Weekly Link Roundup: Why Travel With Kids? Fall Travel Deals

Ever wonder what it would be like for an adult to completely immerse himself in the Disney Experience for five days (and at five different theme parks)? Seth Stevenson writes about Disney's influence on young children and the utopian world view the parks present. The author hints a little at why it is important for families to think beyond just Disney when they plan vacations. He points out that the cultural themes at Disney, while positive, have little relationship to reality. I also think that some of the real benefits to travel come from seeing first hand that things are done differently in different places, and learning to adapt. There's little opportunity to do that in a resort. I know my kids will love Disneyland when we decide they will last long enough to justify the entrance fees, but I will always think it is important to continue exploring the real world with them too.

Speaking of why it's important to help kids explore the real world, TravelSavvyMom has a great article about why we travel with kids. I couldn't agree more with the author's viewpoint, and I wish I'd written this myself! Like everything on TravelSavvyMom, the article is insightful and fun to read, so take a moment to click over.

LunchInaBox has some great tips about using bento boxes when you travel. I do a scaled down version of this myself by bringing along one or two divided Lock & Lock Containers. They work great for crackers and for taking leftovers from a restaurant to snack on later, and when they are sealed, they're totally spill-proof.

There is a great article in the NY Times this week about how families with an Autistic Child make travel work. The article includes interviews and advice from parents of autistic children. If this is an issue that impacts you, please also check out our other links for Traveling With An Autistic Child

The poisonous substance, melamine, was found in Chinese baby formula this week. The formula wasn't exported, but this is a good reminder to bring your on formula if you are bottle feeding in a developing country.

Check out these creative Ideas for giving allowances on vacation from the readers of Budget Travel

There were two articles from SoulTravelers3 this week that really resonated with me. In Pint Sized Pilgrim's Joy in Learning the family shares how they helped their young daughter get the most out of a visit to Santiago de Compostela. As my kids get older, it's important for me to start helping them learn more about the places we visit too, so this was welcome and timely advice.

In the second article, How to Eat Healthy and Cheap While Traveling In Europe there are some great tips for cooking healthy, simple meals on the road. As my kids get older (and as I exit the sleep-deprived haze that was the first 20 months of D's life) I have started to get more concerned about how I feed my family both at home & when we are traveling. I try to cook real meals most days, but too often I fall back on pre-packaged foods that don't allow me much control over how much sugar and salt (not to mention fresh fruit and veges) my kids are getting. On top of that, I LOVE food, and I want my kids to develop a taste for food made out of... food... instead of processed food mixed with chemicals. If you share my concern (and my desire to find solutions that work with a busy life), you may enjoy this article.

Fall Deals
I wrote recently about how fall is one of the best times to score deals on popular family travel destinations. The travel industry is in a lull this year, so things are cheaper than usual... check out some of these deals:

Book a world class hotel room for 19.28/night
Unusually Low Prices at Caribbean Resorts
JetBlue Ebay Auctions

5 comments | Posted on September 14, 2008 | Save to del.icio.us

 Subscribe to our feed

Subscribe by email:

Comments

  1. Mara on September 15, 2008 at 6:03 a.m.

    Lots of great tips here - I had noticed that article about traveling with children who have autism and was going to post about it too. I don't know if you saw in that same section of the NYT that the lead article is by a writer who worked as a flight attendant for a few days to see what it's like now that flying has gotten so ugly. It was an eye-opener for me and was a good reminder of why you need to try and be nice to the people on the plane even when your children are poopy and screaming and the plane has been sitting in the hot sun for hours. It's called "Flying the Unfriendly Skies" and you can find it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/tra...

  2. jamie on September 15, 2008 at 10:17 a.m.

    Thanks so much for the link Debbie. Kayt Sukel's "Why We Travel" piece really struck a chord with a lot of people. There are a lot of us out there who want to make every travel moment count, I guess.

    I struggle with this myself. A journey is a very different thing from a vacation. My kids often ask when we are going back to Hawaii. The truth is, I don't know.

    jamie
    www.travelsavvymom.com

  3. diane on September 15, 2008 at 3:23 p.m.

    We run a magazine site where we have a spain hotel review section and as such we have been receiving a huge amount of emails because of our hotel review section. This is due to the recent news of xl going bust and other travel companies going bust. People are very worried about booking a holiday with travel agents and those people who booked through the internet are now concerned that if anything happens to their travel agent that they will not be covered. What I cannot understand is why the larger companies are not making a public statement to put peoples minds at rest. If nothing is done by the other travel agents then their profits will go right down due to their potential customers being to scared to book holidays.

  4. Debbie on September 15, 2008 at 10:23 p.m.

    @mara

    I read that NYT article too. It was a great one. As a parent, I never know when I might need something out of the ordinary from a flight attendant, so I find it helps to be extra polite as we get onboard. You'd be surprised at how far that goes, whether we need an "ok" for the CARES harness they've never seen before, or a sippy full of water just before landing, or something else.

    I hear terrible stories from flight attendants about the way some parents behave on flights: handing them dirty diapers during meal service (gross), letting the kids run in the galley, and I'm sure there is much more...

  5. Debbie on September 15, 2008 at 10:54 p.m.

    @jamie

    My kids aren't old enough yet to ask me about trips to Disney World or Hawaii. So far they're excited just to know that we're getting on an airplane, so I haven't had that struggle yet.

    Like Kayt, though, I'm not willing to give up on travel that is fulfilling to me and I don't believe that I can't find ways to make "real" travel fun and rewarding for my kids. More than that, though, I think that what the amusement parks deliver is largely entertainment (not growth), and while they're fun, I think there is a lot to be said for learning how to entertain yourself and find out what interests you in the real world. Entertainment has it's place, but if these constructed worlds are the only view outside their neighborhood that kids see, they're really missing out.

    That said, we're lucky that their grandparents live in Orange County, CA... as they get older I we'll be able to combine Disneyland & a beach trip with each visit to grandparents. That will hopefully reduce some of the pressure to spend vacation time in kid-friendly resorts...