Weekly Link Roundup: Packing Lists, Egypt, Car Sickness and more

This was a particularly great week for family travel articles, so this is a longer list than usual, but well worth reading to the end!

I thought we had packing lists covered, but I absolutely LOVED HouseOnHillRoad's idea for creating a visual packing list that even young kids can use to pull together what they need for a trip.

Cruise Lines and Airlines all have policies about traveling while pregnant. Once I was noticeably pregnant, I always got a doctor's note before I traveled, just to avoid any difficulties (and yes, an airline did as for it once). It is important to make sure that you know the airline or cruise line's policy, as this women found out Check the website for details when you book and print a copy to bring with you in case there are any questions or issues on site.

The Orange Country Register has a great article about Tips for Traveling with Children There's some great advice, but what I loved was that it was secretly an article on why you should travel with your kids (beyond just Disney and the beaches) in the first place. If you need inspiration to get started, this is the article you should read.

Are you dreaming of visiting the Egyptian Pyramids in Giza? It's no secret that kids love exactly the type of exploring you get to do on a trip to Egypt. Here is a fun article about a family who visited with their toddler son: Pharoahs, and Pyramids, and Mummies! Oh, My!. My advice? Hire a guide to take you out to the pyramids. Local salaries are low, so although you don't pay much, this is a well paying job for a local. In our experience, a well trained guide made all the difference when we were trying to understand what we were looking at, the sites (especially at Luxor) are so vast that it can be tough to figure out where to look first (or to match up what you are looking at with your guidebook. It can be time consuming to find a good guide once you are in Egypt, and it is worthwhile to reserve in advance through a company that uses only trained guides with a degree in Egyptology.

I'm a huge fan of factory tours, so I liked this story at Gadling about "exclusive" tours of the factory floor at the Jelly Belly Candy Company in Fairfield California (about one hour north of San Francisco and 20 minutes from Napa). They are not cheap, but if you are worried about how your kids will deal with large crowds, want a scheduled start time, or want a more flexible pace than a large tour would allow, this might be a good option. Not so interested in an expensive, exclusive tour? Free 40 minute Jelly Belly Factory Tours are still available too.

Does summer travel make you uncomfortable? There is a great article at CNN about preventing car sickness and an article on Beating JetLag at Consumerist.

Over at Family Travel Sheila Scarborough writes about a visit to the Children's Museum of Houston. We seem to hit a children's museum or science museum on almost every trip we take lately. They are often centrally located, and it's a great way to give the kids some unstructured time to play in a safe environment. That's an especially welcome relief when the weather outside is too uncomfortable for a visit to a playground.

Thank You to Fabulous Mommy and Home Based Holidays who both wrote a glowing reviews of DeliciousBaby!

Tipnut linked to our article about why you should pack duct tape when you travel

1 comment | Posted on July 20, 2008 | Save to del.icio.us

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