Email this page
Print this page
del.icio.us
digg
FeedThe Joy of Parenting (On the Road)
Ellen and Don Rosenberg—along with sons Drew, 17, and Evan, 12, and daughter Amanda, 5—booked a week-long summer voyage to Alaska. They flew to Anchorage, then boarded the Star Princess, a liner operated by Princess Cruises.
Why does Don Rosenberg like cruising with children? “It’s easy to throw them overboard, and no one sees,” he jokes. “But seriously, it’s very safe—you always know where they are—and there are a lot of activities scheduled for them.”
Indeed, the days when cruise ships catered almost exclusively to seniors are long gone. The Rosenberg children had their pick from all sorts of on-board activities, geared toward their age groups and included in the price of the cruise.
“During the day, if we were sailing, Drew hung out with the teenagers and they went swimming and played basketball and sat around and ate all day,” Rosenberg says. “Evan hung around with kids his age and did the same thing, while Amanda was in the kiddie club, where she got to play games, color and watch movies.”
Rosenberg didn’t mind leaving his kids alone, since he was furnished with a beeper. And it wasn’t as though he and Ellen merely dumped the kids off somewhere—activities typically ran on an hourly basis, “so they were able to pick and choose,” he says. In the evenings, the family dined together, and then the two older kids went to the video arcade for a while.
On port tours, the family stuck together. “The things we didn’t do were horseback riding, sled dogs and lots of hiking,” Rosenberg says. “That would have been too much for a 5-year-old. Of course, it probably would have been too much for me, as well.”
Experts agree that travel with children is on the upswing, because of a variety of factors. The nation’s rising divorce rate has increased the number of single-parent households, and each parent wants to treat the kids to a taste of adventure. The growing Hispanic population also has led to more extended-family travel—a cultural trait evident for years in Mexico and Latin America.
And the trend toward two-income households and longer work hours is also having an effect. It’s hard for both parents to take two weeks off at the same time. As a result, families tend to make shorter, more frequent trips—and to cut down on travel time, they prefer a single destination instead of a litany of roadside attractions.
Stephanie and Michael Prange recently spent a week in Maui with their two girls, Sydney, 4, and Mia, five months. “We always do it in the off-season,” Stephanie says, “because it’s cheaper and the flights are less crowded.”
The Pranges stayed at the El Dorado, in a room right on the beach and with a full kitchen (necessity number one) and foldout bed (necessity number two). The resort also provides a golf cart to transport families to the water’s edge, and a shaded cabaña—which is where Mia hung out with whichever parent wasn’t splashing in the water with Sydney.
The Pranges eschewed traditional must-do activities—like driving the winding road to Hana. “We tried that two years ago, and Sydney threw up,” Stephanie says. Instead, they focused on activities that didn’t require much effort, like a ride on the Reef Dancer, a glass-bottomed boat. “We had all the advantages of scuba diving without actually having to do it,” she says. “There was even a diver who would pick stuff off the ocean floor and show it to the kids.”
Traveling with children can be fun. Traveling with children can be brutal. Traveling with children can give the entire family a chance to bond while exploring new places, sharing new sights, experiencing new sensations. Traveling with children can make you want to stick the little darlings in your air carrier’s cargo hold—and then book a seat on another flight, just in case they get out.
As long as there has been travel, there has been travel with children. Baby boomers have fond memories of the annual summer family vacation, typically an extended road trip in which an exuberant dad wants his kids to “see America” from the backseat of a magnificently sturdy Chevy Impala or Ford Galaxy. The family road trip was immortalized in the 1983 Chevy Chase comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation. One reason the film was such a hit: Everyone could relate to it.
Who can forget those long days chugging up some deserted two-lane highway? Those sleepless nights in a noisy roadside motel on mattresses covered with plastic? Greasy-spoon breakfasts where there’s always a fly swimming around in something?
“It used to be that the annual vacation was a big production,” says Nicole Williams, spokesperson for the Hilton Hotels chain. “Now, people want to take quick trips. They want to get in the car or on the plane and have a few days of fun for the whole family.”
A study conducted by the Student & Youth Travel Association of North America found that nearly two-thirds of all children between kindergarten and 12th grade traveled in 2000. American Demographics magazine reports the number of young people who travel each year is growing at an annual rate of 21 percent.
“Kids don’t want to go shopping all day or necessarily see the same sights as their parents,” says Kathy Kaya, site coordinator for the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel’s Keiki Klub children’s program. “So we have special activities for kids, from taking them to see the dolphins at Sea Life Park to learning to dance the hula.”
Says Lexi Ward, director of marketing and communications for La Quinta Resort & Club near Palm Springs, “We want the whole family to have fun. So we offer something for everyone, be it a family experience where everyone stays in one place and plays together, or a situation where the dad plays golf, the mom goes to the spa and the kids have great fun in the kids’ camp.”
Indeed, the travel industry has taken new notice of Junior. More and more hotel chains and resorts offer programs for entire families, as well as special “kids’ clubs” so the parents can spend some time alone.
Some options:
|
Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »
