Our trip to the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites Resort was an amazing experience, as documented in Part 1 of our series.

How do you make a large family vacation affordable and fun?

But I’ll admit that getting there was a cause for concern, with all the initial anxiety around the affordability of the trip.  After a lot of research we found some ways to not only save some money, making the trip quite reasonable for a family a five, but also managed to make the overall experience more pleasant for the parents in our group.

Iberostar Pool – Photo Courtesy of Rania Walker

In part 1 we talked about all the wonderful amenities and beauty offered by the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites, especially for those planning a destination wedding involving a larger number of guests, and guest with families.  In part 2, I’m going to share some tips for how we managed to make this trip happen, and how we coordinated all the guests and the kids.

WEPlusTHREE…or More’s Top 8 Tips:

Iberostar Bedroom – Photo Courtesy of Rania Walker

1. By the Numbers.  With three kids, the option of all staying in one room was not an option, especially when pricing the trip out.  As we did not want to, nor could really justify, paying for two rooms and dividing up parents and kids (just silly!!), we took a look at the guest list, found out who our singles, doubles and large families were, and started filling rooms by numbers, not family units.  At the end of the day, the cost was reduced for both families and singles, and if you’ve ever travelled with kids, their cousins/friends and grandparents, you know that sleepovers and room allocations are changing nightly.
2. A la Carte is always an option. Consider booking flight and hotel separately – not for the faint of heart, but given that this was a big trip for us times 5 people, I decided it was worth a shot. For our family of five we saved approximately $400 per person, so about $2000, by finding a lower room rate and booking our flight during a flight sale.  Transfers were available through the hotel, the travel agent and there are a lot of private shuttle services available that charge about $7 per person each way.
3. Book Direct. Book a direct flight if it’s an option and not too much more expensive.  Running off an airplane and trying to catch a connector with three + kids, even more carry-on’s and purses, a blankey, a ziggy (special stuffed animal) and headset cords flapping in the wind is not my idea of a good time! Especially in the summer months when storms can come and go so quickly and wreak havoc on your travel plans.  And missing a connector due to delays can put anyone on edge and start or end a holiday on a bad note.
4. Stay Connected.  Walkie-Talkies are a must when traveling with such a large group.  One of the best ideas we had was getting a bunch of walkie-talkies, about 8 of them, and giving them to each family to keep with them. This helped us find people, coordinate activities and dinners, and give enough of the kids an annoying toy to bother my child-less brother with – “breaker-breaker” – well worth the expense for that part alone!!
5. Room Service – who knew that the benefits of room service included the prevention of a melt-down.  Every day we got ready for dinner a couple hours or so before the actual meal.  For parents this meant bathing, drying and re-dressing kids for the restaurant.  Parents of daughters with long hair, you know what I’m talking about when I say you need hours.  After a whole afternoon of swimming and activities, they were hungry! Ordering room service to the room as soon as we got there meant that we had food waiting for them as they were getting out of the bath, and allowed them to eat something before it was too late (i.e. meltdown).  The variety of options for Room Service at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites as great and with later reservations (usually after 7:30pm), and a number of courses to get through before the main course, we were able to eat in peace and were not too concerned if they ‘ate their dinner’ or not.
6. Take a Time Out – while I was very nervous and hesitant to leave the kids at a kids club and had never done it before, we were very impressed by the staff and the layout of Lucy’s Mini Club.  This was a welcome break not only for us, but apparently the kids! Take the kids there for a few hours after lunch allowed us to explore the beach, go scuba diving, play beach volleyball, hit up the spa and the casino, lull on the lazy river, and for a couple of people, get a message on the beach.  Not something you can readily do with Junior tugging on your wrap.
7. Go Foreign.  Saving the best for last…..Compare prices on the European or British versions of travel sites.  As crazy as it sounds we found that the pricing of rooms was sometimes less expensive when booked through a British site or the British version of a site.  As the Caribbean has a large influx of Europeans travelling year round, and even more staying for longer periods of time during summer months, they seem to get bigger discounts at some resorts.  Not always the case, but sometimes.  (This is even true for some ‘local’ North American resorts too).
8. Bonus: Now this is just for you for reading all the way through– don’t tell anyone – but if you book on a foreign site and find that you can get a better price, see if they have a drop down menu for payment – you can sometimes pay in your local currency saving you exchange rates on your credit card and giving you a ‘real’ cost in currency you understand.  Check it out….but don’t tell everyone.  We wouldn’t want the travel sites to catch on!

In Part 3 we’ll look at some of the excursions offered in Jamaica and what we did that really got my heart racing!  Thank you to Michelle Sobhraj and the staff at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in Montego Bay, Jamaica for all their help in coordinating our large family destination wedding!!

@lrgfamilytravel

Going to Jamaica with my entire family for my brother’s wedding was not exactly welcome news as one might think. While we were super-excited about the upcoming nuptials, immediately the questions of cost, coordination and cost, weighed heavily on me. Here I was a travel blogger, a large family one at that and even I was a bit concerned about how to make this trip as cost-effective and large-family-friendly as possible. We are after all a family of five and along with others travelling as singles, there were considerations for accommodations that were top of mind. Oh, and did I mention the cost?

