We visited Negril, Jamaica this past Spring Break in April. Jamaica is a beautiful tropical island in the Caribbean. This trip has exceeded my every expectation about the sea, sights, food and people of the Island. And everyone stayed healthy for the whole vacation. Miracle, right?Transportation: We flew direct from Chicago to Montego Bay. My view … [Read more...]
Traveling with Children – Aruba
We visited Aruba during Spring Break '14. In summary, we all loved it. White sand beaches, turquoise sea, the resort we stayed at, sighseeting around the island, restaurants, food, everything. Only two things slightly scarred our experience were the relateively high prices and return trip. American citizens do not need visa to travel to Aruba for … [Read more...]
Rome with Children: Day 4 – Walking around the city
On our final day, we went back to Villa Borghese as we had promised to our children. We rented the go kart and bicycle until they got tired of them. We walked around the Pincio a little bit. This is a steam clock. For more things to do in Villa Borghese read this post. The pine trees in Rome were extraordinary. We walked down from Pincio (Pincian … [Read more...]
Rome with Children: Day 3 – Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Colosseum
On our third day, which was a Saturday, we finally spotted a Ferrari. There were so many Smart Cars and other mini cars in this town. One of the games that kept us entertained during our walks was, learning and guessing European car brands and models. We took metro to Pantheon. Pantheon was very impressive, of course, with all the details about … [Read more...]
Rome with Children: Day 2 – Villa Borghese, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain
On our second day, we decided to do more fun stuff for our children and less historical sightseeing. We had purchased multi-day Sightseeing bus ticket to also use it as a means to public transportation. In my opinion, we could have purchased single-day bus tickets for sightseeing and we could have used metro for the rest of our public … [Read more...]
Rome with Children: Day 1- St. Peter’s and Vatican Museums
First day after our arrival, we've started our sightseeing with Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. We knew strollers were not allowed in the museum. We couldn't do it our last day which was Sunday as well. So we want to do it and be over with it as early as possible. We purchased our tickets online, arrived at the Piazza via Taxi and were … [Read more...]
Rome with Children: Preparation, Flight and Hotel
Tickets: We flew to Rome with Alitalia. We purchased out tickets way in advance (November/December) of our trip in August. We paid pretty decent price compared to summer prices, about $750 per seat. The plane takes off in the afternoon from Chicago and arrives Rome early morning. So you get to sleep during the flight. Flight: Alitalia flies old … [Read more...]
Book Review: Books about Italy, Rome and Italian for children
I wanted to dedicate this week's Book Review post to all the books that I got for my children to prepare for our trip to Rome, before I get started on the travel posts. I would like to point out that we borrowed some of the books from the library prior to our trip and I purchased the books in the photo to take them along for our trip.Rome with … [Read more...]
Traveling with Children: Tulum, Mexico
This is the third and the last part of our vacation to Cancun, Mexico and our day trips to Chichen Itza and Tulum. Mayan City of Tulum is on the Carribbean Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, south of Playa del Carmen. It is on the main road of "307", the same route that goes to some of the favorite theme parks such as Xel ha, Xcaret and Xplor. It took … [Read more...]
Traveling with children: Chichen Itza, Mexico
Chichen Itza is one of the biggest and well-preserved archeological sites from Mayan Civilization that is quite close to Cancun. Since the world didn't end on 12.21.12, we decided to visit the site during our vacation in Cancun. We had a rental car and it took us about 2 hours to drive from Cancun to Chichen Itza. The roads were very well paved … [Read more...]
Traveling with children: Cancun, Mexico
Finally, I can upload photos from our "Spring Break" trip in Cancun, Mexico this past March. My husband really took his time to research the hotel with the best possible beach for the children. He learned, the beaches on the North side of the "7" shaped coast in Cancun, were more protected, therefore tend to be calmer and has less waves. My … [Read more...]
Family Travel: Niagara Falls, Canada
We just came from another quick trip to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Toronto, Canada. We loved the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. My son declared that he would like to live in Niagara Falls or Toronto, with the condition of moving all of his toys from Chicago.This trip was a good experience with our two children, where I tried few … [Read more...]