51 Summer Trip Ideas – Plan Your Perfect Family Vacation
It’s time for our annual roundup of the 51 best family summer trip ideas! Wave goodbye to work and school stress, and forget about travel hiccups or economic woes. Right now,...
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Northern Thailand’s New Sights and Tastes
The best vacation I have ever had was when I went to Thailand when I was 11 years old. My mom had to write an article about Northern Thailand so I got to go with her.
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Best Spring Break Vacation Ideas
There's still snow and plenty of sun, so get out and choose your best spring break idea from one of our many affordable family vacation deals for 2025.
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12 Favorite Family Winter Getaways And Travel Deals
Sun or snow or stay close for your family winter getaways? Maybe your winter escape is that long-delayed trip to Orlando. Perhaps it's a cruise with extended family or experiencing...
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Give Back Gifts that Give Back and Help Others
Tis the season for gratitude, and we're grateful for the give back gifts that offer sustainable options to help others, support good causes and let us skip long lines.
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Teen And Family Volunteer Vacation Opportunities
Family volunteer vacations, once known as voluntourism, are back in action as the global pandemic comes under control. From community service to building homes, environmental research...
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Sustainable Travel: 8 Ways To Travel Responsibly As A Family
Sustainable travel and ecotourism were always hot topics around Earth Day. But, when the pandemic put the world on pause and we watched our environment begin to heal itself, sustainable...
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How To Volunteer On Vacation
Choosing to volunteer on vacation with so many options available can be a daunting task. This is especially true for families and teens...
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An Orlando Village Gives Kids The World
Give Kids The World Village (GKTW) is an 89-acre, nonprofit resort in Florida that provides a special vacation home for children with life-threatening illnesses...
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Guide to Hosting an Exchange Student
Hosting a foreign exchange student is the best way to learn about new cultures without leaving home. Each year, nearly 30,000 high school students come to the United States...
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How Coronavirus Will Affect Your Travel Plans
Updated Mar. 29, 2020. As Passover, Easter and summer vacations approach, families around the world are very concerned about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and its impact on...
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20 New and Familiar Trends in Family Travel
Looking back on a year of climate crises and social turmoil, it is surprising that many of the family travel trends noted in the past continue to play out. Family, this huge segment...
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Family Travel Forum Announces Winners Of 2019 Teen Travel Writing Scholarship
(New York, NY – September 24, 2019) Family Travel Forum (FTF) and its travel industry partners congratulate the winners of the 2019 FTF Teen Travel Writing Scholarship. Completing...
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Iberostar Playa Mita Resort On Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit
Recently, on a press trip for the grand opening of the Iberostar Playa Mita, the company's newest hotel...
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Making Travel Sustainable
Travel close to home, stay longer, and don’t go at all are key takeaways from ITB Berlin on how to make tourism sustainable.
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Vounteer Vacations Where Going Away Means Giving Back
Interest in volunteer vacations has grown as travelers seeking a local experience realize their presence affects a destination -– for better (creating jobs) or worse (degrading the environment). Because...
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Mixing Fun and Volunteering on a Fathom Cruise
The recently created Fathom Cruises, a division of the mammoth Carnival Cruise Line, offers a kind of social good cruise unprecedented in the industry. For the inaugural Dominican Republic itinerary,...
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8 Essential Dos and Don’ts While Volunteering in Kenya With Your Family
Immersing in humanitarian work in Kenya is a brilliant way to learn about the cultural nuances of this region and explore the wilderness at the same time. However, one must keep a note of a few important...
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Sharing, Giving Back, and Making Memories with an Impact
There’s something about Spring as a season of renewal that makes us think about the sustainability of travel, and how long we can enjoy the planet as we do without pausing to give something back....
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Bringing the World to Your Kids at Project World School
When we first heard about Project World School, we knew it was an intriguing concept and enriching travel opportunity that our frequent traveling families would want to explore. In...
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Studying abroad in high school
For those of you looking for a study abroad program for your teen, go with SPI Study Abroad:Both...
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Should You and Your Kids Go Voluntouring?
Many years ago, out-of-town vacations were deemed as a luxury that only the wealthy could afford. Nowadays, however, thanks to technological advancements and improvements in airline policies and safety,...
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A Volunteer Reading Road Trip at Beaches Turks and Caicos
Once upon a time, the questions my children asked during our family travels were easy. Are we there yet? How long are we staying? Will there be other kids to play with? These questions were sometimes...
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Discover St. Eustatius as a Volunteer Archeologist
For a budget family adventure made for those with a love for cultural history, look into the volunteer excavation program at the St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research...
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Why a Boston Marathon Victim is So Important to Our Business
On April 19, 2013, I did something I've never done before -- I used our company's email list of more than 75,000 family travelers to send out a plea for help for one of the Boston Bombing victims. ...
