Planning Family Holidays Leads to Stressed Out Parents

In an article on travelmole.com by Phil Davies, called
‘Planning family holidays leads to stressed out parents,' he listed family psychologist Dr. Sheila Keegan’s top tips to ‘peacefully brokering family holidays’, according to Virgin Holidays:

"1. Let every family member have their say and try to incorporate something for everyone

2. Don’t over-plan. Accept that the unexpected is often the most fun – allow time for it.

3. Build in some time when you each do different things. You will have more to share when you get together in the evening

4. Try to incorporate different activities and a different pace – it will make the holiday seem longer

5. Teenagers are desperate to be with other teenagers, so consider group holidays where you can all meet new friends and you can spend time with your partner.

6. Choose holiday where you have lots of contact with local people. It greatly adds to the experience and it can help children develop their social skills and independence."

Last Forbidden Buddhist Kingdom

In Patricia Schultz's '1,000 Places to See Before You Die,' in an article called, 'The Kingdom of Mustang,' she said, "Surrounded by Tibet on three sides and governed by a Tibetan royal family, Mustang--a kingdom within a kingdom--survives as one of the last remnants of ancient Tibet.

Although nominally integrated into the kingdom of Nepal in the early 1950s, it remains largely autonomous, and much of its medieval cultural fabric has survived. In fact, Mustang is said to be more like Tibet before the Chinese occupation than Tibet itself, filled with ancient walled fortress-villages and monasteries hewn from the rock, displaying a muted natural palette of grays and variegated rusty reds.

Like much of Tibetan plateau, the landscape is rugged and austere, a dramatic high desert terrain flanked by towering peaks, including the snowcapped Annapurnas to the south.

Though Nepal opened to tourism in the 1950s, Mustang's sensitive position along the Tibet border kept it off-limits until 1992, when the Nepali government began admitting a trickle of foreign tourists. Ironically, Mustang was well traveled in the past, its ancient trade routes dating back more than 1,000 years.

Its treeless vistas must have appeared distant and extraordinary to European traders returning from China with their precious cargo. They would have been as hard pressed as today's trekkers to explain the otherworldliness of it all."

Just Add Water

In an article written by John Seewer of the Associated Press, called "Just Add Water," he talks about traveling for adventure. Water parks are a great way for people to keep busy while traveling.

He said, "Shelby Peska yells as she zips down the Thunderfalls waterslide ride at Geauga Lake Park's Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, Ohio.

Smiling and screaming all at once, Joe Hoffman and his nine-year-old daughter Mackenzie tightly grabbed their raft as they rocketed into a giant funnel and splashed into a pool of water.

They spent the day at Paramount's Kings Island riding the twisting tube slides while the rest of the family swam in the children's pools.
"We stayed an extra day because of the water park," said Hoffman, of Toledo.

Theme parks of all sizes are discovering a new recipe to attract more thrill-seekers and families -- just add water.

Unlike a looping steel roller coaster, lazy rivers and speed slides appeal to the entire family and are cheaper to build.

"They're just fun. People don't go to the beach or lake like they used to," said Bill Spehn, general manager of Geauga Lake, an amusement park near Cleveland. "They're now going to a water park."

The park is spending $26 million US over the next two years to create what it is says will be the largest water park in Ohio. The first section opened this year.

For about what it would cost to build a new roller coaster, Spehn said, "you can do an outstanding water park for $20 million and create something that is good all day."

Six Flags Great America near Chicago built a new water park for 2005 that features 25 slides and an interactive playground with water cannons and a volcano that erupts every few minutes. It also has cabanas for rent -- with your own waiter -- where visitors can have lunch or take a nap..."

Water parks are popping up all over the place and are really great for kids and adults alike.

Air Seats

Have you ever had a great flight and vowed only to travel on that same airline for future travel? Then the next time, the same airline seems a little bit less comfortable and you can't understand why? Sometimes, within the same plane certain seats are actually bigger, and provide more space for passengers.

In an article called, "Choose your air seat with care," Doug English of Sun Media wrote, "Size matters. So does seat location. Ask anyone -- the vertically challenged excepted -- who has done a long-haul flight in economy.

Airline hell, for me, would be the middle seat on one of those foreign charter airlines that really scrimps on space. I know because that's what I was once assigned for a flight from Toronto to Mexico, and I ended up standing most of the way.

The carrier was British-owned Air 2000, which I'd never heard of but which my lumbar region has never forgotten. The problem was pitch -- the distance between two seats, one behind the other. It's measured in inches; for centimetres, multiply by 2.5. Air 2000's seat pitch is only 29 inches, two inches less than that of most scheduled airlines.