Finding a destination to host the wedding for up to 85 people was actually no small feat. After some very extensive research, consultation with travel experts and traveler reviews, my brother and his fiancé settled on the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in Montego Bay, Jamaica, one of the most popular, highly recommended and experienced resorts for destination weddings in the Caribbean. And after our stay there, I can see why. The Iberostar offers three adjacent resorts – the Rose Hall Grand (Adults Only); The Rose Hall Suites and The Rose Hall Beach (both for families and couples alike. There was only one wedding allowed per day at each of the resorts which make for a very tasteful and special day for the lucky couples. The variety of locales available to hold the actual ceremony allowed for a beautiful and unique wedding tailored to the preferences of the couple and their guests.

We opted to stay off the beach, which was a blessing in disguise, after watching numerous women trying to walk in 4 inch heels along the plank walkways and sand. Thank goodness for options! The Iberostar certainly earns all the praise heaped upon it by the travelers who had come before us. It was very grand, with an impressive 2nd story marble foyer awash with a wall of windows overlooking the infinity pool and vast beach.

It was impeccably clean, and yes, I would have eaten off the floor! The beach was beautiful and the infinity pool was amazing. A bonus was that while this is a large resort you could walk easily to anything within 5 minutes or less. This was especially important for our older family members who have knee problems. The accommodations were first class, and we were given an adjoining room connected to family so that we could put the kids to sleep in one room and have some adult conversation and drinks right next door. The rooms were spacious and bright. The bar fridge always stocked and cleaning staff came by three times a day to ensure we had everything we needed.

One thing we quickly learned was that you can not open the balcony or porch door for long, especially when you have the room door open. Due to the humidity levels outside and air conditioning inside, the walls and floors quickly grew a skin of condensation and before you knew we had a slip and slide on the floor. The funny thing was we had read critiques complaining about this before we went, but basic common sense should come into play here, and in Jamaica or anywhere else in the Caribbean, this is something you should be aware of and not complain about. Close the doors people!

Food, Food and More Food!

Now one of the main things people want to know when going to any all-inclusive is how good the buffets and A la Carte Restaurants. Even on our shuttle ride home from the airport to our parking we heard horror stories about the food other vacationers had just experienced at other 4star or plus resorts. I do not have enough words of praise, or elastic on my shorts (just kidding) to express just how GOOD the food was. They literally had the best quality food of any all-inclusive we’ve ever been too. And it was delicious! Every day we saw guests taking pictures of the buffet just to show their friends the presentation and variety available. You actually wanted to eat at the buffet, rather than eating there because it wasn’t you’re a la carte day.

There was every kind of fruit you could imagine, the most delectable fish – which I ate at pretty much every meal – lobster, steaks, sushi, pastas, Mexican, Japanese, Mediterranean and more. One of our favorite treats were the outdoor BBQ’s at lunch. Jerk Chicken, Seafood and a host of sides that you could eat on the beach to sounds of a steel drum band. The Hibachi grill at the Japanese restaurant was the favorite a la carte for all. Make sure you book as soon as you arrive as these are very popular and have limited seatings. And for a small additional cost you can arrange for all your wedding guests can indulge in a la carte’s at preferred times every day.

Safe Fun for the Kids

During the afternoons we allowed the kids to go to Lucy’s Mini Club. This was not in my comfort zone initially but after seeing the open-concept building, water park, special female security guards and life guards, and meeting the coordinators (big shout out to the wonderful Roxy and Nakeisha who my kids still talk about and miss!!), we felt more than happy to give them a time out from us and give ourselves a few hours of adult time to relax, converse, swim and have fun. We even arranged for them to babysit the eve of the wedding at the behest of our kids.

While there are so many more things I could highlight, one of the best features this resort had to offer was the staff! Having had questionable stays at so-called five-star resorts in the past, largely questionable because of the staff, I can honestly say we were all impressed by the professional, helpful, fun, and affable staff we encountered. From the breakfast buffet to the bell hops to the bar (and not in that order either) we had the most wonderful experiences because they made you feel like a friend coming home for a visit rather than a guest to be ‘accommodated’. And being part of a large, loud and very diverse wedding entourage with guests from age 2 to 70, you would think there would be one whiner in the bunch, but that was not the case.

While no easy feat, the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in Montego Bay exceeded everyone’s expectations and was beyond fun for all ages, provided the perfect locale for a memorable destination wedding, and dare I say for all my whining and anxiety – worth every cent for my large family!

In part two we’ll explore how we planned this trips and how we were able to manage a trip for 5 to an all-inclusive 5 star resort.

