Personal Stories Archives - Travel Blue Book

5 Reasons You Should Travel with Family

March 10, 2016 By Greg Johnson 2 Comments

When I was younger, my family didn’t travel a lot. We didn’t have a lot of money, and travel wasn’t something that was a priority for us.

It’s not that we didn’t spend time together or go on vacation. We did. But our travels consisted mainly of heading to my grandparents lake cabin for a week or catching a game in the city. When we got a little older, traveling meant heading out-of-town for weekend sports tournaments. It was a wonderful childhood, and I’m very grateful for it.

I never flew on a plane or saw the ocean until I hit New York at age 20. I never made it to the beach until age 24. Until then, I didn’t even understand why somebody would want to travel…much less spend the money to allow myself to do so. But, those two trips totally changed my perspective. I’ve been hooked on traveling ever since.

Over the past 3 years alone, my wife and I have visited over 13 countries. We’ve also made close to a dozen trips throughout the U.S. as well. It’s been freakin’ awesome.

As a couple, we’ve made the decision that family travel is important to us. We’ve been fortunate to be able to bring our kids with us on a few of these adventures. While we’re desperately trying not to spoil them, we are lucky to be able to expose them to new places, people, and cultures when we can. It’s an incredible opportunity for them, and I hope they’ll look back someday and appreciate how unique it is.

While we truly believe travel is a way to break down barriers, providing a cultural experience for children isn’t the only reason to travel with family. There are some practical and emotional reasons as well. Here are 5 reasons we love to travel with family!

5 Reasons I Love to Travel with Family

#1) Spending Quality Time Together

Let’s face it. Life gets really busy, and sometimes we don’t always pay enough attention to the people who are most important to us. Traveling always helps our little family reconnect in a way that nothing else does. Instead of rushing to get ready for school or to get another project done, you can simply relax and enjoy being with each other. When we’re on the road, its like everybody in our family reverts back to the best versions of ourselves – our true selves are once again unleashed. It’s great to get in touch with that every few months and connect with each other on a level that doesn’t always happen at home.

#2) Making Memories

In addition to reconnecting, traveling is always a great way to make new memories. The memories you make while you’re traveling will bring you closer together in the moment plus form a stronger bond you’ll share down the road. I know our kids play the “Remember when…” game all the time. We’ll often sit and look at photos from our trips and reminisce about how much fun we had. Whether you’re wandering through ancient cities, climbing mountains, or just sitting by the pool, traveling with family is a great way to make memories that you can all share for a lifetime.

#3) Bond with Other Family

In addition to traveling with our kids, we’ve been very lucky to travel with both sets of our parents. This has allowed our kids to form bonds with their grandparents that they may not have otherwise been able to do. In the same way we are able to make new memories with the kids, they make new memories with their grandparents as well. That’s something you can’t put a dollar figure on.

#4) Save Money By Renting a Condo

Something you can put a dollar figure on is your lodging expenses. One of the best things about traveling with family is the ability to save money on lodging. On several occasions, we’ve rented condos and beach houses with my in-laws. By splitting the price of a condo, we’re able to save money on two fronts. Obviously, lodging is less. But, condos and beach houses also have kitchens. Instead of being forced to eat out for every meal, we save hundreds of dollars during the stay by cooking at home.

#5) Group Discounts

If you decide to travel with family and are staying at a resort, chances are you’re going to be needing more than one room. By booking several rooms at once, you have the leverage to ask for a discount. We’ve used this tactic several times, and it has worked extremely well. Why waste time and effort selling rooms to three separate families when you can sell three rooms at once to just one? Just ask, and you might be surprised what they’ll be willing to offer you. The worst they can say is “no.”

Enjoy Your Travels

Deciding to make family travel a priority in our lives is one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Some of the best memories I have are of traveling with my family. What makes them even better is that we can share those memories together. Plus, when you add extended family to the list, it can even make your travels cheaper…and who doesn’t love that?!?

Happy travels!

On the Hunt for the Forrest Fenn Treasure

September 19, 2014 By Greg Johnson 5 Comments

Near the Chama River

(Editor’s Note: While we are away at a blogging conference, please enjoy this encore post which originally appeared on June 20, 2014. Also, please make sure to enter for your chance to win a $100 gift card using the Rafflecopter widget following the post!)

At some point during the course of our childhood, every young boy dreams of going on a treasure hunt. We pretend to travel through caves and shipwrecks, mountains and jungles, solving clues and battling evil forces on our way to finding treasure chests stuffed with riches. Countless movies and stories have been made and told around just this premise (Indiana Jones and the Goonies, anybody?). But, as we grow up, we usually let go of these silly boyhood dreams, realizing that there are no hidden treasures to be found. Well, Forrest Fenn has given us all a chance to relive our boyhood fantasies and made a hidden treasure a reality.

