Family Travel

The excellent travel website World Hum has a regular column called “Ask Rolf,” by talented travel writer Rolf Potts.

Haven’t heard of him?

Browse the Stories or Essays section of his Web site, or see how he makes an ancient French version of tennis into something interesting.

He’s also the guy who convinced me to visit his stomping grounds, the Flint Hills in Kansas, which was one of the highlights of a Midwest road trip with my teen daughter.

Rolf graciously invited me to assist him with his most recent column; answering a Dad who wants to take his 9-year-old daughter to Ecuador, and is wondering if it’s safe to do so. The trip is a precursor to a possible round-the-world trip with his entire family.

In addition to my tips (how to plan a family trip, quit carrying all that stuff, remember to eat) Rolf has some great input on Ecuador from a guy who just spent two months there with his kids. He gives specific advice about places like Quito, Otavalo and the Galapagos. Down in the comments are more good ideas, including some from regular Family Travel reader Debbie over at Delicious Baby.

Not all of my input could fit into Rolf’s column (there’s a surprise!) so here are the other two family travel tips from me:

• Little legs are shorter than yours. Just because you can walk forever in your trusty Rockports or Tevas does not mean that the Stride Rite group agrees with you. “But, they have so much energy, they’ll be fine.” No, you will end up carrying them. Pace yourselves, literally and figuratively. Use a child carrier backpack rather than a stroller; it leaves your hands free, escalators and stairs are no problem and your child can see the view instead of looking at people’s knees at stroller level.

• Travel through your own backyard. I cannot tell you how many people I know who aren’t aware of the fun family things that are within a two-hour drive of their home. Buy a guidebook for your hometown and your home state, and then go do some or all of the items suggested. Don’t be the New Yorker who never makes it to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island.

Thanks very much to Rolf and World Hum for including my input. If you have any experience with family travel in Ecuador, please leave them the comments section of Rolf’s column.

Yes, we buckled under and got a backseat DVD player in our minivan….so shoot me for not playing the License Plate Game and other more creative car games, but boy does a movie keep the squabbling siblings quiet!

The only problem is that too many hours of looking at a small moving screen in a gently moving vehicle gets at least one of my kids mildly carsick.

Here’s another idea that I found on the tech site Mashable to keep your little darlings occupied — downloadable audio books from AudibleKids.

From the Mashable post:

“The new site, called AudibleKids, has about 4,000 titles from 75+ publishers available at the time of the launch, with exclusive stories from the likes of R.L. Stine (who didn’t love Goosebumps?)”

If your kids are part of the iPod army, you’re all set.

If not, no worries; other mp3 players are compatible and you can also burn to a CD through iTunes or stream from a computer.

Ease on down the road….

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