What ‘so much more’ means, of course, is up to you. NYC is home to the best of everything, be it theater, food, architecture, or art. We can go on for days chronicling all there is to see in NYC, but we’d still only be scratching the surface.

Since you’re here, we’d like to assume that you’re either an NYC lover or a music enthusiast. If you happen to be both, then you’ll be happy to know that NYC is the perfect destination for audiophiles. The city has a deep relationship with music — from Harlem’s rich history of gospel music, to the East Village’s iconic rock joints frequented by the likes of Jimi Hendrix. If you love music just as much as I do then you should definitely check out the Steinway premier dealership.

While some bars and venues have closed their doors, NYC continues to be the ultimate playground for the musicians of today. If you’re looking to get your live music fix with a cold beer in hand, we’ve got the places for you.

The Apollo Theater

Image credit: @apollotheater on Instagram

The Apollo Theater is basically the ground zero of the Harlem Renaissance. Historic greats like Ella Fitzgerald and modern-day icons such as Lauryn Hill have all graced its stage. However, what most people don’t know is that the venue started out in 1913 as a burlesque theater, and was only named the Apollo (and removed from its burlesque beginnings) some 20-odd years later. Nowadays, the theater acts as a sort of marching band arranger for those who want to make it big with their music.

The Long Road to Vik Hotel Arena Blanca

We flew out from Calgary on the Thursday night/Friday morning to Toronto. My wife always gets confused about the times when she sees it is late night. “are we leaving on Thursday night or Friday?” The flight actually left at 12:05 AM so we got to the airport at 10:00 or so as we had to drop the car to the extended parking and get a shuttle across to the airport.

It is funny, when we go to the US we preclear customs in Calgary but in this case we didn’t do anything until we got down to the Dominican Republic because of course there are no agreements in Canada to preclear before going to these Caribbean islands.

Finally at just after midnight we were off the ground from Calgary with WestJet and on our way for our first stop at the Toronto Pearson airport

Some airports are really quiet in the middle of the night but in Toronto it seemed like any other day even at 5:00 in the morning. We had some coffee, My son Jaiden had a SmashBurger hamburger for breakfast and I wandered around while my wife and kids slept in the seats at our gate. Still a little more than a couple of hours away.

Anyway, we sat watching our gate get busier and busier at the Toronto Airport and then finally took the 4 hour flight down to the Punta Cana airport. The trip on WestJet was great again as always and we all really enjoyed a nap to speed up the trip.

Landing in the Sunny Carribean

This was our first time in Punta Cana and we didn’t really know what to expect. After walking off the plane onto the tarmac we were told to get into the bus for the trip to the terminal from the plane. It was really hot and we were not sure how long the trip was – which was only actually 100 feet or so, we waited in a long but fast line to clear customs with a bit of air conditioning to cool us down and hoping that we would be able to make it to the Vik Hotel Arena Blanca.

It has to be stressed I think that the Caribbean all year round is hot and humid and a bit of a shock from the fairly cool and dry environment that we were in during June in Calgary. I break a sweat pretty easily so my wife and the kids had a great laugh as I was dripping wet before we even got through customs.

My wife Michelle had called ahead to the resort and they sent a bus to pick us up as we were waiting to pass customs, we found the guy and got in a very non-airconditioned minivan to the resort.

One thing we got to really see on the 25 minute or so ride to the resort is just how undeveloped the area is and how all the real development is happening only at resorts. I am sure in the early days of Cancun and many other Mexican resorts this was also the same. Given time and demand these things always change as money floods in and infrastructure gets built up for the tourists and hopefully =helping the locals as well.

A strange thing happened on our way to the resort, the driver did not speak english at all and we got a phone call from someone telling us to pay the driver $80, which would be for both ways (to the resort and back) and to write down on a piece of paper what time and day we would have to go back to the airport when we left.

There was a bit of in-congruency here since it was the resort that dispatched the driver and also the resort that would likely be arranging to send us back as well. After some confused conversation between Michelle and I and a bit of nervousness on the way into the resort we paid the driver, hopped out of the hot van, and stumbled towards the checkin. Oh and the guys at the resort grabbed our bags and welcomed us…

VIK Hotel Arena Blanca lobby is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Check In to Vik Hotel Arena Blanca

Here we were, at the front desk of an open air building, sweating, smelling all the tropical smells, and tired from the long day getting there. Since we booked directly with the hotel we did not have the “voucher” for the room rate that they were looking for, the front desk staff was having a lot of trouble understanding english, but finally they were able to scan through our emails and get everything sorted and we were off to our room with our bags very close behind us.

