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Category Archives: Family Travel Tips

Mid-Summer Sweltering Survival Tips

July 21, 2011

The dog days are seriously here – and if you are looking for ideas on how to survive – here’s a recap of some of the summer ideas covered here or links to other great DC bloggers who offer some fab tips. Call me a little lazy today because of all the link-love but it’s too hot to think. And hopefully there’s something for everyone below.

For some last minute summer travel tips & DC staycation ideas – here’s my interview with local DC Mom & Travel Expert
Wondering how to make your hair look less humid and insane? Check out Denise’s fabulous summer hair survival tips and note: her 25% off discount for the Express Blowout doesn’t expire until July 31 – so you still have time to schedule your appointment and have sleek celebrity looking hair (seriously, it is possible).
Looking for a day trip idea? Head to Dutch Wonderland – here’s my review.
Looking to stay inside? Grab the kids and head to Glen Echo Park to see Charlotte’s Web
Head to Wolf Trap Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods
Head over to fabulous DC site Our-Kids for a ton of great ideas on activities with kids, indoor activities and plenty of other great reviews
Check out 100 Things to Do in DC written by A Parent In Silver Spring – tons of great ideas!

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Dutch Wonderland: A Review

June 28, 2011

As part of my ongoing series devoted to summer survival, I offer you below my old review of Dutch Wonderland (you’ll see it’s a bit old with the Jon and Kate reference…remember those days?). Quick summary: if you haven’t been, it’s definitely a great day trip or weekend trip with the young ones.

When first hearing of Dutch Wonderland, I had trouble believing it was a family amusement park instead of an, ahem, adult film. With a name like that, how is a gal not supposed to think it’s not a XXX peep show starring Dutch women? As it turns out, Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park built entirely for young children, including those as young as 1.5 or 2, nestled in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. Being an organized and thorough gal (0bviously with a mind in the gutter), in prep for the trip, I quizzed everyone I knew that had already visited DW, thoroughly read the extensive DW web site and finally, I recorded the Jon & Kate episode where they spend the day at the amusement park. This show taped back when they were still feigning marital stability. I needed a visual of the site to make sure it wasn’t a dump.

Located just 2 hours from my house in Silver Spring (without traffic, 3.5 hours with traffic), Dutch Wonderland is a veritable preschooler oasis. Now, let’s be clear, today’s review has two parts: one part review of my kid, one part review of the amusement park. Unfortunately, the place earned the higher grade than my beloved 3 year old.

We spent the day at DW on a Friday in late July. Our rationale for not going on a weekend: it’s tough enough to keep a preschooler’s interest in general – how would we keep her interested while waiting in long lines for rides? Truthfully I have no idea if the lines are long and painful on a summer weekend but given its proximity to DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia – even just a few hours from New York City – it would be hard to imagine the lines aren’t painful on the weekends.

On the particular Friday we visited, the lines were really nothing to speak of. The park itself is beautifully landscaped and very clean. Even the bathrooms were clean and well stocked (and I am a huge bathroom snob). The park has a wide variety of rides depending on what appeals to your precious cherub but all the rides are age appropriate for young ones, including the roller coaster. In addition to a variety of rides, the park offers shows at scheduled times throughout the day, which are all posted on the DW web site. These shows are the perfect time to give your child some down time or escape from the heat or afternoon summer shower. We took in the Country Bears show under a shady tree and the Thomas the Train show under a big tent during a torrential down pour. If we’d had more time, we would have hit even more of the shows.

As it turned out, our daughter woke up on the wrong side of the bed on the day we visited DW and after several hours, rides, great shows, lunch and an ice cream treat, we were still shoving a good time down her throat. One questions every ounce of their being when they are spending $90 for 3 people to have fun, only to realize that it’s really not fun at all because of the unpredictable toddler mood. As a last ditch resort, we hit the water park side of DW, and her foul mood was washed away.

If only water parks instead of ice cream would lift my spirits.

The water park side of DW has several different areas of amusement depending on the age of your child and their comfort level with sprouting water. Don’t think I didn’t catch my husband having a water gun fight with some preteen boy and loving every minute of it. If I’d known this in advance, maybe I should have sent husband and daughter packing off to a water park closer to our home and just taken myself to the mall? Who knows, but the day turned for the better once we spent some time in the water park, and it became the enjoyable day I envisioned in my head prior to our arrival. Even our 8 month old would have had a great time in the DW water park.

Overall I’d highly recommend this as a day trip for families with younger kids. You’ll spend a wad of money as it costs $30 per person to enter the park, you cleverly have to exit through the gift shop, and there are food choices and brightly colored drinks, at every turn, each one a magnetic pull for the 3 year old who loves salt and sweets. That being said, it’s age appropriate, clean, beautifully landscaped, and a manageable distance for a day trip. Also, there are outlet stores conveniently located across the street from the amusement park.

One final note – make sure you read up on the rain policy – they give out free passes for readmission in the summer if it rains for more than an hour during your visit. We benefitted from lazy teens working the customer service area, as it was raining when we were about ready to leave, and they easily gave us the three free return passes though it hadn’t been raining for close to an hour.

