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Row Adventures - The Family Magic Trip. It was very special and I highly recommend. You must be somewhat outdoorsy to really enjoy it though. I think the best parts were - other kids to play with, people from all over the country and really truly being away from everything in a spectacular setting.

https://www.rowadventures.com/family-magic-rafting-trip

We did this trip a couple years ago, and it was our favorite vacation, ever! Highly recommend.

What's the minimum age for this to really enjoy?

Our son was 8, and it was perfect for him. There were a couple kids who were a little younger, maybe 6 or 7,and they did fine.

Oh great! We were planning to wait until our kids were teens to do a similar trip, but maybe we will go sooner.

The trip we did included kids from ages 6 through 11. It was great fun for all of them,

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Anonymous wrote:Multi day rafting trip on the Salmon River in Idaho. It was super family friendly With other kids to play with. The rafting company assigned on guide to hang with the kids and play games, do crafts etc when we were in camp. Adults got to hang out and have a beer or two.

Can you share the company name? This sounds amazing!

Row Adventures - The Family Magic Trip. It was very special and I highly recommend. You must be somewhat outdoorsy to really enjoy it though. I think the best parts were - other kids to play with, people from all over the country and really truly being away from everything in a spectacular setting.

https://www.rowadventures.com/family-magic-rafting-trip

We looked into doing this but it's so far away. Did you combine it with anything else? How did you get to/from the starting point?

We visited family in Portland, did some sightseeing in Oregon, and then drove 5 hours to Idaho. We flew out of Spokane which is a two hour drive. I'm glad we extended our trip because it is a bit far.

We did the Row Adventures Rogue Rafting trip which is not camping but lodge based--highly recommend! First class company all the way!

We did the Rogue through OARS (camping) this summer and it was fantastic!
Is there anything cool to see on those long drives in Washington/Idaho?

We rented a house in Aix-en-Provence which was fantastic, and did day trips to the beaches (Bandol, Sanary, Cassis to see calanques), Nîmes for the Roman arena, Avignon, Les Baux and others. It was fantastic.

There were some mosquitoes when we ate dinner outside but they have good repellant there and a fan helped ward them off. Good luck finding a house with air conditioning, they’re practically nonexistent. I love the giant shutters and method of keeping the house cool during the day.

Anonymous wrote:South of France in August with 4 and 6 year old and some extended family. Stayed in a house overlooking the Mediterranean. Great trip - beach was fantastic for the kids but the mosquitoes were the worst we had ever experienced there. From now on, we ensure rental houses have air conditioning.

Can you share where you were specifically and what you did for activities with the kids besides the beach?

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Anonymous wrote:Went to Malaysian Borneo to see orangutans in the wild, then to Bali and the Gili Islands, ended our trip in Australia to go snorkeling/diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Would return to Borneo, Gili T, and Queensland, probably not Bali.

This sounds great but can I ask what you didn’t like about Bali?

There are no real highways or good roads, so to go anywhere on the island, you’re driving for an hour, and sights are all spread out. Bali is breathtakingly beautiful, but if I went again, I would choose one area and resign myself to only doing/seeing things in that area.

Can you say more about the Gili Islands? What does it take to get there and how worth it did it feel? Thanks. -NP

Gili T was one of my favorite places on the trip! You can get there from either Bali or Lombok by fastboat. So first you have to get to one of those two places, which is obviously involved. There was amazing snorkeling, swimming, and lots of food options. No cars on the island so you get around by foot, bike, or horse-drawn cart. It was so relaxing I didn’t want to leave. Kind of a young spot—most people seemed 20s/30s, hippie backpacker types. Not a lot of families. Interesting fact: there are no police on the island! But it seemed very safe. I don’t know that there’s a ton of super upscale accommodation, if that’s important to you. We were in a “treehouse” Airbnb with a private pool, which was pretty nice. I would 100% go back if I were in the area—it was amazingly relaxing and the locals were genuinely friendly and helpful.

We had a wedding in Madison, WI (at the end of July) and then decided to extend our trip and check out some of the other stuff within driving distance. Kids are 9 and 5.

We flew into Chicago Midway airport on Southwest (so much more pleasant than dealing with the monster that is O'Hare, plus it's closer to downtown). We had two full days in Chicago - LOVED it. It's glorious in the summer. DH and I have both been several times but never with children. They enjoyed Navy Pier, the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, the stores on Michigan Avenue, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Millenium Park. Willis Tower Sky Deck was cool but the wait was ridiculous.

We then drove to Madison and spent a week there. Madison itself is cool- loved the Farmer's Market, took a tour of the state capitol, Henry Vilas Zoo, and the Children's Museum. We stayed right by State Street which was great. Beer and cheese curds on the terrace watching the sunset- delightful. The day trips we took from Madison were: Devil's Lake State Park (FANTASTIC hiking, beautiful scenery), Wisconsin Dells (did the Noah's Ark water park...unsurprisingly WI Dells are tacky but the kids loved it), and Lake Geneva (cute town, but crowded...) Flew out of Madison on a direct Delta flight to DCA.

I'm not sure I'd do this trip if I didn't otherwise have a reason to be in Southern WI/Northern IL, but we enjoyed ourselves!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re:
Sharks in Cape Cod....

We live in Boston and usually go to the cape for a week in the summer.

Sharks are definitely a real thing there. Example, we were fishing on a boat out of Falmouth. 3 people (out of 16 fishing) caught a shark!! Granted, not a great white and not huge (largest was 3 feet) but all scary looking things with sharp teeth!!!

