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.

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.

I just got back from a whirlwind week at the annual International Luxury Travel Market show in Cannes, France. This invite-only event for the luxury travel community brings exhibitors (hotels, destinations, service providers) together with buyers (tour operators and travel agencies) to dialog share the latest and greatest trends and offerings in luxury travel.

I attended ILTM as media to cover our beloved space, Family Travel. I’m thrilled to report that the luxury travel community absolutely has families on their mind.

If you’re a travel blogger, chances are you’ve either met Jennifer Miner or have seen her speak at an industry event. Jennifer, aka SoCalGal of The Vacation Gals, is one of the leading voices in the blogosphere and a networking goddess.

Jennifer has put together a mini-conference at the Vallarta Suite Resort & Convention Center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for bloggers of all flavors from January 5-8, 2012. The one entry requirement is that the blogger must be a parent and/or publishing content for parents. This group, known as Mommy Bloggers …

Thank you to everyone who entered our Luxury Family Travel Giveaway sponsored by CiaoBambino, Poshbrood and LuxuryTravelMom. We had almost 3,000 entries and it’s easy to see from the comments we received that our readers love Four Seasons hotels and resorts as much as we do!

In case you haven’t heard the news, we’re running an incredible giveaway right now for THREE different stays at a Four Seasons hotel. Get the full details and contest rules on our Four Seasons Luxury Family Travel Giveaway page or just head right to our Facebook Four Seasons Contest page to enter.

Important Note: All three participating bloggers — Ciao Bambino, Poshbrood, and Luxury Travel Mom …

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.

Fourth of July is synonymous with summer fun.

Parades loaded with kids on decorated bikes, fireworks, barbecues, warm pie with ice cream and sunshine. The list could go on, but you get the idea. Even having lived through years of cold patriotic celebrations in San Francisco, one thing I don’t think of on Independence Day is snow.

This year things are different.

Ciao Bambino was recently invited for a two-day media event to check out what’s new for summer 2011 at Disneyland Resort. If you haven’t been to the park in awhile, now is a great time to visit!

New rides, a “soundsational” parade in Disneyland, and a huge expansion at Disney’s California Adventure mean families with kids of all ages can partake in new experiences.

CB’s Nancy Solomon and Kristi Marcelle are lucky enough to be on the Disney Dream inaugural cruise this week. Talk about media buzz! There’s been a stream of constant chatter. I even saw a tweet yesterday calling the cruise, “The event of the decade.”

We’ll publish official reports from them when they return, but in the meantime, Nancy has sent fun photos for a peek at all the action.