Have Kids Still TravelBecause You Can't leave 'em Home Alone!

This post was prompted by Alamo and TwitterMoms 10 Travel Distraction Free Travel Tips and written by Andrea Fellman of SavvySassyMoms

Our kids are only 3 and 5 so we have not gotten to the stage of our children being distracted by all technology has to offer, but boy are my husband and I sure distracted!!  We both work online and from home, our computers and phones are our lifeline, and when we  travel we tend to call them Work-cations!  So here are my helpful tips and tricks for really disconnecting and not missing a single moment.    

1.  Only allow e-mail to be checked once a day and only respond if it is urgent.  Allow the kids check theirs every other day.

2.  Set up outgoing messages on your cell phone and auto responder e-mails saying how long you will be gone and when they can expect you to return their phone call or e-mail.

3.  Decide before you go if this is a work free vacation, or a work-cation and set limits and expectations of how much work will need to be done alongside the vacation.

4.  Schedule a block of time in the morning or at night to write, blog, or get online and limit yourself to the specific alloted time.

5.  Stay at a hotel that doesn’t offer free Wi-Fi Internet access, make it less convenient.  Or make a commitment not to pay for Internet while on vacation.

6.  Set up a area in the room for all the electronics.  Do not have them scattered around the hotel room or car.  Out of Sight out of Mind!

7.   Only allow charging the electronic devices at night while you sleep, if someone is using their phone, laptop, ipod, etc.. all day and needs to re-charge by 3 pm – they’re out of luck.

8.  Put all phones in the trunk of the car, and the kids can check their phones at every rest stop/bathroom break.  They can read books, magazines or have a conversation with you!

9.  When you are out sightseeing for the day only bring one phone (for emergency) the rest can stay back at the hotel.

10.  Try to remember that most things can wait, these are memories you do not want to miss out on.  Spending this quality time with your kids and your spouse is irreplaceable, twitter can wait!

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I was tagged in a game of  Tripbase Blog Tag!  Travel Blooggers are revealing their 3 Hidden Travel Gems and my good friend over at  Travel Mamas nominated me to join in the fun and pick my 3 favorites!  I decided to include the kiddos on this one so these are my 3 hidden travel gems with kids!

#1 Mallorca, Baleric Islands

Mallorca is just of the coast of Spain and is apart of the Baleric Islands. It is the hottest European vacation destination and for good reason, it has over 200 Beaches! Unlike the neighboring party island of Ibiza, Mallorca is a great family dstination. In fact a lot of the hotels and resorts cater to families by offering playgrounds, club activities and childrens entertainment.

We stayed at Viva Cala Mesquida in Playa Mesquida home to the very popular Galactic Super Hero Bufo!  Oh yes, they have a mascot of sorts and he entertains the children nightly at the Mini Disco! They also have Bufo Kids Club , a drop off child care service during the day. We had quite the room with a view, most of the apartments are located beachside. It was a very short and easy walk down to the sand.

We rented a car from the hotel so we could drive into the beach side town do do some tourist shopping and found another huge playground swarming wiht kids!  We also drove to the Capital city of Mallorca, Palma. The city of Palma is very easy to push a stroller around, we literally walked around the entire city. It is the most charming city with cobblestone streets, cute cafes and some very historic buildings.  The most famous building is La Seu, the Cathedral, it is one of Europe’s tallest Gothic structures.

 

#2 Sedona, Arizona

Sedona is the earths natural playground for kids! (you can quote me on that) We lived in Scottsdale, AZ for a year and and so we took many day trips up to Sedona and the drive from the Phoenix area takes just a little over an hour. The kids loved to walk, run, jump and stretch over the rocks, it’s really a nice little workout for them.  And not to mention the fresh air and the beautiful scenary!  They thought “hiking” was so exciting and took exploring very seriously.

 

I highly reccommend the Pink Jeep Tours they are worth the price and you see some incredible views!  They allow children 18 months and up – however, one of the more rugged tours you should not take a child under the age of 4. We went on the most rugged, heart pounding tour with a 2 yr old and our 4 yr old – not the wisest decision we have ever made. The 2 yr old was pretty scared at some points and the bumpy ride was pretty hard for him to handle. They were locked securley in car seats but his head was getting knocked around too much.  So pick the more scenic tours if you have younger kids and save the true outback tours until their older.  And hold on tight cause it s a bumpy ride!