Quickly we tipped the staff that brought our heavy luggage and we figured out the sleeping arrangements. (Spoiler alert: the rooms and beds did not work out as I had expected).

There was a couple things that we did not realize were the case at the Vik Hotel Arena Blanca.

First, the safe in the room did not work, we needed some key and after waiting an hour I gave up and we just carried our passports around with us as well as our other valuables.

Secondly, the room internet, which happens to be the internet for the whole resort, outside of the main lobby, has a charge of $2 a day, but that is for each device so more like $8 a day each. I really was not too concerned about having always on internet so my son was the only one initially got internet for the resort. Internet by the way is slow and poor, not sure if this is normal across the Dominican Republic but it certainly was for our resort.

Beach Time and the Sand You Only See In Movies

Finally we made it to the beach. Since our flight arrived fairly early in the afternoon we were able to hot the beach late in the afternoon on the first day and my it is beautiful! Water is warm, the beach is well maintained and clean and all the stress of the last 24 ours quickly slid away from us and the smiles came back to our faces.

The resort has probably 100 or maybe even more lawnchairs on the beach with many right underneath palm leaf umbrellas. The sun is incredibly intense this close to the equator and I am pretty good at sunburning at the best of times so I was really careful of the sun and keeping lots of spray on sunscreen on.

Even though we had little sleep we were energized until about 10 PM and then finally fell soundly asleep to the blowing of air conditioning in our two room suite.

Somehow my son woke up early at 5 AM the next morning and I was up and running around with him checking everything out in the resort. The sun rises just after 5 AM this time of year in Punta Cana so I was able to check out dawn at the beach, find the best chairs by the pool, check out the water temp in the ocean early in the morning.

OK, really I was just wandering around in this new place and trying to see how it worked and finding coffee and food.

One funny and unexpected thing that happened actually was my amount of walking. Usually at home I will get 6,000 to 10,000 steps a day in according to my phone, but on this trip I really thought I was doing a great job of relaxing and still somehow managed 17,000 to 18,000 steps everyday, I am guessing the size of the resort really led me to get a lot of unintended walking in. I can’t complain with the exercise, I didn’t feel like I was moving a lot but I was sure seeing and experiencing lots.

A Couple Basic Problems From The Room

One thing that we noticed on the first day from our room was that the power went out a few times. This was very strange as power is just something you always expect is going to work. You flip a switch and a light goes on. Lights don’t just turn off. But this is what happened a few times on the first two days at the resort.

The second thing was the water out of the taps. Usually we would never think of drinking the water in a resort as the bacteria that the locals are well used to could of course make us sick. The trouble with the water at our resort is that it smelled terrible. The kids said that it smelled like a mix between Sulphur at a hot spring and raw sewage. Yuck. It did seem to get better and worse a few times but even when we checked out it smelled terrible.

Food and Drinks on the Resort

The food and drinks at resorts is always impossible to know before you leave. You go to TripAdvisor and you see that the food is excellent and terrible, I have never been able to figure this out. You would think there would be some kind of general consensus but there never seems to be for any place we go to.

I thought the food was great. Lots of choice and lots of food in the buffet for each meal and there was plenty of restaurants for dinner as well. I was never hungry and loved all the different exotic foods of the Caribbean but also had to laugh that there was certain strange foods that that seemed to cater to groups that visibly stayed there.

We found that there were a lot of Russians, lots of Canadians, and some Americans and the Vik Hotel Arena Blanca seems to try and make everyone comfortable with their own food as well as the food more common in the Dominican Republic.

There is also a food bar that is open throughout the day that had Pizza, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and French Fries. These were a great snack in the middle of the day when the thought of food hits. I especially liked the pizza which was thin crust and cooked in a big brick pizza oven.

The booze I can say is fine but definitely not top notch, all the drinks are just generic local brands and although there are a few beach style sweet blended drinks most people we saw were just drinking classic rum and cokes or something along those lines.

The drinks at most of the bars seemed to be weak and the pop was flat except in the resort lobby where they seemed to make drinks stronger and actually had a machine the dispensed Virgin Pina Colada and Banana Mama slushy drinks that were definitely a hit with my wife and kids.

Hotels in the Area – And Pokemon Go in Punta Cana

My son Jaiden and I did some exploring at the other resorts in the neighborhood. As avid Pokemon Go players we had heard on the Silph Road that there were not many Pokestops or Pokemon Go Gyms in the Punta Cana area but that turned out to be false and we were able to sneak into all of the nearby resorts to spin pokestops and fight and take gyms. The big catches for us were Heracross and Corsola which are both only available in the Carribean and South America.

