Rhode Island,  Pennsylvania,  Oregon, Oklahoma,  Ohio, North Dakota,  North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire and now we’re moving on to….Nevada!

This state is doing a terrific job leveraging the social Web to talk about what they can offer prospective visitors.  Their Traveling Nevada blog has plenty of updates and good ideas, and they have a Facebook Fan Page, shared Nevada photos on Flickr,  a MySpace page, videos on their YouTube channel and of course they’re very active on Twitter as @TravelNevada.

When I asked for Nevada ideas, here’s what came in….

Twitter Travel Tips for Nevada

***  From Nevada Tourism via @TravelNevada on Twitter – Artown, which runs the month of July, is a great family-friendly month long event.  [There’s a] new V&T Railroad from Carson City to Virginia City.  Virginia City’s a very family-friendly destination/activity. Events and things to do there: https://bit.ly/63UNRz

***  From Mary Jo Manzanares via @flyawaycafe on Twitter – [in Las Vegas] Jousting tourney at Excalibur, Lions at MGM Grand, Lion King at Mandalay Bay, Secret Garden at Mirage, and oh! – renting a cabana by the pool at Mandalay Bay (best  family-friendly pool in LV, in my opinion.)

***  From Chris Chambers via @ckjchambers on Twitter – our 5 year old loved “O” at Bellagio when we went to see it recently – so did Mum & Dad.

***  From Bethany Drysdale tweeting Nevada tourism news via @NevadaPR on Twitter – [Ideas] ….mining park in Tonopah; Ghost Train in Ely; Animal Ark in Reno; Springs Preserve in Vegas, any/all outdoor fun at Tahoe.  [Events] …Reno River Festival (May), Carson City Rendezvous (June), Reno Rodeo (June), Artown (whole month of July in Reno),  Natl. Basque Festival (July in Elko), Best in the West Nugget Rib Cookoff (Sept, Reno), Great Reno Balloon Race (Sept, Reno)….And my all-time favorite:  International Camel Races in Virginia City (Sept.)  Hilarious event and great family town to explore!

***  From Spencer Spellman via @spencerspellman on Twitter – what is the hotel with the fountains that has the zoo [Actually the Bellagio has the fountains, the Mirage has the volcano and the MGM Grand has a zoo/lion habitat.  THAT is a bizarre sentence to write!]

***  From Kara S. Williams via @karasw on Twitter – Call me crazy, but kids liked these spots in Vegas:   M&M World (free 3-D movie) and Titanic exhibit at Luxor.  I would absolutely take my theatre/dance-loving 9 yr old to a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas (just not the R-rated Zumanity! – though for adults, it’s a HOOT.)

Facebook Travel Tips for Nevada

***  From Bridget Smith on Facebook  –  The Las Vegas Children’s Museum is cheap and great. We enjoyed bowling at one of the casinos. The Golden Nugget has a great pool water slide AND you can swim with sharks.

***  From Paul Ellis on Facebook – In Henderson NV:  the Carousel Workshop and Ocean Spray tours.

Thanks so much for the contributions, everyone!

The BootsnAll Travel Network has a Nevada Travel Guide as well.

The next state in the series is Nebraska.

Send your Nebraska highlights to @SheilaS on Twitter or write them on my Facebook Wall (please tell me you’re a 50 state-er if you want to friend me.)

My purpose for this series is not only to highlight worthy kid-friendly vacation destinations in all 50 states, but by using Twitter and Facebook I want to also encourage tourism organizations to learn more about connecting with their visitors using social media and online networks.

Please add your own Nevada suggestions in the comments below, if we’ve missed anything. Thanks!

Categories
50 State Series

Family travel in New Jersey

New Jersey State Fair (courtesy Sister72 on Flickr)Every week or so until we run out of states, I’ll be posting about family-friendly vacation ideas, attractions and events in each one of the US states, taking input mostly from Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, I know how to search for travel ideas on a destination or attraction Web site, but a tweet or a Facebook Wall recommendation is a much more engaging and public way to spread the word.

Please don’t email suggestions to me; that’s nice but it is one-to-one communication. Tweet me and/or Facebook me, so that all of our networks can see what’s cool about your state.

We’re going in alphabetical order but started with the end, so our first state for the series was Wyoming, then we investigated Wisconsin, West Virginia,  Washington,  Virginia,  Vermont,  Utah, Texas,  Tennessee,  South Dakota,  South Carolina,  Rhode Island,  Pennsylvania,  Oregon, Oklahoma,  Ohio, North Dakota,  North Carolina, New York, New Mexico and now we’re moving on to….New Jersey!

