Canadian family travel bloggers Archives — Thrifty Mommas Tips

Making Family Memories Through Travel

Paula — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 13:33:12 +0000

“The days are long, but the years are short,” That quote by Gretchen Rubin haunts me as a parent. You have no idea how relevant that is until you become a parent and you are staring at a sick infant or a pile of laundry through zombie Mom eyes one moment, followed by the realization that your baby is now graduating from high school but a beat later. Time defies all logic when you are a parent. This is a little piece of why I travel with my family. Making family memories is something that’s especially important these days. I remember a time when I thought my kids would never grow up. It seemed like I’d have those years forever. Now, my oldest is getting ready to graduate from high school, and my youngest is hot on her heels. Where before, time seemed to sometimes pass by so slowly, it’s now traveling at warp speed. Every day, it seems like the kids are older and more independent, and I know the time is coming when they’ll spread their wings and fly from the nest. That’s why it’s so important to me to use travel as a tool to make family memories that last even after they’re grown and flown. Making Family Memories Now Although making lifelong memories has always been high on my list, there was a time when I first started my business when that fell down the ladder a bit. It never really felt like I had all the time in the world, but it did feel like I needed to work all the time and money was tight when kids were small. So I pushed my business forward hard. But time doesn’t stand still. Milestones happen whether you are watching for them or not. There came a point where we had more than enough toys and decided that making family memories through travel was high priority. Now. Not later. Now is all we’re really promised, and it’s important to make the most of that time. That’s why family travel is so important to me. It’s the perfect way to forge lifelong memories that unite the family no matter where we all end up. Recent Memories This past fall, my family took an RV camping trip through several Northern Ontario Parks. We’d always wanted to do it but we’d never been able to find the right scheduling to make it happen. Finally, my husband and I just decided that we would make it happen. A few weeks of planning and shuffling schedules around had us in the RV and on our way to some of the most beautiful country in all of this province. In September, we picked up an RV and took our first ever trip through five of Ontario’s Parks in five days!! Of all our recent adventures, this one ranks the highest across the board for all of us. We had days filled with laughter and campfires and so many adventures. It was one of the best trips we’ve had, and I know it will remain in our hearts forever. Prior to that amazing family experience I had a one on one mother daughter trip with my youngest girl, sporty spice, through Philadelphia. That trip was our time together and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. When Payton was younger I took her with me on a Puerto Vallarta mother daughter trip. Mother daughter travel has become extremely important to me as a Mom. It’s something I wish I had been able to do more with my own Mom, so I build experiences with both of my girls. Philadelphia was charming and fun and we explored museums and the zoo and the Eastern State Penitentiary too. Together, we learned new things, sampled new foods and shared a lot of laughs. Making Family Memories Last with Collage.com Although we’ll always have the memory of this trip in our hearts and minds, I wanted to commemorate one of our best family getaways yet with something special. I went to Collage.com and had a framed poster print made of the three best photos from our RV trip. All three were shots of our family together, which makes me happy to see on the gallery wall in the basement of our home. Oh The Places… I picked a saying to go on the print – “Oh The Places You’ll Go” – because travel with the girls feels so full of potential and yet so urgent. This will remind us of all the amazing adventures we’ve had and the ones we’ll have in the future. I also had an absolutely gigantic personalized puzzle made for Ainsley, my youngest. She’s 14 now, and for as long as she’s had manual dexterity, she’s loved puzzles. They also help her focus and calm down, which is great. I know she’ll love this massive, 1,000+ puzzle featuring 4 big photos of us on our summer trip to Philadelphia together. It was just the two of us, and it was a magical time for us both. Making Family Memories Last with a Giveaway! I know how much we all love giveaways, and because I love Collage.com so much, I’m offering a great giveaway here for my readers. This one is epic! But even if you don’t win, you should head over to collage.com to start making family memories last in a fun, unique way! We received product for consideration here. My opinion is all my own. Entry-Form

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How to Embrace Self Care Before Every Trip