@lrgfamilytravel

Hold onto your sanity Moms and Dads – it’s that time again! School’s out and the kids are chock full of energy and delight in anticipation of all the adventures and outings that await them.  And who can blame them?  This is what they work so hard for throughout the year – especially in Canada – where they spend half their lives indoors,  just waiting for the warm summer months to escape the classroom and explore, play, swim, boat, bask in the sun and travel.  Luckily we have some great friends with cottages (did I mention how great those friends are??) and we’re able to schedule in a few camps to add some excitement and memories to their summer holidays. But since most of us can’t spend the summer at the cottage or vacation for an entire 10 weeks, here’s a list of WEplusTHREE…or more’s Top 5 Summer Activities for your Family:

1. Transit Tour – while this may sound a bit out there, most of us living in suburbia or more rural settings rarely get the chance to tour the ‘city’ on foot or via public transit.  My kids have always loved train rides and subway rides, so why not plan a day where you pack a picnic, plot out a trip to an urban park or lakeside parkette, and get there taking various forms of transit.  We planned one such outing two years ago where we took the subway to a bus to a streetcar to a ferry crossing and then, when the day was done, we headed home via Train.  It wasn’t as taxing or tiring as you think and we didn’t have to worry about traffic.  In between we explored local shops, especially for special treats, and then had a picnic by the water.  The kids still talk about this adventure and for the cost of parking and gas we made a memorable day they’ll never forget.  Oh and the various pictures we took in transit (pun intended) were hilarious! Local transit is available in most regions across the country and you can plan out a trip with the kids on-line first, through various neighbourhoods rather than a park, making an expedition out of the day.

2. Geo-caching – While not everyone understands what this is all about, one of my good friends assembled a bunch of moms, dads, and kids at her place with the requirement that we showed up with five to ten small items (from home or the dollar store) and some water bottles.  She then took us Geo-caching through a ravine nearby.  This glorified treasure hunt was great fun for all of us and was a chance to really have a large group of friends with kids be able to spend a few hours together where the kids were fairly contained (really, they were lazer-like focused on the hunt), worked in a team environment, and got to know each other better.  There are lots of ways to approach this, and a simple, pre-set treasure hunt may be all you’re interested in, but for a real experience in geo-caching, check out: http://www.geocaching.com/

3. Conservation Trails – I know I’ve mentioned this in the past, but last weekend we were introduced to yet another magical trail/forest/conservation area by some good friends of ours.  Right off a fairly busy street we entered a secluded, beautiful trail in Ancaster, ON, managed by the Dundas Conservation Authority. Before we knew it we had spent an hour and a half roaming through the trail.  We found an ‘ancient’ tree limb or vine that the kids could safely swing on.  I could go on about how many beautiful and amazing things we saw and did, but that’s for you and your kids to discover. Plan a picnic or pick up some food along the way, and maybe bring some marshmallows with you – we’ve happened across a fire pit a few times now that others were also using to roast some hot dogs. Easy and fun.  Just remember to bring your water and some bug spray (and if your kids are like mine, some band-aids for the inevitable scuffs and scrapes). While there are trail listings across the country, Hike Ontario is a good place to start.  Did you know that Hamilton, Ontario is called The City of Waterfalls?  One of our favorite waterfalls is there – can you guess which one? Hint: it’s actually the same height as Niagara Falls

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4. Museums & Galleries – Every day can’t be a sunny day so why not plan for the odd day at the museum? Every city, town and village has a local museum, heritage or discover centre.  Why not take the time to learn a little more about your local history or the people who impacted your region?  Even better, why not pick a place within an hour’s drive (or train ride – see Tip #1) and check it out? By far the best listing of museums and gallery’s I’ve found is actually on Wikipedia.  There is also the Virtual Museum which can be a great starting point for your next outing, rain or shine!

5. Open Air Markets and Arts Spaces – I love Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre.  Being from the Greater Toronto Area, there are lots of other lesser known areas that showcase different artists and creative sites, like The Distillery Historic District, but Harbourfront really is a great place for kids that you can explore for little to no cost at all.  Throughout the country there are places like this that explode with activities, exhibits and shows for the summer months.  You can’t really go wrong planning a day in one of these areas, even if it’s just to get an ice cream – remember the adventure is sometimes in the  Journey, not just the destination.

These are our Top 5 ideas for Summer Activities, what are yours? We’d love to add your favs to the list, so please share your best ideas with us! @lrgfamilytravel

How do you turn a party of five into a party of 23? Mention that you’re going to take your daughter to Great Wolf Lodge for her birthday, and that you’ll be checking out their new attraction, MagiQuest. As has been our experience in the past, Great Wolf Lodge is such an easy getaway for families that it hardly takes any convincing to join the party. In fact, most just invite themselves along for the adventure. I know what you’re thinking: 23 people?! How do you manage that? How do you handle meals? Isn’t it exhausting?  Um, yes!  We upgraded to a bigger room, had catering and buffet, but who cares, I got to scream my head off to my kids delight going down the Niagara Rapid Run!

Now, I’m going to be honest with you—in my quest to find great staycation destinations I was overlooking the obvious in order to prove my commitment to finding great out-of-the-way places for large families. I’ll admit that I’m probably one of the most outspoken fans of Great Wolf Lodge, having first been to it when it debuted its moose antlers and animatronic forest friends years ago.

In fact, I wouldn’t be much of a journalist if I didn’t just come clean and tell you that my family and I have been there eight times. That’s right, eight times— they told me so when I went to book this trip, bringing our tally up to nine—but who’s counting anyway?  Having said that, my goals for this series were to showcase places that were education and exploratory, places we could go to as a family that involved doing something out-of-the-ordinary or out-of-the-way.  And then Great Wolf Lodge got the best of us—they introduced MagiQuest. And you know what? We explored, we discovered, we imagined, we played, we splashed and we had fun!