For those of you who may not have heard, Forrest Fenn is the eccentric New Mexico art dealer and gajillionaire who decided to hide a treasure chest filled with approximately $2 million worth of rare coins, gold nuggets, gemstones, and jewelry somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe. After receiving a cancer diagnosis in 1988, Fenn came up with the idea to hide this bronze chest in the mountains and die along side of it. Mr. Fenn survived the illness and waited until he was about 80 years old to move forward with his plan to hide the treasure.

Our hunt for the Forrest Fenn treasure begins

Upon reading Forrest Fenn’s book The Thrill of the Chase a few years ago, my brother-in-law Brian became interested in the treasure. He told my wife Holly about it, and she interviewed him for a couple of different websites – after which, the two of them became friends. Brian decided that he was going to search for the treasure himself and asked me if I would come with him to New Mexico. Always up for an adventure, I happily obliged, and we started making plans. After weeks of studying poems, books, and maps, we determined our precise search area and hopped a plane to New Mexico. [Read more…]

Cruising the Caribbean Aboard the Carnival Sensation

September 12, 2014 By Greg Johnson 4 Comments

Editors Note: Be sure not to miss your chance to win a $100 gift card at the end of this post!

“Hey girls. It’s time to wake up,” I whispered as I gently nudged my five and three-year-old girls awake.

“Daddy, why are we getting up so early?”

“We’re going on a trip!” I said.

“We are?!? Where are we going?”

“I can’t tell you. It is a surprise,” I said with a smile.

And so it started. Both girls jumped out of their beds, grinning from ear to ear, excited to see where this surprise journey would take them. Holly and I were excited too, not just because this would be the girls’ first time on an airplane. This would be our first time on a cruise, as we headed on a short weekend trip to Nassau, Bahamas aboard the Carnival Sensation.

Having never cruised before, we didn’t quite know what to expect. Our recent vacations have pretty much included us plopping our backsides down on a beach chair, sipping on tropical drinks, and eating entirely too much at all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. How would we like cruising? Would there be plenty to do? What would the room be like? We were all excitement and a little bit worried as we headed out the door, figuring that – even if we didn’t like it – we’d only be gone for three days. How bad could it be? [Read more…]

How Rome Became My Favorite Cruise Port

August 28, 2014 By Mel 4 Comments

Photo by Mel

I worked for a cruise line for five years, and while it always a lot of fun, it was also a lot of work. I usually only got a few hours off in port every couple of days, but one day was different.

On May 16, 2010 Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano in Iceland, erupted and really messed with European air travel. Our ship decided to stay docked an extra day, and I experienced my only day off ever on a cruise ship. I didn’t waste a single second of that day, and it still remains one of my favorite days ever. We were docked in Civitavecchia, about an hour train ride from Rome, so my friends and I got up at 6 AM and headed out. We were in Rome by 8 AM and managed to squeeze a LOT into one day. [Read more…]

Our Danube River Cruise Highlights

July 18, 2014 By Kemmy Casinelli 4 Comments

Departure point, the boat turns around and off we went..

Our Danube River cruise was one of the coolest things we did on this Budapest trip. We had visited the city about four months ago and were only there for 4 nights which were just not enough time to enjoy this beautiful city. We ended up going back for 10 lovely days.

On our list of things to do was take this three-hour Danube River cruise. It took us from the city to the little village of Nagymaros, located on the Pest side of Budapest. We went with the Mahart Passnave Danube River Cruise Sightseeing Company. They offer a series of cruises across the Danube as well as have a permanent docked restaurant, which seemed to be packed most nights, so l assume the food is pretty good. We got there early so we could claim seats on the upper deck. This gives you unobstructed views across the river. The poor folks who were late ended up on the bottom, where they were “glassed” in. Nothing worse than trying to take pictures through windows. You end up with a lot of glare on the images.

[Read more…]

Buying a City Pass: Is it Worth It?

April 10, 2014 By Mel Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: By rainii via Flickr and Creative Commons

London: Tower of London £22. Globe Theater Tour £13.50. Westminster Abbey £18.

Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Dungeon £16.20. Literary Pub Tour £14. Edinburgh Zoo £15.50.

Sightseeing is expensive. But if you’ve gone through all the trouble to get to these cities, how are you going to pass it up? Or decide which places to pass up? Without a plan, the admission fees to city hot spots can really add up. I’ve found that City Passes are often the way to go. They let you see more and compromise less. What I love is it let’s you budget ahead for exactly what you’ll spend sightseeing while saving you a good chunk of change.

What’s a City Pass? It’s a card with a set fee that offers you admission to a collection of popular sites. Sometimes it offers you admission to a number of different sights. Other times, it offers you a large list of things that you can do in a given amount of time.

Two that I recommend to every traveler are [Read more…]