FamiliesGo! offering tips for traveling with kids–from babies to teens
Where I’m based: Brooklyn, N.Y.
How long I’ve been blogging: Eight years now, but we launched FamiliesGo! in 2011.
Blog basics: We offer travel information, tips and destination guides for traveling with kids — from babies to teens.
Other blogs I love: Frugal Traveler, ParentMaze, Budget Travelers Sandbox
My guilty pleasure: Music from the ’80s — the more Euro-pop the better!
Last thing I bought: A box of Girl Scout cookies — we might have a second guilty pleasure here.
Something most people don’t know about me: I wear glasses.
My greatest family travel adventure: Over one winter break, we went to Puerto Rico and spent a day at El Yunque rain forest. We took what we thought would be a short walk, but turned out to be a long hike up and down a lot of hills. But our 5-year-old was a trooper. She pretended to be on a Mickey Mouse Club House adventure and sang songs to pass the time. And she was happy to splash in the water when we got to the falls.
What’s the biggest misconception about family travel? That the best you can hope for on a family vacation is to “survive” it. We never use that word. You have to adjust your expectations: Kids are still kids no matter where they are and many of your pre-kid notions of travel no longer apply. But I don’t think you have to revolve every second of your family vacation around your kids’ wants and interests. It’s OK to do, eat and see some things you want to experience and to expect them to go along with it. it. I think that when parents take this approach the whole family enjoys the trip more.
Have you really climbed a volcano in the pitch black? Yes! In Bali, we signed up to climb a volcano and watch the sunrise from the top. It didn’t dawn on us that this meant climbing at night until we pulled up to the base of the volcano at 4 a.m.
How is that even possible? Flashlights — and a fair amount of scrambling! Also, it helps to have a massage booked for later in the day.