Paula — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:12:40 +0000

Before every trip here I have a list of work obligations and personal details to get through. Not going to lie. Sometimes it gets hairy. One by one each task slowly gets ticked off my To Do List. Of course there’s packing and getting organized, but those are mostly routine jobs I can do quickly. I also have a specific self care routine that allows me to strive towards being in good health during the trip. That means paying attention to a few consistent things before every trip. Travel is truly an epic adventure always and it’s also hard work sometimes. Around here, in my world, travel can take the form of amazing Familiarization Tours, which I love, but sometimes that schedule is gruelling. And don’t even get me started on airplane travel and airports. These trips can be laid back too, but more often it’s work and running from place to place striving to gather details to string together content is the natural rhythm. When travel writing is a part of your livelihood you need to be ready to go when your feet hit the ground. Believe me I have learned from my mistakes. My hardest and longest international flight ever to South Africa was gruelling. I was getting over bronchitis and couldn’t miss this amazing trip because I had been chosen for a Shot at Life fellowship. DRAGGED myself through four different airports to get there and wished I was in a wheelchair when I was standing in line for entry to South Africa after about 18 hours of travel. But I aim to avoid ever being that sick while traveling. Getting sick is sometimes unavoidable. But I work hard to keep my body and mind strong before a trip. So, with that in mind here is a little bit about how I take charge of my self care and health before I travel. This week I am leaving for a big sponsored RV trip with Ontario Parks. My family is also coming along of course and it should be amazing. Can’t wait to hike and get outside and explore Ontario’s North and some provincial parks I have not yet seen. But, I am also taking care of me right now so that I can do all the things and have a blast. My Self Care Routine Before Every Trip Step up the exercise routine. Even if I have hours before a flight I spend them at the gym working out. More than a couple of my friends don’t really get this. But I need to go into the flight or road trip knowing I made every effort to stretch and be healthy. Today I did Centergy which is essentially pilates. Monday I did Yoga and Tuesday I attended Centergy also. If I have a moment tomorrow I will go for a long walk before we set off. My person goal for 2018 was to move more often and this is a task I take seriously before I venture off on a trip. There’s so much sitting involved in planes and cars, and RV trips too. So that I don’t stiffen up or lose energy I do multiple group workouts in the days before every trip. Hydrate. I wish my kids understood this one by now. One day they’ll get there. Travel is exhausting and drying. Airplanes and airports are germs and extremely dry. Drink now. Water, water and more water. Drink all the way down the road or highway to the airport and be sure you start a couple of days before. Today I am loading up on water and I will keep that up all the way there and back. Hydrating with water is a huge part of my process when I am getting ready to travel. Sleep. Last night I was dog tired at 10 p.m. so I shut it all down and went to sleep. My youngest daughter even climbed into my bed for a cuddle and she ended up falling asleep too. Kind of comical. Don’t shortchange your sleep before a trip. Better sleep is an ongoing goal here too. It’s hard not to be excited but sleep is crucial to how you function. Eat Well. Whether it’s solo travel, business travel or family travel, I make sure we have a healthy home-cooked meal here before we go. When you are on the road you don’t always know where or when the next restaurant will appear. You might not know where the grocery stores are and the timing might simply be off for finding grocery stores and the like. So it makes me feel much better if we all have had one solid healthy meal before every trip. Medicine. It’s no secret that my family takes medication for some unique health issues here. So a big part of my routine is making sure we have all the medicine and multi-vitamins organized and ready to go. That one is right up there with passports and once I have done all of these things before every trip then I know I have done my best to head into the experience with a healthy mind, body and attitude. Check out this Keeping your Medicine Cabinet Organized post. Do you have any self care tips before you travel?

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My 13 Favourite Things About Cruising #Travel

