• This weekend Bank of America cardholders can take advantage of their Free Museums On Us days on September 1 and 2.  Choose from over 100 participating museums, zoos, science centers, and botanical gardens across the U.S.
• If you have a Perkins Restaurant on your road trip route – or near your home – they are providing a Free Short Stack on September 15th to anyone that stops by.  This is  a promotional event to encourage donations for Give Kids The World Resort!
• National Geographic offers Free Trip Cards for major U.S. cities each with a different focus including cultural, adventure and travel trips!

Click here for past freebie listings that may still be available.  If you run across a great travel-related freebie, let us know by commenting below!

Safe Travels Everyone!

Hunting for banana slugs was pure enjoyment for the kids!

Travel Tip:  Visit the local bookstore at your vacation destination for great kid-friendly souvenirs and travel tips!  Staff at bookstores are a great source of information about the local community – and sometimes the other customers even chime in!

Real Life Experience:   I love to explore bookstores at home, and when we travel – it is no different.  On a recent trip to Santa Cruz, California, I insisted that our group visit a local bookstore.  After we explored the children’s section, my nephew left with a book on banana slugs and my son chose a book about tracking animals.  We had been exploring the trails at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and both kids were excited to take home a lasting memory of their trip, and the adults were happy to leave with something besides a toy to clutter up the playroom!

I could spend hours in the Hall of Birds – it is a great way to check out those hard to spot markings that make each species unique!

Located just up from the Mission at 2559 Puesta del Sol, this museum has the best of both the indoor and outdoor worlds.  With halls dedicated to different areas of study like the hall of birds, which holds 37 species of marsh birds alone, the hall of Native Americans with displays about the local Chumash tribe, the halls on marine life, mammals and fossils, and an art gallery with a changing program of exhibits your time inside the museum will be well spent.

The kids had a wonderful time in the museum’s backyard – climbing, exploring, and getting wet!

But you also have the option to take the kids out on the nature paths that weave their way behind the museum along Mission Creek. Here you will spot any number of birds and butterflies. The museum often has falconry specialists showcasing their birds out here and at the time of this post, the Butterflies Alive! exhibit is also located near the nature trails.  And the Museum Backyard gives kids a chance to climb boulders, make mud pies and play near the water feature at their leisure.

Falconry experts bring owls and falcons to the museum for public demonstrations.

My kids also enjoyed checking out the skeleton of the blue whale out front, and we just couldn’t leave without a great souvenir from the gift shop which is filled educational toys and books.

The Santa Barbara Natural History Museumcosts $11 for adults and $7 for children aged 3-12, but you can get discount coupons from the Tourist Information Centers located around town.  The museum also offers reciprocity to members of other science centers using the ASTC Travel Passport Program.  Finally – if you have two days to fill – check out their Nature Pass.  For $14 for adults and $8 for kids, you can visit the Natural History Museum and the Ty Warner Sea Center on two consecutive days.

If you go, take a picnic lunch, water to drink and sunscreen – it can get hot in the “backyard”.

Safe Travels Everyone!

• There is nothing better for travel than an ebook that keeps everyone entranced.  One of my favorite childhood stories was The Secret Garden. Download it for free from Amazon and read to your kids (or let them read it on their own) to while away those hours in transit!
• If you need some snacks for the road – check out the Triscuit Toppers Tantrum Page on Facebook to get a free box!
• Check for an On The Border restaurant on your road trip route!  For a limited time, kids eat free at On The Border restaurants, with the purchase of an adult meal.

Click here for past freebie listings that may still be available.  If you run across a great travel-related freebie, let us know by commenting below!

Safe Travels Everyone!

Hanging out in the hotel pool for a day helps our kids recharge for more vacation adventures.

Travel Tip: When traveling with children, plan a “down day” to give the kids a break from constantly being on the move.

Real Life Experience:  I love to explore when we are on vacation!  If I had my preferences, we would be on the go constantly so we wouldn’t miss a thing.  But I have found that my son and daughter need a break from “vacationing”.

Both of the kids love to travel, but after a few days of exploring a new place they both prefer to spend a low-key day playing in the hotel room or swimming in the pool.  Even though it is hard to leave a day empty of vacation adventures, we have found that accommodating this need keeps the kids in the right frame of mind for further explorations and makes the rest of the vacation a far more enjoyable experience!

Safe Travels Everyone!

I was recently given the opportunity to review the ebook Planet Explorers London and found the guide to be very interactive with clickable links for additional information about each topic. It included all of the traditional guidebook offerings including a list of attractions, types of fare available at each site, maps and travel tips. But an obvious effort has been made to draw kids in with information about “what’s cool” at each attraction, trivia, a list of famous Londoners and movies featuring the city.

For parents hoping to encourage their children to learn about the significant geographical, historical, cultural and scientific facts about the city, this guide can provide a fun way to do just that,  It even includes a quiz at the end of the book to test this newly acquired knowledge.  Author Laura Schaefer’s love of history and experience as a middle school curriculum writer shines through and gives kids a fun way to discover new and interesting things about their family vacation destination!

