I really liked St. Augustine, Florida. It’s a city that predates both Jamestown and Plymouth. Its lesser know history, outdoor activities and great local food blend very nicely to create a fun family destination that’s about more than just the beach. Consider a typical vacation day: In the morning you …

Hershey, Pennsylvania is a no brainer for an easy summer weekend getaway with kids if you live anywhere between Washington, DC and Connecticut. What you might not realize is that if you take into account the many things there are to do in Hershey, Harrisburg and Lancaster—plus a detour over …

Despite its reputation for chilly air and gloomy weather, Great Britain is an island. It has a lot of coastline and a plethora of towns for seaside weekend getaways. Some of them even offer the promise of bright sunshine yearround. If you need some fresh air and want to let …

Hotel Review: Nemacolin Woodlands Resort for Families & Couples Where: Farmington, PA The Vibe: *Nemacolin Woodlands, a luxury resort  in Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands, doesn’t have a single vibe. The type of vacation you have depends on where you stay—one of three hotels or on-property vacation homes—who you’re traveling with and …

Living in Colorado, our family enjoys spending weekend ski vacations, but driving to the ski resorts can mean battling traffic, weather and pretty precarious winter roads at times. So I was excited to discover The *Winter Park Express ski train from Denver to Winter Park Resort. My husband and I …

It’s a challenge for a city or region to develop a new tourist zone from the ground up. It’s even more unusual to develop one that is interesting enough to be a destination all by itself. But Maryland has done exactly that with the *National Harbor, a great base for …

The Hotel: Woodloch Pines Resort Where: Hawley, Eastern Pennsylvania The Location: *Woodloch Pines is an all-inclusive resort that sits on the rural edge of the Poconos.  Rather than one large hotel, the resort has a series of small buildings and cabins that dot a woodsy campus on the shore of a picture-perfect …

Updated August 2020 Fall is a great time of year to for quick weekend getaways. It’s cool, but not cold, places tend to be less crowded. In many parts of the U.S. the fall foliage is the main attraction. But even the brightest red maple leaves will only interest kids …

Updated June 2020 On previous, childfree trips to Newport, Rhode Island, we grooved in the hot sun at the famous Folk Festival, kayaked Narragansett Bay, slurped raw clams and drank a lot of beer. These activities weren’t likely to go over well with Tiny Traveler, age 4.5, so I wondered …

Dutchess County is a no brainer for a family weekend getaway. It’s a quick two hour drive from New York City and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, so with a reasonably early start you can make the most of your short vacation. And with a wealth of attractions from …

Updated March 2020. Zoos are one of the most reliable crowd-pleasers of family travel. Adults like them. Kids like them. Both toddlers and teens can learn something new and find something to enjoy. And it seems that these days there is immense variety in how zoos organize and present their …

We visited Legoland outside of San Diego in the fall, satisfying my long-held curiosity about it. The park was about what I expected: Enjoyable but made for bigger Lego fans than we are. But we were really surprised by how much of a blast we had at the Legoland Hotel. …

Read about side trips from U.S. national parks. Who says kids can’t spend some time learning new things over the summer?  Weekend visits to these historical places can make history more real, colorful and relatable than the textbooks they’ve been reading all year. They probably won’t even mind that they’re learning—though we’ve …

The forecast was rain but we decided to risk it: a 24-hour jaunt to Pittsburgh to catch part of a three-game series between the Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals. Of course, as soon as we hit the Steel City limits, a deluge of rain hit us. We pulled into …

Thanks to SeaWorld and a renowned Zoo, San Diego is a rather obvious kid-friendly destination. But this west coast city offers a lot more than pandas and Shamu’s latest tricks, and lesser known attractions can make for a mellow family vacation. Here are my favorite things to do in San …