Paula — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 13:19:17 +0000

I am a cruising fangirl. I can’t get enough of cruising. We have only just recently, in the past 2 years, discovered cruising as a wonderful form of family travel. We returned late last year from our second ever family cruise which helped reaffirm for us that cruising works for our family. We love cruising for a host of reasons. Here are just a few reasons family cruising is one of my favourite forms of travel. There are so many great reasons to travel with your family and so many ways to make that happen. From resorts to deep travel, to vacation homes, lifestyle communities and even timeshare properties, there’s something out there to meet the needs of every traveller. My own family used to rely almost exclusively on All Inclusive Resort travel with kid’s clubs that were heavy on the family activities and excursions. We have branched out though in the last couple of years. The kid’s ages have, in one way, made it simpler to expand our vacation needs and in another way, have also made us more available to exploring and taking chances. My one caveat here is that kids who are over the age of 12 are more expensive to travel with, so be warned about that if you are budgeting. When we took our first family cruise we were nervous about how it would work out. But we loved it more than we ever imagined. As a travel blogger I am more adventuresome than some travellers, but when it’s my family trip for the year and I am using those precious few vacation days that my husband gets as well, then I am cautious and I want to be pretty certain that our trips will be memorable and worth the money that we spend. Cruising so far has exceeded our expectations that way. My 13 Favourite Things About Cruising: New horizons: Waking up in a New Destination almost every day. This is my joy when I cruise with my family. Going to sleep in one country and waking up in another is exhilarating. My favourite memory of this occurred on our first cruise. After sailing all night, we woke up in Honduras. It was green and lush and breathtaking. It was magical! You step outside on the balcony and there it is a brand new adventure ready to explore. Roatan, Honduras made me so happy. Such a beautiful view to wake up to. Same can be said of Bahamas. Family Time. Cruises are very family friendly and when we are all on a cruise ship we get to share several days with each other, without any interruptions. Just family time. That is precious, especially as the kids get older. The amazing activities aboard. The two cruise ships we have been on had numerous water slides and the last one on Norwegian Escape had a ropes course, a high ropes course, mini golf and a plank out over the ocean. SO so much fun! You really could just stay on the boat all week and be happy. The excursions. There are so many great things to do off the ship too. It’s always hard to choose because there are too many fun options. We filter by age and size. Sometimes things like zip lining and scuba diving or snuba diving say you must be a specific age, say 14 plus so that helps us narrow some of the options down. The food. Simply awesome on both cruises we have taken. Exceptional food! The service. They treat you well and staff ratio is very high on cruise ships we have been on. My daughter actually made friends with the man who made up our room every day. That was on our first cruise and he went out of our way on the Carnival Cruise we took to make sure everything was perfect. Being disconnected. Oh sure you can pay extra for minutes of wifi at sea. Or you can happily enjoy that you are not connected for a couple of days. Maybe take the full week off of tweeting and posting to Facebook. I feel like there are very few places in the world anymore where I can disconnect. The cruise ship is one of those places. The sleep. I swear to you. I am not joking when I say that I sleep amazingly well on a cruise ship. Some of my best sleep ever has taken place on a cruise ship. Maybe it’s because I am exhausted or maybe it’s the movement of the boat. Not sure why, but BOY do I love sleeping on a cruise ship. I feel great after a good night’s sleep there. Kid’s activities and clubs. I feel like this is a crucial part of our holiday wherever we go with kids but on a cruise ship they tend to do this really well. The kids have loved kid’s clubs. The view. There’s so much to love about an ocean view. I talked about this with my older daughter recently. She says: I love the ocean because it makes me feel the world is very big and I am very small. I personally love to see the size of the ocean up close because it reminds me how remarkable the world is and how fortunate we are to live right now, right here. [tweetthis]There’s so much to love about an ocean view. #travel[/tweetthis] The sail away party. You work hard and you deserve a vacation. When it’s time for the cruise ship to finally set sail, and for the holiday to begin, you can’t help but feel excited. You are ready for a break and you want to celebrate. The sail away party is cathartic. People get right into it. The kids do too. Have fun! Towel animals. I know that sounds silly, but towel animals are fun. They are the adorable little touch that you only find here on a cruise ship. Ports of call. Ports of call make me happy, because where else could you possibly visit 4 different countries or islands in one week and sample each one? Maybe you will find an island or other destination you want to return to and explore at length in the future. I love getting a day long peek into a place like Atlantis, Bahamas, or Roatan, Honduras. It’s like sampling all the desserts on the menu. Cruising is a great way to spend a family vacation. It can be very affordable too.

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What is a Timeshare? Mini-Series – Part 3 – The Best Properties #travel

Paula — Wed, 27 May 2015 15:34:45 +0000

What is a Timeshare – Where to Look for Properties In previous articles, I answered the question, “What is a timeshare” I’ve also covered the pros and cons of owning a timeshare. I have been interested in timeshare properties as travel options for busy families. This series has let me explore some of the research and details about timeshare travel options and investments. This is my final instalment of the series. Now that you know what a timeshare is and the pros and cons of owning one, let’s look at some of the best places to own a timeshare. Look for the Best Return on Investment As I mentioned in “What is a Timeshare? Know the Pros and Cons of Investing”, you generally don’t see a good ROI. In fact, if you resell your timeshare, the price will almost always be less than what you paid. Because of that, you want to make sure you purchase a timeshare in an area or resort with high demand. This will help ensure that you don’t lose too much when you decide to sell. So when considering the questions of what is a timeshare and the best place to look for one, you want to find highly rated resorts and resort communities. This ensures that the timeshare you’re purchasing will always be in high demand and therefore sell at a higher price than normal timeshares. The Top Timeshares I did a little research on the most in-demand timeshares for my “What is a Timeshare” series. As a travel blogger who sometimes also writes about money and health, I have been genuinely interested in this form of travel for a few years now. So this series took shape in my mind first. But I learned a few interesting things I wanted to share. I found some timeshare properties that are consistently in demand and highly rated. Timeshares like these are high demand, which means once you get your hands on one, the resale value will be pretty good. Disney’s Beach Club Villas Harborside Resort at Atlantis Disney’s Boardwalk Villas Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Marriott’s Grande Ocean Disney’s Old Key West Resort The Royal Sands Kaanapali Beach Club These are just a few of the timeshares I found that consistently receive high ratings and that are in high demand. Now that you know the answer to “What is a timeshare”, it’s time to decide if owning a timeshare is right for you. If it is, find one that you love and that is also in high demand. That way you can enjoy it while you own it and not take such a hit when you sell it. What do you Think? Do you own a timeshare? If so where?