It may seem like it would be difficult to get into the other resorts but all we had to do was to walk along the beach and then head up into the resort grounds.

One night we went South and hit 3 places and the next afternoon we headed North and got to 4 different resorts.

One was very difficult to get into because of security on the beach, but I just played dumb and told the security guy that we were playing Pokemon Go and we snuck in further down the beach.

One thing to know is that the resorts in the Punta Cana area were beautiful. Nice lush grassy grounds, large pools, lots of wildlife, and clean with well taken care of public areas. We were not able to get in obviously to see the rooms but all were at least 4 and 5 star for sure.

We also discovered just north of our re3sort that there was a string of shops selling all sorts of goods right along the beach

I have included here a few pictures that we took at these resorts.

I only actually include this section because it was so much fun being a sneaky guy with his kid. Probably not the best thing to admit to but I have found that most of my memories of the kids are just small events that we had fun or learned together, not days or weeks, just events.

Amenities and Things To Do in Punta Cana

As with any resort the Vik Hotel Arena Blanca Punta Cana has almost everything to keeps you busy and having a good vacation. There are all the restaurants and bars of course but after that . there are many things that you can take advantage of with or without the kids.

Pool tables and ping pong – on one side of the resort, just down an outdoor hall from the main buffet building is a couple of ping pong tables and into what is supposed to be the sports bar is a couple of pool tables. I found that the ping pong was used a lot but the pool tables not so much. All the stuff is included right there for both

Evening Shows – there are of course evening shows around 9:00. There are dance shows with kinda racy dances but one night there was actually Karaoke, and very public Karaoke at that, we could hear it from the balcony at our room

At the same time, one of the things that we noticed in the evening after the sun had set and it was still very warm out, is that there were not a lot of people out. There is no swimming in the pool after 7:00 pm (of course my son and I broke that rule one night as well) but there are couples and families just sitting by the pool in the dark having quiet conversation, maybe smoking cigars or having drinks and just unwinding before bed. It was nice just to sit by the pool or on a beach chair in front of the dark beach. I felt safe at night around the resort, not sure how others feel but it was great and quiet.

Swim Aerobics – Although I was at the other pool it was hard not to hear the guys guiding people through swim aerobics in one of the pools. I don’t know what it is but almost every all inclusive we have been to has some kind of swim aerobics. I may not have partaken this time but I have been known to do it in the past

Booking events and Tours – This may be a service offered by the Vik Hotel Arena Blanca resort but not sure how to look at it. There are two places to book tours. One is right next to the main building where check in and check out happens, but the other is right where you go to get your towels.

Aggressive Salespeople At The Resort

The people by the towel area are very aggressive and will always say that they can get you the best deal. I think I must look like some kind of target as they kept bugging me about it and we actually had to talk to the resort manager about these guys.

Not only would they try and get us to book a tour at the towel area but would also be right outside the buffet, and also on various walkways towards the pool to con front us as we walked back and forth around the resort. Very bad practice considering we paid money to stay in the first place.

And not only are these people looking to sell you tours but they are hustling to do it too.

I talked to one lady on our second day to see about tours to Santo Domingo and the price went from $100 per person to $60 per person in just a few minutes and a phone call. Then when I wouldn’t commit she came back to my poolside chair and told me that the Friday was sold out only to come back 2 hours later to tell me that she had found four seats on the Friday for our family.

Very scammy to say the least.

You Can Buy Anything on the Beach

One thing we had heard about and had a bit of experience with was guys walking up and down the beach looking to sell things. I think you can buy anything on any beach in Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, or Dominican Republic.

The resort actually had security staff that watched out on the beach and the sellers were always pretty quiet and not very bothersome at all.

We saw people selling necklaces and bracelets, fellows walking with exotic birds and a monkey to get your picture taken with, every water sport imaginable, and even Frank, our new friend that sold us Cigars right on the beach.

My son thinks of himself as a star negotiator (he wins all the negotiating in our house) so when he wanted to see if we could get a cigar we walked down the beach and we found Frank. when we told him we wanted a cigar he gave me a Dominican cigar to light  and have and offered us a pack of Dominicans for the beach and a pack of Cubans to give away to friends at home for a total of $80 American dollars.