In addition to the guide for London, the Planet Explorers series includes: Planet Explorers New York City 2012, Planet Explorers Chicago, Planet Explorers Philadelphia, Planet Explorers Las Vegas, Planet Explorers Disneyland Paris Resort, Planet Explorers Walt Disney World 2012, Epcot 2012, SeaWorld Orlando 2012, Planet Explorers Disneyland, The Walt Disney World Character Finder 2012, Planet Explorers Disney Cruise Line 2012, Universal Orlando Resort 2012, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter 2012, and LEGOLAND Florida 2012.

Would you like the chance to win the Planet Explorers ebook guide of your choice?  Subscribe to The Tourist Baby via Email to enter the contest or “like” us on Facebook and leave a comment on this post!  The lucky winner will be posted on August 28!  Good Luck!

Rules:
This giveaway ends on August 27, 2012 at 11:59 pm CST.
Open to the US only, ages 18+.
Click here for complete rules and disclosure.

• We used the Rick Steves’ guide to Rome when we took the kids to Italy – and had a ball using his tips, so I was excited to see that Rick Steves’ Europe is offering a free Tour Guide and DVD!
• If you have a Freebirds World Burrito on your road trip route (or your school shopping route), for a limited time you can receive a free kids meal Sundays after 3 pm and all day Monday and Tuesday with the purchase of an adult meal!
• A great addition to any Travel Activity Pack- especially for aspiring birders – is the free printable Bird Pack from 3 Dinosaurs!  Some of the pages use true to life artwork of common birds for matching, puzzles, letter practice, and beginning sounds activities!

Click here for past freebie listings that may still be available.  If you run across a great travel-related freebie, let us know by commenting below!

Safe Travels Everyone!

Infant bedding can vary widely from hotel to hotel, so be sure to do research on what your hotel will provide.

Real Life Experience: Family vacations that require a hotel stay with very young children can be quite an adventure.  One of the aspects that can vary widely is the sleeping arrangements for infants.

Some hotels have a one-time charge for the use of a crib for the entire length of the stay, while others charge a fee nightly.  After researching the options for infant bedding at a hotel in Hawaii, which charged a nightly fee, we opted to bring our own pack-n-play.  Even with the $25 baggage fee from the airline, it was cheaper than using the hotel crib.

Some hotels may have a limited number of infant beds available.  We stayed in one hotel that operated on a first-come, first-serve basis for the two pack-n-plays available.  We were not warned about the possibility of not getting an infant bed, so didn’t ask for one until we arrived.  That night we had to resort to a “family bed” arrangement that we did not appreciate, but managed to get a crib after that.

Another consideration for us was whether or not the bed was a crib with wood or metal slats versus a soft-sided pack-n-play.  Initially we were excited to get a crib, but soon learned that our kids were used to a full-size crib, rather than the narrow ones in hotels.  Each night they would end up banging their heads on the slats, causing all of us to lose sleep.  We learned pack-n-plays were a better option for us.

Finally, some hotels may provide the bed, but not the bedding.  This was usually not a problem for us, since we typically travel with a blanket and pillow for each child.  However, we did find that in instances where it was particularly cold at night, a single blanket didn’t seem to be enough.  Since we weren’t comfortable placing full-size blankets and sheets in a pack-n-play due to fears of suffocation, we soon learned that hotel towels are just about the right size and would work in a pinch.

Safe Travels Everyone!

On our most recent trip, we visited The Natural History Museum, Santa Maria and were delighted with what we found.  The museum is located in a small restored house on McClelland Street across from the Central Library.  Despite its small size, the museum delivers a big serving of natural history and best of all, admission is free!

As we walked in the door, we were greeted by the friendly volunteers, who encouraged the kids to press all the buttons and touch anything except the animals within the habitat displays.  The kids really enjoyed viewing the  rooms housing the Oak Woodlands Exhibit and the Bat Barn Exhibit, and couldn’t wait to play “bat game”.

The kids really enjoyed checking out all of the fun stuff on the touch table.

The Touch Table also caught and held their attention for quite some time.  They took turns listening for the ocean in each of the shells, dug through the different types of beach sand hoping to find treasure, and inspected the bones of the pigeon and the mermaid’s purse with interest.  The abalone shells were particularly interesting to them because the interior was so different from all the other shells on the table.

The back room of the museum houses a series of displays of fossils of various animals found in California along with a section detailing how the Earth has changed over time.  A video about tsunamis was running during our visit, and the kids listened intently while they stamped their bookmarks at the craft table.  My son was excited about the shark display here , noting that his shark tooth necklace was nowhere near the size of the shark teeth at the museum.

The kids had fun selecting their favorite stamps for a bookmark at the craft table.

Our visit ended with a short walk back through the section on California Wildlife with the Tule Elk, Mountain Lion and Black Bear, as well as the Beaver Habitat. I enjoyed getting an up close view of the local bird life represented in the museum exhibits and watching the kids discover some of the smaller animals they missed when they first went through the room.

For some, a small museum with free admission may not seem worth the time, but I was impressed that this museum kept the kids entertained for a little over 45 minutes with its interactive games, touch table, and crafts.  In addition to these regular exhibits, the museum also holds “live animal” events on the first Saturday of each month.  Something we will look forward to on future visits to California.  And its location across from the Central Library gave us a chance to extend our outing – and our education – by checking out some books on California wildlife.

If  you go, check out their newsletter for upcoming events and couple your visit with a trip to the Library or the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum to extend the fun!

Safe Travels Everyone!