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Five Alberta Attractions You Can’t Miss

Paula — Tue, 26 May 2015 02:56:59 +0000

There’s a lot to love about the province of Alberta. I have been a couple of times and would love to go back. If you’re headed to Alberta for any reason, try your best to take in some of the beauty and fun of these great Alberta attractions. 5 Alberta Attractions You Can’t Miss Alberta is a beautiful province, and from the natural beauty of its many national parks, to its ski hills and, to the fun and excitement of its cities, these Alberta attractions are must sees. Best Alberta Attractions Alberta is a province boasting both man made and natural beauty. It has several national parks as well as cities with some great family activities as well. With everything they have to offer, Alberta attractions don’t disappoint. 1. Banff National Park Banff National Park is about 130 kilometers west of Calgary, and it’s the most visited of the natural Alberta attractions. Regarded by many as the most impressive national park in Canada, Banff National Park boasts jaw dropping mountain scenery, ski resorts, gorgeous lakes, and the tourist town of Banff itself. In addition to the natural beauty and ski resorts of the area, it also teems with grizzlies, black bears, wolves, caribou, and elk. Most all of these are frequently seen along the park’s main highway. In fact, Banff National Park is one of the best Alberta attractions for nature lovers. Its main summer draw is hiking either the front country or back country trails. If you’re not interested in taking in the beauty by foot, you can stop at many roadside lookouts for impressive views of the mountains, lakes, and glaciers. 2. Calgary Stampede If you prefer your wildlife excitement more contained, The Calgary stampede is a great choice in Alberta attractions. This 10 day event held in early July is one huge rodeo that draws participants from all over North America. During these 10 days, Calgary is the place to be for rodeo attractions, cultural exhibits, country music, and other outdoor diversions. Another plus is that many stores and restaurants around Calgary get in on the act. Most restaurants offer free Stampede Breakfasts, decorated windows can be seen on most stores, EVERYBODY wears cowboy hats and boots, and temporary petting zoos abound in local parking lots. We have yet to visit this event and would love to. It’s a Canadian family travel bloggers dream. [tweetthis]This Alberta attraction made number 3 on my list. #travel[/tweetthis] 3. West Edmonton Mall This is one of the best Alberta attractions for those who aren’t interested in the great outdoors. This is more than just a mall. This gargantuan campus houses all the shops you could ask for in a mall as well as a water park, ice rink, mini golf course, aquarium, and movie theaters. This is the destination to visit if you’ll be in Alberta during the winter months. I once visited when I was in town for conference. It’s quite amazing to see. 4. The Calgary Tower This tower is one of the top Alberta attractions, and the prime tourist spot in Calgary. This giant tower, standing above everything around it, has the highest 360 degree observation deck in the world, and on clear days, you can see wonderful views of the mountains in the region. On a day without quite so much visibility, you can get a bird’s eye view of the city with the deck’s glass floor. The Calgary Tower even has a couple of highly rated restaurants, with Sky 360, a revolving restaurant with an elevation of 155 meters, being the one of choice for visitors. 5. Drumheller This is one of the prime Alberta attractions for those who love natural history. Drumheller is a town about 140 kilometers northeast of Calgary. It calls itself the “Town of Dinosaurs” because of the many fossils discovered in and around the town. While you’re there, you can visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology which displays some of the fossil finds of the area, as well as offering a thorough history of the area. The Drumheller landscape is primarily bandlands which offer a unique beauty in and of themselves. A few hiking trails in the area will take you past hoodoos and through unique and interesting rock formations. It even has a driving tour, The Dinosaur Trail, which will take you through some of the area’s main attractions. Any child would love this! Alberta Attractions Have Something for Everyone Whether you love hiking, camping, shopping, the rodeo, or even dinosaurs, Alberta attractions have something for everyone. There’s no shortage of things to do and see in this beautiful province. So the next time you’re planning a vacation, why not consider a trip to see all the great Alberta attractions the province has to offer. Every Tuesday I post a perpetual travel linky for travel bloggers, writers, photographers and of course Canadian family travel bloggers too. Share your favourite posts and I will visit and comment. Take some time to discover others like you.

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