As your children grow up it is easier to embark on more complex adventures. Here are some examples.
Family travel to Paris
- Day 1 – Arrive, transfer to hotel on the Left Bank with quaint tiny elevator that the kids will enjoy operating for the family. After a brief rest and lunch a walking tour with kid-adept guide, exploring historic neighborhoods and parks. Dinner in a casual restaurant.
- Day 2 – After breakfast a shopping expedition in a local open air market, cooking class ending in a lunch for the family. Afternoon at leisure. Evening boat ride on the Seine
- Day 3 – Visit Versailles. Kid friendly guide to the Palace including the ‘Queen’s Hamlet’ where Marie Antoinette created a small village and played at being a peasant. Bike ride through the gardens
- Day 4 – Morning at leisure. Afternoon photography tour. Follow a professional photographer to little known neighborhoods to take the best pictures ever of quintessential Parisian life. Dine at a famous roast chicken café.
- Days 5 and 6 – Travel to the Loire Valley and explore the castles and chateaux with your fun and funny guide. Overnight in a rural style inn and stroll through a French village.
- Day 7 – return to Paris for your flight home.
Maine
- Days 1 and 2 – Maine is easily accessible from Boston Airport, accessible on non-stop flights from many U S cities. Rent a car and take a couple of days to drive up the scenic coast to Mount Desert Island in north east Maine where all sorts of exhilarating outdoor activities abound. Two scenic hours from Boston Logan airport, including the cliffs of Cape Elizabeth and the Portland Head Light, oldest active light house, is the coastal town of Portland, Maine. There you can soak up the sights and sounds of this busy fishing center. The old part of the city, at the waterside sports cobblestone streets and 18th century buildings where vibrant shops, pubs and restaurants bustle with tourists and locals alike. You can take in a performance of Portland’s world class arts scene, watch a ball game, take a trolley tour or visit art galleries in the bracing salty fresh air. Nearby, Casco Bay is a deep water harbor with many islands to discover and also to the north, Freeport, home to L.L. Bean.
- Days 3 and 4 – Continuing north, Midcoast Maine offers beautiful picnicking in Reid State Park and kayaking in Boothbay Harbor. Fruit and vegetable stands are tucked amid the regions rolling hills, along with artisanal wineries and breweries. Experience exhilaration and satisfaction that farm to table affords under the clear blue skies and jewel toned countryside. The Maine Maritime and Penobscot Marine Museums illuminate the history of the state. You can get a present day experience of that history in one of the many lobster pounds or indulge in an oyster feast in Damariscotta or Newcastle. As the days fade pick a seaside restaurant or pub to rest in while watching the lobster boats piled high with traps return home for the night.
- Days 4, 5, 6 – Finally, driving north along the stunning coast with its fingers of the sea reaching into deep fjords, you will reach Downeast and Acadia. In particular, Mount Desert Island offers days of glorious adventures, from climbing Cadillac Mountain, to kayaking along the rocky island coasts, to hiking, biking or riding along the 175 miles of trails and carriage roads. Taste the famous popovers at Jordan Pond house, swim or row in the multitude of pristine lakes, take a class at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In the evening how about an amateur dramatic production in one of the vast old barns that dot the countryside?
- Day 7 – Two hours from Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, is Bangor International Airport from which you can return home with one change of planes