How often do you travel with your family? Are you planning family trips for 2019? According to American’s emerging travel habits, families intend to spend more on vacations in the coming year than the previous one. Actually 31% of vacations taken by American travelers include children. Do you take the kids when you travel? Today I'll share with you ideas for some top family trips for 2019.
About three years ago I made it my family’s goal to travel more. I'm happy to report that we have been reaching that goal 2 years in a row now! Reason why I've decided it was finally time to start sharing more of our family trips and travel tips. I want to inspire you to plan a new travel adventure for your own family this year!
You may know me from my already popular blog NYC Tech Mommy. If so, I'm so glad that you are joining us here too! But if this is our very first time meeting, welcome! Welcome to NYC Travel Mommy -- our new blog dedicated to all things family travel!
My family has been blessed enough to travel often during the past couple of years and I've been sharing many of our family trips over on my lifestyle blog. However, since we have so many family trips planned for 2019, I wanted a site dedicated to just travel. Where you could come to find inspiration for your next family trip!
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Traveling with kids can sound complicated, not to mention expensive. I know. But it really doesn’t have to be! If you love to travel and dream of exploring the world, I’m here to tell you that it can be done. Even with kids! There are many ways to save money for around the world travel and here on NYC Travel Mommy I'll be sharing tons of tips, family trip ideas and destinations to inspire you to travel more too!
Niagara Falls is a fantastic place to visit with kids! There is so much to do and so many different ways to explore the falls. We went on the typical Hornblower Niagara Cruise boat but also took a Journey Behind the Falls which gave us a great up close look at the falls. The White Water Walk was another fun up close encounter with the Niagara River that we really enjoyed. But besides the falls there's so much more! We stayed at the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark and spent our evenings enjoying the Great Canadian Midway at Clifton Hill. So much family fun!
Walt Disney World really is the happiest place on Earth and there truly is something for everyone here. We all had our favorites but the new Toy Story Land was a big hit with the entire family. Seeing the smiles on the kids (and by kids I mean big kids too) faces makes this a top family trip any day!
Hershey really is the sweetest place on Earth! We had so much fun at Hershey Park -- a vast chocolate themed amusement park. The Hershey Park Boardwalk (water park within the amusement park) was a big hit with our family. And we discovered that there is also lots more to explore in the surrounding areas -- Zoo America, Chocolate World, Hershey Gardens, The Hershey Story Museum, Hershey Trolly Works Tour, and more! Sweet, sweet, sweet, family fun!
And thanks to our friends at Chevy we were enjoying our sweet ride so much that we didn’t want this road trip to end. We decided to extend our road trip by making a few extra (extended) pit stops along the way. Discovering new places along the way is probably why my family loves road trips so much!
More Road Trips = More Amusement Parks
Dutch Wonderland is the perfect place for your family's next staycation if you live in Pennsylvania and just a short trip from New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas. Because not every family trip has to be far away to be loads of family fun. For us, this place was a short drive and just a perfect little getaway. It's also the perfect place for the little ones to cool off on a hot summer day. My kids loved Duke's Lagoon water play area. There's also Exploration Island within the park where you'll find dinosaurs that come to life. RoAr!
This Lancaster amusement park is fun for the entire family. It's a magical adventure that your little princess or prince will ask to come back to! They'll love meeting characters like Duke and Merlin. Besides the fun family rides, there's also great live entertainment included and a wide variety of family-friendly restaurants and food stands that everyone will enjoy!
Nestled in the Pennsylvania mountains, this family-friendly amusement park is America's largest free-admission amusement park. That's right, admission is FREE! You only pay for the rides you go on. There's tons of free picnic space, even grills that you can rent if you want to barbecue for the family. Parking is free too! And you'll love the free entertainment. Just make sure to bring your walking shoes because this place is HUGE!
The Crystal Pool (admission is $7.50 for adults and $5.50 for kids) was a huge hit with my kids. Surrounded on all sides by a variety of rides, attractions, food and fantasy, this 900,000 gallon pool filled with refreshing mountain stream water is the perfect way to cool off on a hot summer day. Bring a cooler, some floatation devices, and enjoy a nice swim, even take a dive off one of the multiple diving boards. Summer fun at it's best!
Our stay at Hotel Breakers is always amazing. We love hanging out at their kiddie pool and taking afternoon strolls along the beach. I imagine we will continue this family tradition for years to come! Sandusky, Ohio sits along the shores of Lake Erie and is filled with beautiful places to visit.
Plus, my kids love HalloWeekends at Cedar Point in the fall! Cedar Point is the Roller Coaster Capital of the World so it's the place to go if you have dare devils in your family. It's also home to Camp Snoopy and your kids will love jumping inside the giant inflatable Snoopy bouncy house that sits right at the main entrance of this kiddie amusement park area. Also on site is their great new water park called Cedar Point Shores and for an additional admission fee you can enjoy 18-acres of splish-splashin' family fun on a hot summer day.
An incredible trip to Turks and Caicos wrapped up our 2018 travels. I was so honored to be invited to attend Beaches Social Media on the Sand — an annual, invite only, conference hosted by Beaches Resorts. I was so blessed to be able to bring my family along on this trip. It was the family vacation of a lifetime! For so many reasons…
In my opinion, a stay at Beaches Turks and Caicos is the ultimate family vacation any year! This one-of-a-kind all-inclusive Turks & Caicos resort sits along a 12-mile stretch of Grace Bay Beach (named #1 of the Top 25 Beaches in the world by Trip Advisor in 2018) and has it all -- a 45,000 square foot waterpark, five magnificent villages that boast the architecture and ambiance of Italy, France, the Caribbean and Key West, endless fun activities for everyone, from tots to tweens and teens, featuring Sesame Street characters and a fantastic Kids Camp, an Xbox Play Lounge and a teen disco, endless dinning options (21 different dinning options to be exact), 10 freshwater pools, 15 bars (including swim-up bars), water sports included, and more! I want to go back just writing all this!
Hopefully you'll find a little inspiration from the destinations we visited in the past year. Maybe you'll even make one (or more) of these destinations your top family trips for 2019. Now make sure to come back to our blog often since we'll be sharing lots more top family-friendly destinations for 2019 here on NYC Travel Mommy. Happy travels!
"Pin This" for later!
Traveling with kids can sound complicated, not to mention expensive. I know. But it really doesn’t have to be! If you love to travel and dream of exploring the world, I’m here to tell you that it can be done. Even with kids! There are many ways to save money for around the world travel and here on NYC Travel Mommy I'll be sharing tons of tips, family trip ideas and destinations to inspire you to travel more too!
Top Family Trips for 2019
We had some pretty amazing family trips during the past year. These could well be top family trips for 2019. I won't go into tons of details in this post since I will have more detailed posts to share with you each of these destinations very soon. For now, I just want to give you a bit of inspiration and let you get to know us a little bit better. Read on and feel free to explore my new site! I hope our family trips and travel tips will inspire you to travel more!
The list ahead shares some great family destinations, everything from travel to Europe to right here in the U.S., our favorite Caribbean vacation, and because families love road trips (ours sure does), we've also included a few of our favorite family travel destinations that are just a few hours drive from home. Read on!
The list ahead shares some great family destinations, everything from travel to Europe to right here in the U.S., our favorite Caribbean vacation, and because families love road trips (ours sure does), we've also included a few of our favorite family travel destinations that are just a few hours drive from home. Read on!
Paris, France
Never in my wildest dream did I ever think that we would travel to Paris with kids in tow. But we did! Paris with kids was our most amazing and memorable family adventure yet! No question that the Eiffel Tower is a must when visiting Paris, and a cruise along the Seine River is loads of fun, but we probably enjoyed the carousel rides the most. And the kids absolutely loved exploring the Louvre Museum.San Francisco, California
In February we headed to the West Coast. You may not know this but I dream of living on the West coast, one day! I love California. The weather. The beaches. All of it! We’ve been to San Diego and Los Angeles before. And I had dreamt of visiting San Francisco for some time. 2018 made that travel dream a reality for me and we discovered that San Francisco is a great family-friendly destination. There’s so much to do in San Francisco with kids -- ride a trolly, spend a day at Pier 36, climb to the top of the Coit Tower, spend the day at Golden Gate Park, visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum, or venture of to Silicon Valley. Endless opportunities for family fun!Niagara Falls, Canada
We love family road trips and in 2018 we took an epic one! It was only for the Memorial day weekend but we had so much fun. The kids absolutely loved Niagara Falls!Niagara Falls is a fantastic place to visit with kids! There is so much to do and so many different ways to explore the falls. We went on the typical Hornblower Niagara Cruise boat but also took a Journey Behind the Falls which gave us a great up close look at the falls. The White Water Walk was another fun up close encounter with the Niagara River that we really enjoyed. But besides the falls there's so much more! We stayed at the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark and spent our evenings enjoying the Great Canadian Midway at Clifton Hill. So much family fun!
Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida
Another epic trip was our multi-generational trip to Walt Disney World this past summer. It’s filled with magical memories we will never forget! Every family should take a vacay like this at least once.Walt Disney World really is the happiest place on Earth and there truly is something for everyone here. We all had our favorites but the new Toy Story Land was a big hit with the entire family. Seeing the smiles on the kids (and by kids I mean big kids too) faces makes this a top family trip any day!
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Summer is a great time to hit the road on a family road trip. Which is why our trip to Hershey Park was definitely another highlight of our summer! We had such a blast eating all the chocolate and riding all the rides at Hershey. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge which was an adventure all on it's own with a fun indoor water park complex, a great outdoor pool, delicious restaurant options (that serve Hershey's chocolate themed dishes), mini-golf, and more! It's a great family-fun place to visit.Hershey really is the sweetest place on Earth! We had so much fun at Hershey Park -- a vast chocolate themed amusement park. The Hershey Park Boardwalk (water park within the amusement park) was a big hit with our family. And we discovered that there is also lots more to explore in the surrounding areas -- Zoo America, Chocolate World, Hershey Gardens, The Hershey Story Museum, Hershey Trolly Works Tour, and more! Sweet, sweet, sweet, family fun!
