We arrived in Puerto Rico last night and I was reminded about the last time we were in the Caribbean and had a life-changing sunset experience. The sky turned an insane crimson color and stayed that way for what seemed like eternity as far as sunsets go. It was one of those magical nature moments and something we’ll remember forever.

Check out other Photo Friday posts for the week.

Links: Ciao Bambino Caribbean portfolio

Two and a Half Travelers offers pre- and post-baby travel advice. When Kristy Hall, the Founder, asked me to contribute to her blog, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to write about places I love without kids—a fun change of pace! Hindsight is 20/20 and every parent knows and appreciates the value of a babymoon and the last chance to sleep all night for what may be a long, long time. Read about my Top 5 Babymoon Picks and all the other great advice Krisy shares on this important topic.

With good reason many parents have sworn off taking their toddlers on road trips. I, too, have uttered the words “Never Again” on at least a dozen car trips with my two-year-old. Alas, maybe I am stubborn (or just plain foolish) but over New Year’s my husband and I embarked on our first overland vacation with our toddler– a twelve-day road-trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Although at first blush this trip might sound more like slow and steady torture than a sunny, care-free road trip, stick with me. A little pre-planning can go a long way. Here are a few keys to our successful toddler road trip:

Be realistic about your accommodation needs

When traveling with our son, we spend more time in our hotel rooms than they normally would, so we make sure our accommodations have enough space and amenities to recreate some semblance of our home routine.

For the Los Angeles portion of our road trip we based ourselves in walkable, kid-friendly Santa Monica at The Embassy Hotel Apartments. The one-bedroom apartment we booked had a separate bedroom to facilitate smooth naps and a full kitchen and dining area eliminating the torture of eating dinner out with a cranky toddler. We were also able to put our son to bed early one evening and host an impromptu dinner party for some LA-based friends.

Schedule “spontaneous” play time

Like gas stations, restrooms and convenience stores, it’s helpful to know where you can find the next public park. We found a myriad of parks on our route but the two most notable were Alameda Park in Santa Barbara and Shamel Park in Cambria. Both of these public parks had ample opportunities for play, exploration and picnicking.

Even at museums that were more interesting to Mom and Dad, we left time for our son to move around and be “his own boss”.  I admit that this was a lot easier to do at super kid-friendly museums like The Autry National Center,  the Monterey Bay Aquarium, San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences or Muir Woods than at say The Reagan Library, but the results are always worth the effort.

Smile in the face of tantrums but always have a back-up plan

Tantrums are a fact of life on the road. Even the most patient, expressive and congenial toddler will experience a tantrum or two when removed from their comfort zone. We experienced our fair share of crankiness and at times we felt like we were literally tantruming our way up the Pacific Coast Highway. A particularly embarrassing tantrum at an unnamed cafe on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica (where I was informed by a master of the obvious that my two-year-old was having trouble communicating) still makes me smirk.  In addition to challenging each other to keep positive, my husband and I pulled out every crazy distraction technique in the book to keep the peace.

While family road trip plans for the Grand Trunk Road or the Pan American Highway are still several years away, don’t count us out. In the meantime you can follow our evolving training regime.

Kristy Hall is the Mom behind Two and a Half Travelers—a blog offering observations, trends and helpful advice for couples seeking memorable pre and post baby vacations.

Wendy Perrin has traversed the globe with her two young boys (now ages 5 and 6).  As the award-winning Consumer News Editor for Condé Nast Traveler, she knows more than anyone I know about the best (and worst) travel resources. What I love about Wendy’s work is that she provides practical, nitty-gritty details in her articles—names, numbers, URLs—not just high-level advice that leaves you scratching your head for next steps.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to get to know Wendy a bit in our interview—there is much to learn—from how she manages her travel-intensive career and kids to lessons from her own experiences with her boys on the road.

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Your job seems so ideal and exciting from the outside.  What is the reality and how do you balance working and kids?

People think I’m on vacation all the time and I have to clarify that my trips are grueling and hard.  I don’t like to be away from my kids—it’s challenging to reconcile the need to be traveling for work with the fact that I have young boys at home who need me.  Juggling a job and kids is hard for any woman—add travel to that and it is insane.

I used to go away for two plus weeks at a time for a story.  Now I do little trips and try to get more articles out of the time away—the downside is that there is zero relaxation time on the road and I’m working every second so I can get back quickly. My husband is home which is lucky because there is no way this lifestyle would be possible without his flexibility to help care for the kids at home and while we’re traveling on assignment.

How do you feel about taking your kids out of school to travel?

In recent years I’ve tried to take my kids with me whenever possible, but this is getting harder now that they are older because it means I have to take them out of school. Just today I had to tell my son’s school that he’ll be out of class next month—again.  I feel like it is OK since he is in the first grade, but as time passes, this won’t be as easy.

Seeing the world is such an important part of a child’s education—the things they learn while traveling helps them become citizens of the world and to understand what life is really like in other countries.

Of all the places you’ve traveled with your kids, what is your favorite destination with them?

One favorite experience was a trip to Spain where we rented a villa in an extremely rural area where people still live off the land.  My boys had the opportunity to experience this different way of life and it was eye opening for them.  Simple things surprised them like picking oranges every morning and putting them in the hand-press for juice—there is no concept there of a trip to Costco for a year’s supply of breakfast.

Last month we took a Mediterranean cruise that stopped in Egypt.  The boys absorbed such a surprising amount of information—we’d ask them random details and they would know the answers and then bring up what they learned on the trip on their own later. Like the fact that hieroglyphics is language in pictures—we’ll see an example of that and they’ll say “Oh yeah, that’s how the ancient Egyptians did things.”  I prepared them for Egypt with books on the history, pyramids, and mummies—this is part of why all of this stuck in their minds, but the vivid memories are amazing.  My older son Charlie will never forget our camel ride through the desert—it was really bumpy and when he got off the camel his tooth fell out. He put the tooth under his pillow that night with a note in hieroglyphics—lo and behold the tooth fairy came and left a note for him in hieroglyphics (which he could translate, thanks to the books on Egypt). He loved that the tooth fairy visited him in Egypt and takes care of kids all over the world. He will always remember this experience.

One thing we try to always do is take the boys to schools to interact with local kids—this has made a big impression on them.  Irrespective of the color of skin or the language spoken, they realize that kids around the world are just like them.

Your kids-focused tips can be very funny—I laughed out loud when I read the post Top Ten Ways to Occupy Kids on Planes.  Are there any amusing travel moments you want to share here?

Of course there’s the trip to California where both boys threw up next to other passengers … One fun moment was in Jamaica when we visited a school. This particular school was very well supplied with new computers and these little kids were well behaved and seemed so smart. At the time my older son was taking Chinese and when he learned there was a little girl at the school who spoke Chinese too, he went up and said “Ni Hao.” There were in the middle of Jamaica speaking Chinese.  It was so fun and strange.

You often write about finding the best deals on airfare.  What is the key strategy?

Date flexibility is essential to getting the best pricing, although I know this is difficult with school schedules.  Even a day here or there can make a huge difference.  I use travel search engines with flexible date searches like Orbitz, although many of the online flight tools have this now.  Seating is a big issue on planes when traveling with kids—I’m always moving us around the plane on our trips.  On a recent trip to Madrid we were on a 767 with a 2-3-2 seat configuration. Our assigned seats were in adjacent 2-seat rows, but then we learned that there were center seats that were open, so we moved to adjacent 3-seat rows and our kids each had 2 seats for sleeping.

Try and get the best seats possible when you book the tickets by using seatguru.com and seatexpert.com. These websites show detailed seat maps of the best and worst seats on specific flights.  After you book, return to the airline’s site several times before the flight date to see if better seats have opened up. When it’s time to check-in online, do it as early as possible; often you’ll find that seats have opened up that weren’t available before.

At the airport, I often try to switch to better seats by asking the gate agent whether any empty middle seats are available and moving next to them.  Most gate agents are nice to families and try to be as accommodating as possible.  For us, the priority is having extra space for toys, so we avoid the bulkhead.   We also like flights where coach has personal TV screens—seatguru.com and seatexpert.com show you that as well.

Ciao Bambino doesn’t handle cruise lines right now, but I’ve heard feedback that this is a great family travel option. What are your thoughts?

I’ve been on three cruises with my kids and while we’ve had every kind of problem, we’ve also had every kind of fabulous experience.  Cruises are good for a variety of different ages of children because many ships have kids clubs, activities, and programs for specific age groups.  My kids adore these clubs—it is their idea of nirvana and they are protesting when we need to leave.  Meanwhile, my husband and I can be out sightseeing and doing the activities we enjoy.

Selecting the right ship is key. It is essential to find a ship that has appropriate facilities for the age of your kids.  Most cruise lines won’t allow kids who are not potty trained to use the kids club or pool (even the kids pool).  We had an experience where our younger son, who had just turned 3, was kicked out of the kids club on a ship because, even though he was potty trained on land, our routine was turned upside down at sea and he had a few accidents. This was a nightmare: one of our kids was allowed to go to the club, and the other wasn’t!

There are a few toddler-friendly cruise lines like Disney where kids can be in swim diapers. Also, some lines have water parks that all kids can use and kids clubs where diapers are allowed if parents are on hand to change them (but then you can’t leave the ship).  See my article on Cruising with Kids.  Also, cruisecritic.com is a good resource for reviews and they have a family-focused section.

We all have “do-overs,” meaning things we’d do different the second time.  Do you have any to share?

I went to Club Med in Ixtapa when my older son was 17 months old and I was pregnant with my younger son. This trip was a disaster and the property had a lethal layout for a toddler—see my article on the trip.  Ironically, now we could go back to that hotel and my kids would be in seventh heaven. With really young kids you need to take that extra step and do your homework to make trips successful.  There are so many sources of advice for travel with kids—the problem is that every child is so different and what works for one family, may not be right for another.  An example is the advice that when kids are under 2 you can save money by not buying them a seat on an airplane—there is  no way that would have worked with either of my boys—but for my friend with calm daughters, it’s a great idea.

Get more advice from Wendy Perrin on The Perrin Post. Wendy is a regular contributor to Condé Nast Traveler—available via subscription and online at cntraveler.com.

Thank you Cagney Jarvis for forwarding a recent CNN.com article highlighting changes to the admission and ticket process at Italy’s major tourist attractions in Rome, Florence, and Venice.  It is a must-read article if you are planning to visit these cities this year and want to try and avoid lines and crowds.

If you are planning on Tuscany with a toddler-in-tow, check our recent Tips For Enjoying Tuscany with a Toddler post on Heather on Her Travels.com.

Additional Links:

List of the best family-friendly hotels, resorts, and rental properties in Italy

Family travel in Tuscany – Agriturismo Living

This week’s Photo Friday post is about Gene Ray, my father, who over who over the years has shared his love of travel with his children and grandchildren. My love for travel, didn’t just happen, it was developed over multiple family trips throughout my childhood and now into my adulthood.  Every other year, my father hosts a family trip that includes my brother and sister and their children. These trips have formed life-long memories and deepened our family’s bonds.

Over the holidays, I sat down and spoke with my father about his thoughts on the value and logistics of multi-generational trips.

Why do you go through the efforts to do a family trip?  What do you, as a grandfather, get out of it?

It’s a time when the whole family is together and can relax without all the day-to-day requirements of family life—kid activities, household chores and work.  When you remove these elements, it allows for high value family time.  It is this time that brings the family closer together.

What’s your favorite part?

Having real individual time with each member of the family.  I get to connect one on one with the children and grandchildren.  It’s not just the events, but even the moments in between, like when just one of the grandkids and I are eating cereal together, where I get to really just hang-out with each person.  I really attribute the strong bond that the family has maintained, even with the geographical separation, to these trips and connections.

How have the dynamics changed over the years?

Dramatically!!  They have gone from having to worry about your own children’s activities, to being able to watch my children take care of their children and their activities.  The funny thing is that when the two oldest children were 18 and 19, we took the family to Europe- figuring it would be the last time the kids wouldn’t want to travel with us….ha ha ha!  That didn’t happen.  We are still traveling together 25 years later.  Through divorces, geographic dispersement and minimal vacation time allotments, we’ve religiously carved out time for these trips.

What are the ingredients for an enjoyable multi-generational vacation?

Go to places where there is something for everyone to enjoy either doing or seeing-   mostly we’ve done relaxing beach trips that offer a multitude sports so people don’t get bored.  With the exception of Italy, we stay in one large home for the week.  This reduces the travel and logistics while providing the family a common lounging area and a kitchen facility.  The house needs to be big enough for everyone to have some space.  Another key element to the trips is that we have meals brought in or prepared at the house.  Eating out with 9 young kids is seldom an enjoyable experience.  So, this is a huge reduction in both cost and stress.

What’s been the hardest part?

The planning.  Finding the time and the place.  And in a small part- the noise!  With 9 grandchildren we make sure that we have our own space where we can get a way when we need to….although it’s not often!

Where to next?

We tried to pull of a last minute trip to Hawaii over Christmas week in 2008, but were too late to make it happen.  Sixteen middle seats would make for a tough trip.  So we are now planning to go to Maui in 2009.

There are many stories out there about families that have had bad experiences with baby equipment rental companies. Families need and want reliable resources to avoid having to lug heavy, bulky items when traveling—given the number of equipment rental companies out there, how do you ensure that the company you’ve found online is a good option?

Here are the important questions to ask when choosing an equipment rental company:

1.  How is your equipment sanitized? Appropriate sanitation processes can include (but are not limited to) hot water and bleach products, antibacterial wipes, and laundering with baby gentle soaps.

2.  How often are your rental items replaced? The most important thing to remember is that most car seats expire within 7 years and should be replaced.  Other than that you should feel comfortable with the frequency of replacement that the company reports.

3.  What is the company cancellation policy? Be sure to understand deposit, refund and cancellation policies before your order is placed.

4.  Is the company independently owned by parents or grandparents of young children? Larger corporations are likely to be less personable or knowledgeable as moms and dads of current young children.

5.  Does the company guarantee the exact item that is described and/or pictured on their website? Make sure you are getting what you ask for- there is a difference in safety ratings among car seats and other baby gear items.  Some companies feature an item on their website but do not guarantee the exact item shown.  Double-check with the company to make sure you are getting what you are expecting.

6. What information can I provide the company to help me choose the right baby equipment for my baby? By providing your child’s estimated height and weight at the time of travel, the baby equipment rental company can choose appropriate equipment for your child- like car seats, sleeping options and strollers.  Also, let your baby equipment rental company in on some of your travel plans- often times they can come up with a delivery and pick-up plan that will make travel less hectic for you.

Sarah Peters of Sweet Pea Baby Rentals in Phoenix, Arizona, Sarah Wyles of Toddler’s Travels in San Diego, California, and I got together and formed Baby Travel Pros to help families find the best rental options in popular destinations. The website lists independently owned baby equipment rental companies who have established best practices for the sanitization of rental items and safety checks.

The companies affiliated with Baby Travel Pros rent everything from car seats and strollers to toys and wagons to full-size cribs and pack-n-plays. Many of the rental outfits will meet you at car rental counters or deliver your items to hotels and timeshares or even deliver to rental homes or to the homes of relatives. Visit the Baby Travel Pros website to find member baby equipment rental companies companies.

Raquel Quaid is the owner of Las Vegas Baby Equipment Rentals and the Co-Founder of Baby Travel Pros and the Mom of 2 boys.

February is a short month this year—don’t miss this month’s 2-night giveaway at The Westin Verasa Napa. Recently opened, this hotel is on the riverfront in the city of Napa and a perfect home-base for exploring the valley.  The property welcomes the entire family—kids and dogs—plus all rooms include kitchen facilities and a private terrace.  The drawing is for a stay in a one bedroom suite—an enormous room with a pull-out sofa that sleeps 2 kids.  The swimming pool is heated year-round and the hotel is walking distance to Napa’s most famous burger and shake joint—Taylor’s Refresher.  Yum!

To enter the drawing, simply click on the 2-Night Giveaway box on the Ciao Bambino homepage.  That’s it! It takes 2 seconds and don’t worry, your email address will be thrown away after the drawing is is completed on February 28th.

Links: The Grape Adventure – activities with kids in Napa/Sonoma

All-inclusive beach resorts are growing in popularity as more upscale and boutique options emerge—just last weekend the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on the various options that are now available in the Caribbean.  This accommodation category has been heavily marketed to families given the convenient and value-oriented set up for groups at some properties.  Outside of Club Med, I’ve always assumed that all-inclusive was synonymous with generic, mega-resorts, i.e. not that appealing if you like a boutique hotel experience.  Clearly, this assumption is now dated …

We’ve had little exposure to all-inclusive beach resorts, so I was thrilled to exchange emails with my friend Shawn, an executive from General Mills in Minneapolis (kids ages 7 and 11), who traveled with his family to Azul Sensatori property Mexico—the Azul website describes this property as gourmet inclusive.  Shawn shared some eye-opening feedback with me after their trip—clearly, these properties have distinct pros and cons and need to be evaluated carefully to figure out if they can meet expectations.

Here is what Shawn wrote about their experience:

1.  Food. A large part of the business model seems to be based on having a commissary type (buffet) restaurant that serves all meals.  This restaurant is the high margin, crank them through joint.  The better this particular restaurant is, the better the entire experience will be.  If I was booking an all-inclusive again, I would ask several questions about the restaurants on site.  The key question seems to be how many restaurants exist beyond the commissary restaurant and how the reservation system works.  At Azul Sensitori you could not make reservations unless you had at least 8 in your party.  If you did not, and you showed up at any point after 6:30, you were told it would be an hour or two…but “you can always be seated immediately at Spoon!”  I am a big foodie, so I am not sure I will ever do an all inclusive again, because I think it may be impossible for them to do food well.  (My kids thought Spoon rocked…what do I know).

2.  Room location and layout. Azul is a great example of what I think exists elsewhere.  There was a family section, “Azul” section, and a Premium section.  The “Azul” section was a blended area of families and non-kid visitors.  Every element of the layout was upgraded as you moved from the kid section to the Premium section.  Yet, it was not clear how different the rates were.  The rates were sold more as “balcony”, “swim up”, ocean view, etc.  We were in the kid building.  I would have preferred the Azul building facing the Premium building.  It was kind of like not asking what seats at the football game you had and then finding out you paid the same as the guy sitting on the 50 yard line while you were in the bleachers.  I would press hard for the exact room and location before I went.

3.  Activities and location. We like to get out and do things every couple days.  I would do a better job of asking about the top 10 excursions and time/cost to do a few of them.  It would be great if you could book them in advance, but I still always feel like I am going to get jobbed unless I do it face to face when I am there.  It took me a day to really find the person who knew how to best book excursions.  Once I did, it was easy.  I would say that our location ended up being excellent.  Very central to many things.  I would want assure that again.  I would also ask more about the beach.  The beach in this area is just weak.  I guess I knew this, but when you can’t really get a good run in on the beach, that is a bummer.  There was one benefit. As I went for a run, I found out the resort two up from us was a nude resort—an unwelcome surprise.

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We don’t have many all-inclusive resorts on Ciao Bambino (most are ranch vs. beach properties)—but our request process supports giving our users the ability to ask for clarification on any property detail via our Check Availability link. This is why I don’t like electronic booking engines for families since there is no opportunity to understand exactly what you are getting before you confirm a room.

Does anyone else have feedback on all-inclusive experiences? If so, please make a comment here or send an email to info@ciaobambino.com.

Paris is known for its great food and bustling café life and not, unfortunately, for its kid-friendly restaurants. Children are expected to sit at the table and enjoy their food like little adults. The tearoom/restaurant at the Bonpoint flagship store is an exception to this rule. It is a great restaurant that happens to accommodate kids and their parents.

It is a wonderfully stylish place, the food is fantastic with Italian influences, and the environment beautiful. But, at the same time, they have highchairs and books etc. to entertain the kids (truly a rare thing in Paris!). The stunning terrace at the back of the shop is in a shady courtyard surrounded by century-old chestnut trees. Kids can get up and play and their parents can enjoy their food and drink!

The shop itself is certainly worth visiting while you’re in town.  They put on quite a ‘show’ with their stunning displays in eight different rooms (more than 1,000 square meters).  They also have a life-size tree house where your little ones can keep themselves entertained and little tables for your kids to draw. Not much to complain about this setup …

Emilie writes for Babyccino from Paris.