#3 Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica /Play Conchal

We rented a house for 3 weeks in Playa, Flamingo on the Guanacaste side of Costa Rica. This coastline is known for its unique string of beaches, each with their own personality. So naturally we set out to visit them all, even the most difficult one to get to, Playa Conchal.

Playa Conchal is truly a “hidden beach” it took me 3 tries to finally fiqure out just how to get there. If you are not staying at the fancy Paradisus Playa Conchal then the only public entrance is by driving your car down onto another beach and then 4 wheel driving it up a rocky path and praying no one is trying to come down at the same time. I was with the kids by myself on this adventure while my husband stayed back to get some work done. Needless to say I was a little nervous, but determined to find this beach! I was a Mom on a Mission!

Playa Conchal is made up of millions of crushed shells! I thought for sure there would be sand and just a lot of shells, but nope, no sand – all shells! I kept running my hands and feet through the shells and it was as if I was having an exfoliation treatment at a spa. I am still a little mistified by this secret piece of paradise. It was also some of the bluest water I have ever seen. I was so glad that I didn’t give up and forged ahead on finding this hidden gem. In all my travels, Playa Conchal is my favorite beach so far!

CostaRicaOnlineTravel.com has a Great Costa Rica Family Vacation that includes Conchal Beach!

HaveKidsStillTravel.com
What are your 3 favorite Hidden Travel Gems?  Please leave a comment below and tell me where you have been or where you are going? 

I would like to nominate:

Kim Tracy Prince of The House of Prince
Shanna Coady of My Favorite Everything
Summer at teamjessee.com
Nancy at Kidsintowtravel.com
Lee Vandeman of momswithoutblogs.com

TAG you’re it!
Trip Base Blog Tag

Have Kids Still Travel!  That is our Motto! Both of our kids had their passports by the age of 2! We’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit, but our favorite trips have been our two month-long trips, the first being to Barcelona, Spain, which was an amazing family experience!

We figured out that when traveling with kids you want to make it as low-stress as possible. Rushing around with jam-packed itineraries would never work with a one year old and three year old in tow. So, we figured that by staying a month, we could really embrace our surroundings and not miss a thing.

Something that many people don’t realize is that renting an apartment for an entire month allows for better negotiating on the price. We’ve typically experienced 30-50% discounts for a longer term stay. Now, even if you’re only staying for a week or two, you’ll still want to consider these kid-friendly amenities when looking for a rental apartment.

1) Bath tub (in Europe they are often hard to come by)

2) Elevator (another luxury not all European buildings have) But don’t expect it to be big enough for your stroller. Speaking of strollers DO NOT bring a double stroller (side by side seats) because they will not fit through the metro stations entrances, or in some elevators) You are much better off with two single lightweight strollers.

3) Balcony (is it safe for children?),

4) Laundry Facilities (kids will be kids, but don’t expect a dryer)

5) Kitchen Necessities (ask if there is a microwave, highchair, or booster seat)

6) Extra Bed Linens (2 words: Bed Wetting).

7) Bunk Beds (Ask if they have a safety railing or if they can be separated)

We found our apartment at Apartime Barcelona and we were very pleased with everything! The first night our 3 year-old daughter sang from the Balcony “Barcelona, Barcelona, I Love this City!”  Once you have settled in I would recommend walking around your new neighborhood a few times just to get your surroundings and have a better sense of direction. While walking around you’ll want to locate the Grocery Store, Pharmacy, Bank, Hospital, and Metro Stations and take note on the hours they are open and closed.

The greatest resource I found while planning our trip was Anglo Info Barcelona Life in Barcelona.. .in English.  This will have everything you need while you are in Barcelona! It is a great guide and resource for local news, weather, events, nanny, shopping, entertainment, nanny services, schools, parks etc.

My highest recommendation is finding out if there is a School or Daycare your children can attend (contact them before you go). We put our kids in Kinder Barcelona for 3 weeks from 9am -1pm , so we were able to explore the city and do all the not so kid friendly things in the morning. Our kids loved it, but we loved it more! I honestly didn’t think that they would say yes, but they had room in the English speaking class with an English speaking teacher so they let us enroll them! Our daughter McKenna learned the all the days of the week and the months of the year while attending school there and our son Hudson who just started walking was happily running and jumping by the 2nd week!

