Something to Look Forward to: Hotel Xcaret Mexico
Edutainment may be a tough concept to sell, yet all parents and grandparents want more from a family beach vacation than a suntan and a bunch of bills. Enter Experiencias Xcaret -- a family owned Mexican company which has successfully run innovative, environmentally-oriented amusement parks for 30 years. Begun with architect Miguel...
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Mi Casa, Su Casa: Home Exchanges
What's the best money-saving and culturally educational accommodations option available to travelers today? Well, I'm not planning a trip to the French Caribbean right now, but the idea of a complimentary four-bedroom home with a pool on the island of Guadeloupe might make me reconsider. A week or two in Paris isn't really in the works either, but when I read the description of the luxurious houseboat...
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What the Experts Forecast for Summer 2017 Travel
Summer travel is looking up, say the prognosticators at the 9th annual Leisure Travel Summit sponsored by Best Western Hotels. Each May, the Summit of travel industry experts follows the AAA Memorial Day Travel forecast to give those within the travel industry a pretty good idea of how business will be for the next few months. Here is some news from the panelists and other industry...
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Family Destination News from IPW
For Family Travel Forum, the IPW travel convention which brought together 6,300 buyers, sellers and media covering international travel to the United States, was an opportunity to understand the facts behind the #travelban Internet meme, learn how the Department of State might be changing its document...
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5 Reasons Families Favor Airbnb Vacations
Everyone looks forward to a family vacation, but planning for it, especially when there are so many new choices in transportation, lodging, reservations and more, can be overwhelming. After the decision about where to go is resolved, the next hurdle is where to stay. Factors to be considered usually include location, space, amenities and, often most important, the budget, which is where
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Secure Tourism Summit Reveals What’s Next in Airport Security
The first Secure Tourism Summit was held in New York City on April 9,2017. It was sponsored by the industry trade organization, US Travel Association and, while many of the topics discussed were directed to large organizations, a few concepts were quite apt for family travelers. Starting with the numbers, the United...
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The Travel #Ripoff – Legal Maybe, But Ethical?
This week, I found a $20.42 charge on my credit card bill from American Traffic Solution in Arizona. Wondering what in the world it was for, I called their phone operator and learned that on a recent Hertz car rental from the Palm Beach Airport, I was being charged a "convenience fee" of $4.95 per day for having a Florida Toll Tag on our rental car. When asked if that amount...
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Virtual Reality Getting Real for Travelers
Since the 1990 release of "Total Recall," the Paul Verhoeven film starring Arnold Schwarznegger as a man who buys a virtual vacation to Mars, the travel industry has been anticipating the commercial development of virtual reality (VR) technology. More than 20 years later, when Facebook announced the purchase of VR headset maker Oculus for $2 billion, everyone began saying VR would be the next big...
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Demanding? What Europeans Want From A Luxury Family Brand
The Martinhal Luxury Family Brand Event took place March 24, 2017 in a contemporary space at the Martinhal Cascais Lisbon resort, where floor-to-ceiling windows overlook a children’s play area. Martinhal Family Hotels & Resorts, a hotelier catering to that elusive “luxury family” market with four stylish properties in Portugal, invited...
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A Culinary Revolution in Colonial Virginia
There was a time not long ago when a family visit to Colonial Williamsburg meant living a, shall we say… dated lifestyle. Many parents, especially those with tweens and teens who bore easily, pushed off a visit to Virginia’s Historic Triangle until their empty nester years. That’s no longer necessary. Thanks to the surge in gastronomic tourism (71% of travelers...
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