Over the past couple of weeks, I have been on the internet scouring around for information that I want to share with readers of this blog, because there are a ton of talented, funny, inspiring, writers out there sharing stories of their travels.
But I take umbrage at the fact that some of the writers insist on talking about “authentic” travel, as if hanging out with locals wherever you go is somehow superior to enjoying your own family at the beach, or even a *gasp* theme park.
Travel is not a word to be claimed. There are no minimum days on the road required to qualify as a traveler, and taking your kids to Niagara Falls is as legitimate as visiting the Pantheon. Weekend trips to basketball tournaments can serve to bond a family as surely as biking across Europe.
If you’re here, and you’re like me, you travel with your kids and it’s important to you. Or you travel with friends, your mother, or just by yourself. You visit LEGOLAND, boutique hotels, and historic sites that move you to tears. Anyway you do it , it is authentic, and it’s worth sharing with others.
Here are some people I think are getting it right.
*Colleen Lanin at travelmamas.com blogs about travel with kids, and includes a great set of packing lists on her site. I have loads of packing lists at home, but I love hers because you can pack and check off items for up to five people at once. Get your packing lists here.
*Everywhereist.com is a site penned by a brilliant writer, copywriter style, (my favorite kind), and is very, very funny. She writes about travels with her husband, and a passel of other things that will make you laugh, but will also leave you feeling touched. Check out her post on the permanence of family.
*The Travelbelles is an online magazine for women, and I like to read it to keep the part of me that’s not a mother alive. It’s frilly, and southern, and is owned and edited by my friend Margo, who saved my butt in New York last summer when my purse was stolen.
In a very funny post, Margo writes about making friends with her bossy GPS, which is something I think we can all relate to.
*Chris Gray Faust is a real, live, award winning travel writer, who shares gorgeous photos on her travel blog, and even better, lots of links to help you plan your own travels.
Enjoy.
Happy travels, wherever you are.
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LOVE this!!! You are bang on the money with this one.
ALL travel is real and worthwhile and interesting and life-changing and fun and dreadful and crazy and hilarious and mortifying. It all matters. Thank you for this. You made me grin today. 
Thank you, Krista. The list of life-changing, fun, dreadful, crazy, hilarious, and mortifying pretty much sums it up doesn’t it? I use to experience all of that on a trip to the grocery store when my kids were little:)
Right on Debbie! There as many different kinds of traveling as there are people, thank goodness. And thanks for the nice shout out!
You are most welcome, Margo:)
I love this post, even though you did not call *me* out — one of the Top 50 Online Travel Influencers. (I also go to theme parks and beach boardwalks with my kids.) I forgive you, though.
You’ve been getting enough play lately, Missy:) Besides, I’d look like a top 50 butt kiss if I gave you the shout out.
Well I may not have made the Top 50 Online Travel Influencers…but I did something even more important…I made the Travel Dither list of People Getting It Right. Yay me! Thanks so much for recommending Travel Mamas and my packing lists.
You’re welcome, and thank YOU, Colleen.
A heartfelt “yee-ha” from my Go BIG or Go Home family! We see nothing wrong with taking time out of our hectic lives to have some fun at the bowling alley sporting the world’s largest bowling pin out front, or taking some cheesy photos in front of a 13-foot garden gnome!
We’re together as a family; that’s what authentic!
We’ve got a lot of those photos in front of random things, too! Thanks for happening by, Traci:)
I agree with you. There’s a place for it all. And really, when you boil it down, isn’t it all just “travel.” I think one of the biggest mistakes a person can make is letting someone else define their experience. My theory? Get out there. Go see it. Be happy. Do the things you love with the people you love. Forget the definitions and you’ll come home with the memories you’re after. Thanks for the reminder.
Agree, Heather. Agree:)
You got it right Debbie – near or far, Fantasyland or “real world”, it all counts! Glad to see you back in action!
Thanks, Mary! Glad to be back:)