Short Breaks And Weekend Getaways From Dallas Fort Worth
Many families from the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area enjoy spending their short breaks in Hill Country or along the south coast of Texas. Whether...
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Puerto Plata’s Cheap All-Inclusive Beach Getaways
Cheap all-inclusive resorts became really popular when the recession started to take its toll on the economy, so Family Travel Forum selected our award-winning
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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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Overnight At America’s Top Aquariums And Zoos
From coast to coast, special sleepovers at aquariums and zoos are available to travelers who book ahead. Interested in sleeping with the fishes or feeding reptiles after dark? Not only...
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Joie de Vivre On A Family River Cruise
On a CroisiEurope river cruise through Germany our family experienced the joie de vivre of France’s prized lifestyle, while learning about German history....
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Star Trekking: Thomas Stays at the Hilton
In this month's celebrity travel column, we stalk Thomas the Tank Engine, the friendly blue train engine that could, and has, captivated the imaginations of every preschooler...
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Radiohead at Dublin
About the most touristy thing to do in Ireland is visit a castle. Little did I know that most castle grounds double as concert venues. For Dublin, that place is
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The Sherry-Netherland Redefines Old School with Fresh Family Deals
Looking for a trendy Manhattan hotel with exposed brick, stainless steel furniture and live DJ music? The Sherry-Netherland on New York’s swanky 5th Avenue isn’t it -- and the hotel aims...
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Three generations travel to Paris
In spite of transportation strikes, demonstrations, threats of terrorism and flooding in the Seine, my June 2016 trip to Paris with my daughter, Nikki and eight-year-old grandson, Noah was great....
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Ahoy Matey! 10 Special Family-Friendly River Cruises
Cruise fans know that ships provide an effortless family vacation, a way to see the world without hauling suitcases or changing hotels. And while megaships accommodate adults and kids with a huge variety...
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Souvenir Shopping Savvy
Souvenir crazy? We are. With Americans spending $5 billion on souvenirs annually, we want to share shopping tips that should reduce your family’s chances of buying junk and maximize the odds of bringing...
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Free National Park Family Programs
Combining a road trip with a national park visit makes one of the top budget family vacations we know, especially when there are so many free children's activities. Thanks to federal...
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Shelby American Las Vegas – Experiencing the Legend
"I'm not an engineer or a designer but I think I know what people like." - Carroll Shelby I'm so inspired by the humility of a man who...
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Las Vegas, Nevada Hotels And Resorts
We've known for years that Las Vegas, America's #1 city of adult entertainment, had plenty to offer families but hotels didn't really want to welcome visitors under 21. While that's still true at the city's...
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How Oleleshwa and Kisaruni Changed My Life
On July 20, 2015, 17 American, Canadian, Ecuadorian, and Irish students departed from Washington DC with imaginations running wild over what they would experience in the Maasai Mara region in Kenya...
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Yaquina Head: A Journey Never to be Forgotten
The vast ocean lay in front of me, a massive blanket with no end in sight. Overhead, streaks of cirrus clouds graced the pale blue sky like the wings of an enormous Trumpeter Swan. Beneath my feet lay...
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A Rose in the Desert – Serenity in Damascus
Damascus, Syria, a city at the heart of a bloody war. A city that itself is a juxtaposition where life thrives only kilometers away from heavy conflict and war. After years of waiting, a turbulent flight...
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Leave No Trace
The Adirondack Mountains, located in Upstate New York, hold forty-six High Peaks above 3,790 feet. One of my favorite vacation activities is hiking some...
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Dragon Army’s Adventure Legacy : What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Our Memories for Ever
Nostalgia. Nostalgia. Nostalgia. I can still recall the crisp, rushing wind as it grazed my face from every angle. As we twisted and turned so rapidly, the darkness of the night was engulfed by the...
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Death on the Bridge of Life
Calm waters shift slowly on one side. Driven, velocious cars journey on the other. A living form of juxtaposition. I feel the shadows of those who marched on the Edmund Pettus Bridge beside me. Heads up,...
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Hope in the Midst of Despair
The building looked innocent enough from the street. With its greying stone, plain rectangular structure, and uniform windows, it looked like simply another old office building that you could walk past,...
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Italy: The Path of the Gods
The narrow, serpentine road hugs the hillside, rocks and vegetation to the left, a sheer drop to the Mediterranean to the right. We’re taking the Sita...
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Breakthrough
Bzzz! We were constantly swatting away persistent mosquitoes which craved our blood, dehydrated from the sweat pouring off our bodies, and sore from the backpacks that felt like a pack of elephants....
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The Way That Water Washes Over
If I had to pick one thing, for-sure, that I love most about Thailand, it would be the rain. Where I'm from (San Francisco, I tell everyone I meet, because it's close-by anyways and far more well-known),...
