Postcards from Solden
SNOW Magazine
Two 10-year-olds take their moms road-tripping through Austria and send SNOW Magazine some postcards… from Solden. Read More
Penguins march into Florida’s SeaWorld Orlando
Toronto Sun
It was a steamy day in May when SeaWorld launched its coolest Florida attraction. After more than two years planning and preparing, the Orlando family attraction has debuted Antarctica: Read more….
Surfing on Oahu’s North Shore
Toronto Sun
They call it The Surf Bus — a groovy, Scooby-Doo-like Mystery Machine that chortles up to our hotel, the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. A flip-flop-clad local surfer named Sam — our Shaggy — hops out and invites us aboard: Read more…
Keep kids busy in Ontario this March Break
Toronto Sun
Madness may ensue once the kids break out of school March 8 for their annual spring holiday. Here are a few family fun March Break events throughout Ontario to keep them — and you — from going completely bonkers: Read more…
Books, movies that inspire kids to travel
Toronto Sun
Looking back, I blame Madeline. When author Ludwig Bemelmans’ spirited minx Madeline raised a rumpus in that “old house in Paris that was covered with vines …” I just knew I had to visit Paris. I had been severely bitten by the travel bug and I was only eight years old. I’ve never recovered. Read more…
Trips keep kids busy over the holidays
Toronto Sun
can hear the inner cries of many moms and dads — my comrades in arms — as the holiday season approaches: “Two weeks off school? How will we cope?” Here are some ideas to keep your rambunctious brood outside and occupied over this long winter vacation: Read more…
Top family attractions in Montreal
Toronto Sun
New York, London, Paris — they’re all delightfully foreign and fascinating for families, but far away. There’s a city with an old-world/new-world feel that’s equally cosmopolitan and equally family oriented, yet a whole lot closer to home: Montreal. Read more…
Geocaching an adventure that’s catching on
Toronto Sun
To a child, taking a tour to view Ontario’s fall colours is about as much fun as watching paint dry on a front porch. The concept might seem appealing at first, but the fun deflates after about 10 minutes — unless you add the promise of adventure. Read more…
End-of-summer getaways for families
Toronto Sun
A missive in my e-mail box the other day warned: “Summer’s not half over … it’s just warming up!” The note from Clevelands House — a family friendly resort on Muskoka’s Lake Rosseau — got me thinking: Why not savour the end of summer by listing a mash-up of all things fun still in the offing for families? Read more…
King of the road in P.E.I.
Toronto Sun
For those moms and dads considering a fist-time family vacation in a recreational vehicle (RV) — aka motor home — here are 10 tips that will make this ultimate family road trip a relatively smooth one! My travel tips are gleaned from six nights and seven days prattling around on the narrow red roads of Prince Edward Island with my husband and two kids under 10 — a first-time RV family bonding adventure that proved to be educational, exhilarating and ultimately, unforgettable. Read more…
Whale and weather watching in Jamaica
Toronto Sun
Every morning starts the same: First, the breeze off the Caribbean Sea flutters the filmy curtains covering our windows. The sails on the masts of the boats below our balcony begin to crinkle and shift. The black bird with the piercing yellow eyes lands on a deck chair and chirps us awake. “How ’bout a cookie m’lady?” I imagine he’s asking. “Just a crumb? How ’bout you wake up and offer me one?” Read more…
Warmer weather getaways
Toronto Sun, Sunday, April 8, 2012
Spring has sprung and summer’s nearly here. To help you prepare for warmer weather getaways, here are a few fun and family friendly travel ideas. Read more…
Spring things in Scottsdale
Toronto Sun, Sunday, March 11, 2012
Time and again, Arizona’s sprawling, sophisticated Scottsdale community is rated highly by travel and parenting magazines for its family friendly features, including hotels with both a waterpark feel and a desert zeal. Arizona can be coolish in winter and sweltering in summer — it is North America’s hottest desert — but Scottsdale’s average springtime temperature is a pleasant 25 C. Here are five top Scottsdale spring adventures for sun-seeking families: Read more…
Atlantis like Vegas for kids
Toronto Sun
It’s no wonder Justin Bieber loves this place. Atlantis, the extraordinary resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas, is Vegas for kids. Its mind-spinning action – 13 pools, snorkelling lagoon, Mayan temple with waterfalls and slides, swim-with-dolphins program, 56-hectare waterpark, teen hangout, oasis of tropical fish and five Bahamian beaches – plays like a high-octane video game, one that never shuts off and requires the energy of Red Bull from morning to night. Read more…
Test of family fun at Busch Gardens
Toronto Sun
It’s 10 a.m. on a sunny, mid-March morning and we’re chugging slowly across the Serengeti Plain. Our train – the one our family boarded in the midst of a Nairobian desert – is snaking dangerously close to some fierce and hungry-looking lions. But all is well. My three-year-old daughter is delighted by the pink of the very pink flamingos. And somehow the sight of giraffes ripping leaves off trees strikes my seven-year-old son as extremely funny.No, we’re not in Africa. We’re in Florida, at Busch Gardens. Or, as my kids call it, Beach Gardens. Read more…
We’re off to the sugar shack
Toronto Sun
There’s nothing quite like witnessing a child’s first outdoor taste of sticky, sweet maple syrup brewed fresh in a sugar shack. It ranks up there with a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a top rite of passage for Canadian kids. Read more…
Conservation at a turtle’s pace on Grenada
Toronto Sun
It’s a sight both adorable and unforgettable. A hatchling sea turtle smaller than a golf ball making its lonely way across a monstrous Caribbean beach in the dead of night — predators everywhere and no mother to protect it. Read more…
It’s rad, gnarly and shred worthy
Toronto Sun
There likely isn’t a teenager on earth who wouldn’t be wowed by the cool stuff that goes on in Whistler, B.C. during the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival (WSSF). Read more…
Ready…Set…Test!
Toronto Sun
By mid-February of this year, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games sighed with relief as it achieved one of its biggest milestones: completing construction and upgrades on all sport competition venues. Read more…
An oasis of fun awaits in the Arizona desert
Toronto Sun
Hotels in Scottsdale, Arizona, are what Disney is to Orlando. They are amusement parks and lodging rolled into one –families can spend entire weeks having kid-fun in Scottsdale without ever leaving their hotels. Read more…
The Looney Tunes tour of the desert
Toronto Sun
Wile E. Coyote is there, slicing across the desert, a cloud of dust in his wake. Roadrunner is four-wheeling it over dirt roads. Bugs Bunny is darting between the cacti. Read more…