The Excitement and Magic of MagiQuest

Having kids that are huge Harry Potter fans, it didn’t take long for them to hear about MagiQuest and get into a frenzy over it.  While it’s not a Harry Potter adventure, it is a magic-laden quest using a sensor-controlled magic wand that has the ability to not only open treasure chests, but make pictures light up, animals talk and unlock video messages.  The folks at Great Wolf Lodge describe it best as “an interactive live-action, role-playing game where players embark on quests and adventures in an enchanted fantasy world using real magic wands to solve the mysteries of the game.” Your journey’s direction is in your hands, literally.  And young or old, you can still play and love the game.

We had two-year-olds to 11-year-olds, and well, almost 40-year-olds scavenging through the corridors and secret caches scattered throughout three floors, with “The Ancient Book of Wisdom” in hand, trying to complete a quest. Each completed quest earns a Rune, building towards your goal of battling the dragon.  Part of the intrigue of these journeys involved solving riddles and rhymes and getting direction from the QuestMaster.  It’s so intuitive that when you went off course and tried to gather runes outside of your quest, the interactive ‘beings’ mocked you with funny commentary, suggesting course corrections.  If nothing else, the stylized décor throughout the corridors for the quest, with names like Whispering Woods and Forgotten Hall, just added to the mystic of the whole adventure.

Even though the younger kids had no idea how to play the game, the fact that your individualized character was tracked and achievements recorded was enough. My two-year-old nephew just got a kick out of raising his wand to make the treasure chests reveal their jeweled treasures or make birds talk. It was such a convincing environment that I even pretended that the wand could turn me into a lion or dragon just for fun—I mean, how often do you get permission to be a kid again with nary a side-glance from other adults—well, that I noticed anyway!

With so many quests to undertake, it may be hard to complete MagiQuest in one visit.  We just didn’t have enough time, but that’s okay because next time you visit, you can recharge your wand for a nominal cost and start again. While we did find the extra add-ons a bit pricey, since it was my daughter’s birthday we did splurge on the fitted wand belt, which she wore with pride for the rest of the week. Based on the numerous specials you may find online, you can opt to purchase the quests and the wands separately or purchase the entire MagiQuest Package which includes 20 tokens for the arcade and breakfast buffet for everyone. We found that really the best value is to buy the package. Although we didn’t make it to the arcade, we have the tokens for next time—yes, there will be a next time I’m sure.

Planning An Affordable Getaway at Great Wolf Lodge

The thing with Great Wolf Lodge is that once you’ve been there, you’re a fan and it doesn’t take much to get you back. If you can find ways to save some money during your stay, it really is an affordable getaway—especially when it can double for a birthday party too. For about the cost of a party place, or even less, you can enjoy a two-day overnight getaway and meals with the entire family. A much-needed break for all involved, especially if you can fit it in mid-week or have it fall within a PD day.

One way we have found to save some money and accommodate so many people, with so many young kids, is to order in catering. One of our favourite places is Pasta Fresca. They deliver and offer fresh and healthy meals like eggplant parmesan, chicken parmesan and penne a la vodka, by the platter or piece, along with other Italian specialties.  Their portions are huge, delivered hot, and it’s a steal when you consider you can feed a large number of people for less than $10 per person. We always order ahead of time and give ourselves an hour after we leave the waterpark to shower all the kids, get dressed and set up in our room.  While the buffet at Great Wolf Lodge is always a convenient choice with tons of variety, we find this alternative to be a great one with such a large number of people, and goes over well with the kids (order the pizza too!),  leaving the adults to eat in peace. Just remember to bring a disposable table cloth to set up a picnic on the floor, extra plates, cutlery and serving utensils, and your own salad and dessert. Come breakfast time though, we’re a sucker for the breakfast buffets’ amazing options, so we get the best of both worlds.

Based on our experience, I would suggest that the best way to approach your first, or next, Great Wolf Lodge adventure is to not attempt to do it all but rather do it over the course of the two days. We got the kids set up with their wands while one of us was registering and getting settled in our room. We did part of a quest on the way to the waterpark, hit it up again before and during storytime. In order to really maximize our time at the waterpark, we completed some more quests the next day prior to leaving, giving ourselves a good hour after we got out of the water and packed up to leave.

Our sincerest thanks to the always friendly staff at Great Wolf Lodge and Gayle Walters for her help accommodating our “large” family and our travelling entourage!! For specials and promos, register at: http://www.greatwolf.com/niagara/epack

It’s that time of the year, spring time, where, as Canadians, we are reawakened to the beauty that is Canada.  I don’t know about you but the spring season just makes me appreciate nature more – maybe because I tend to get out, walk along our neighbourhood trails, get my hands dirty in the garden and just clean up around the house.  With Earth Day coming up April 22^nd this year, I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some eco-friendly family destinations ideas from around the country.

