Entries by Matt Villano

California road trip oasis

The girls and I are road-tripping around California again, our second such road trip of the calendar year. The destination this time looks a lot like the destination back in January: Southern California. Then we crammed the trip into five days. This time we’re stretching it out into eight.

Wandering Pod in The Washington Post

Despite this very blog, despite the fact that I’ve now parented THREE human children, I often forget I’m an “expert” on the subject of family travel. To me, a lot of this stuff is just life. It’s how we roll. Every now and again, however, I’m reminded that people actually look to me for perspective. […]

Feeling the pain

Family travel can be full of wonderful, magical moments that everybody remembers forever. Most of the time, however, as any parent will tell you, the experience verges on shitshow, complete with meltdowns, tantrums, complaining, and whining—from kids and parents alike.

Happy Free National Park Day

Today, our annual celebration of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., is the first free national park day of the year. This means every single American gets free entrance to every national park and national monument site in the country. It also means you’ve got no excuse to spend the kids’ day off from […]

The Gambler Lesson

Here’s how tonight was supposed to go: The girls and I would leave our hotel at 4:45, pile in the car, drive 15 minutes to the house of an old college friend, and hang there through dinner before coming back.