Family Vacation Compendium — As at 4 December 2012

There are few ideas I have that I don’t see in print somewhere. But I’ve tried hard looking for a book about upscale family vacations, and I haven’t found any. Here, based on my experience so far, is a list of highly recommended family holidays with a few remarks about each. Elsewhere in Global Thoughts, you can find the more detailed notes. Perhaps in another 10 years or so, I will have enough material for a book, but remember also that our needs keep changing as our kids grow. First we cared about where you could go with a stroller, then we wanted wading pools, now we will probably be thinking about evening activities for the kids. So it is hard to compare the merits of one place against another as our experiences change through the years. But here’s an idea.

Switzerland/France – St. Moritz, Chocolate Train, Geneva, Evian – 2 weeks in a semi-circle around Lake Geneva. Montreaux (Fairmont Palace hotel) is a good starting point for a day-long Chocolate Train excursion; Geneva is a nice city. La Reserve has grounds and play areas and offers boat rides into the city. Royal Parc Evian is a great resort and the ferry to Lausanne and the Thun market are good day trips.

Austria – Salzburg, Vienna, Lake Fuschl and Durnstein. Salzburg’s Schloss Monchstein is a good hideaway overlooking the city; Salzburg is a nice city with activities and a good science museum. Get chocolate ice cream at Furst. Schloss Fuschl is 30 minutes drive away and is a good base for several days worth of activities along the lake such as nice parks, cog railway. The salt mines and the alpine slide near the German border is good fun. Vienna offers a nice city break. We went to Palace Coburg but I’d go instead to the Bristol which is more centrally located and better with kids. Demel Café is fun, there are good toy stores and the music museum. Nearby Schloss Durnstein is nice wine country and we got lucky with a castle an hour from there with a big fair at the end of August.

Germany – Baden Baden, Berlin, Elmau. Brenners at Baden Baden is an oasis in a park in a beautiful resort town; nice day trips to Barefoot Forest, alpine slide and glacier lakes in the Black Forest, and the Faberge Museum in town was popular with the kids. Berlin is a good city with Loxx miniature world, Lego Land, Sea Life Aquarium and the Dome of the Reichstag. Elmau is 2 hours drive south of Munich and is in the heart of the German Alps in Bavaria. Schloss Elmau has great food, children’s programs, cultural and sport activities, a family spa, good day trips to the Zugspitze mountain and glacier and Nueschswanstein Castle with a gorgeous ride along the Austrian border getting there and back.

California – LA/San Diego/Yosemite/Napa – LA’s Beverly Hills Hotels bungalows are a great oasis. San Diego Del Coronado is outside the city center but a nice place to be and it has the beach and city attractions such as Bilboa park and Old Mexico. Ahwanee in Yosemite is best of show and feels like you went somewhere. Carneros Inn in Napa had good pool and surprisingly enough activities in the area to keep us busy. Carneros rooms feel a bit like trailers; we are going to try MeadowWood, San Franciso and Santa Barbara this coming summer with the overnight train with family compartment from Portland, Oregon.

Hawaii – Halekulani in Waikeke is a good choice for location and a lovely setting. Hula dancing at sunset looking at Diamond Head in the distance is just signature Hawaii. We found lots to see on the island such as Dole Plantation and the Polynesian Cultural Experience. Our next visit will be at year-end to the Big Island of Hawaii and the Mauna Kea Resort which is a Rockefeller property which has been restored there as a resort.

Canada – Langdon Hall near Toronto is not a bad place for a day or two. Toronto Harborfront is a good place to be. Quebec is nice in the old city; we liked the Auberge St. Antoine hotel in the lower part of the old city as an alternative to the more circus-like Chateau Frontenac. Charlevoix region is a pretty area and La Pinsionniere is a good overnight place. Niagara Falls, Canada is good attraction with a few days worth of things to do nearby; Ontario Safari is a great attraction halfway between Niagara Falls and Toronto. Fly to Buffalo to get to Niagara.  Halifax might be good with the kids; I haven’t been there with them yet, only just by myself and with Karen.