I could not find the NJ state tourism organization on Twitter.  Only one region of the state appears to be “holding down the fort” – @VisitSJersey. The tweets at @JerseyTourism are for Jersey in the UK’s Channel Islands.

The state tourism organization is not on Facebook either, that I could find, although I did locate a Facebook Fan Page for Atlantic City NJ.

In the absence of much of any official tourism presence (which seems odd, given the very competitive Mid-Atlantic tourism market) I offer you Down the Shore with Jen, an excellent blog written by Jersey Shore guidebook author Jen A. Miller.

When I asked for NJ ideas, here’s what came in….

Twitter Travel Tips for New Jersey

***  From Mira Park via @MiraBest on Twitter:  family-friendly travel tip for NJ:  Stone Harbor in summer, Van Saun park in the fall & Ridgewood or Waldwick. Great towns with kid stuff.

***  From Matthew Lubin via @ChinaMatt on Twitter:  Check out the Geraldine R. Dodge poetry festival for New Jersey. And you can’t leave off the Delaware Water Gap.

***  From Anna Fader via @MommyPoppins on Twitter: Sahara Sams, new indoor water park in NJ has been a great hit with our readers.

***  From Wendy Perrin via @WendyPerrin on Twitter:  Family-friendly New Jersey activities:  1. Riding the AirTrain around EWR!  2. Liberty State Park, including Liberty Science Center.  3. Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University.  4. Garden State Discovery Museum (& Lakeshore Learning store) in Cherry Hill.    5. Fall season at Wightman’s Farm in Morristown (hayrides, corn maze, pumpkin toss, etc.)  6. annual balloon festival in Readington.  7. The IKEA in Elizabeth for its supervised playroom + kid-friendly cafeteria with view of planes taking off & landing at EWR…But our favorite NJ kid-friendly spot is actually just over the border in Easton, PA: The Crayola Factory & Nat’l Canal Museum.  🙂

***  From Gary Arndt via @EverywhereTrip on Twitter:  Best things in NJ are the Edison Lab in Orange and Morristown where General Washington camped. Both are National Park Service sites.

***  From Kayt Sukel via @TravelSavvyKayt on Twitter:  The Camden Aquarium.  Did a post on it for Travel Savvy Mom not too long ago.

***  From Hillary via @hchybinski on Twitter:  NJ Family-friendly: Cape May Zoo and Ocean City.

***  From Chris and Robert Clark via @travel_notebook on Twitter: Delaware Water Gap (PA/NJ State Line) is a great National Recreation area with good hiking.  Princeton would be good for families who want to get their kids thinking Ivy League.  Finally, NJ overall has way more agriculture than you would think. Good opportunity for u-pick farms, horses, cows, etc.

Facebook Travel Tips for New Jersey

***  From Scott Keir on Facebook  – I would toot my ol’ hometown’s horn: Asbury Park. Its going thru a rebirth and the beach is one of the best on da Shore. Check out the Asbury Park Boardwalk website (there’s a fan site on Facebook.)

***  From Jeremiah McEnerney on Facebook:  I’m almost afraid to mention Stone Harbor, New Jersey. We’ve returned to vacation there for over 10 years. No boardwalk, a nice little shopping village, Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, Peace-a-Pizza and Springer’s ice cream. So very, very relaxing. https://www.stone-harbor.nj.us

***  From John Holmes on Facebook:   Not too far outside of Atlantic City is Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge. Not as famous as Cape May for birding, but excellent nonetheless. Lots of trails and different habitats to explore, and you can just drive through it if you don’t want to get out and walk around.

Thanks so much for the contributions, everyone!

I wrote an article for Education.com – Family fun and learning in New Jersey – and the BootsnAll Travel Network has a New Jersey Travel Guide.

The next state in the series is New Hampshire.

Send your New Hampshire highlights to @SheilaS on Twitter or write them on my Facebook Wall (please tell me you’re a 50 state-er if you want to friend me.)

My purpose for this series is not only to highlight worthy kid-friendly vacation destinations in all 50 states, but by using Twitter and Facebook I want to also encourage tourism organizations to learn more about connecting with their visitors using social media and online networks.

Please add your own New Jersey suggestions in the comments below, if we’ve missed anything. Thanks!