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Summer Travel Tips…”Vacation with Kids”

June 22, 2011

As part of the Wired Momma series featuring local DC mom experts, today’s topic is travel, as we stare down the July 4th holiday. We all can agree that traveling with kids, especially young ones, rarely qualifies as vacation. Often I’ve thought of it as “vacation.” Usually I have an entire staging area that consumes most of my bedroom, as I plan and organize for weeks leading up to the trip (do I maybe have a problem?). Today’s expert is the lovely Elizabeth Thorp, founder of Bethesda-based Poshbrood and mom to three girls. She’s here to offer us some invaluable tips on surviving summer vacation and give us some great ideas where to go, or where to have a “staycation” right here in DC.

Eizabeth has traveled extensively with her brood and is a lifestyle and travel writer for Momlogic and Huffington Post among other publications. Her company, Proshbrood, evolved out of her own frustration with a lack of resources to find non-Disney vacations. Being so well-traveled, she was already armed with a large dossier of current hotel reviews and with the urging of many friends who relied on her advice and reviews before traveling with their broods, Thorp decided to start her own site. Ultimately, Thorp realized that the best family properties are recommended by other moms and the bulk of family travel is planned by moms, women who are already grossly short on time. Poshbrood’s site caters to the time limitations of busy moms, her site is intuitive, clearly broken down by type of destination you are seeking, and she doesn’t waste your time with unwanted ads or pop-ups.

What services do you provide for families?

We’ve found that people easily spend hours online searching for hotels, exotic destinations, and kid-friendly resorts. Our site offers Poshbrood-tested and approved reviews of hotels, resorts, and villas with the discerning eye of a mom who likes style and luxury, even with the tykes in tow. Our reviews are snarky, irreverent, funny and honest. Did a kid puke all over the lobby of the Four Seasons? If so, we’ll tell you what matters most to parents: how the hotel staff responds. We also have experts in other countries and can access insider tips on kid-friendly activities and hot new attractions. Additionally, Poshbrood recently partnered with SmartTravel , a New York City based travel agency. Not only can we book your travel arrangements for free, from wheels up to car seat and car rentals, we can also secure discounts, complimentary upgrades and other perks, like early check-in, the panacea of travel perks for those traveling with babies or toddlers on nap schedules.

What is a hot tip for a nice family vacation, departing from the DC area?

DC notables like Claire Shipman and David Gregory travel to Round Hill in Montego Bay, Jamaica, with their families. You can travel to Montego Bay direct from BWI on AirTran. And what people don’t realize is, luxury is accessible, just not always during peak season. The villas in Round Hill, during low-season (beginning April 15) are affordable. If you share a four-bedroom house with another family and you have a full kitchen, it’s an affordable, but still luxurious, vacation. And the best part, no matter how many kids you have in tow, you can hire a trustworthy nanny for $10 an hour to watch the kids and enjoy some adult time.

The economy is still dragging, gas prices are soaring, so for families who are looking to stay close to home, what are your top “staycation” tips for DC area families?

One resort that many people don’t think about is the Omni Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania. Located about two hours from DC, the resort is newly remodeled, surprisingly affordable, the food impeccable and the service is on par with the Homestead or Greenbrier. The other place that surprised

The Thorp Poshbrood at Hotel Hershey

and delighted us was the Hotel Hershey: the rooms have just been redone, the staff extremely friendly and the onsite activities plentiful. Even if the park is closed, there is so much to do. If you want a true “staycation” in DC, then I’d suggest booking a room in the kid-friendly Kimpton Hotels, either the Helix or the Palomar . The rates are reasonable, they offer a free wine and champagne hour every day, free coffee, and bunk-bed suites for kids complete with a curtained bedroom area to give the parents some privacy.

As a seasoned traveler with three girls, what are your top tips for traveling with kids?
First I’d say that kids are like horses, they can smell fear. If you are anxious going into the trip, they are going to feed off your anxiety. So relax and head into it prepared. Always pack a ton of snacks, especially because you never know when or if the airline will offer any snacks, and a hungry kid is a cranky kid.

Second, unless you are Amish, pack electronics for entertainment. And as I’ve learned the hard-way, don’t leave husbands in charge of AV because they are likely to forget to charge the electronic devices, and then everyone’s angry.

Third, don’t forget about trains. Kids love trains and we so easily overlook them as a traveling option. My family lives in the Chicago-area and we’ll take the overnight train to Chicago over Thanksgiving. We avoid crowds and bad weather, the train leaves Union Station at 4pm and arrives in Chicago at 8am the next day. It’s really a fun experience for the whole family.

Update from Monica:

Continuing with the “staycation” theme, I recently heard from the Lorien Hotel in Alexandria, another local Kimpton property, that they are offering a special “Kids Camp Out” special. The hotel will provide tents and sleeping bags and the kids can camp out on the hotel terraces while the parents can enjoy some time to themselves in their rooms. The hotel is offering a special kids camping room service menu, including hot dogs, popcorn, s’mores and more. Use the code PCAMP if booking this special.

And I also recently learned that the Omni Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania is offering a similar form of luxurious camping (which frankly is my idea of camping). Billed as the “Family Glamping Get-Away” and available through Labor Day, the deal is good for a family of four and includes two hours of activities like fishing, a S’mores kit, but still the comforts of a luxurious room to sleep in. Again…my idea of camping.

Thanks to Elizabeth for giving us some great tips and be sure to sign up for Poshbrood’s free weekly newsletter for tips on smart family travel from this local mom and expert.

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