If images of jumping on your suitcase as your partner quickly snaps the locks shut, or sitting on the thing while you’re doubled over tying the straps are your version of packing, then this primer on how and what to pack could be for you.



Remember the adage, “pack half of what you think you need and bring twice the money?”



It’s true. But my…

Would you sedate your child on a flight? 
Are parents who do so wrong?


Not long ago, a Wall Street Journal  article  reported that many parents "drug" or sedate their kids on planes so they'll be less bothersome for the parents, flight attendants and fellow passengers.
…

The fields of deep lavender (bleu lavande) stretch vividly toward the green hills.



Donkeys at the donkey ranch nuzzle their mistress, and the honey bees buzz about at the Miellerie Lune de Miel, the honey farm.



About 150 miles south of Quebec and maybe 90 miles east of Montreal, The …

“So where in Scotland are you going?” a British colleague asked over lunch. “Edinburgh? Glasgow?”

“Isle of Skye,” I said.



“Ah, the Scottish Highlands,” he sighed. Leaned back and said, slowly,  “We always think of Skye as a spiritual place. I really envy you.”…

Many women  want to travel alone, or with other women,  and not a guy... a fact most men find very difficult to accept.



And while we think there are too many movies and books that give us too many images of women as helpless victims, the truth is that a majority of women say that security issues are their number one concern when traveling alone. Or even with female…

It’s not easy or always reassuring.

You're on the road for a family vacation. You've done lots of family-friendly things and now you and your significant other want a night out.



Or at least a dinner in the hotel's much touted dinning room.

But who'll watch the kids?



Hotels will often provide staff sitters or the names of agencies that…

Jennifer and Craig Ruckert, a very attractive 30-something couple, were sitting in front of a terrific fire, enjoying some great cheeses and local wines, a regular pre-dinner ritual  at the Tidewater Inn, in the laid back, classy Connecticut shore town of…

From NMT Images

Pour A Pint in Belfast



Please watch the Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1-minute…

The Failure of Travel



For those of us who are professionally in the travel space, why isn't the fact that American, British and European young men are brutally fighting for ISIS/ISIL part of our work?



Belgium has sent more fighters to ISIS than any other European country. ISIS' military expenditures exceed those of…

How the Wrong Words Kill Customer Loyalty. The Best Bon Mots



So, it begins with a desire to have a drink at an artful and attractive Band B, a drink in the garden as the sun sets.



There are no glasses, so I help myself to two. No ice. I find the refrigerator and help myself to ice.



The owner returns and glances…

Fertility Tourism: Selling Women’s Eggs for Bucks and Travel. How right is this?



“Female Eggs For Sale” may not be a sign you’ll see any time soon, but for all intents and purposes that’s what the global market for harvesting and selling women’s eggs is all about.



The in vitro fertilization market is a billion dollar…

Family Travel: How Safe is Your Child’s Playground? 



Summer time and the traveling’s easy.



And as any traveling family will do, at some point in their journey they’ll just opt to forget the big sights for the day, and  play in a playground.



If they don’t, they should.



Hanging…

The “bad” news is that the number of single parents seeking quality vacations with their children is growing.



The good news is that the number of single parents seeking quality vacations with their children is growing.



More than one-quarter of all US households with children are headed by a single parent. That’s 16.5…

It’s pretty clear that the trend in travel is toward the kinds that build memories and forge connections. Especially when it comes to family travel. 



And increasingly, that kind of travel seems to be a "familymoon" where  remarrying  couples do so with their children sharing the event and the  commitment.



The …

For a long time now we’ve been preaching how fun and engaging Twitter is…and yet questioned how effective it is when applied to the travel market.



Then along comes a report in HotelMarketing by way of an interesting …

 

Go ahead, type in “Perfect Family” in Google images. What do you see? Probably no one you recognize as a “typical” family. Pretty shocking.





New Media Travel once asked “Why Is Hotel Content So Boring?”



The point was that hotels,…

The road warrior, the business traveler, represents a huge 50% or more of a hotel’s revenue, but what we found very interesting is a trend to combine a family vacation with a business trip.



An impressive 67.7 percent of those randomly polled said they combine business travel with family travel, a major shift from just ten years ago when…

by Wendie Hansen with Kaleel Sakakeeny



Ralph Waldo Emerson had this to say about the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA, a suburb of Boston:



“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.”



But what does the bridge in Concord,  the home of the…

I noticed that most every time I  stray outside the narrow range of “Travel on Twitter” topics, I’m unfollowed.

When I question someone’s viewpoint, for example, or offer an alternative way of looking at a travel topic, I get into Twitter trouble.



Recently I raised a question about a…

Travel is measurably one of Facebook’s fastest growing, strongest vertical, and this is the year Facebook will target travel as a major sales initiative.

As we reported in New Media Travel recently, impressively, 52% of the site’s users said that when they view Facebook, they already…