The website airlinequality.com lists the pitch of most of the world's airlines. It declares that pitch is not the same as legroom, but the numbers are worth checking when you're facing a long- or medium-range flight.

Air Canada's pitch is 32. Airlinequality.com shows WestJet's at 33 to 35. That seemed suspiciously big, so I checked WestJet's own website. It shows a pitch of 32 for its 737-700 aircraft, and "an average" of 30 for its 737-200 series.

Bear in mind that the numbers represent typical seat pitch offered on international flights. "This may not be available on all of an airline's fleet of aircraft," the website cautions, "and in some cases the dimensions shown illustrate the latest seat introductions by each airline."

Passengers lucky enough to score bulkhead seats have considerably more leg room. I often enquire about emergency exit rows, which are also roomier.

Business class is too expensive for most leisure travellers, but there are alternatives..."

So, do a little seat research before you purchase airline tickets. Explore a few different airlines before you choose the most comfortable for you. Especially if you are planning on being in a plane for a long period of time.

Het Mauritshuis

About 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam you will find the Het Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands.

In an article called, "A Small Feast of a Collection from the Golden Age", the author writes, "Vermeer's famous View of Delft moved the French writer Marcel Proust to call it the most beautiful painting in the world. Together with other gems such as Rembrandt's graphical Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (the first canvas to bring him recognition), it forms the core of a small but splendid collection from the great 17th-centrury Dutch masters.

Long Acknowledged as one of the world's finest museums, the Mauritshuis occupies the beautiful, Palladian-inspired mansion of Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, 17th-century Dutch governer-general of Brazil. Inside, it's almost like viewing a private collection, while outside a small, tree-shaded pond is crisscrossed by resident swans.

Tour groups are uncommon, and most art lovers linger on the upper floor, where other works by Vermeer (including his celebrated Girl with a Pearl Earring), Rembrandt, and Jan Steen can be found.

As the seat of government for the Netherlands, home to Queen Beatrix and the International Court of Justice, The Hague is a powerful and dignified city. Some of its regal past can easily be recaptured at high tea in the magnificent lounge of the city's historical Hotel Des Indes, built in 1856 for the private advisor to King William III. Formerly a lavish baronial town house, it was here that Mata Hari practiced her subtle subterfuge while the hotel was used as allied headquaters during the dark days of WWI."

Admission to Het Mauritshuis is $13, the Hotel Des Indes costs between $285-$570 and High tea is $22.

Future a 'concern' for London?

In an article called, " Forward bookings a 'concern' for London," written by Steve Jones, he said, "The London bombings have not led to mass cancellations from overseas markets although new bookings are likely to fall away, according to a survey by the European Tour Operators Association.

The body, which represents 350 tourism companies, said most if its members reported only 10 groups or fewer had scrapped their travel plans with half of those rescheduling for a later date.

Asian travellers were the most reluctant to continue with their plans.
Most long haul operators estimated the loss in revenue would be loss than 5%, whole online operators reported a "negligible" decline in demand.
The survey revealed that bookings for the rest of Europe were virtually unaffected with only a 3% dip in bookings. In previous terrorist atrocities, bookings Europe-wide has suffered, the report stated.

Despite the generally upbeat tone of the report, forward bookings remains an area of concern.

"One problem that tour operators have encountered is delayed payments of initial deposits for London bookings," the report said. "This implies that future bookings may suffer as a result of consumer unease."

Overall, 70% of ETOA members who responded to the survey said European business would be up on last year with 19% predicting an increase of 20% or more."

Submarine in Ontario

This five toe, steel hulled submarine, in MacDonald Lake, Ontario was custom built in Vancouver, B.C., and goes at a top speed of two kilometers per hour. It is the only fresh water, dry sub providing public tours in North America.

Valerie MacDonald of the Canadian Press wrote an article called, “Below surface, underwater world shimmers,” she wrote, “Like an iceberg, the largest part of the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve's touring submarine lies beneath the surface of the water.

Within the body of this 51/2-metre-long sub up to six people can look out into an underwater world through shimmering bubbles while the vessel dives to its licensed maximum depth of 20 metres.

As you submerge passengers have to keep clearing their ears just as when you are landing in a plane, or scuba diving, because the air pressure keeps increasing. But unlike the almost silent environment of diving, there are groans and the sounds of whooshing air -- and the temperature inside the sub rises because of the change in pressure.

