Destinations

A feature about sustainable and authentic destinations around the world.

If you're traveling for the first time with your kids this summer, I have some advice for you: Don't panic! Parents make mistakes when they travel. I know.

Avoid these mistakes every new parent makes when they travel

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If you’re traveling for the first time with your kids this summer, I have a little advice for you: Don’t panic! Parents make mistakes when they travel, and I know because I’ve been one of them. But I can help.

I would love to share an anecdote about the worst moment I ever experienced while traveling with my family. It would involve sugared-up toddlers, full diapers, angry hotel guests, crying infants, and some kind of sweet liquid spilled on a computer keyboard. But that scene has repeated itself so many times that I wouldn’t know which example to choose.

Because I spent 16 years at National Geographic, people often ask me: What's the best camera for a family vacation? Well, I have good news and bad news.

What is the best camera for a family vacation?

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Because I spent 16 years at National Geographic, people often ask me: What’s the best camera for a family vacation?

Then I have to deliver the good news and the bad news. The bad news? I wasn’t a photographer for the Society. (That’s what everyone in the building calls it, as if it’s some kind of secret society.) I wasn’t even at the Yellow Book (more NatGeo-speak for National Geographic Magazine). I was just the reader advocate for National Geographic Traveler.

The good news is: I didn’t waste any opportunity to learn from the photographers I met. And I met plenty of them. They taught me a lot about photography and then sent me on my way to document the last 17 years of family travel

Christopher Elliott and his children have spent the last two years traveling -- nonstop. Here he shares his parenting advice from the road.

Here’s a little unsolicited parenting advice from the road

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I’m as averse to unsolicited parenting advice as the next dad. But when the advice comes from the road — which is to say, the lessons learned from more than two years of nonstop travel — it feels a little different.

The road, an inanimate thing, won’t get its feelings hurt if I reject its lessons. Instead, I’ll just have to learn them for myself each time I travel.

If you can answer "yes" to the eternal question, "Are we there yet?" then you probably need a survival manual for the first day of vacation.

How to survive the first day of your vacation

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If you can answer “yes” to the eternal question, “Are we there yet?” then you probably need a survival manual for the first day of vacation. The 24 hours after you arrive are among the busiest and most stressful — the unpacking and settling in, the arguing, and the inevitable chaos.

Vacation planning is in full swing. Should you go back to some of your favorite destinations -- or try something new?

You can always go back. But should you?

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Our return to Paris was all but a sure thing. We had our passports. We’d spent weeks brushing up our French in Duolingo. We were even arguing about the best apartments on HomeAway.And then life happened.It wasn’t one thing that sunk our summer plans in Paris. Instead, it was a lot of little things, including some paperwork issues, school schedules and, of course, the funds. In the end, it’s always about money, isn’t it?