New England – Mount Washington, New Hampshire is an iconic resort. We were there at beginning of June and that was a month too early. You really only want to be there July and August. Bar Harbor Maine is a pretty town close to Accadia National Park which was a great day out. Had a 2 bedroom apartment at the Blue Nose Inn which was near town. In Vermont, the Equinox is a pretty good resort 90 minutes drive from Albany, NY. Nearby Bromley Mountain offered a fun day. Stowe Mountain Lodge at Stowe an hour from Burlington VT is a great place to stay with lots of fun things for kids to do on the property near the mountain and nearby Ben & Jerry’s offers a factory tour. We once went to Boston with our kids when they were small and found it a bother.

New York – Sagamore near Lake George is a resort but we found it boring and not worth the 4 hour drive from the city. The Mohonk Lodge is half the distance and we love it and have returned several times. Book ahead for the summer weekends because people book a year ahead before they check out. They have drop off camp, nice activities day and night, great food and we love the cookouts during the summers. There is a spa, indoor pool, horse carriage rides, lovely grounds with gardens, a maze and hiking trails, and views over a lake. Long Island – we tried Southampton and it is a pain to get on a Friday with the train but it is a nice town with a nice beach. Our hotel was very average but I couldn’t find a better one.

Mid Atlantic – Cape May New Jersey was an OK overnight but not much to do there and a long drive just to get to a beach (close to 3 hours from NY). Crystal Springs NJ is a decent overnight stay 90 minutes drive from the City with pools and something feeling sorta of mountainous in a condo with a water park nearby. Skytop in Pennsylvania is a very good resort, a runnerup to Mohonk – good activities and food and you can hike half a mile to a waterfall. Saturday nights are a hoot with the Elimination Game and the March around the hotel. You gotta do this at least once with your kids before they get too old and jaded to do this hokey thing. Problem here is that it gets full of mosquitos when it gets too hot. Philadelphia has its historical district and the Hyatt near the water is probably in better shape than the Sheraton which was kinda dumpy. From Philadelphia you can go to the Franklin Institute, the Please Touch children’s museum and to Sesame Place about 20 minutes from the Trenton NJ train station. Washington DC – the Mandarin Oriental is within walking distance to the museums on the Mall. In Virginia, Keswick Hall in Charlottesville is good food, nice scenery and you can do some activities nearby such as Jefferson’s House. Really pretty in October. The Greenbrier is a full service resort 90 minutes drive from Roanoke. But you get nickeled and dimed here; evening entertainment is spotty, and you could go to the Mohonk and do so much better without getting on a plane. It’s a shame that they have virtually stopped the nonstop air service from Roanoke to NYC. We hope to try the Homestead in Hot Springs, VA in February where we are told that they have a good ski school and we hope the kids can try skiing without having to be in 20 degree weather to do it. In Asheville, the Grove Park Inn is a favorite. Lots of things to do in the area but the food at the hotel is fair. There are nonstop flights into Asheville from NYC so that is a plus. The big band dance weekend in January was a highlight and we took the kids to a tea dance and they loved it too. We’d go again. Nearby Blackberry Farm near Knoxville, Tennessee was a beautiful property that Karen and I are trying to decide if we should share with the kids. The summer camp program looked really good; the best times to be there with kids is May and June before it gets too hot. Charleston, South Carolina is also a nice city with several nearby attractions. Skip nearby Kiawah Island resort; we were off-put by always being told that any table or spa appointment we wanted was unavailable and having to push managers to make things happen; we also thought there was nothing really there.

