Rick Seaney is the CEO of the airfare news, research, and tracking resource FareCompare. This website is always my first stop before booking tickets as it provides instant price and route information through multiple channels at once to easily compare and contrast options.

Rick is an incredible source of industry information and insight. I interviewed him earlier this week for his take on the important airline industry happenings that will impact family travel in 2012.

Something about moving into a new year and staring at an empty calendar gets my mind spinning about travel — where to go in 2012?

The first item of business is blocking off precious vacation days. Once that task is complete, the fun work begins. What places are top of mind year? I put the question to Amie, Dana, Anna and Kristi, as well as to my children.

Families are traveling. This isn’t news, particularly to anyone that has vacationed over the past few years — kids are everywhere!

The difference now is where people want to take their children. We took a quick bucket list poll on our Facebook page and even this brief snapshot is telling; target family travel destinations for 2012 include Ireland, Umbria (Italy), Costa Rica, Dubai, South Africa, Istanbul (Turkey), and Canada. Parents want to experience the world with their children; gone are the days when kids need to be “old enough” to travel abroad.

Last winter my 7th grade daughter brought home information about the school trip to Washington, DC. She wanted to go, but said she’d rather do DC with the family instead of her friends. Once the shock wore off, I started planning almost instantly. Being organized is the key to exploring DC with the kids.

Plan Ahead & Reserve, Reserve, Reserve

Unless your kids are fans of waiting in long lines, do your homework. Have a family discussion, decide what you’d like to do and get busy …

Like clockwork, the night before we are heading out of town I hear the, “Mom, I have a sore throat.” Given that I have four kids, aka mini petri dishes, it’s not uncommon for one of them to be sick, or brewing some sickness at all times.

Over the years, we’ve discovered that being prepared and having a plan of action saves both time and worry while traveling with kids.

As families head into summer, a mild panic starts to set in as we finalize travel planning and seasonal activities with our kids. Of course, all the upcoming fun is a great excuse to shop!

Here’s our summer travel retail therapy “like” and “want” list. I love that these ideas from moms living on both coasts in the US and across the Atlantic are varied, yet all help make travel easier and more enjoyable. What’s on your list?

We are avid hikers and took our son on his first trail when he was just a few months old. Now that we live in Switzerland — the land of epic hiking — spending time exploring new terrain is a regular all-family activity.

I get a constant stream of family travel tips from various writers in my inbox every day. I have to admit that many of them are simply too basic to publish or seem written by people who don’t actually have children.

This was our first international trip with our son and it was a big one. We traveled from Seattle, WA all the way to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania with a layover in Amsterdam. Two 10-hour flights and a 3-hour layover. Friends thought we were crazy. Maybe we were. But we made it and had a great flight and trip!

Here are the most impactful and important …

I don’t have my summer plans booked yet. April’s here — it’s time to get serious about the holiday schedule. During the brainstorming part of vacation planning, I like to think about things in terms of the kind of experience I’ll have in a destination: Mountains, Seaside/Beach, City, Countryside, and Lake (we categorize our hotel reviews on CB the same way).

Here are our top picks for 2011 family summer vacation ideas.

I have a routine when I plan a family adventure. It starts with a notebook that holds hours of research and eventually a flexible itinerary. Getting the trip together requires a lot of work, but the payoff of a great trip is worth it. My family all agreed for spring break this year, we wanted to escape to Costa Rica. A year ago, when we took off for Spain with the kids, we rented a car and went exploring on our own. But this year the rules are different.

A middle school calendar and a daughter whose blood pressure skyrockets …