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Action and Social Media Support Entrepreneurs Aiding Indian Women
When Nicki and Kria heard there were more than 40 million widows in India -- 10% of the country's female population -- they had to act. The report from
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Families Hike & Volunteer with Trekking for Kids; Treks from $1650
Cindy Steuart, Executive Director of Trekking for Kids, told us about her organization's unusual service programs at a recent Family Travel...
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Windsurf And Kite Board Family Vacations In Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
I am on my way to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, land of travel fantasies, windsuring and kite boarding vacations for hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. It's 38ºF...
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My Trip to Haiti
The first time I went to Haiti I was 16 years old. I traveled down with a church group, and taught an English Camp during the summer for two weeks. Ever since, I've loved the country and the people....
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Water[melon] for Elephants
The rough, wrinkly trunk wraps itself around the hunk of squash I hold in my outstretched hand...then promptly tosses it away, reaching out again expectantly for another snack. "She's...
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No Shoes, Just Service
Red dirt. Hot, sticky air. Children laughing. Chai brewing. Tumaini Orphanage is alive with the happiness of their 52 orphaned children and the volunteers were just as excited to be part of this unique...
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Volunteering in South Africa
Following the summer after high school, I traveled to South Africa, where I will be living and volunteering for nine months. I have wanted to live in Africa and study primates since I first learned...
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Giving What You Can
I began digging into the soil with my shovel. Not being able to plunge too deep, I carefully sifted through the debris and inch-by-inch I made my way into the destroyed park. Glass shards, wood chunks,...
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One Kilometer
The frustration caught in his eyes ricocheted off the small tent’s walls, and the potency of his gaze struck me to the core, as I am sure it did many of the other gathered individuals. The young Zimbabwean...
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Watering the Mambas
People say that Africa gets inside you, grabs ahold of something in you. That for many it’s hard to get away once you’ve lived in this land of red earth and tall grass. I saw so many beautiful and...
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Tzedakah in India
Every afternoon, sixteen-year-old Salim came home from school, through the doors of the Nav Jagriti or the “New Hope” orphanage and shook my hand. He asked me: “You are feeling?”...
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Eco travel an innovation to spread an awareness to save the environment
Nowadays, eco-tourism industry is a rapid developing area. It is getting famous and is being admired by all the tourists all around the world. Eco travel is designing a dependable holiday to the places...
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Custom Itinerary: Volunteering Vacation with Older Teens
Q: Andy L. of Conneticuit has decided that it's high time his kids learned something about the value of money. He's decided to take them on a volunteer trip so they can do some work with their...
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Tours Combine Adventure and Volunteering
If you enjoy adventure and helping others, and you're looking for ideas for your next vacation, then Adventure Center might have the answer for you. Adventure...
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Star Trekking: Wrestlemania Superstar John Cena Makes 200 Wishes for Kids
This weekend, WrestleMania XXVII, WWE’s annual pop culture extravaganza, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation will host 30 kids with life-threatening medical conditions. WWE...
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Star Trekking: Miley Cyrus in Haiti Lending a Hand
Hannah Montana Disney star, Miley Cyrus, hopped a plane to Haiti last week to do some good for the Caribbean island nation. Haiti suffered horrendous damage...
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Student Volunteer Programs in Cambodia
Journeys Within, a boutique tour company that specializes in philanthropic travel to Southeast Asia, recently announced their Student Experience Tours for 2011. These unique student...
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Mission Holidays Blog Serves Increasing Number of Volunteer Vacations
Media Only. August 31, 2010. An increase in the number of community service trips and charitable vacations undertaken by young travelers prompts FTF to launch a blog on the topic.Every year,...
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Immersion into the Mountains of Antigua, Guatemala
As I continue my pursuit toward a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, I often find myself tempted to try and pinpoint the source of my desire to help others in times of psychological crisis. While...
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Medicine, Philanthropy, Perseverance, and Beauty
Traveling is exciting, regardless of where you're destined. And doing it solo is even better. Lost in the clouds, disconnected from the mayhem on the ground,...
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Authentic Chai With You
I have found nothing quite like the richness of the gravy-air in the land of spices. You could blindfold me and put me on an India-bound airplane without telling me where on earth I was going, and once...
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Iterations of Equality
Parvati stood out from all the other women in her village. She could read and write. She was confident and charismatic. She looked men in the eyes when she spoke to them. She spoke to them. And when...
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Exploring a new continent in exchange for helping some fragile infants and toddlers
In the summer of 2007 I was offered the opportunity to...
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Star-Trekking: John Travolta Flies Doctors and Medical Supplies to Haiti
On Monday, January 25th, in continuing efforts to send aid to Haiti, a nighttime flight piloted by John Travolta took off from Tampa, Florida carrying 50 doctors and over 7,000 pounds of...
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