Call a Nanny Service, I found Tender Loving Canguros in Barcelona and most of them will have someone who speaks some English. You may even get lucky like we did, the Nanny they sent over was an American girl from New York City and had been living in Barcelona for 5 years. Her name was Gabby and was totally fluent in Spanish and it was like having our own Concierge!  The few nights we had her come to babysit she pretty much planned our night for us, telling us where to go and the best way to get there. Because of her we went places of the beaten path, where the locals go and was able to skip all the overpriced tourist traps. This was an amazing added bonus to our trip!

A part of me is still shocked that we took a 1 year old and a 3 year old to Barcelona, Spain to live for a month. Traveling with kids is not impossible, but it is not for the weak either! My husband asked me on the flight home.  Would you do it again? To which I replied, Absolutely! And we did, a month in Costa Rica was our next adventure!

SEE THE WORLD

http://havekidsstilltravel.com

So the Mardi Gras Parade was not that exciting….sure there was music, beads and people drinking in the streets, but the hard candy hitting us in the head wasn’t so pleasant. The kids scrambled for the candy and we shoved as much as we could into our pockets (knowing that later we would dump it without them knowing). We continued on to the “Kids Party”, it was crowded but we managed to get a spot to see the 2 clowns performing some sort of variety show. At one point McKenna looked at Harris with a frightened look and said “What is this?” Harris broke out into laughter, because he was thinking the same thing. We left and got some ice cream. Our next stop was the live music at “Maria’s” McKenna instantly started dancing and performing for the crowd. A few people gave her beads, and she ran up to us with the biggest eyes and exclaimed “Everyone loves me!” We told her the more dancing she did the more beads she would get! So she danced her little heart out and even convinced Hudson to dance with her. Harris and I sat their with our heads held high as people pointed, clapped and snapped pictures of our adorable children! Never has mom been so proud of the beads her daughter collected at Mardi Gras!

Sunday I woke up, drank too much coffee and insisted we take a road trip and go on an adventure!?? So we packed up the kids and headed to Santa Rosa National Park, which was about 3 hrs away – and near the Nicarauguan border.?? About half way there is the city of Liberia and they have a “Food Mall” there, which consists of nothing but American Fast Food – Hooray! and a indoor kids play area.?? So we filled up on a healthy meal at Burger King!

We got to Santa Rosa and headed into the park ($20) – There we found out it was another 1 1/2 to the coast and that if we wanted to drive to it we would have to sign our life away on a waiver because the road to get there??is not always the safest.?? Harris said we would PASS on that!?? (if we didn’t have the kids we would have probably forged ahead)

We just wanted to take a easy hike into the forest for possible wildlife sightings!?? We parked at the monument/museum and instantly saw two huge Iguanas (but I have seen enough of those).?? We saw a marked path and decided to take it, not knowing how long it was or even where it would take us.?? I should also mention that only Hudson had on appropriate shoes for this, the rest of us were in flip flops and I was wearing a sundress.??

But it wasn’t like we were “really” hiking it was just along a path, so it was actually ok.?? We didn’t see anything too exciting, some funky looking trees and a dry river – lame.?? Harris suggested that we turn around and go back the way we came because we didn’t know where this path was taking us, I wanted to go a little further so we did and then finally after a few more minutes I agreed to turn back, but McKenna saw some steps in the path and said “NO I want to go up the stairs”, ok we’ll go up the stairs and then turn around.

I got up the stairs first and saw that there was a sign up ahead, so we went to see what the sign had to say, and then realized we were back were we started!?? We gave McKenna all the credit and told her she was a great leader and she saved the day.?? She acted like a little know it all and gloated for the rest of the day! (From Harris: Actually, McKenna saidher invisible friend named “fear” gave her a map!) If it wasn’t for McKenna wanting to go up the stairs
we would have walked all the way back not knowing we were at the end.

We walked over the the Museum, and well there isn’t anything to report, It was an old beat up building with some pictures, old guns and a wheel barrel. We got back in the car and headed for home. Today was a big disappointment.?? We spent probably 1 hour outside of the car.?? I told Harris to feel free to remind me of this day the next time I want to go on an adventure!