Florida – Disneyworld and Orlando – Sad to say that Disney World manages to create the highlights of my kids’ lives. When I asked them what was their favorite memory of the year, it comes down to Test Track at Epcot for Jeremy and running around at night in the Magic Kingdom with Dad for Elizabeth. And nobody does New Year’s Eve fireworks like Disney – I’ve seen the Sydney fireworks and Macy’s Fourth of July in NYC so I can compare. The Grand Floridian is the place to be if you want a full resort one stop away from the parks. The food was not as awful as I had expected. Orlando has other attractions such as Sea World and some good restaurants; you could skip Disney and have a nice time there for a few days. We went to Amelia Island near Jacksonville and were there in mid-winter and sat on the beach with coats on when it wasn’t raining. We visited Marco Island on the west coast with an infant daughter which was fine as far as it goes. Our favorite on the west coast is the Tradewinds on St. Petersburg beach near Tampa. They have all you would want for kids – trampolines, water slides, beach, pools, good food, minigolf, kids camp, a big supermarket across the street, a few attractions nearby, all at a very good price. And Tampa is great for holiday weekends because it’s not an expensive city to fly into. We have been there twice now; once just now for Thanksgiving and 3 years ago over Christmas. In Palm Beach, the Breakers was a big disappointment for us. It is a huge place and we didn’t like having to walk close to 10 minutes just to get to the pool and the rooms are small. The food and beverage was not great and we ate off property a lot. It’s a real busy take a number kinda place, even if you are staying on the club floor. But it does have a nice kids playground which is good if you go shopping there and need to keep the kids busy for a while. The Ritz Carlton is almost half an hour south along the beach but it is a good resort for families and we definitely liked it better than the Four Seasons which we looked at and thought was pretty cold. In Key West, the Sunset Key Cottages are reached by ferry boat a few miles from the Casa Marina and Mallory Square, which is fun at night. There is limited food on the island but the cottages are quite nice and it is a very relaxing place to be with its own zero entry pool. But if it is cold or rainy outside, you’re in deep doo-doo. Key West proper is pretty honky-tonk and after you’ve been there once or twice you’ve had it. They are just now starting some nonstop flights into Key West from NY; but for the price you have to pay to stay there, the Ocean Club in Nassau is a better resort for your money. You definitely don’t want to drive to Miami to catch a connecting flight – it’s just too far and bridges get delayed; use the Key West airport….In Miami, the Acqualina was a very good resort which we enjoyed even though it rained for 3 straight days we were there and we never saw the sun. We actually went in the pool in the rain – hell, we were paying for it! The Fontainbleau in Miami Beach is awful; service and food sucks and it is just too cool for us with or without kids. Fisher Island is a nice resort reached by ferry boat off South Beach but it only works if your kids know how to swim and are old enough to be trusted not to jump into a canal because too many of the food and beverage outlets are located near places where you can fall into Biscayne Bay quite easily with a kid. There are no guard rails. We like the place though – you get your own golf cart to go around and the grounds are beautiful. You can visit the birds, go to a great spa, the food outlets are good, the beach is quiet, there are great playgrounds, and it is very relaxing away from everything. For the price you get a great condo. If you have to fly to Miami, just avoid American Airlines and the rest of the airport isn’t bad at all.

Caribbean Region – Bermuda has a lot of activities that come on line as your kids grow but shopping ain’t what it used to be now that Marks and Spencer scaled back and Iana (lovely children’s wear) closed. Lots of hotels there either don’t want children or are dangerous if you let your kids out of your sight because they are built along cliffs without safety rails. The Fairmont Southampton was good in this respect but you’d be really upset if it were cold and rainy, which is a good bet in February. The indoor pool is only for the spa during the day. There are several good restaurants around the island and it is relaxing to be there; I enjoyed the villa we had at the Reefs but we were told we could only stay there one time because it was being sold as a timeshare; the hotel rooms we saw were not nearly as interesting to us. Nassau is an island with absolutely nothing going for it except that the Ocean Club is a great resort with good food, a drop off kids camp, zero entry pool, good service, spa and lovely surroundings. It is also a mile from Atlantis and they will drive you there and you are allowed on the property – so you can go there for a day of water park fun and play with the Dolphins or eat at their buffet or whatever and then escape the hullabaloo back to your own hotel sanctuary. You are not going to relax at Atlantis and everyone I know who goes there and stays in the cheap hotels winds up being miserable. At the Ocean Club, you might hardly ever see another person and you have nothing between your room and the ocean except some grass and a hammock. It is one of my favorites overall. In Puerto Rico, we’ve been to the El Conquistador and it is huge and crowded and food was awful. We would not go there again. The new Westin about 45 minutes from the airport did not impress me as being worth the trip. Little Dix Bay in Virgin Gorda, British West Indies, is a beautiful resort but there is nothing to do outside the resort and it is really hard to get back home from there. You have to take a boat to the airport and sit at the airport for 90 minutes waiting to fly to San Juan, then fly from San Juan to wherever you are going. If you are going to put yourself through this, then you might as well go to St. Barts. Then you are flying to St. Maarten and another 10 minutes flying with connections every 15 -20 minutes to get right on the island, where it is very safe no matter where you go, the food is good and it is all very nice for the kids and you are now on French territory. We were going to check out the Guanahani and the Le Toiny this February but have decided that the kids are not ready for St. Barts this year; we will go back to Nassau.

Israel – Frankly, I don’t need to go to Israel to eat a good meal. For most of the people we know who are strictly kosher, the big attraction of going to Israel is that you can go around eating and noshing all day long and whatever you want is kosher. Not necessarily that good, but good enough. As a tourist resort, Israel is overpriced and sometimes ridiculous. The hotels that have lounges won’t let kids in. If you want to let kids stay in your room, they want to be paid a lot more or insist that you take a separate room. A country full of wise-asses and kids who are not well housebroken and of tourists from the US who travel nowhere else but to Israel trying to get everything for the lowest possible dollar have driven the hotels to be this way. It adds up to a very disturbing travel destination with kids. A lot of Israel’s attractions are not suitable for small kids and the country doesn’t have a lot of safety features for small kids. Frankly, I don’t see it as a place for a lot of repeat visits – Tel Aviv is really not kid friendly and there are no parks but if you are going there the Carlton is a good boutique hotel with a good location and it is easy to get in and out of there. There is a nice family suite on the club level. Kibbutz Kfar Blum in the northern galilee is a lovely pastoral place for a family to chill out and a good base for various day trips in the Galilee such as dairy tours, Manara Mountain, a ropes course, and walks along the Jordan River. In Jerusalem, the King David is by far the best of the bunch with beautiful gardens, good food, warm service and atmosphere and nice old city views. Some good day trip activities within a hour of Jerusalem for kids (but you must arrange this in advance) are Eretz Beraishit (Genesis attraction with camel ride and story of Abraham) and Dig for A Day (3 hour archeological dig experience). We haven’t tried the Dead Sea with kids and we haven’t tried Eilat either, although both might be good with kids. We really don’t need to go to Israel to go to Eilat which is a Red Sea resort 40 minutes flying time from Tel Aviv bordering Egypt. I am awaiting the new Ritz Carlton Hotel in Herzliya due to open this year which I hope will bring a new level of service to the Tel Aviv area and which I hope to try in September when we are scheduled to go there with my parents for a visit timed to the fall Jewish holiday cycle.

Australia / New Zealand – Sydney is actually fun with day trips nearby to the Blue Mountains (Lillianfels hotel), kangaroo parks, and the Lindt chocolate shop and eatery at Darling Harbor is quite good. You can do rather well staying at Bondi Junction in the Meriton that offers furnished apartments. From Bondi, you can get downtown in 7 minutes on a train or in 15 minutes on an express bus. In downtown, the Four Seasons is not bad at all, and I am trying out the Shangri La this December. The Park Hyatt is not worth the premium they are charging just to be 2 blocks closer to a view of the Opera House. You can get great views from plenty of other hotels such as a corner view room at the Four Seasons. A stopover in Auckland is pleasant and the Langham was very good there; we had tried to go to a bed and breakfast nearby but it didn’t work out at all. If you are going to stop over in Auckland, stay in the city. Hawaii is also a very good stopover. California is less good for this but we are going to spend a day at Disney’s California Adventure (with a special section of the park dedicated to the Cars) on the way over to Australia next month and we’ll see how it goes.