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Of Heat and Humanity
The heat slipped into Los Angeles, catching us unaware. Was that the inkling of a coming heat wave, or just a warm breeze? Were those clouds in the distance? Surely, the morning fog meant a mild day? By...
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Climbing to New Caledonia
The American flag waved above me as I paraded across stage with forty other Americans all wearing red white and blue. We were surrounded by the reds, whites, greens and yellows of twenty-six other flags...
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Setting Foot in a Nation of Faith and Resilience
A blank computer screen… This is the scholarship applicant’s dreaded nightmare, yet at the same time, the cherished dream of countless poverty-stricken Filipino sidewalk dwellers. Gratefully exchanging...
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A Final Night to ‘Never Forget’- The Journey Between Summer Camp and Auschwitz
My whole life revolved around summer camp. I would dream of climbing onto the bus and taking off for another summer spent lakeside with my best friends at Emma Kaufmann Camp. The school...
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Pompeii Dreams
Young and hopeful, I dreamed of seeing the places from my "Who Was" books and History Channel documentaries. I wrote stories of going to Egypt and discovering King Tut’s tomb for myself. I wished...
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Dance is the Universal Language
I stood center-stage in a colorful costume and stared out into the crowd eagerly filling the cobblestone square. Beyond, the Sudety mountains stood proudly before a glowing sunset. The music began,...
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New York Two Ways
The air is sharp, like the people who glance at our mini-man for but a second before discerning our place as outsiders looking into their world. The pale, yet colorful, cynical,...
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Pilatus: The Dragon’s Mountain
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND. 1421. It’s summer, when the snows have finally receded back into the fang-like peaks of Mount Pilatus. The small lakeside village rests peacefully...
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Fifteen Cent Priceless Glossy 4×6’s
I can still see myself standing in the middle of the Budget parking lot, basking in the scent of rental cars, trying to imprint the moment in my memory for the rest of my...
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An Evaluation of Public Transportation or, That One Time I Went to New England and Couldn’t Rent a Car
1. Airplane We arrived at the airport at approximately 4:15 the morning of November 11. My mother, my sister and I were taking a couple days to visit some colleges. We were flying into Laguardia that...
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Uprooted in Gold
It was that night by the gas station when I felt it. A liquid, a lightness, kind of like the golden air over my shoulder as I sat on the curb. For a moment it was stretched out soft, carrying me with...
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A Different Bird
I had been counting the days, then the hours during the plane ride. Finally I am in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, my home, the place I had been longing for the past year. And yet, back in the city, I feel...
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The Secret Behind the Twigs
When I looked at the island on the horizon, there wasn’t anything pretty to look at. After all, it was very small, like a child had stuck a small group of leafy branches into the middle of a puddle....
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One Ola at a Time
Waving goodbye to my chaperones and fellow exchange students, all of the excitement that had built inside me on the 12-hour plane ride to Costa Rica turned to dread as I realized that my classroom...
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An Unfortunate Day on the River
Skin blistering heat. River water moving as slow as an act of Congress. Disappointment after every turn from hope that we would soon reach the end. Our family’s much anticipated white water rafting...
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God Was Having A Good Day When He Made Alaska
Alaska is more a humbling experience than anything else. There’s something beautiful in every direction you look. My dad knew this when he planned our day in Juneau....
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Battling on the Courts: A Dallas Story
Red, white, and blue. Patriotic colors fly through the sky as we celebrate America’s independence. Scurrying out the door to enjoy the fireworks, the phone echoes through the empty house. Usually...
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Memories Are Amusing
I remembered serenity: crunchy, sweet and sour bowls of chaat in outside cafés, aimless walks down busy streets admiring lavish storefronts, gentle, white flowers, tumbling from trees above. Memories...
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The Boardwalk Where Footsteps Align
The way Coney Island is, you can never pinpoint how exactly it’s supposed to feel; it’s different every time. On the last day I visited it felt especially gritty, from the way the gray overcast...
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Looking Through The Conch
The soft whir of the air-conditioner permeates the small study room as I lay on a bamboo mat, staring up at our makeshift mosquito net with my sister breathing...
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More Than a Postcard
Contrary to popular belief, there is more to the Hawaiian Islands than what is portrayed on a postcard. I myself had been to Hawaii before, but at the time I too was mesmerized by the commercialized...
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The Universal Language: Ice Cream Cones and Crayola Crayons
My eyes grew sleepy as winding hills consumed my view, sloping gently into the background with no sign of relapse. I watched as sunflowers danced in the wind and wildflowers mingled haphazardly; the colors...
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The Big Blue
I have visited thousands of places, dozens of countries, lived through marvelous adventures, but nothing will ever compare the amazing experience I had in Polynesia. I was sixteen, I loved swimming...
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When in Rome (Or Assisi)
There are those vacations that leave you with fond memories, and there are those that leave you forever changed; my trip to Assisi was of the latter. After enduring a grueling five-hour layover, a turbulent...
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