This year's BlogHer Conference seems likely to bring out a record number of travel bloggers! The central location in Chicago, and the fact that there will be a session devoted to Travel Blogging make the conference more attractive to travel bloggers than in past years.
This seems like a great time to have an extended in-person meetup. Kim Mance of Galavanting and I are beginning to organize a Sunday Morning half-day meetup where we meet in person, share ideas, and discuss topics that interest us. The meetup will be open to everyone (you don't need to be a BlogHer attendee) and will be free to bloggers. I hope it will be as incredibly productive and enjoyable as my meetups with local bloggers have been.
Here are some topic ideas we are considering:
- Networking
- Using Video in TravelBlogging
- Balancing Credibility, how to interact with and receive PR freebies
- Why are you travelblogging and how does that change your focus (e.g. building a freelance career, to connect with others, to promote a product or service, to earn income)
- Keeping your blog alive while you're not traveling
- Blogging vs. Travel Writing - what is different, how do you balance both?
- What makes a successful and fun to read travel blog?
The first step is to find out how many people are interested in attending and what you are interested in talking about. Let me know in comments.
Will you be at BlogHer? Would you be interested in staying for an extra day to meet with other travel bloggers? If you are not attending BlogHer, would you come to Chicago for this meetup? What would you like to discuss? (P.S. If you are a PR representative who would be interested sponsoring or attending this event, please send me email)
Related Links
Woman Travel Bloggers
Chicago With Kids
17 comments |
Posted on January 11, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
We are in the process of ordering new car seats (Our bulky car seats don't leave enough space to fit a third seat), and I noticed that Amazon has many of the travel products I recommend on sale right now! Here are some favorites that are marked down substantially.
Sunshine Kids Radian 80 Convertible Car Seat
folds flat for easy transport through the airport. It's also the narrowest car seat available, so this is the one we are buying to replace our bulky Britax. It can be used rear facing and fits children from 5 to 80 pounds!
On Sale at Amazon for $219.00 ($30 off)
Quinny Zapp
folds up small enough to fit in a airplane's carryon bin, meaning that you won't risk having the airline lose or damage it. It is
on sale at Amazon for $169.99 (30% off).
Go Go Kidz TravelMate
The Go Go Kidz Travelmate converts your existing car seat into a stroller and folds up neatly when not in use. It is
on sale now at Amazon for $79.00
Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack
The Baby Sherpa has an insulated compartment for bottles or food, detachable bottle holder, and compartments for diapers and other gear. The built in bungee cords and carabiners make it easy to attach that blanket or toy that you almost forgot on the plane.
On sale at Amazon for $79.00
1 comment |
Posted on January 9, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
If you are participating in Photo Friday this week, don't forget to enter the url for your Photo Friday post (not your blog's home page) in the Mr Linky so that readers can find your post weeks or months later!
When E was a newborn, our first "vacation" was several days in New York. With a new baby on the way, I've been thinking a lot about that trip lately. I'm dreaming of taking a pre-baby trip back to New York with "big boy" E to rediscover the city together.
Related Links:
New York with Kids
Photo Friday: Please Share Your Photos:
Share a favorite travel photo by adding your link below. First timers, here is
more Information about Photo Friday
10 comments |
Posted on January 8, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
I'm Pregnant! This baby will be born in mid-May, and you can expect that I will be sharing all the excruciating details (or at least some of them) right here on DeliciousBaby. Let's hope that this baby is as good a traveler as my first two are...
26 comments |
Posted on January 8, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
2008 was a big year for DeliciousBaby. The blog has grown and changed a lot over the course of the year. In 2008 we added many new features, including the ability for readers to add their favorite destinations to the city guides. I have enjoyed getting to know so many other travel bloggers online (and sometimes even in person). My traffic grew by an incredible 10x, but more than that, I've enjoyed interacting with readers, getting real-world tips from you before leaving on each trip, and reading your thoughts and ideas when I returned.
Top Articles of 2008
Looking back, I thought it might be fun to share the most popular posts and resources from last year.
- Family Travel Tips: Flying With Babies, Toddlers and Kids
- Ten Tips for Keeping a Toddler Busy on a Plane
- Travel Toys Guide
- Ten Great Travel Toys You Already Have at Home
- Jet Lag and Babies, Toddlers, and Kids
- Advantage Rent A Car's Unsafe Car Seats
- Airplanes and Car Seats: Who Needs a Car Seat Onboard a Plane
- Packing With Kids
- Tips for Bringing a Car Seat on an Airplane
- Flying With a Carseat: Car Seat Carriers
Top City Guides
- Paris With Kids
- Barcelona With Kids
- Seattle With Kids
- Portland, OR With Kids
- Rome With Kids
Top Referrers
I also want to thank everyone who has helped DeliciousBaby grow by sharing a link to one of my articles with your readers or adding a link to DeliciousBaby in your blogroll. As I look at the data, one thing that is striking is how many links and new visitors came from personal blogs. Each one alone might not contribute hundreds of new readers, by it's amazing how much the support from so many different bloggers added up!