Rome – A great stopover on the way to or from Israel or other points beyond. My kids had a tour with a guide of the Coliseum, they took pictures with people dressed up as gladiators, we went to the top of the Piazza Venezia, ate at local gelateria and cafes, and visited the Trevia Fountain, all in a day. The Grand Hotel Minerva is a good priced hotel with a junior suite that is like a suite, and the location is in the Piazza Minerva right by the Pantheon where it is easy to walk around and there are plenty of good gelato places and restaurants nearby – you have to look at my detailed notes in Global Thoughts if you are interested in this. There is excellent shopping from the Rinascente, stores along Via Nazionale and there are some good specialty children clothing stores right by the hotel.

London and Paris – We were there with Elizabeth when she was a year old. We haven’t attempted yet to go there with the kids. We think we want to wait a while for this to happen. I know both cities well, and don’t want to just go to Paris to ride the carousels in the Tuileries Gardens or to constantly worry that my kid in London will get run over when I have looked right instead of left while crossing the street. We know they are not interested in museums and after you put this stuff aside, the question remains why would you take 5 year old kids to these cities?

Generally, we try to avoid cities. If we go away for 2 weeks and we are going to two resorts, then we stick a city in the middle to break things up. Such as Geneva between Montreaux and Evian or Berlin between Baden Baden and Elmau, Germany, or Vienna and Salzburg between Lake Fuschl and Durnstein, Austria. But otherwise, we tend to find that cities are a pain with kids.  What works best is a full service resort with good food, availability of babysitters every evening, kids programs preferably with a drop off camp (where you don’t have to commit to a certain number of hours and pay them by the hour); spas really don’t matter much when you are having to deal all day long with your kids although having a kiddie spa like they had at Schloss Elmau was a great concept; and it is very good if you can get somewhere in one flight and be within 2 hours of an airport. I really don’t want to drive in a foreign country apart from Canada, and in most countries the only real way to get around is a car meaning a taxi.

Not to sound like a spoiled brat, but let’s be honest. It is a lot of work to travel with kids and most people hate it. With good reason. But money can help alleviate the pain. Get two connecting rooms instead of trying to fit into one room. Get a babysitter every night so that you can buy a few hours of freedom when the kids really are tired and want to go to bed anyway, and why would you want them sitting at your table while you are trying to eat a salad and they are not going to let you enjoy it. And pick places and activities that kids are going to enjoy. If they are not going to have a good time, neither will you. If you want to go to Paris, then go alone with your wife. That’s what I did with Karen 2 years ago. But when we went to Vienna with the kids, we saw the Strauss concert at night and during the day did stuff the kids enjoyed such as toy stores, the Music Museum and rode the tram. You have to pace it – the first 2-3 days of a trip to Europe you are not going to be able to do very much unless you push a stroller around if you have small kids. Don’t try to get off the plane and start running around with them. Good hotels have kiddie menus and we all know what kids want to eat. A good breakfast is a good way to start the day even if you mind the cost of breakfast buffets. In short – program well, remember your audience and don’t cut corners, and you too can have fun with your kids on vacations. Or at least feel that it is a worthwhile endeavor. When I come home from a 2 week family vacation, I’m pretty bush-wacked and I need a vacation from my vacation. But then I see that my kids really absorb what they experienced and are better for it, and we have memories and pictures that go up on the wall, and that this just doesn’t happen at home. And some of us want to be inspired and put in a different mindset by being exposed to beautiful scenery and being somewhere completely different. I don’t only want my kids to be entertained; I also want to be somewhere that is interesting to me, and that makes me feel good. That is not going to be at Disney World or Atlantis, or at a Beaches or Sandals Resort. I don’t know that we want to be on a cruise. But so far getting on a plane and going somewhere interesting and staying at a nice resort is a good way to get the ball rolling on a nice family vacation. I hope that this compendium inspires you and I look forward to the years ahead where even more interesting options are developed as the kids grow.

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