It's definitely a thing, but sharks are also prevalent all along the east coast, especially North Carolina. Just because it is not publicized, doesn't mean it is not happening other places. The truth about sharks would be a devastating blow to the NC tourism industry: "It's a porpoise! It's a dolphin!" Not always.

In Cape Cod, there are specific, concentrated areas of sharks that correspond to where the seals are. It is that simple.

“Concentrated”?
https://www.capecodtimes.com/great-white-sharks-map

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Anonymous wrote:Went to Malaysian Borneo to see orangutans in the wild, then to Bali and the Gili Islands, ended our trip in Australia to go snorkeling/diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Would return to Borneo, Gili T, and Queensland, probably not Bali.

This sounds great but can I ask what you didn’t like about Bali?

There are no real highways or good roads, so to go anywhere on the island, you’re driving for an hour, and sights are all spread out. Bali is breathtakingly beautiful, but if I went again, I would choose one area and resign myself to only doing/seeing things in that area.

Can you say more about the Gili Islands? What does it take to get there and how worth it did it feel? Thanks. -NP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Malaysian Borneo to see orangutans in the wild, then to Bali and the Gili Islands, ended our trip in Australia to go snorkeling/diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Would return to Borneo, Gili T, and Queensland, probably not Bali.

This sounds great but can I ask what you didn’t like about Bali?

There are no real highways or good roads, so to go anywhere on the island, you’re driving for an hour, and sights are all spread out. Bali is breathtakingly beautiful, but if I went again, I would choose one area and resign myself to only doing/seeing things in that area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Malaysian Borneo to see orangutans in the wild, then to Bali and the Gili Islands, ended our trip in Australia to go snorkeling/diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Would return to Borneo, Gili T, and Queensland, probably not Bali.

That sounds like an amazing trip. How long were the flights? And was the snorkeling great or are the reports about the deterioration of the reef accurate?

About 26 hours from the East Coast (not DC). Snorkeling was fabulous! There has been a ton of bleaching, but the reef is the size of Japan, so there are still absolutely beautiful areas.

Anonymous wrote:Re:
Sharks in Cape Cod....

We live in Boston and usually go to the cape for a week in the summer.

Sharks are definitely a real thing there. Example, we were fishing on a boat out of Falmouth. 3 people (out of 16 fishing) caught a shark!! Granted, not a great white and not huge (largest was 3 feet) but all scary looking things with sharp teeth!!!

It's definitely a thing, but sharks are also prevalent all along the east coast, especially North Carolina. Just because it is not publicized, doesn't mean it is not happening other places. The truth about sharks would be a devastating blow to the NC tourism industry: "It's a porpoise! It's a dolphin!" Not always.

In Cape Cod, there are specific, concentrated areas of sharks that correspond to where the seals are. It is that simple.

We went to Normandy and Paris with our two college aged kids. We actually met our DC over there, who was studying abroad in another French city (Lyon) - we stayed a few days in the city before departing for Normandy.

Overall the trip was really nice, but I think that there were some things that we could've done differently for our own benefit. I think that we were a little too ambitious in that amount of driving (and things) that we thought we could do in the period of time we were there. Between driving between all the cities and driving all over Normandy to see the various D-Day sites (one of the main reasons why we went there), we were all exhausted by the time we got to Paris and ended up being too tired to fully take advantage of the city in the 3 days we were there. We also were unfortunately in Paris during peak tourist season (late July), so it was uncomfortably crowded and crazy and really detracted from the enjoyable of it all.

If I could do things differently, I would probably save Paris for another trip and spend the majority of our time in Normandy. Normandy was spectacular and absolutely stunning - and very relaxing. We stayed at a beautiful farm hotel in a seaside village. I could've spent days exploring the food, cider, countryside, seaside, and villages of the region. Would highly recommend. The D-Day beaches and museums were really good too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Row Adventures - The Family Magic Trip. It was very special and I highly recommend. You must be somewhat outdoorsy to really enjoy it though. I think the best parts were - other kids to play with, people from all over the country and really truly being away from everything in a spectacular setting.

https://www.rowadventures.com/family-magic-rafting-trip

We did this trip a couple years ago, and it was our favorite vacation, ever! Highly recommend.

What's the minimum age for this to really enjoy?

Our son was 8, and it was perfect for him. There were a couple kids who were a little younger, maybe 6 or 7,and they did fine.

Oh great! We were planning to wait until our kids were teens to do a similar trip, but maybe we will go sooner.

For vacation, we went to the Bay Area (SF, Berkeley/Oakland, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Monterey). It was awesome!

I also went to Lisbon for work and it was glorious. Perfect weather, beautiful city, delicious food. I would definitely recommend it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South of France in August with 4 and 6 year old and some extended family. Stayed in a house overlooking the Mediterranean. Great trip - beach was fantastic for the kids but the mosquitoes were the worst we had ever experienced there. From now on, we ensure rental houses have air conditioning.

Interesting- would have thought the environment there would be dry enough to prevent mosquitoes- not humid enough or enough rain to allow them areas to breed. The lack of screens on windows in Europe is really weird! I get it in areas without bugs, but why would they not have them where there are bugs?

Strange, we were there in early July and don't recall mosquitoes--maybe we saw one or two, but that's it? None of us got bitten--however, the places we stayed all had A/C (rental house and hotel).