Who knew the “Food Mall” would be the most exciting part of our day!

??

Saturday morning we took the kids to ride their first horse.???? As we got on our horses, Hudson exclaimed “Yee haw, Cowboy!”; McKenna was a little scared at first but after a few minutes she loved it and insisted on holding the rope because she wanted to “drive”, we named her horse Brown Sugar and Hudson’s horse Chocolate Chip Cookie.?? We just wanted to go for a short little ride because the kids are still so little.?? So, we went for an hour up and down the beach, but the kids did get to see about 5 monkeys in the trees!?? On the ride back Hudson fell asleep on the horse!?? (I guess it was the motion and the heat)?? So Harris turned him around and he slept snuggled on Harris’s belly the rest of the way.

This is the BEST beach ever! The beach is made up of all broken up sea shells – NO sand just tiny bits of sea shells. I still don’t understand it but I LOVED it:) The kids stole about a bucket full of seashells (I just hope we don’t get stopped coming through customs). This beach is also hidden, but after two attempts I found it all by myself

The signs point in the direction of the beach but the road ends and then there is a dirty beach – you have to drive on this beach, I didn’t know if this was legal and was nervous I’d get stopped at some point, but I didn’t see any flashing lights so I continued. Then I came to a steep, rocky path with horseback riders that were coming down so I asked the guide if I could drive up it to Playa Conchal? He said yes, so up I went and once we were over the top I could see we had arrived:) It was a BEAUTIFUL, exclusive piece of paradise.

Harris and I managed to sneak away and get dinner at a restaurant called Mar y Sol (Sea??and Sun)?? this place has the best view of Flamingo beach and of the sunset.???? We had drinks up at the lounge, we weren’t the only ones that were there for the spectacular view:)?? And then downstairs we had Steak and Lobster, the lobster was great the steak not so much:(?? But it was a great romantic night.

Today while the kids were at school we went jet skiing.?? I had never driven one, but I think it is easier then riding a bike, there is a go button, and stop button and the gas, not too difficult.?? We had an hour to tool around on the water,?? in some spots where the water??is choppy the water just comes up and slaps you in the face.???? The ocean gets a little scary when you don’t know how deep it is or what’s down there….

The kids had their first day of school! Sorry kids but we were glad to get rid of you for a few hours! Just to be in the car with SILENCE – was refreshing. McKenna can be such a chatterbox and well Hudson repeats everything she says, so it gets to be like just like static noise! We have been beach bums for the last week, so we were looking for some action of some sort. We took a 2 hour ATV tour that went around the beaches, on the back roads, and up to some great look out points. We even got to see monkeys in the trees!

Sunday we spent the day in Tamarindo, a much more active beach with surfers, tourists, restuarants and souvenier shops. We liked the busy town, lots of families with kids, surf lessons going on and lots of people swimming and boogie boarding. We were having lots of fun, and while Harris was digging a hole for the kids to jump in and I was playing with McKenna in the water, Hudson was playing with his ball.

I looked over at Harris and Hudson, but didn’t see Hudson. So I yelled to Harris “Where’s Hudson?” Harris said I thought he was with you!?, NO! I instantly looked all around me and in the water. Harris started to look around the beach and towards our chairs up the beach. We did not see him anywhere! Harris headed to the Life Guard Stand and told him we lost our son. The guy said “how old?” -(2) Oh he’s little! So the guy jumped on his bike and started to look as well.

I stayed with McKenna and tried to keep calm – with thoughts of the evening news flashing in my head. Suddenly I see Harris running towards something, I assummed he spoted our little man, because Harris doesn’t usually run! Sure enough about 2 football fields in the distance Harris picked up something that appeared to be a little boy. The wind had taken his ball and he had innocently chased it down the beach, he got pretty far for those little legs. We didn’t quite get to panic mode, but had us shaken for about 5 minutes! Other then that our day at the beach was a BLAST!

(From Harris: Actually, I thought I said “Where’s Hudson” because at first I thought Andrea was playing with *Hudson* in the water, not McKenna … then realized a couple minutes later it was McKenna. Hudson still has no idea that he did anything ‘wrong’ either. We’re gonna have to get a GPS for that kid.)