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.

Visiting National Parks with Young Kids

Yosemite was our first national park trip with kids, a three-and-a-half hour drive from our home in San Francisco. Our kids were five-months-old, and we were excited about hiking there with them in front carriers.

Hiking in Joshua Tree

Our most important discovery, however, was made in the Yosemite Gift Shop rather than the trail -- the Passport to Your National Parks spiral bound guide book. It listed all the parks and monuments in the U.S. national park system with spaces for official stickers and cancellation stamps from each park. We purchased one book for each child and made a goal of visiting as many national parks as possible.

Twin Parents Save Sanity by Hiking

My husband and I enjoyed hiking before having children, but we craved it after our twins were born. It was the leisure activity that required the least accommodations to most closely resemble our pre-parent lives! We found it to be a real stress reliever, so we started taking a family hike every Sunday. Sure, it required extra equipment, but our babies loved being carried through tall trees by tranquil caregivers, I was happy to be out of the house (and temporarily responsible for only the baby in my front carrier), and Allan was thrilled to finally find a family activity he could relate to!

A Hiking We Will Go

Our first hikes were to some of the fabulous local parks we are blessed with in the San Francisco Bay Area. Allan and I each carried a baby in the front and a pack on the back: one held baby supplies (diapers, wipes, bottles with pre-measured formula, and water) and the other held adult supplies (water and snacks).