And thanks to our friends at Chevy we were enjoying our sweet ride so much that we didn’t want this road trip to end. We decided to extend our road trip by making a few extra (extended) pit stops along the way. Discovering new places along the way is probably why my family loves road trips so much!
More Road Trips = More Amusement Parks
Dutch Wonderland, Pennsylvania
Speaking of summer and road trips, we enjoyed a few. Our trip to Dutch Wonderland was loads of fun — and one of our extended pit stops while driving the 2019 Chevy Equinox. You can read about it here.Dutch Wonderland is the perfect place for your family's next staycation if you live in Pennsylvania and just a short trip from New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas. Because not every family trip has to be far away to be loads of family fun. For us, this place was a short drive and just a perfect little getaway. It's also the perfect place for the little ones to cool off on a hot summer day. My kids loved Duke's Lagoon water play area. There's also Exploration Island within the park where you'll find dinosaurs that come to life. RoAr!
This Lancaster amusement park is fun for the entire family. It's a magical adventure that your little princess or prince will ask to come back to! They'll love meeting characters like Duke and Merlin. Besides the fun family rides, there's also great live entertainment included and a wide variety of family-friendly restaurants and food stands that everyone will enjoy!
Knoebels, Pennsylvania
Another fun road trip included our visit to Knoebels! This was our first time visiting this gem of an amusement park. Such a fantastic place to enjoy a truly family FUN day! We’ll definitely be back again, for sure!Nestled in the Pennsylvania mountains, this family-friendly amusement park is America's largest free-admission amusement park. That's right, admission is FREE! You only pay for the rides you go on. There's tons of free picnic space, even grills that you can rent if you want to barbecue for the family. Parking is free too! And you'll love the free entertainment. Just make sure to bring your walking shoes because this place is HUGE!
The Crystal Pool (admission is $7.50 for adults and $5.50 for kids) was a huge hit with my kids. Surrounded on all sides by a variety of rides, attractions, food and fantasy, this 900,000 gallon pool filled with refreshing mountain stream water is the perfect way to cool off on a hot summer day. Bring a cooler, some floatation devices, and enjoy a nice swim, even take a dive off one of the multiple diving boards. Summer fun at it's best!
Cedar Point, Sandusky Ohio
By now, you’ve figured out that as much as we love traveling to far away places, we also love family road trips. Reason why our road trips to Cedar Point each fall have become our annual family tradition. Every year we take the 8 hour ride from New York City to Sandusky, Ohio.Our stay at Hotel Breakers is always amazing. We love hanging out at their kiddie pool and taking afternoon strolls along the beach. I imagine we will continue this family tradition for years to come! Sandusky, Ohio sits along the shores of Lake Erie and is filled with beautiful places to visit.
Plus, my kids love HalloWeekends at Cedar Point in the fall! Cedar Point is the Roller Coaster Capital of the World so it's the place to go if you have dare devils in your family. It's also home to Camp Snoopy and your kids will love jumping inside the giant inflatable Snoopy bouncy house that sits right at the main entrance of this kiddie amusement park area. Also on site is their great new water park called Cedar Point Shores and for an additional admission fee you can enjoy 18-acres of splish-splashin' family fun on a hot summer day.
Beaches, Turks and Caicos
Oh paradise! It does exist. And it’s called Turks and Caicos!An incredible trip to Turks and Caicos wrapped up our 2018 travels. I was so honored to be invited to attend Beaches Social Media on the Sand — an annual, invite only, conference hosted by Beaches Resorts. I was so blessed to be able to bring my family along on this trip. It was the family vacation of a lifetime! For so many reasons…
In my opinion, a stay at Beaches Turks and Caicos is the ultimate family vacation any year! This one-of-a-kind all-inclusive Turks & Caicos resort sits along a 12-mile stretch of Grace Bay Beach (named #1 of the Top 25 Beaches in the world by Trip Advisor in 2018) and has it all -- a 45,000 square foot waterpark, five magnificent villages that boast the architecture and ambiance of Italy, France, the Caribbean and Key West, endless fun activities for everyone, from tots to tweens and teens, featuring Sesame Street characters and a fantastic Kids Camp, an Xbox Play Lounge and a teen disco, endless dinning options (21 different dinning options to be exact), 10 freshwater pools, 15 bars (including swim-up bars), water sports included, and more! I want to go back just writing all this!
Are you planning any exciting family trips for 2019?
Hopefully you'll find a little inspiration from the destinations we visited in the past year. Maybe you'll even make one (or more) of these destinations your top family trips for 2019. Now make sure to come back to our blog often since we'll be sharing lots more top family-friendly destinations for 2019 here on NYC Travel Mommy. Happy travels!
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