We Villanos are big fans of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts brand. Yes, the room product is amazing. Yes, the service at these resorts—as a family, we’ve stayed at five of them—is second to none. Really, however, what we like about Four Seasons is the way they welcome kids. I’m not talking about greetings and […]
We like to celebrate birthdays with panache in this family. When I turned 30, for instance, Powerwoman and I were living in Lima (in Peru), and we spent a weekend dining at some of the best restaurants in town. When L turned 4, we had a party with a cupcake-to-human ratio of at least 4:1. […]
You don’t have to read many of my posts to understand that a) I think pretty deeply about family travel and b) I’ve got ideas for how to change public perception about traveling families overall. You also don’t have to dig too deep to discern that even though I’m a man of words, I also […]
Guest posts aren’t a typical occurrence on this blog. Sometimes, however, circumstances warrant them. Like when natural disasters impact family travel. And when people you love bear the brunt. Such was the case earlier this month, when our friends and neighbors, Dave and Laurie Hagele, were stranded with their (4- and 2-year-old) kids in Los […]
As someone who does a significant amount of solo travel for work, I’m always planning epic trips as a way to reconnect with the family members I’ve left behind. For us, these trips (such as last month’s week-long escapade at Walt Disney World Resort) aren’t only about escaping, they’re about escaping together. And the adventures […]
In many ways, we build our family travel around playgrounds. We try to fly through airports that have child play zones. On road trips, we plan our stops in cities with play structures about which other parents rave. When we finally settle in a destination, we always ask the hotel concierge—or people who work in […]
If your family is anything like my family, good naps for the kids are hard to come by on family trips. General excitement, unfamiliar sleeping environments, and jet lag often work together to disrupt even the most necessary of afternoon siestas. To make matters worse, on those rare occasions when one of our girls actually […]
Most of the time, my two main beats as a journalist—family travel and Vegas—exist in separate spheres. Sometimes, however, the two come together in odd and wonderful ways. Such as the latest news about the High Roller, which, at 550 feet tall is the world’s largest observation wheel. Late last month, the folks from Caesars […]
Growing up on the north shore of Long Island, in New York, I spent most of my free time on the beach. As often as possible, I’d ride my dirt bike there from my house, park the bike and walk up and down the beach, ogling marine mammals, hunting for shells, wading in the waves, […]
Earlier this year, a friend of mine hipped me to some family-friendly excursions from REI Adventures. I did some digging and it turns out the tour operator has a handful of trips specifically designed for families. These multi-day trips go to a handful of faraway places including South Africa & Botswana, Thailand, the Greek Islands, […]