Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Family Travel Planning

If there’s one category where it pays to get advice from the experts, it’s family travel. After all, any travel provider can claim its family-friendly, but it’s only when you travel with a child yourself that you can really put them to the test.

Take United Airlines, which recently eliminated early boarding for families with small children. That may not sound like a big change, but tell that to the guys stuck behind a family of four trying to get settled in their seats in any timely fashion.

Now that several airlines charge a premium for window and aisle seats, that means you may have to pay extra for your family to sit together. Then there are hotels that claim to be family friendly, but in reality they don’t offer more than a play room with limited hours.

One helpful resource out there is CiaoBambino, which only allows bookings in hotels and resorts that have been vetted by parents of toddlers, kids and teenagers. MiniTime is a newer site that’s also working to compile hotel and resort information that’s actually useful for families.

But when it comes to the most useful travel tips, nothing beats crowd-sourcing among those who have been there, so don’t be afraid to ask advice from those who have been there.

For more information, visit the Family Travel archives.

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