Here is a list of the blogs who sent the most new visitors to DeliciousBaby.com. These are all great blogs, so if you haven't had a chance to check them out, now would be a great time.
- Consumerist
- Parenthacks
- Freebies4Mom
- TipNut
- GetRichSlowly
- Rookie Moms
- LifeHacker
- Perrin Post
- SimpleMom
- Gadling
Filed Under:
popular
travel-tips
1 comment |
Posted on January 6, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
Nobody wants to travel with a sick child (and even fewer people want to be stuck on a plane with one) but airline change fees are so punishing that parents sometimes feel like they have no choice. I want to share a recent experience and how we were able to work with the airline to change our ticket at the last minute.
When we returned from Disneyland a few weeks ago, E suddenly started vomiting just as we were leaving for the airport. Small kids (especially if they're related to me) throw up a lot. Sometimes it is an isolated incident and you never find out what caused it. Other times it is a sign that they are very sick, and in rare cases a young child can even become so ill that that require hospitalization (usually for dehydration). Unless you know that a stomach virus is making its way through your play-group, it can be hard to predict what will happen.
With our bags already loaded in the car, we decided to proceed to the airport, but when E continued to be sick on the way, I called the airline to find out what our options were. With a few hours rest away from the motion of the car or an airplane, he might recover. If not, we'd be best able to give him the care he needed in a hotel room or at his grandmother's house.
The airline was unsympathetic, the flights for the remainder of the day were almost full, meaning that if we decided not to take our scheduled flight we would have little chance of getting on a later flight. Securing seats on a later flight (either that day or on a future date) would incur a $125 change fee per person ($500 for the entire family) plus any fare change.
Obviously we felt stuck. $500 was a huge additional expense... should we split up the family? Take our chances on standby and risk sitting in the airport for hours with a sick child? Drag poor E through the airport and hope he started to feel better once he was out of the car?
When we arrived at the airport, we parked the car and my husband ran in to talk to a supervisor in person. After lots of negotiating, the supervisor grudgingly booked us on an afternoon flight with no change fee. That gave us enough time to confirm that E was, in fact, fine before proceeding on our journey.
Here's how he made it happen:
- Don't Phone it In
It is a lot harder to look a concerned parent in the face and say no than it is to say the same words to a phone caller. Obviously this isn't always possible, but when you can, an in person visit is more likely to pay off.
- Talk to a Supervisor
Once he had explained his problem, my husband's first question to the ticketing agent was whether she had the authority to make the change. When she said no, he immediately asked to speak with a supervisor. Choosing not to waste her time or his own energy arguing showed respect for her and helped him stay collected.
- Stay Calm
It can be hard to stay calm when you're worried about a sick child or upset about obscene change fees, but remember that "calm but concerned" is more effective than "angry" or "emotional."
- Explain the Problem in Terms that the Airline Can Identify With
Instead of focusing on how worried we felt about flying with a sick child my husband focused on things that would cause the airline pain (or potential liability) too... phrases like "I'm concerned about what might happen if he becomes sicker in the air" and "Without knowing why he is throwing up, I'm worried about what germs I might be exposing other passengers to" cause more concern for the airline than "I think the best thing for him is to get some rest" or "I can't believe you don't care about a sick child."
When all else fails, remember that you do have other options. . . one way fares from LA to Seattle, even at the last minute, are often lower than the change fees + fare change that the airline quoted us. Or, if you are particularly worried about the risk of changing your flights when a child gets sick, you might consider purchasing trip insurance when you fly.
Have You Convinced an Airline to Waive Their Fees Recently? Share what worked for you in comments.
Filed Under:
budget
travel-tips
8 comments |
Posted on January 5, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
Welcome to the first themed edition of Photo Friday... if you have a warm weather photo to share, please do! If you don't, you shouldn't let that stop you from joining in.
One of the things that has been fun here in Arizona is seeing such a wide variety of cacti growing everywhere. The kids are fascinated, and picky E has even volunteered to try eating cactus if I can find it on a restaurant menu.
A few seconds after snapping this photo, my husband accidentally stepped on a piece of cactus from a dead plant. D was intensely interested as he carefully removed the spines from his shoe. Every morning since then, as we leave the hotel, she admonishes him "Daddy, I don't want you to get a cactus on your shoe again."
Related Links:
Phoenix, AZ with Kids
Photo Friday: Please Share Your Photos:
Share a favorite travel photo by adding your link below. First timers, here is
more Information about Photo Friday
10 comments |
Posted on January 1, 2009 |
Save to del.icio.us
Just a quick note to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our Passports with Purpose fundraiser such a huge success. We raised $7420 for Heifer International, almost 50% more than our initial goal! This feat would have been impossible to accomplish without all the generous donations from sponsors, publicity from participating bloggers, and donations from readers.
