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The Travel Mom's Ultimate Book of Family Travel: Planning, Surviving, and Enjoying Your Vacation Together
A vacation has the special power to bring a family closer together— breaking away from familiar routines, allowing time to enjoy each others’ company, and experiencing the world together. All it takes is the right mindset and some planning. The Travel Mom shows you how.
In one invaluable guide, you’ll get a host of ideas for some of the most popular options in family travel—from cruises and all-inclusive resorts to RV camping and extended-family reunions.
The Travel Mom also tackles the sticky realities of family vacations. In a warm, mom-to-mom tone, she gives you tricks and tips you’ll appreciate from the first rainy day, missed flight, or scary look at the travel budget. Simple strategies like packing a customized “boredom bag” with snacks and games can save a long road trip. And her off-the-beaten-track and off-season suggestions are unbeatable to keep things interesting and affordable.
A great resource for busy moms everywhere, The Travel Mom’s Ultimate Book of Family Travel will guarantee their family vacation is worth all the time, money, and emotion they put into it.
In one invaluable guide, you’ll get a host of ideas for some of the most popular options in family travel—from cruises and all-inclusive resorts to RV camping and extended-family reunions.
The Travel Mom also tackles the sticky realities of family vacations. In a warm, mom-to-mom tone, she gives you tricks and tips you’ll appreciate from the first rainy day, missed flight, or scary look at the travel budget. Simple strategies like packing a customized “boredom bag” with snacks and games can save a long road trip. And her off-the-beaten-track and off-season suggestions are unbeatable to keep things interesting and affordable.
A great resource for busy moms everywhere, The Travel Mom’s Ultimate Book of Family Travel will guarantee their family vacation is worth all the time, money, and emotion they put into it.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 2006
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 22, 2019
If you’re like me, you have treasured memories of family vacations you took when you were growing up. But now, as an adult, I now have the responsibility of planning these trips and let me tell you, it’s not an easy task! The Travel Mom's Ultimate Book of Family Travel is an excellent resource for parents wanting to provide their children with fun, educational trips that won’t break the budget.
Emily Kaufman is the travel contributor for Good Morning America as well as a travel expert for other shows and magazines. She follows twelve Golden Moment Rules—from avoiding overscheduling and overindulging to taking pictures and veering off the beaten path. The book helps readers to achieve the same goals as Kaufman and her family:
A few planned activities to do together as a family
Flexibility will be allowed for everyone to do his or her own thing at least once, if not more.
There will be time set aside for the parents to be alone without the kids
The book is divided into two parts. Part one is titled "Creating the Family Vacation of Your Dreams." It includes chapters about planning, transportation, multigenerational travel, and educational experiences. These chapters focus on research, choosing destinations, mapping out your time, and packing. Suggestions of popular and interesting things to do are included, along with contact information for various things like zoos, museums, etc.
Part two is all about the destinations. In the first chapter, beach vacations throughout the U.S. and a couple in other countries are described. At the end of each place, a list of Must See, Must Do, and Must Try items are listed, which includes foods, attractions, or other things unique to the area. At the end of each chapter, a “Once in a Lifetime” trip is laid out for the reader. In the beach chapter, the destination is Hawaii. Other destination chapters include winter holidays and trips for cool weather (a.k.a. ski trips); all-inclusive resorts (many of these are outside of the US); family cruises; “soft adventures” such as a river raft trip or dude ranch; camping; venturing to cities with kids; and hidden treasures and road trips.
Finally, the end of the book has copies of vacation-planning worksheets for families to use. Overall, this is an incredibly helpful and informative book to help plan family vacations that everyone in the family will enjoy. The only problem I had with the book was that, with a couple of exceptions, the Northwest is not represented in the book. It would have been more helpful had there been at least one suggestion from each part of the country that includes an activity to help with those people on limited budgets. The Northwest has incredible beaches and mountains that aren’t even briefly mentioned in the book.
This is a book that should be on every parent’s bookshelf and used regularly to gather ideas and other tips for planning vacations your own children will remember for the rest of their lives.
