We are a family of five that decided to leave our normal lives behind and travel around the world for 180 days. Joey and I are both physicians back home in Lexington, KY and our kids are Wilson (a smart, funny, pragmatic 14 year old who approaches life with the wisdom of an 80 year old and the mischievous grin of someone who gets the inside joke), Bailey (an opinionated, strong-willed, compassionate 12 year old who never misses anything and may rule the world someday), and Gus (an energetic, passionate 9 year old who lives every second of his waking life with everything he has and would give the shirt off his back to ease the suffering of an earthworm). We love traveling, trying new things, meeting awesome people, eating good food, and adventure sports. In this blog, we will be sharing the stories of the places we experience along the way. We will share our successes and our failures in hopes that this is inspiring, helpful, and entertaining to our friends, family, and anyone else who happens to discover us. For more on why we decided to do this, see our blog post on “Traveling is my favorite thing”. Read More About Our Philosophy.
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10 Reasons to Visit Taos Ski Valley with Kids: The best affordable destination for a family ski trip with great food, art, and culture.
72 hours in Yosemite with kids: planning a smooth and memorable visit
There are so many amazing National and State parks in the US that it is impossible to rank their beauty, but one park that undeniably deserves a spot near the top is Yosemite. When you first drive through the Wawona tunnel and see the towering granite walls surrounding the lush, green valley of the Merced river, it is spectacular. I always imagine what it must have felt like as a Native American or an early settler to crest the top of the valley walls and gaze into that mind blowing landscape. If you want to see some of the most spectacular natural beauty of the US, add Yosemite to your must-visit travel list. The one problem with Yosemite is that everyone wants to see it, resulting in large crowds and a lot of traffic. Below are my tips on how to plan a pleasurable experience for your family in Yosemite.
Tips for a smooth family ski trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Steamboat Springs is a quaint ski town in the Yampa River valley with ample lodging and a great selection of restaurants and shops. As a ski destination, Steamboat has a few perks over other Colorado resorts.
1. You can fly directly into Steamboat and avoid the drive on I-70 from Denver.
2. Kids under the age of 13 ski free with a 5 day adult ski pass.
3. Since it is a solid 3 hours from Denver, it doesn't get as much weekend traffic as resorts closer to Colorado’s most populated city.
4. It’s a decent sized city with a wider selection of amenities than other ski towns.
5. They get good early season snow and are known for their “champagne powder.”
General Info for Hiking in the Red River Gorge: All of the areas explained
The first thing to know is that the Red River Gorge is a geological feature and the area lovingly referred to as “The Gorge” or the “Red River Gorge” includes the actual gorge formed by the Red River as well as a surrounding amalgamation of public and private lands available for recreational use. It is quite complicated really. While it isn’t important to understand the history and complexity of the many areas that make up the RRG, it is important to know where you will be hiking, climbing, or camping because each entity has its own unique set of rules and regulations. Below are some quick and dirty guides and links for more information on each.
Fifteen tips for a magical European vacation with Kids
If you want to give your kids an introduction to visiting foreign countries but don’t want to give up too many creature comforts, Europe is a good choice for a family vacation. We spent 11 weeks in Europe and barely scratched the surface of places to visit and things to do there. The beauty of Europe as a travel destination is that you can experience so many different cultures and countries without actually travelling that far. Due to the creation of the European Union, you don’t have to deal with immigration or changing currencies when you travel from one country to the next. All of that being said, there are some logistical challenges of travelling with kids that made my second trip to Europe very different from the trip I took carrying a backpack
Things to do in Cadaques
Why visit Cadaques?
