Family tips

Tempted to take your kids on holiday during term time to avoid high-season rates?

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rob Hamill , a 60-year-old former rowing Olympian from New Zealand, about how the murder of his brother by the Khmer Rouge inspired his family's decision to live at sea.

My kids are teenagers now, but we've been taking them on cruises since they were tiny. Each time we returned from our days at sea, I told my husband how much I wanted to take his parents on a cruise with us, as it seemed like the perfect multigenerational vacation to me for a variety of reasons. My father-in-law passed away unexpectedly last year, and the devastating loss made me even more determined to get my mother-in-law, who my kids call Grammy, onto a cruise ship with my family.

Last summer, my husband and I spent five days celebrating my 40th birthday in my favorite place: Bermuda. We relaxed on the sandy, white beach and floated on the crystal-clear water as long as our hearts desired. We did what we wanted, when we wanted, with no one altering our schedule but us. For just under a week, we left our children with their grandparents to celebrate my milestone birthday. It was what we needed, but it all began with guilt.

When Poppy was quoted nearly €7,000 for a family trip to Lapland by a holiday provider, she knew she could do better.

Sarah Faith is a content and values writer at activist travel company, Responsible Travel.

Our family of five travels fairly frequently. We've been to Iceland, Amsterdam, Portugal, Hawaii, London, and more with our kids as they’ve grown. One of the best ways we’ve managed to make the trips enjoyable for all of us and to stay connected to our kids while on vacation is to schedule “home days.” 

From when I was around eight years old, my family visited the same place over and over again every summer: Mystic, Connecticut.

The first time I spoke French in front of my 12-year-old niece, she was shocked. She'd never heard me speak in a foreign language before, but there I was, ordering a couple of croissants and some bread from a curbside storefront in Paris.

As the holidays approach, it can be difficult to think of fun activities that all the family will enjoy.

When my grandmother proposed a girls' trip to Las Vegas to celebrate her 91st birthday, I knew I had to go with my mom, three of my aunts, and my cousin.

A few years ago, my 11-year-old son and I took flights from our hometown of St. Louis on a trip to Boston, Massachusetts.

If you’re thinking of relocating as a family to another country, this research could help you choose your destination.

I've spent the past three years jetting my family — my wife, daughters (12 and 16), and son (11) — around the world pretty much full-time.

“I just felt something was wrong,” says Lucilla, a teacher who lives in the small Italian city of Mantova.

My family has an unwavering love for Savannah, Georgia. 

I've been jetting my family of four around the globe almost nonstop since 2020. We've visited 21 countries and almost exclusively travel with checked luggage.

At the top of a steep path through a birch forest in western Sweden a middle-aged woman calls out “Välkommen!” with such warmth it’s as if we’re long-lost relatives being welcomed. We’re extremely happy to see her, too, and her trays of torn-up cinnamon buns, gherkins and crisps, the Swedish take on a pit-stop, which will power us on to the next feed station.

It’s a big month for Almanac Hotels. The luxury boutique hotel chain — which launched its first hotel in Barcelona in 2018 — has two back-to-back openings. Its second property soft launches in Vienna in late February, and its third hotel opens in Prague in early March.

I'd been living in London for just under a year when my parents came to visit in January 2020. 

It's been seven years since my husband and I chose to relocate our family from Maryland to Florida. It's a decision I've never regretted once, but living in the Sunshine State is very different from life in the Northeast.