Family Vacation Planning: Parenting Tips for Choosing the Right Hotel

I’m back from a weeklong, interesting, but not particularly relaxing vacation with the kids.

We ventured all the way out to San Francisco to visit my sister and her family. This was the first time that three of our children have made it out to the Bay Area, so of course, we tried to do a bit of sightseeing as well.

I have read all kinds of parenting tips about traveling with children. I have done it often enough that I could actually write a manual on family vacation planning. But theory and practice are always two different things. And no matter how much you try, you just can’t plan everything.

This vacation was clear across the country for us - and since we were combining visiting and sightseeing we decided to go for one week - Saturday to Saturday. I don’t usually like to take vacations that are longer than four or five days. It is just too long for our family. Eating out every day is expensive, not very nutritious and just like at home, it is hard to please everyone. One of our children has multiple food allergies and that makes it even more difficult.

Choose a Suite with Kitchenette Instead of a Standard Room
We took a step in the right direction by staying at a Marriott Residence Inn (they really rock!). In theory, the full kitchen and complimentary breakfast and weekday snack/happy hour should help with mealtime hassles.

In reality, the breakfast was fantastic and took care of one meal a day for us. And while the full kitchen was useful for reheating take out and late night snacks, we were out for most of the day. Without the proper utensils and spices/condiments and with no time to prepare meals - cooking was not a true option. Also, because we were out for most of the day, we never made it back to the hotel for the evening snack hour.

But all in all I would still go for a room with a kitchen or a kitchenette. We did save some money on breakfasts and snacks.

Choosing a Suite
Our family of six is a rather large crew. Generally we do not fit in one room when we travel. A two bedroom suite will often sleep six with two people in each bedroom and two on a sofa bed. Happily, I was able to snag a two bedroom suite on this trip. In theory, it would have been great.

The reality was that our suite was billed as a “penthouse” suite. Wow, penthouse sounded awesome - pretty luxurious, in fact. In actuality, the suite was called “penthouse” because it was a two level unit. The downstairs had one bedroom with a common sitting area (sofa bed) and kitchen. The upstairs was a loft that housed the second bed. This loft area was open to the floor below.

Thankfully, our children are old enough to respect the “power of the loft” and did not really pay much attention to the open to the floor below part. But a wiggly toddler, like my nephew, may just want to run upstairs, climb on the bed and hang over the edge while waving to mommy below. Not a good idea. Also, surprisingly, our entire unit was located on the second floor - with no handicapped access. Read, no stroller access either. Luckily, we are beyond the stroller phase as well.

One thing that the best of planning cannot eliminate are sibling squabbles. And even though each of the kids had a bed, they didn’t necessarily want to share it with a particular other sibling. So, many arguments erupted over who would sleep where. They just don’t tell you about this in Parenting 101. When we summon up the courage to tackle another family vacation (or when enough time passes that we forget about the bickering), I will make up a schedule before we leave home about who will sleep where. The younger kids each wanted to have a “sleepover” with mom and dad and to accommodate everyone, we needed the children to be a bit flexible about sleeping arrangements. We did not foresee this to be a problem. But it was.

Pool Required!
I found that a pool is still number one among parenting tips when planning a trip with kids, no matter what their ages. Our kids frolicked in the pool every night after a full day of visiting and sightseeing. Ask them about the best part of the vacation, and they will tell you it was the pool. No matter that we needn’t have traveled the length of the United States to go swimming.

Location, Location, Location
Our hotel was a bit off the beaten path so to speak. It was closer to my sister’s place but not near the sights. And driving everyday became a bit tedious (again, the sibling bickering). I don’t know if I would do it differently by splitting up the sightseeing portion of our trip and the visiting portion but it is something to consider.

And now, I have one cranky, jet lagged child demanding my attention. More nuggets of parenting advice from the trip to follow ….

Butterflies have arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History! Oh yes, there is a new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History called “Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution“.

Sure to be a crowd pleaser, the stars of this exhibit are fluttering around in a new Live Butterfly Pavilion. Home to 400 live butterflies this Pavilion features a warm, tropical climate, bright lighting, and lots of interesting plant life. Visitors will stroll amongst the jasmine, verbena, pentas, lantana, and other plant species while a beautiful and varied collection of butterflies from around the world fly amongst them to entertain and delight.

As enchanting as the Live Pavilion promises to be, the core of the Smithsonian’s butterfly exhibit lies in the education. Exploring the theory of co-evolution, the Butterflies + Plants exhibit includes an Exhibition Hall that explores how organisms interact with each other and how, over time (generations), each species changes because of those interactions.