Emily Kaufman is the travel contributor for Good Morning America as well as a travel expert for other shows and magazines. She follows twelve Golden Moment Rules—from avoiding overscheduling and overindulging to taking pictures and veering off the beaten path. The book helps readers to achieve the same goals as Kaufman and her family:
A few planned activities to do together as a family
Flexibility will be allowed for everyone to do his or her own thing at least once, if not more.
There will be time set aside for the parents to be alone without the kids
The book is divided into two parts. Part one is titled "Creating the Family Vacation of Your Dreams." It includes chapters about planning, transportation, multigenerational travel, and educational experiences. These chapters focus on research, choosing destinations, mapping out your time, and packing. Suggestions of popular and interesting things to do are included, along with contact information for various things like zoos, museums, etc.
Part two is all about the destinations. In the first chapter, beach vacations throughout the U.S. and a couple in other countries are described. At the end of each place, a list of Must See, Must Do, and Must Try items are listed, which includes foods, attractions, or other things unique to the area. At the end of each chapter, a “Once in a Lifetime” trip is laid out for the reader. In the beach chapter, the destination is Hawaii. Other destination chapters include winter holidays and trips for cool weather (a.k.a. ski trips); all-inclusive resorts (many of these are outside of the US); family cruises; “soft adventures” such as a river raft trip or dude ranch; camping; venturing to cities with kids; and hidden treasures and road trips.
Finally, the end of the book has copies of vacation-planning worksheets for families to use. Overall, this is an incredibly helpful and informative book to help plan family vacations that everyone in the family will enjoy. The only problem I had with the book was that, with a couple of exceptions, the Northwest is not represented in the book. It would have been more helpful had there been at least one suggestion from each part of the country that includes an activity to help with those people on limited budgets. The Northwest has incredible beaches and mountains that aren’t even briefly mentioned in the book.
This is a book that should be on every parent’s bookshelf and used regularly to gather ideas and other tips for planning vacations your own children will remember for the rest of their lives.
October 30, 2009
Ms. Kaufmann has put together a valuable resource for traveling families. Along with great ideas on how to pack, how to travel, and how to keep kids amused and engaged during the travel, she highlights great destinations as well as companies and websites that can help you plan a memorable vacation.
The book's structure was very easy to navigate. The first part outlines how to plan a trip including the pros and cons of flying, driving, and taking the train. It also focuses on multi-generational travel (extended family trips with grandma and grandpa) and how to make vacations educational experiences for the kids without losing the fun. The second part is divided into types of trips: beach, winter, all-inclusive resorts, cruises, adventures, camping, and cities. Ms. Kaufmann provides enough detail to make the vacations all sound appealing and possible, without overwhelming the book with minutiae. She frequently points you in the direction of other resources for additional information on each topic and location.
Next time we go on a trip I'll have to pull this out before instead of after! :)
For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
The book's structure was very easy to navigate. The first part outlines how to plan a trip including the pros and cons of flying, driving, and taking the train. It also focuses on multi-generational travel (extended family trips with grandma and grandpa) and how to make vacations educational experiences for the kids without losing the fun. The second part is divided into types of trips: beach, winter, all-inclusive resorts, cruises, adventures, camping, and cities. Ms. Kaufmann provides enough detail to make the vacations all sound appealing and possible, without overwhelming the book with minutiae. She frequently points you in the direction of other resources for additional information on each topic and location.
Next time we go on a trip I'll have to pull this out before instead of after! :)
For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
August 22, 2015
The ideal book for parents who have been hit on the head and no longer have any memory of who they are or how to do anything parenting related. Helpful tips include "bring snacks for the car ride!" and "always wear a seat belt!" Did you know there are museums FOR CHILDREN? It's true! Want to know more about how to save money on airfare? She suggests trying some thing called a "search engine"! My entire life has changed!
August 18, 2008
Now I just need the money to arrange all these vacations.
I bought this book, hoping to find a way to guarantee that my kiddos would sleep through the night when we travel. Did I find an answer? Eh, not so much.
But there are some great ideas and tips for planning and surviving family vacations.
I bought this book, hoping to find a way to guarantee that my kiddos would sleep through the night when we travel. Did I find an answer? Eh, not so much.
But there are some great ideas and tips for planning and surviving family vacations.
October 9, 2008
Useful book of places to go and what to consider when planning trips or family get-togethers. Some wonderful ideas.
September 1, 2012
Really great tips in this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews