I finally made it to Burano on our last family trip to Venice. This colorful fishing village is an island in the Venetian archipelago. There’s not much to do there other than stroll, shop, and eat a fresh seafood lunch, but it’s unique and fun to pair with a trip to a glassblowing factory in Murano. Burano also is famous for traditional lacemaking and there’s a lacemaking museum, Museo del Merletto, to visit as well. Although, that was a tough sell for my boys so we didn’t go.

When I say colorful village, I mean colorful …

We were lucky enough to escape to Bora Bora sans offspring a few years ago. Tahiti is a tropical fairytale with bright blue water, lush forests, fantastic flowers, and exotic local culture.

We stayed at the Bora Bora Nui Resort in an over-the-water bungalow. We enjoyed it, although, I can’t say the resort itself was as memorable as the overall scenery, i.e. you could stay just about anywhere here and be wowed.

When you ski in the Alps, you’re skiing mountains not runs. The sense of open space is incredible and one of the things that makes skiing in Switzerland so epic.

Here’s a shot of our 9-year-old Devon skiing in Grindelwald, Switzerland last weekend. Believe it or not, this was taken on a bluebird Saturday, i.e. where are the other people?

Ever since I watched (and re-watched) the movie English Patient, I’ve dreamed of seeing the Sahara Desert sand dunes in North Africa.

When I planned our family trip to Morocco in October, I was determined to include sand dunes in our itinerary. A task that proved challenging and ultimately, impacted every stop we made on our trip. I quickly realized that no matter how you organize sightseeing stops in Morocco, a trip to the dunes involves 10+ hours of driving through remote parts of the country.

If you didn’t know better and arrived in the city of Lugano on Lake Lugano, you’d think you were in Italy. You hear Italian, it looks Italian, and it tastes Italian. Surprise, surprise — the city of Lugano is part of the Ticino region of Switzerland.

We had an parents-only getaway to Lake Lugano this fall. The scenery is very striking with rugged mountains that rise right out of the lake.

The highlight of Marrakech for adults and kids alike is undoubtedly the medina (old city). Stepping into the medina is like landing on another planet — one where the same traditions have been in place for hundreds of years.

The medina is comprised of a network of souks — open-air markets — where anything and everything is on display. Many of the handicrafts are produced within the market and you can watch artisans at work. This is the only shopping experience we’ve encountered thus far in our travels that our 8-year-old has enjoyed.

I kicked off 10 day tour of Morocco with my family in Marrakech this week. We’ve had a marvelous stay at the new Four Seasons Marrakech, but otherwise the highlight here is without a doubt the exotic medina, the largest of its kind in North Africa. More on that soon!

As I begin my coverage of Morocco on the Ciao Bambino blog, I want to acknowledge that we are not impervious to feelings of uncertainty …

I’m at the new Aulani resort on Oahu this week with travel writers from around the country checking out Disney’s latest family vacation hotspot.

Stay tuned for a full report on the blog … In the meantime, I’ll share a few photo-friendly moments from our surf lesson with Hawaiian Fire, a local Honolulu-based surf school run by area firefighters for Photo Friday.

One of the toughest parts about traveling in Washington DC with kids is that there’s so much to see and do. Even when you narrow down the “must see” there’s still a great deal of physical ground to cover.

Getting to and from so many monuments and memorials takes time and can wear on travelers young and old. So when I discovered Bike and Roll, I ran, or should I say rolled, with it.

Every family trip has those truly memorable moments that you talk about forever. Sometimes it’s the travel nightmares that make an entertaining story (producing smiles only in the back end), sometimes it’s an extraordinary experience that sticks in our minds, while on other occasions what we remember is those funny moments that aren’t big bang experiences, but a time when we witness something simple yet utterly foreign.

Like this moment on our family safari in Africa.