Once the sub hovers at one depth for a while, however, a cold settles into the floor and the sides of the metal hull and we're glad to be wearing the extra clothing that sub pilot Dave Bishop advised us to take despite the hot sun topside…

Nine viewing portals let us see what MacDonald Lake is like below the surface and search for signs of its distant past. Today, in addition to aquatic life and artifacts of old logging operations, we hope to relocate the unexpected discovery made by Bishop last year which has baffled some

The possibility of other discoveries is what makes each underwater trip an adventure on this lake, which is three kilometres long and three-quarters of a kilometre wide.

Some of the views are desolate, somewhat as you might imagine the moon to look like. Others make you want to get out and see the quiet watery environment up close and try to touch the fish and crustaceans that live here…

Just as Bishop promised, this "full sensory tour" has certainly blown me away.”

Traveling in Dad's Footsteps

In an article called "Andrew Steves: Travels in Dad's Footsteps," by Jim Benning, he interviews the son of an avid travel writer to learn about his plans for his first trip to Europe without his parents.

"For young Americans, the first solo trip to Europe is a rite of passage. But what’s in store if your father is the king of Europe guidebook writers?

More than a few newly independent 18-year-old Americans will make their first trips to Europe this summer without mom and dad, but few will have the baggage of Andrew Steves. Andrew is the son of Rick Steves, Europe travel guru to the PBS-viewing masses, author of countless guidebooks, and the only travel writer regularly assaulted on the streets of Berlin and Rome by rabid, autograph-seeking fans. When I heard that the younger Steves would be embarking on his first solo trip to Europe this summer, I was full of questions. Would he take his dad’s guidebooks? Would he wash his socks in the hotel sink, as his father instructs millions to do? Shortly before Andrew attended his high school graduation ceremony and embarked on the trip, I dialed him up to get the scoop.

World Hum: I’m guessing this won’t be your first trip to Europe?

I’ve been 17 or 18 times with my parents, but this will be my first time without them. I’ll be going with a friend I’ve had since kindergarten, Alex, who’s also 18.

...

Are you taking your dad’s guidebooks?
We’re taking his book and 'Let’s Go'. My dad’s guidebooks are geared toward retired people. 'Let’s Go' is written by Harvard students. They list the best clubs in the area. We’re definitely going to be looking for that. We’ll be going to hostels and meeting other people from other cultures in our same situation.

Have you inherited your dad’s passion for travel?

I think it’s really important to travel. I listen to some country music stations, and you hear people say the USA is the best country on Earth, and they’ve probably never been outside their own state. You can think your country is the best, but there are also other people who think their country is the best. It’s important to appreciate other cultures.

You’re part of the first generation of young backpackers heading to Europe after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. How do you feel about traveling to Europe at this time in history?

I’ve been going to Europe every summer for every year of my life. The last five years my dad has taken us places as a kind of a publicity stunt. Like if there was mad cow disease, he’d take us right to England. If there was Hoof and Mouth, he’d take us wherever that was, to show it’s no big deal. I’ve grown up in a family where we didn’t stock up for Y2K and we didn’t get too scared after 9/11. Many people die of starvation every day in Africa. I’m not going to go into any countries at war like Afghanistan or Iraq, but I’m comfortable going to Europe.

Has your dad given you lots of travel advice?

He has. We’re doing a mock-packing session with him to see what he thinks we should bring and what we want to bring.

Will there be conflicts?

Yeah, my dad just got back from Europe. He was there for a month and a half. In his bag I think he had two pairs of pants and three shirts.

Not enough for your taste?

Of course, we’re young men and we’re going to want to meet young ladies, so we have to think about that. If we’re wearing the same clothes all the time we might smell..."

Tonga

Here is a guide to Tonga that I found on Boots n' All.com.

Country: Tonga
Where is it?: Oceania, archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand
Why do people go here?: Tonga is one of the more active pacific islands, and people know it. Spend your days hiking, diving, partying, relaxing, just about anything.
What are the main entry points?: Fua'amotu International Airport, outside of Nuku'alofa, is the point for air travelers coming from the major pacific points: Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand and Fiji, as well as some smaller islands.
Currency used: Pa'anga (TOP)
Religion: Christian (Free Wesleyan Church claims over 30,000 adherents)
Population: 110,237
Ethnic Breakdown: Polynesian, Europeans about 300
Government: Hereditary constitutional monarchy
Languages: Tongan, English
Major Cities: Nuku'alofa
Attractions: Kava, Coral, Hiking
Accommodation: Tonga Hostels
Health Issues: A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required from travellers over 1 year of age coming from infected areas.
When to go: May to October has the best weather, as well as tourists.
Specific Events/Holidays: Independence Day, 4 June (1970)
Getting Around: Rent a car or take a bus on the islands, but expect to pay small fortunes to fly from one to another or take the ferries.