It is hard for me to question prices with Buddy’s cigar in my mouth but Jaiden went for it right away. No we aren’t interested in Cubans, no we don’t need a whole pack of cigars, no we don’t have much money on us just $5.

In the end Jaiden got us the pack of 10 Dominicans for $15 and I talked with Frank while Jaiden went to beg for the money from my wife. It was a lot of fun and I am still not even sure if we got a good deal on the cigars but again it was a good time. Funny thing is I haven’t smoked in over 20 years and know nothing about cigars.

Sick, and Sick Again – The Trip Goes Bad

This leads I guess to the health problems that we ran into. My daughter had a kidney transplant three years ago and I was the donor so we are always having to be very careful with her eating and drinking and she d]needs to keep up with =her meds on a clockwork like schedule. Taylor is 19 so she is very good at being careful and takes care of herself quite well. Actually Taylor has never gotten sick on vacation since she was first diagnosed with Kidney disease 8 years ago.

This time though we had some trouble. We always only drink unopened bottle water when we re out of town, even when we are camping, and our hotel room only came with a couple of big bottles of water a day, not enough for the lot of us. It was so hard to get extra water that my son Jaiden went out looking for water a couple of times, as a game to see how many hotel cleaning staff would give him a bottle, and he did pretty well.

On the third day Taylor got sick. Barfing runs, and no energy and was stuck in the room for the last couple of days that we were there. Then early on the fourth day we decided that since Taylor was not getting any better that we should cut our losses and leave.

From then on Taylor stole my bed so that she could sleep with her mommy. I was relegated to one of the kids beds in the other room with Jaiden.

There was no flight the next day so we had to wait another day to leave and in that time Jaiden got sick. Same symptoms and so there were two down and just Michelle and myself were good.

Finally on the morning we left I started feeling a bit icky after breakfast and just after we got past Security at the Punta Cana airport I threw up.

Both kids told me I would feel better now but then in a half an hour would feel sick again, I wish they weren’t so honest.

Jaiden and I had a pretty terrible trip back home to Toronto and then Calgary and still the next day I was sick but bounced back, only to have the sickness return a few days later.

I am waiting now for bloodwork and a stool sample to come back to see what is wrong with me. I of course have no idea if we caught something from food, or water, or if Taylor brought some virus down with her.

Michelle got sick a few days after we got back which makes me think it was not the resort. So I just wanted to mention us all being sick, and leaving early.

Our Saviour Omar

This part has to sit here. It made things so much better as we moved towards taking care of Taylor instead of enjoying our vacation.

After Taylor got sick we went to the checkout and told the folks at the resort that we would have to leave early. We wanted our money back but did not know how that would work out and what the rules were.

Also, the crazy taxi that was prepaid from the way over. When the staff figured out that we were looking to leave they called in the resort manager Omar.

Omar brought us into his little non airconditioned office and we sat down. Michelle started telling the story and started crying about how worried she was about Taylor and all our troubles and that we had to leave and Omar listened.

Omar wasn’t happy about the aggressive tour salespeople at the resort as they are not supposed to be stalking people and we noticed that this ended right away. Omar apologized for our water and power problems and  also refunded us for our terrible internet. Omar made sure that we would have an airconditioned cab back to the airport when we needed it. And finally Omar made sure that we got our refund for our prepaid nights for after we left.

there were a few things that went very badly but I can see that Omar wants to make the Vik Hotel Arena Blanca into a fantastic resort. He really felt for us and checked in with us another couple of times during our last couple days to see if things were better. This is the thing that can make or break a trip that goes sideways.

A manager that takes control of the situation, apologizes and then makes things right. This made us so happy and relieved.

What Are our Final Thoughts of The Vik Hotel Arena Blanca Punta Cana?

So, what do I think now that it has been a couple weeks since the trip? I know I had a great time. I ate and drank to my hearts content. I had a nice relaxing and quiet time which is all I really wanted. And I got to hang out with my wife and kids. It was fantastic except for a couple bad times.

My wife, not so much, she was not happy with the inconsistency from hour to hour.

Water and power in the room was terrible, she was not a big fan of the food and does not drink alcohol at all. She worried about Taylor being sick. And, she was irked about the lack of english speaking staff compared to Mexican resorts which made communication really difficult.

She was happy that Omar tried so hard to make it right so that was a real plus in her mind. But in the end she really just wanted to get home.

The provincial park is for camping and day use only and is just a few minutes from Cochrane in the west on Highway 567 also known as Big Hill Springs Road.

From Airdrie to the east it is only a 20 minute drive.

