About

Who are we?  We are a family of four who want to dispel the commonly held belief that once you have children, you are doomed to years of travel that only involves theme parks and water rides.  Children can enjoy travel to far-flung destinations that offer exotic and novel adventures.  We love the excitement that builds in the days and months before embarking on a new travel destination and it is that spirit of adventure we are attempting to cultivate in our children.

We see travel not as a frivolous luxury, but rather as an enriching and necessary investment in ourselves and our children.  If nothing else, we want our children to see the world from an early age so they become world citizens who grow to appreciate diverse cultures and experiences.

But reality bites and we are not trust-fund travelers.  We are budget conscious travelers who both work full time and we are always on the look out for good deals.  This is not to say that we do not splurge from time to time, we just try to find a balance between luxury and budget trips.  In our years of travel together we have stayed in elegant 5-star establishments as well as low budget hostels.  One of my favorite stories is how on our honeymoon in South Africa we stayed in 5-star hotel (which we got discounted through Luxury Link), but arrived at the hotel on budget bus filled back-packers headed to a hostel (we got some strange and envious looks from those guys).

We hope in some small way our blog will inspire other families to travel.  Perhaps our descriptions and pictures will be the needed proof for some that it is fun to travel with children.  So what if your child may has a meltdown from time-to-time on vacation, that is no excuse not to travel!  It happens to everyone, regardless of where you are (even if you stay at home 24×7) and you can deal with it.  What is far worse is never even trying to go somewhere off the beaten path for fear your children might revolt.  Embrace the challenge!

Vacations are an incredible opportunity to spend quality time with your kids without the typical distractions and stresses of everyday life. Traveling is also a great way to expose your children to new people and experiences.

We have two boys – Finnegan (4.5 years old) and Declan (2.5 years old). Both had their passport pictures taken when they were about 6 weeks old, and we’ve tried to put them to good use. Finnegan has been to Thailand, Cambodia, Canada (Banff, Jasper, and Montreal) and both have been to Costa Rica, Jamaica, Ireland, Turks & Caicos, Honduras and Puerto Rico as well as some amazing places in the continental US like the Redwoods and Crater Lake National Park.

Photo by Adia Photography

Besides being travel lovers, we’re also huge animal lovers. Before our kids were born, we fostered for an all-breed dog rescue group, which was incredibly rewarding. In October 2012, we adopted an adorable shar pei puppy named Rosalita who will make an appearance now and then when we travel road trip style. She stayed at her first hotel recently and it was a resounding success so we’re looking forward to taking more trips with her.

If you have any questions, just ask. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy our ramblings.