Nobody warns you that the hardest part of planning a Napa Valley family vacation isn’t the itinerary. It’s convincing yourself that you’re allowed to bring the kids. I have stood in that exact hesitation, scrolling through photo after photo of couples clinking glasses on a terrace, wondering if a place this polished has any room […]

Here’s the question every parent asks me before they’ve even booked the flights: Can one island really work for a toddler who naps at noon and a teenager who wants a real adventure story to bring home? After planning enough Kauai trips to lose count, I can tell you the answer is yes, but only […]

Somebody is going to cry before you cross the Oregon border, and it probably will not be the kids. That is the truth nobody tells you about a family getaway on this coast of the United States. The tears usually belong to the parent who packed too much into one day and forgot to breathe. […]

Nobody tells you that the hardest part of planning a trip to New Zealand is not the flight. It is choosing which version of the country your family gets to see. That is the real work behind a good New Zealand family vacation itinerary. And it is exactly what I want to walk you through […]

One turtle in the Galapagos moves so slowly you could read half a chapter waiting for it to cross a path.  Another sea turtle will make you forget how to breathe, as it glides past close enough that your child can reach out and brush its shell. That second turtle is the reason families fly […]

The waves were already crashing over the rocks by the time a family realized their mistake. They had pulled up to a North Shore beach in December, beach chairs and floaties in hand. They were expecting the same calm water they had seen in a photo online. Instead, they found lifeguards waving people back from […]

I was standing on a dock so small it barely had a name. I watched the gangway lower into a town that did not exist on the brochure map folded in my bag. That is the moment I want for you. That is what river cruise hidden gems actually feel like. Not a bullet point […]

You will not see both islands the way you picture them in your head, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner this trip stops feeling impossible. North Island vs South Island is the question every family asks me before they ask anything else about New Zealand. It’s usually somewhere around the third browser tab, […]

The trip that changes your family forever does not happen by accident. And a family vacation in China is exactly that kind of trip. It is the one where your mother reaches out and steadies herself against a stone wall that has stood for two thousand years. Where your daughter stops mid-step on a cobblestone […]

The sunken cities you can visit with your family are some of the most extraordinary places on earth. And most parents have no idea they even exist. While other families are retracing the same theme park loops for the third summer in a row, a small number of extraordinarily curious families are slipping beneath the […]