Eco-friendly is a term that is hard to define.  Even as a television producer who worked on many green features and interviewed many notable experts in the field, to claim that something or someplace is eco-friendly can be cause for debate.  We can discuss green cleaning practices, carbon credits or simply outdoor adventures.  For my purposes here I am going to highlight eco-travel ideas and activities that I personally think are good resources for those who would like to take an Eco-friendly vacation, as well as ideas to help make your travel footprint eco-friendly. Since it would be too difficult to recommend individual locations, WEplusTHREE…or more’s presents our suggested list of Eco-friendly travel ideas and resources for families.

Top 5 Eco-friendly Destinations Resources:

1. Canadian Trails  - a great compilation of hiking, biking and sports trails across the country.
2. Treehouse Cottages – these a growing attraction across the world, but here is one from Perth, ON made entirely of recycled and reclaimed materials.
3. Eco-Volunteerism Travel – that’s right, there is volun-tourism and now there is eco-voluntourism.
4. Eco-lodges – these locales across the globe offer the best eco-lodges, hotels and resorts that are certified ‘Green”.
5. Eco-tours – Discover all the beautiful places, people and wildlife this planet has to offer on your next adventure-focused eco-holiday.

One of the best ways to travel eco-friendly is to treat wherever you go as your home. Travel responsibly and appreciate the individual landscapes without trying to take a piece home with you. Doing so will respect the people, land and ecology of your chosen destination.

Some tips for practicing Eco-Conscious travel are:

1. Consider your carbon footprint – what modes of transportation will you choose and what alternatives do you have that will have less of an impact on the environment?  Can you walk rather than take a cab? Are you going to rent a car when you arrive to your destination or can you consider public transportation or bike rentals?

*Tip that we’ve learned in our travels – kids LOVE buses and trains and subways and streetcars – they just add to the adventure!

1. Green Accommodations – what are the environmentally-responsible practices at your hotel or resort? Do they employ water conservation measures? What cleaning products do they use? Are they LEED certified? Not sure how to find out?  iStayGreen.org is a great website listing eco-friendly hotels.
2. Are YOU Eco-friendly? – when you go on vacation does your conscience and good sense go too? Do you overuse towels and products?  Do you waste food and water?  Do you leave the lights on and AC jacked up high? Do you respect the grounds around the hotel or do you feel more careless with garbage and toilettries?
3. Illegal Aliens – as tempting as it is to take home a piece or coral or wisk away a starfish, respecting your vacation locales ecology can be important for preserving its beauty for generations to come.  Not only can this deplete and alter the local ecosystem, it can cause hostile foreign species of plants and bugs to cause chaos to your local environment.  I’ve even heard of people taking seedlings of local vegetation with the hopes that they will adapt and flourish in our Canadian climate – it’s unlikely and unsound, so just don’t bother.
4. Be selective with Souvenirs – I too am guilty of grabbing all those maps and tourist brochures offered up on the racks of travel stops and hotels.  Most end up in the garbage or misplaced before they are picked up again on the way out.  Be selective with what you take – do you really need it? Remember, most hotels offer an internet connection where you can look up the information offered in the brochures.

That being said, there are lots of great ways and incredible places to discover, and no greater way to appreciate the earth than to see and experience it for yourself.  Happy Earth Day everyone and safe travels wherever they may take you!!

How this Blog came to be:

This blog was the result of a frustrated and budget-conscious mother-of-three – ME – trying to plan a number of family trips and get-aways.  To my dismay I found that any time you have to travel with more than two kids (and that could be with three or more kids, step-kids, a nanny or a grandparent) its incredibly difficult to book travel (virtually impossible to book an all-inclusive, hotel or cruise on-line) and there’s a disproportionate cost too!  So with that I decided to go on the hunt for the best travel deals, offer insider tips and showcase all the fun stuff to do when traveling with a “large” family.

I hope you like it and find it helpful.  Please feel free to share with your friends and lets get the travel industry to take notice and realize that not all of us have neat and tidy four-person families

Rania Walker is a busy mom of three kids who loves to travel and is always looking for deals and tips to allow her to do so with her “large” family of 5.  Through her company R.W. SPEAKBoutique she offers Media Training and On-Air Presentation Skills; P.R. & Marketing Consultation, and Corporate Training.  A television producer and host, she is a woman of very many words who loves to share information, especially tips and tricks to make life just that little bit easier.

Taking the kids to a historic and culturally-unique rural community after a ski and tubing vacation wasn’t exactly met with cheers and excitement.  My attempts to expose our kids to diverse places, people and educational experiences was met with some skepticism from even my biggest kid – the one I married.  He worried that undertaking a “learning adventure” on my quest to find great staycation locations was going to be a bust.  But I really had this drive to expose the kids to new places where they would explore and learn, and for that I knew that St. Jacob’s would fit the bill!  It was a place we could go as a family where we could learn about its unique history and the different cultural groups that settled throughout the Southern Ontario region.  As I explained in Part One of this series, St. Jacobs Village turned out to be a great place to explore and ranked high on my children’s ‘awesomeness’ scale.

We had come many times to St. Jacobs when the kids were young and visited the quaint village shops, the renowned farmers market, and even purchased custom-made furniture from a local blacksmith.  Yet for all our visits we did not realize that there were at least a dozen museums and exhibits within a 5 minute walk of each other, in some cases scattered within the same building. Fortunately we had a great tour guide in our new friend Jenny Shantz, Director of Marketing with St. Jacob’s Village who gave us an insider’s tour of all there is to see and do in St. Jacob’s Village.