Having visited 35 different cities in the last 5 months, people keep asking me which is my favorite. It is a nearly impossible question to answer and I have started trying to come up with more focused questions to answer instead. One of these is, “which city would I pick for a week-long vacation abroad?” The answer to this one is Cadaques, Spain. Cadaques is located along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, on the Costa Brava, just south of the French border and it is absolutely perfect. There isn’t anything…
Visiting Santorini with kids
This iconic caldera lined with white washed Cycladic style houses clinging to the edge of the cliff is one of the most picturesque places on earth. I was torn about adding it to our around-the-world itinerary and tempted to visit a smaller island instead; however, I wanted to see the iconic place for myself and decided in favor of Santorini in the end. We visited in April, before the tourist season was in full swing and it was absolutely everything it looks like in the pictures. As far as logistics go, it was one of the more complicated parts of the trip to plan and you should definitely start planning this family vacation far in advance.
Eating well while travelling:13 Tips for eating well while abroad
“Vacation eating” is the term I use for the constellation of eating habits that I allow myself and my family to indulge in when we are on vacation. It involves one or maybe even two sweets a day, a soda with dinner for the kids, way more chips than normal, cocktails in the evening, and a lot of eating out. It is pretty common for me to feel slightly off, bloated, and possibly even a few pounds heavier after a week of vacation eating. When travelling for only a week, vacation eating doesn’t seem to do too much permanent damage and I can usually recover after a couple days at home. During our trip around the world, however, I knew we couldn’t employ vacation eating the entire time for several reasons.
Where to stay in Amman Jordan: Jabal Al Lweibdeh, a vibrant, diverse neighborhood that has it all.
The Dead Sea and Petra inspired us to add Jordan to our around the world itinerary and Amman, the capital city, was the natural starting point for a week in Jordan. I had no idea what Amman would be like and I’m not sure I had even seen a picture of the city before planning the trip. When booking a place to stay in Amman, my primary motivation was finding a place within walking distance of the major attractions. Beyond that, I knew nothing about the various neighborhoods. Despite this lack of foresight, we somehow ended up in an amazing and absolutely perfect neighborhood…
The Best Two Weeks in Greece: A Mythical Itinerary with Kids
Greece is a great country to visit with kids! The interesting stories and captivating characters of Greek mythology have a unique ability to intrigue people of all ages and thus engage travelers in the history of the country. If your kids have ever read a Percy Jackson book, you have probably already experienced this. The food is delicious, not too challenging for young palettes, and cheap. Most people speak English and, as far as foreign countries go, it is relatively easy to navigate. We originally planned to spend 18 days in Greece, but had some other plans fall through and ended up staying for 22 days. In this post I am going to share our full itinerary, where to stay, the highlights, and our favorite restaurants in each location! I will also include a suggested 2 week itinerary for people who have less time.
Which Hawaiian Island is Right for You?
If you have ample resources and can only visit one island: Maui.
If you want to see Hawaii but you are on a budget: Oahu.
If you are into hiking or less developed destinations: Kauai.
If you want to see volcanoes: The Big Island.
Ideally, when planning a trip to Hawaii, I would recommend picking two islands and taking a weekday Southwest flight between the islands if possible. The inter island flights are super easy and cheap and you get the bonus aerial view of the islands. When we come back, I will likely plan 9 days in Maui and 3 days in Kauai to hike the Na’Pali coast. My advice would be to pick one island for a longer stay (7-10 days) and then a second island for a shorter stay (3-4 days) just to hit the high points.
12 hours in Maui - Why You Should Stay Longer
Tips for Maui:
1. Don’t plan on spending only 12 hours there. It’s a beautiful island with so much to see! Give yourself 10 days.
2. Allow for plenty of driving time. I really stressed Joey out by packing too much into the day and not accounting for traffic.
3. Visit Lahaina for great food and the largest Banyan tree in the US.
4. Visit Maui between the months of January and March for prime whale watching and perfect weather. (You can see whales November-May, but January-March is prime viewing.)
5. If you do a whale watching tour with Trilogy and you don’t want to have to climb a moving, slippery ladder in the ocean to board the boat, do the tour out of Lahaina.
6. If you are in a hurry, don’t order a deep fried dessert.
The Sun Rising over Kauai from Poipu Beach. January 23rd, 2022