You can imagine I'm elated to see how much support there was for this effort. It's been absolutely amazing to see so much momentum develop in such a short amount of time. At the same time, I'm also looking forward to doing this again next year and I hope you are too...
Filed Under:
blogging
passports-with-purpose
1 comment |
Posted on December 31, 2008 |
Save to del.icio.us
Sometimes in my exuberance to see a new destination, I make some pretty dumb decisions. Today was one of those days. Ever since we started planning this trip, my top "must-do" (besides eating great Mexican food) has been to see Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's desert home and workshop. Built into the side of a mountain just outside Scottsdale. Its shape, building materials, and colors were all designed to mirror the desert mountains that engulf it.
Sounds fascinating, right? Here's the rub... Taliesin West can be visited only as part of an organized tour. There are no family friendly tours, and each tour lasts 90 minutes (60 minute tours, but they are offered only 3x a day with 2 of the offering smack-dab in the middle of naptime). That is a long time to ask a young child to be very quiet and relatively still. With the site situated on the outskirts of Scottsdale, it also presented a logistical problem. If we were to split up and visit Taliesin West in shifts, the kids would have to either spend 3 hours outdoors on the (cold) mountain, or take two short (one hour) excursions into town... just enough time for them to get interested in an activity and then have them a melt down when asked to leave. Done in shifts, the visits would run well into D's naptime, leaving one unlucky parent to face drama beyond measure.
We decided to chance taking the kids along on the tour, and asked them for their very best behavior (every parent knows how effective that is after about 10 minutes, right?). In the beginning, they were enchanted with the petroglyphs, the cacti, the unusual building materials and even the furniture. They were cooperative and quiet for an amazing amount of time, but 90 minutes is just too much to ask, and as the tour guide lost track of time and delved into the site's history, they started to loose focus. We ended up taking them outside for snacks, with the hope of rejoining the tour. Each of us missed interesting parts of the tour, but we felt worse about our impact on the group... a toddler's whisper sounds loud to someone who has paid the steep $30 entrance fee. As the tour guide rushed us through the final buildings (story telling had put her so behind schedule that we had 5 minutes in each!) we gave up and I took the kids to the gift shop to buy coloring books.
I wouldn't have wanted to miss Taliesin West, so I suppose I'm glad that we went, but I didn't feel good about disrupting the tour, however briefly. In retrospect, we probably should have either hired a private guide (prices aren't posted on the website, but I'm certain the expense would have been considerable) or tried harder to work out a shift schedule. Lesson learned.
In the afternoon we visited the Arizona Science Center. The center has over 300 hands on exhibits, but most required reading and were geared to older kids. After a disappointing exploration of the main level, we headed upstairs and found what I thought was the best part of this museum. . . the weather center. There was a sand and water play are that provided an option my kids don't get at home, and a very cool installation that used a fan to mimic the impact of wind on a sand dune. The coolest part though, was the "weather show" where guests stood on a platform and lived through simulated severe-weather events. As we experienced an earthquake, the platform shook and we watched surprisingly immersive videos of real earthquakes. Heat lamps made a simulated fire seem real, and water blew in our faces during the hurricane simulation. The kids weren't quite sure what to think and alternated between laughing and looking worried, but each segment was short enough that they were never actually upset.
For dinner we headed to Lola Tapas. The meal turned out to be the highlight of the day. What looked, upon entry, like a tough restaurant for young kids (most seating is at bar-height in backless chairs), turned out to be perfect as we were escorted to a private back room (perhaps they had heard about our kids from the folks at Taliesin West). The waitress was incredibly sweet with the kids, bringing them juice and water in kid-friendly cups long before our meal orders were in. Best of all, it was a real grown up meal, and every single dish was delicious. Happy to be seated, well fed, and relaxed, I chose to ignore the fact that my kids dined mostly on mountains of bread and Spanish olives. They'll eat protein and vegetables when we return home.
Related Links
Phoenix With Kids
Filed Under:
travel-stories
3 comments |
Posted on December 29, 2008 |
Save to del.icio.us
Just a quick note to say THANK YOU to everyone who has already contributed! I've been truly amazed at the amount of support we have been able to rally in such a short amount of time. We've already raised over $6200 for Heifer International (over 20% above our initial goal)! That amount of money will make a huge and ongoing difference in the lives of many families by providing animals that produce both food and income.
Passports With Purpose ends on Monday at Midnight (PST) so if you had intended to make a donation and were waiting to see which prizes had the best odds of winning, now is your time!
Related Links:
Passports With Purpose Raffle Prize Link
Passports With Purpose Donation Page
Filed Under:
blogging
passports-with-purpose
0 comments |
Posted on December 27, 2008 |
Save to del.icio.us