You may be familiar with Charles Darwin’s prediction that a large moth existed in Madagascar, when he saw the Madagascar star orchid. This flower produces nectar at the base of long, narrow bloom. Darwin’s logic was that only a moth with a very long proboscis could reach the nectar at the bottom of the flower. Sure enough, many years later, the existance of a giant hawk moth species came to light. This is just one example of how plant life adapts to organisms and vice versa - classic co-evolution.

The Exhibition Hall looks at the relationship between butterflies and plants beginning in prehistoric times all the way through to modern day. Museum goers will be treated to an array of pictures, paintings, movies, and timelines that are dedicated to the co-evolution process. Through the Butterflies + Plants exhibit, the Smithsonian is teaching people to appreciate the world’s ecology. The mission is to stop extinction by giving people a new respect for all the life around them.

There is a charge for tickets to the Smithsonian Live Butterfly Pavilion and they can be purchased in advance. Admission to the Exhibition Hall is free. More information on purchasing tickets can be found at the Smithsonian Institution website.

Washington D.C. is a great place for a family vacation. Filled with opportunities to educate children about our wonderful nation - there is no shortage of things to do. Make sure to add a stop at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History to your itinerary. The Butterflies + Plants exhibit is one that you won’t want to miss!

A good set of travel packing tips is very useful to parents that are traveling with babies and young children. Once upon a time travel packing tips consisted of ticket - check, passport - check, something to read - check, ok - let’s go!

Once baby entered the scene, traveling became a lot more complicated. Between strollers, portable, cribs, diapers, baby food, toys, extra clothes, blankies, binkies - it’s a wonder that parents leave the house at all. I know I traveled as little as possible when my children were under 1 year old. It just wasn’t worth the effort and I usually returned from the trip more stressed out than when I left. So the best of my travel packing tips is - Just Stay Home!

But I know that many of you are more adventurous than I, and truth be told, I did end up leaving the house from time to time. Actually I have become quite adept at packing up a family of six - although traveling is still not my favorite thing to do.

But rather than rely on my travel packing tips expertise, I will point you over to Aruni’s excellent site - Entrepremusings, where she hosts a variety of Guest Baby Tips. If you recall, back in December I had the honor of guest posting my time honored parenting tip about keeping a baby food journal. This month Aruni’s Guest Baby Tip is authored by Maryam Ghaemmaghami Scoble, wife of Robert Scoble of Scobelizer fame.  Entitled “15 Tips for Traveling with Baby“, this month’s Guest Baby Tip outlines some great travel packing tips for parents to keep in mind. Covering everything from necessary baby equipment, to diapers and formula, to airport activities for children Maryam covers it all.

Now that winter break is upon some of us, with others planning vacations during the March spring break, these travel packing tips are very timely. If anything, these tips may just motivate me to leave the comforts of home and pursue some foreign adventure.

First, let me admit that I am a Honda girl. I LOVE my 6 year old Honda Odyssey and will not part with it until it can go no more. But the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country minivan is quite tempting.

Take a second look at that picture. Do you see what I see? I can hardly believe it. The middle row can swivel and face the back, and there is a little table back there. It’s like a big game room on wheels. And you mean to tell me that I would be stuck in the drivers seat while the kids had all the fun? Us parents spoil them way too much!

I am really not much of a car person but this one - well I am speechless. I had to check out the specs. Some other high end options include Sirius Satellite TV (as if DVD’s or videos were not enough!), a power folding third row (that one I could get used to) and, like, a regular plug (you know, so your kids can plug their Playstation in.) Too much, I tell you.

If you don’t believe me, hop over to Autos.com or CarsDirect and check it out for yourself!

Now that spring sports have started, my kids and I spend a lot of time in our family minivan traveling from one activity to another.

My minivan has become a home away from home of sorts. I have learned that I must keep it well stocked so that everyone will remain happy.

The Top 5 things I must have in my Minivan are:

1. Food
   Snacks, snacks, and more snacks
   Because - full kids are happy kids. (One good choice is Cheerios Snack Mix - a healthier alternative than some of the other grab and go snacks)
2. Drinks
   Water, juice, and Gatorade
   Because - hydrated kids are healthy kids.
3. Clean Up Stuff
   Wet wipes, paper towels, anti-bacterial hand cleaner, and several empty plastic grocery bags for garbage
   Because - clean kids and cars make for happy mommies.
4. Sweatshirts and extra t-shirts
   Because - warm and dry kids tend not to complain as much.
5. Stroller
   Because - preschoolers don’t always want to walk or stay put.

This Top 5 post has been submitted to the Top 5 - Group Writing Project at Problogger.net.
Thank you, Darren, for running the project - what a wonderful opportunity to network with other bloggers!