Active Family Travel - South America

After leaving Zrnovo, the scenery along this section of the Korcula hiking trail is amazing, with vineyards, old ruins, rock walls, church towers in the distance, etc. After about a half-mile (800m) of hiking, watch for a small green Kocje sign in the grass, pointing to a trail which veers off to the right. We didn’t find it easy to find our way out of the Kocje valley, but the hiking trail continues to the north, so keep looking, it’s there. This was a great Korcula hiking trail for kids and it kept them interested the whole way, which in turn kept us happy the whole way!

This old Czech Republic castle was a mighty castle back in the 14-16th centuries, but now lays in ruins. After a fun walk through Old Town, we walked across the Vltava River to the river at the Cesky Krumlov Castle. The Castle Tower is so beautiful from the outside and appears very tall when looking at it from Old Town, but in actual fact, it’s not really that tall. Our 4 year old daughter climbed the Castle Tower by herself with no issues at all, while our 2 year old wanted to be carried.

In addition, the Hvar to Korcula ferry was a convenient stop between our 2 days on Hvar with kids and our final Croatia stop where we spent 2 days in Dubrovnik with kids. Sure, we had read about how beautiful the Korcula Old Town is, but normally we look for more than just a beautiful town, we look for fun outdoor activities like hiking or going to the beach. We didn’t know what to expect or exactly what to do in Korcula with our kids, but we ended up having a 2 incredible days in Korcula, Croatia! 5 Things to do in Korcula with Kids Korcula is a small city blessed with an amazing Old Town. We chose this method of getting to Korucla with kids as we didn’t have a rental car and the Krilo ferry offers direct service from Hvar Town to Korcula Old Town.

Here are the best hikes in Canyonlands National Park with kids that we came up with: Looking for arches in Canyonlands National Park? The Slickrock trail ended up being our favorite hiking trails in Canyonlands National Park and one of the highlights of our time in Utah with kids. While you are picking up your Canyonlands National Park trail map, kids can pick up a Junior Ranger handbook from the one of the Canyonlands Visitor Centers (Island in the Sky or Needles). minimalists when it comes to packing hiking gear for kids, but here is what we would recommend you bring with you each day to explore Canyonlands National Park with kids:

Aside from our day driving from Zion National Park to Arches National Park, we spent 4 days in Moab with kids (who were 3 & 5 years old at the time) enjoying the wide variety of natural wonders that Arches and Canyonlands National Parks have to offer. Everyone is on the trail to see the Delicate Arch, but as a huge bonus, the Delicate Arch trail itself is a lot of fun with great views of the surrounding national park. The Double Arch Trail is an easy walk in Arches National Park on a flat gravel trail through a scrub forest to a rare & dramatic double arch. While you are picking up your Arches National Park trail map, kids can pick up a Junior Ranger handbook from the Arches National Park Visitor Center and complete a certain number of activities within the book (the number increases with the age of the child).

Whether you decide to purchase a portable white noise machine or use an app on your phone, using soothing sounds to help your baby sleep is one of our top recommended baby travel essentials. While we love the idea of a multi-use item like the Hatch Baby Rest Sound Machine (which is a sound machine, night light and time-to-rise alert all in one) for home use, we wouldn’t recommend it for travel. Would you prefer your white noise machine play lullabies in addition to white noise? If you use a white noise machine at home, then for the best success on getting your baby to sleep while traveling, you’ll want to have some type of portable sound machine with you.

When we decided to rent a condo in Playa Del Carmen for a month, our biggest concerns were the Mexican drinking water and food safety. This blog post is simply an account of our Mexico food safety behavior based on our experience and research and shouldn’t be taken as professional advice. The food safety standards at both Mexican supermarkets seemed high and I had no food safety concern for my family. As amazing as Mexican street food looks and smells, the risk of food poisoning is much higher and we simply didn’t want to risk it with small kids.

Prior to filling up our Cancun rental car for the first time, I read that Mexican gas station attendants are quite skilled at ripping off tourists. As I pulled into the gas station in my rental car, all of the full-serve gas attendants were so friendly – they were all smiling and waving me towards their pump. 2) Get out of the rental car and watch the whole process Back home in Canada, we are polite and like to avoid confrontation, so getting out of my rental car and staring at the gas station attendant filling up my car felt so wrong. One of the biggest tourist scams in Mexico is when the gas station attendant switches the 500 peso note you gave him for a 50 peso note.

Carboncitos isn’t just authentic Mexican food, they are a kid-friendly restaurant too with a small kids menu with some American favorites. El Ranchito is a reasonably priced, charming Mexican restaurant in Playa del Carmen on 10th Avenue with good kid-friendly menu options. Off the kid-friendly menu at El Ranchito, we ordered strawberry/pineapple juice and a chicken pizza for the kids. We ate at La Famiglia, a kid-friendly Italian restaurant on 10th Avenue on two occasions and had a very satisfying meal each time.

We planned a three week Utah road trip itinerary to ensure we had time to visit the Mighty 5 National Parks properly. We should also mention that our kids were 3 and 5 at the time of our trip, so we had to take into consideration how much hiking we did with them and consciously taking time each day to let them have time to just play. While 5 days in each National Park might seem like a lot, there was one day allotted to travel each time we changed parks. The Capitol Reef hike made up of the Frying Pan trail to Cassidy Arch and finishing up on the Grand Wash trail was the best hike we did in Capitol Reef National Park.