Intergenerational Alaskan Cruise

A recent (11/7/10) New York Times Travel Section article, 7 Caribbean Resorts that Go All Out for Families, extolled the virtues of child-friendly Caribbean resorts that provide nannies as well as plenty of kid-centric activities. This type of vacation was never our family's style, but we put our preferences aside to take just this kind of trip on a cruise boat to Alaska when Allan's mom's turned 80.  

Alaskan Glaciers Seen from the Ship

For her present, Lillian had requested a trip with her sons and grandchildren. Because her mobility was limited, we wouldn't be able to do our typical adventures. She proposed the cruise as a compromise. We could spend time with her at meals and while the ship was moving but once the ship docked at a port, we could go off on our adventures while she relaxed in her cabin. It seemed like as "win-win" an idea as we were going to get.

Kids Explore Alaskan Port of Call with Faithful Friends

We were skeptical, however, when Lillian suggested the children could attend the ship's Kids Club so we could get some much-needed alone time. Because our then six-year-olds despised going to their school's after care program, we assumed they would feel similarly about the ship's kid care option. Much to our surprise, they ended up loving it, eagerly going twice a day. They even went to a few children-only dinners with their group, waving to us proudly from across the room.

Kids loved their parent-free dinners

The plan was working better than we dared hope. Grandmas was enjoying both her time with the children and her time alone; the kids were enjoying time with grandma, time with other kids, and time with mom and dad. The four of us plus Uncle Martin were seeing picturesque Alaskan towns at each port-of-call.

The Birthday Girl Happily Stayed on the Ship

The only problem was that Allan and I were miserable! We were seasick on top of having caught some kind of stomach bug and spent a lot of time being nauseous. This meant sometimes skipping the ship's sumptuous buffet to subsist on saltine crackers. I remember trying to watch glaciers calving (breaking off) in the distance from the ship's deck, and ending up flopping back down in a deck chair.We also felt very claustrophobic on a boat and very removed from the sights we were seeing.

But this trip wasn't about us. After five days,the ship reached its destination and we said goodbye to Lillian and Martin. They were going back home and we were heading to Anchorage via a rental car. Allan and I were finally feeling better and were certainly more comfortable traveling about on our own.

But we will never forget how happy we made Lillian--giving her exactly the birthday present she wanted.

Getting Around with Young Children While Traveling

Getting around with young children comfortably takes equipment. Following are our experiences with gear we found essential when traveling with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Getting Around with Babies

My husband and I were truly surprised at how happy our three-month-old babies were seeing the city of Vancouver from the comfort of their Baby Bjorns. The padded fabric front carriers left our hands free for securely holding onto a public transit pole or consulting a map and our kids loved looking at tall buildings and the people on the monorail. At the very least, both babies loved being snugly attached to their happy parents!

Babies Love Looking Out from Front Carriers

Getting Around with Toddlers

The amount of bulky baby gear we took to visit Prague and Budapest for two weeks with two eighteen-month-olds was staggering. We took two car seats, a folding McLaren double stroller, and two backpack child carriers. When the small taxi sent from our hotel arrived at the airport, we were actually glad the airline had misplaced one of our bags (which was delivered to our hotel later) because it wouldn’t have fit in the tiny trunk.    

Taking Kids on Public Transit is Easier Outside the United States

My mother routinely took three kids and a large clunky carriage on the New York City subway by herself, waiting at the top of the stairs for kind fellow travelers to help carry it up and down. You would think that taking a compact, twenty-first century stroller on the Muni Metro in “Transit First” San Francisco would pose no problem. 

Sadly, even in a city where buses have been retrofitted to carry bicycles on the front, many transit operators (and fellow passengers) act like any parent taking kids on the bus must have left the SUV at home for the day.

The good news is that it is usually far easier to take kids on public transit once you leave the auto-dependent United States. Countries that impose heavy taxes on gasoline understand that citizens of all ages have little alternative to relying on transit, so they are much more accommodating to families traveling via bus, subway, or streetcar.

Streetcar in Australia

We found this to be the case everywhere we visited. On streetcars in Prague, we saw a decal of a baby in a carriage near the rear door. Even though we didn’t speak the language, we understood it meant that caregivers with strollers were welcome to board there. Traveling on the elevator-free subway in Budapest, we were stopped by a couple of humorless fare inspectors who asked us to show proof that we paid our fare. Of course, they had no problem with us taking an open double stroller on the Metro.

Taking young kids on public transit is a great way to see a city. Parents avoid the stress of driving and parking in a congested area, children get exposed to an environmentally-friendly form of transportation, and everyone benefits from one less car on the road.  

Customer Service in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a great vacation destination with kids. We went for two weeks in 2006 and relaxed on its warm, beautiful beaches; explored the flora and fauna of the cloud forest at Monteverde and the area near the Arenal volcano: and enjoyed thrilling adventures such as zip lining through the jungle canopy.  

Hotel California in Quepos, Costa Rica

With many businesses accepting payment in American dollars and many people in the tourist industry speaking flawless English, the country was quite welcoming to Westerners. This made it harder, however, to reconcile the fact that Costa Rica has a very different idea of customer service than the “customer is always right” philosophy that we take for granted in the U.S.  

Post-Tragedy Trip to Australia

Despite being nervous about flying a few weeks after the Sept. 11th attacks, our family's 3+ week vacation to Australia turned out to be a huge success.

First Day in Sydney

My mother-in-law, however, was dead-set against our going, convinced that we were unnecessarily putting her three-year old grandchildren in harm's way. But, Allan and I did not make our decision lightly.

Child Friendly Tourism in Turkey

"Turkish people love children!" I was told by the numerous guidebooks we consulted to plan our family vacation. Little did I know what this really meant until we landed in Turkey with our two-and-a-half year old twins.

Unhappy Passengers

Many times people stopped us in the street to tell us how happy they were that we brought our kids to their country. A few times, people threw candy for the kids from car windows. But the most amazing evidence was in some of the places we ate.

Playgrounds Save Prague Vacation

We knew when we decided to take our young twins on a trip to Eastern Europe that we weren't going to be able to see many museums or eat in fancy restaurants. Our eighteen plus months of being parents had taught us there were limitations to what could be accomplished when traveling with children. But we desperately needed a change of location so we chose Prague and Budapest, fascinating "first-world" cities with the added allure of a communist past, for our two-week trip.

At the Park in Prague

Our first full day in Prague, we joined a paid walking tour of the Jewish area of the city. Unfortunately, both kids were rather restless so we left the tour early and headed to a playground we had noticed near our hotel. We found it pretty interesting to watch Czech parents interact with their kids, noticing similarities and differences to American parenting customs.