We started at the Market Pantry and Bakery because really why leave one of the best things for last?  We sampled the maple syrup that is offered from the various maple syrup producers that make up the co-op, about 6-10 different farmers.  We held off on sampling some of the yummy treats, much to the kids dismay but I knew that if we were going to get through any of the exhibits or museums,  I didn’t want them bouncing off the walls. For dinner we ventured into the family style buffet at The Stone Crock.

We could not possibly experience the abundance of activities this little village has for tourists in our short visit, so this time around we focused on their indoor offerings.   With all there was to do the kids fell in love with St. Jacobs and we’re now planning another excursion this summer to experience some of the outdoor fair-weather offerings.   What more could we possibly do?

Top 5 Places to explore outdoors in St. Jacobs:

1. Maple Sugar Bush Tours
2. Horse Drawn Trolley Tours
3. The Millrace Footpath – a 2 km trail which is part of the Trans Canada Trail.
4. Waterloo Central Railway
5. Doon Heritage Village

So in the end, I got my wish – a fun learning adventure. And after a busy day exploring, we were fortunate enough to discover the Destination Inn & Suites in nearby Waterloo, which was an easy five minute drive from the centre of the village. One of the few truly family-considerate facilities that we’ve been too, they did not place any limits our reservation based on three kids, in fact, they offer free accommodation for kids 16 and under and room prices are still based on double occupancy.  You can book a room for five but only pay for the two adults.  Complimentary warm and cold breakfast buffet adds to the value.  And after a long day of exploring and learning, the kids only had eyes for their indoor heated pool.  I opted for the Hot Tub!  The staff were friendly and helpful and the lodgings were clean and roomy and the price was hard to beat.

For a complete listing of things to do, what to eat, and where to stay you can go to St. Jacob’s Tourism Site at http://www.stjacobs.com/

Rania Walker is a busy mom of three kids who loves to travel and is always looking for deals and tips to allow her to do so with her “large” family of 5.  Through her company R.W. SPEAKBoutique she offers Media Training and On-Air Presentation Skills; P.R. & Marketing Consultation, and Corporate Training.  A television producer and host, she is a woman of very many words who loves to share information, especially tips and tricks to make life just that little bit easier.

Finding great Staycation locations within a three hour drive of the GTA isn’t that hard, but finding ones that can be different, education and not based on an attraction or rides, can be more difficult. Especially when trying to convince said family that going back in time and revisiting some of our area’s history and heritage would be fun. Well let me state here and now – Old School can definitely be Cool!

That’s right, the kids were mesmerized by all the cool exhibits and museums within a five minute walk of each other – at least a dozen of them.  Each one unique, interactive and unassuming.  They were fascinatingly educational, some quaintly rustic, some featuring old-world charm, and dare I say the favorite – the home hardware exhibit featuring a lot of pre-technological innovations of the last  century.  The kids were amused by the old rotary phones, calculating machines and cash registers, hand-churn washing machines, and just about anything that you can imagine being a fixture in someone’s home at the turn of the century.  AND they could play with them too.  Boy, did we show our age as my hubby and I reminisced about having actually used some (NO, not the washing machine!!).   Not entirely Mennonite-focused, there were a lot of great historic insights and achievements credited to this small village including the creation of Hydro Ontario.

The best parts were really the surprising reaction and receptivity of our kids to all these exhibits and artists nooks in every cranny.  Every exhibit was interactive, and relaxed, kid-centred and FREE.  A few exhibits had a place where you could make a small donation, often suggesting a donation of $5 per family.  We could have spent two days among the various exhibits and the kids would not have complained a bit.

Some of the best parts for us as parents were the architectural liberties the village took with housing some of these exhibits and shops. In the spirit of the practical founders of this village, most museums, exhibits or special buildings were housed in existing structures that were refurbished or reclaimed to accommodate their patrons.  From Grain Silos, old railway cars (really!!) and old barns, the buildings themselves added to the allure of our tours.

With so much to do, we could have toured around for 2 days…so we did!  Thankfully our patient and hospitable tour guide Jenny Shantz showed us around and despite my many previous visits to St. Jacob’s showed us a different side to the village – the family-centric side they’ve worked so hard to preserve and make available to tourists that want to take the time to learn, explore and experience.

We decided to turn our day trip into an overnighter, and thanks to the very large-family-accommodating Destination Inn & Suites in Waterloo we made our trip a fairly inexpensive overnight getaway.  But more about that in Part Two.

Here are the Walker Family’s Top 12 family-friendly and Kid-awesome activities to do at St. Jacobs, as declared by our kids, in no particular order:

1. Broom Factory
2. Glass & Metal Studio
3. School House Theatre
4. Maple Syrup Museum
5. Model Railway Panorama
6. History of Electricity Exhibit
7.  “Home Hardware Story” Memorabilia Exhibit
8. Joseph Schneider Haus
9. St. Jacobs Quilt Factory
10. “The Mennonite Story” Multi-Media Exhibit
11. Artefacts Salvage and Restoration
12. St. Jacobs Farmers Market –  open Thursdays and Saturdays, Tuesdays during summer months

For more information on things to do, what to eat, and where to stay you can go to the St. Jacob’s Tourism site at http://www.stjacobs.com/

How this Blog came to be:

Rania Walker is a busy mom of three kids who loves to travel and is always looking for deals and tips to allow her to do so with her “large” family of 5.  Through her company R.W. SPEAKBoutique she offers Media Training and On-Air Presentation Skills; P.R. & Marketing Consultation, and Corporate Training.  A television producer and host, she is a woman of very many words who loves to share information, especially tips and tricks to make life just that little bit easier. If you want more travel ideas or have your own tips to share, please share, comment or like….’cause everyone deserves a chance to explore!

Looking for something to do for a day-trip or overnighter with the kids this March Break?  Something that reeks of Canadiana and tastes great too?   Well, if you’ve got some time and are willing to travel, near or far, then I suggest you get out there this year and take advantage of Maple Syrup Season and check out some sugar shacks, or cabane à sucre, as they are called in Quebec.

While Quebec takes the maple syrup cake for producing 77% of the world’s maple syrup, there are many communities across the country who proudly produce their local flavor of sinzibuckwud, the Algonquin word for maple syrup, meaning “drawn from wood”.

Maple syrup tapping is just one of many family activities to explore this March Break! Photo courtesy of Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation

More than just learning how to tap syrup, there are many activities and events that take place during these festivities, including:

• Horse drawn sleigh rides
• Dog-sledding
• Maple syrup boiling demonstrations
• Pancake making
• Taffy on snow
• Log-sawing contests
• Snowshoe races
• Live music
• Plank races
• Square dancing
• Guided tours and nature trail walks
• Plus, most are dog-friendly!

While most of our maple syrup producers are in Eastern Canada, there are some select sugarbush locales in Central and Western Canada, but their seasons are earlier or later than Eastern Canada.

Check out the sugar shacks with the family this season! Photo courtesy of Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation

Here are my Top 5 picks for places to go, explore, taste and take in our Canadian Heritage:

1. Manitoba’s Sugaring-off Festival: Manitoba’s sweet little secret is that they DO have maple syrup but a little later in the season and with a slightly different flavour.
2. Ontario Maple Syrup Festivals have no shortage of places to go and host festivals galore.
3. Quebec Sugar Shacks: There are over 200 places across La Belle Province to experience authentic cabane à sucre.
4. Nova Scotia Maple Syrup Festivals are held throughout the province and are often combined with a food festival. You can also find them year round at Sugar Moon Farm.
5. New Brunswick Sugar Shacks: Remarkably one of the top three maple syrup producers in the world, their festivals combine Franco and Anglo-Canadian traditions and foods.

If you do decide to buy some maple syrup while you are there, here are some yummy Maple Syrup recipes that you can make with the kids.

If you can only get a day off from work during March Break and are still looking for things to occupy the kids the rest of the week, there are lots of awesome day camps or week-long March Break Camps to check out.

Family Day (Monday, February 20th, 2012) is just around the corner and there are definitely no shortage of events and activities to do with your family.  In fact there are so many options that I don’t have room to list them all!  While you’ll probably be fighting some crowds I say just bask in the kinship, and craziness of it all -  and enjoy the camaraderie – if not the knowing looks from other parents. Just kidding!!! ;-)

You won’t have to go far to find an entire day of activities planned out.  Virtually every Parks and Rec location and community library has free events all day long.   Those tend to appeal to tweens and younger.  There are also LOTS of Free Family Skates and Swims as well.  While I couldn’t possibly list them all, here are some quick links to your local city or town-run activities:

http://www.oakville.ca/culturerec/family-day.html

http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/familyday

http://www.vaughan.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=728&Itemid=668

http://www.town.aurora.on.ca/aurora/index.aspx?ArticleID=3204&lang=en-CA

http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=2523

http://wx.toronto.ca/festevents.nsf

In addition to special events and interactive exhibits at all major tourist attractions, here is a list of things to do around the GTA, most of which are free or have a very small nominal fee. Please note some of the specialty ones still require a registration even though there is no cost to attend. (just click on the link to go straight to the site):

1.       Riverdale Farm
2.       Family Day at the National Ballet of Canada
3.       PawsWay Pet Discovery Centre – Harbourfront/Queens Quay
4.       Free Family Day Staycation – National Film Board
5.       FamilyFunDaysAtTorontoMuseums
6.       FreeGlenbrookdaycamp – rock climbing, tobogganing, hayloft, barn, sports, wagon rides
7.       Markham Museum Winterfest
8.       Family Day Free at the YMCA – check your local Y for participation
9.       Family Day at Ontario Parks
10.   KIDS Free Hockey Hall of Fame
11.   Halton Conservation
12.   Free Ice Fishing Ontario – if you decide to get out of town

Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with spending some good ol’ outdoor time together.  Depending on the weather you can go sledding, hiking, or skiing. Or maybe just spend some together time on the couch watching a good movie or  playing some old fashioned games.  After all, Family Day is really about spending quality time together.  So get out there and bond!!   And have a safe and happy Family Day from my family to yours  :-D

So, on my mission to embrace the winter season, I promised the family we would go on a ski holiday, something I knew the kids would enjoy but wasn’t sure I’d really be up to.  Continuing on our last post about our adventure getaway at Holiday Valley Resort in Ellicottville I wanted to share some of the great experiences and places we found while we were there.   I can truly say we experienced it all since we arrived on a regular winter day, followed by a warm and rainy day, and woke up the third morning to six inches of snow on our balcony and a blizzard.  It was crazy weather for sure, but did not dampen any of our plans or limit our adventures.

Not knowing what to expect I started with their website:  www.holidayvalley.com and found ample options for accommodations, skiing and snowboarding, tubing, a mountain coaster (YES!! A variation of a roller coaster on the mountain) and LOTS of recreational activities.  They have festivals and events year round, with their Mardi Gras Festival ranking as one of their best.

Having just celebrated their 50^th anniversary in 2011, Holiday Valley offers 58 slopes, 13 lifts, mostly high-speed, and ample cross-country trails across 4 mountains. There are slopes geared to every level of experience that intersect.  As a more novice skier I was able to take the same lifts up as my dare-devil kids, and was able to ski an alternative route, and end up at junctions along the hill where we were able to meet up with the kids without any of us forgoing the fun and enjoyment. AND allowing me to stay in one piece!  They have a Snowsports School that offers ski lessons which I would recommend to anyone on their first ski of the season. If your children are young and you need some time to learn on your own, they even offer an interactive day care for kids of all ages.

Rest stops and warming huts abound at the top of every lift to warm up, picnic in, or even have a small gathering for Sunday worship.  Even if you’re not a great skier there are lots of fun activities from the tubing park, expansive cross country trails and three different chalets across the base of the hill to let you rest and restore.

As a family of 5 we wanted a room that would accommodate all of us and include a kitchenette in order to save some money and eat out as we felt like it.  Ashley, the Front Desk Manager at the Tamarack Club, was an incredible help getting us set up in the right room for what we needed.  We opted for a one bedroom suite.  It was clean, roomy, with lots of storage space, a fireplace and offered up a separate bedroom, via an adjoining room.  The kids’ favorite part was the Murphy Bed hidden elegantly into the wall, leaving ample room for their stuffies, toys and gear.

A nice added touch was the Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries….if you want to get to a mom’s heart, just perk up the toiletries and offer a spa.  As it was my husband’s birthday coming up, what better gift than a message to sooth his aching muscles at the Falling Waters Spa located on site in the Tamarack Club.  And yes, he really did get a message and he loved it – thanks to Vanessa for arranging all that. Another bonus was the ski check in the hotel that allowed us to drop off our skis and gear to be stored overnight in secured room, relieving us of the wet and cumbersome gear we’d have had to haul and store in our room.

For après ski, there is a nice warm pool that extends outdoors, along with a sauna and two hot tubs – yes two! One for the kids that is kept at a lower temperature, and one for the Adults.  Even on a drizzly evening it was misty and magical.  The kids loved going for dips between the three pools.  And despite all the different age groups and background everyone we met was friendly, polite and well, just fun.

While we expected to eat out, we ended up eating in most of the time.  There is a Tops Friendly market about 1 mile down the road in the middle of the village to buy groceries at.  While it was small, it offered everything we needed, but seemed quite a bit pricier that most grocery stores, allowing for the fact that its in a touristy town.  One tip for future trips would be to shop at a local grocery store just outside of these tourist towns as they are often found right off the highway (we found another Tops just outside of town about 10 miles out) that was priced more reasonably.

If you do decide to eat out there were a few places that everyone seemed to recommend:

1. EBC – The Ellicottville Brewing Company where they actually brew the beers on-site in an open area within the restaurant for all to see.  Watch the brew masters at work and sample beers ranging from Chocolate Cherry, Blueberry to EVL! The kids loved their bottled Root Beer and Shirley Temples.
2. John Harvard’s – located in the Tamarack Club featuring fare that THE John Harvard, Founder of Harvard University, brought recipes for from his native England in the early 1800’s
3. Gin Mill – this bar and entertainment lounge offers up live music most evenings and a games room for kids and adults alike in the back.  Great food. Best to leave around 8pm if you’re with the kids.
4. Tips Up – This higher-end restaurant offers a more elegant atmosphere and some fantastic cuisine for that special night out.
5. Dina’s – Great for Breakfast, or who’s kidding who, Brunch.

We did not find our stay to be expensive.  Everything was so reasonably priced.  Even the commissary downstairs offering snacks and toiletries was priced well – Ice Cream bars were $1.25, a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was $4.50, and chocolate bars were 1.25. They had a games room that offered 50 cent to 75 cent arcade games that the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

But the best deals can be found if you stay mid-week.  They offer free lodging and lift tickets for two kids 17 and under.  Now that is a great deal! You can find some discounts on lift tickets at www.holidayvalley.com/tickets. To get even better deals you can register for their e-newsletter to get last minute deals and great discounts and promos all year round : http://www.holidayvalley.com/HolidayValley/info/tamarack-club.aspx. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and after you register your e-mail address select ‘year round last minute club’.

Thank you to Jane Eshbaugh and all the wonderful staff at Holiday Valley for making this one of our most memorable trips yet!