So What Can You See At Big Hill Springs Park?

Big Hill Springs Provincial park is just a couple kilometers off the highway and when you enter it you can walk along the side of a nice stream. There is a bit of a walk around on a lower level and then you can hike up the hills around.

Big Hill Springs Park is great for kids as well as the hills are not a big hike and my 13 and 16 year olds have had no problems going around all of the park.

The video above was done in the middle of Winter and the conditions and sights are definitely different than Summer

Big Hill Springs Park is good in winter as well as summer but of course as with most out of our city parks it is not maintained at all. The parking lot seems to be occasionally cleared and plowed in the Winter but the park itself is untouched which to me is fantastic and very rustic.

The great hiking trails are covered in snow and getting around can be a little slippery but the upside is that it is really really quiet and there are still creeks and a waterfall to see.

One of the great things about Big Hill Springs Park is a waterfall and stream that are inside the park and the small waterfall is nice all times of the year.

The Summer is of course a lot busier. I think that this is the closest place that you can really get out of Calgary and into nature and people do flock there. The lower area on a summer day can be busy with kids playing in the freezing cold creek, families having picnics, and even couples getting wedding photos done.

Once you walk down the pathway a bit though it gets quieter. As with any large park anyone that goes a bit farther away from the main area is treated with quiet and nature undisturbed,

There is a long pathway that goes across the park, up a hill, across, and then back down. Probably 45 minutes to an hour long and not too tough but really pretty with lots of different trees, foliage, and even some wildlife although I haven’t personally seen more than squirrels myself

No matter what age you family is I think that you will find Big Hill Springs Provincial Park as a nice park to visit, quite quiet, and has lots of little picnic spots and trees to shield the heat and bright light of summer.

Glenbow is a museum in the downtown core of Calgary and although it is super expensive to park there during the workweek it is really cheap ($5 cheap) to park for a few hours downtown on the weekend.

So on Saturday we headed downtown for a few hours and spent about three hours down at Glenbow and learned, enjoyed, and were cultured up.

We live in Airdrie, which is a smallish town just north of Calgary and so right after lunch we drove downtown, found some indoor parking, walked through the plus 15 (an elevated indoor walkway that goes between buildings downtown, and made our way to the entrance to the Glenbow Museum.

Entrance Fee and Layout of Glenbow Museum

The cost to get into Glenbow is pretty good. It is $16 for adults and $10 for school aged kids. There is also a deal for a family for $40 but we didn’t have to take advantage of that with just the three of us.

We had a coupon for a free adult when going with a kid so for the three of us it was only $20 – that was great!

The Glenbow Museum is actually in 4 floors of a downtown building so each floor has a few sections and there is a big old circular staircase that takes you between floors. – Or an elevator for accessibility.

As with any Museum there are changes going on and new installations happening all the time. While we were there we had the following to see

1st floor – Gift shop, snacks, and lockers, also a popup museum of the Calgary Police Service

2nd floor – Asian religions exhibit, Civilizing the Northwest

3rd floor – History and Mavericks of Alberta, Indian and indigenous history of Alberta

4th floor – Rocks and minerals of North America with a specialty on our area, Celebration of achievement of West Africa, 5 centuries of warriors (always a big hit with the boys).

Our Trip To Glenbow

The great thing about Glenbow Museum for families is that here is a lot of hands on and interactive sections. You get a lot of the classic “museum pieces behind glass” and then lots of little video pieces and short movies, and things to touch. Actually I believe every kid in school in Calgary ends up there once or twice in their school career.

We certainly had a great time over the three hours that we spent at the museum.  We each had our favorite parts with my son and I really liking the religious sculptures and artifacts from Asia. Some of the sculptures went back 1700 years. My daughter loved the Alberta history and the gems and mineral area.

We were exhausted by the end. It was a lot of fun with a 13 year old boy and 16 year old girl at the museum. I remember going to the Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller years ago and having my son, then 8 years old looking at the map like a maze and racing through. This in contrast was a lot slower and enjoyable.

One last thing. My 13 year old son is a vlogger, he has a camera and records a lot of our outings around town and he made a great video on our trip with highlights of what we saw and enjoyed at the Museum. Check it out.

If you are visiting Calgary the Glenbow is a great place to go to with a family. Sometimes in the Summer the temperature can get quite hot out and of course the weather can be bone chilling in the Winter so anytime of year is a good time for the Glenbow museum.

Thai Classical Dance

The inspiring Thai culture includes inspiring local music and wonderful Thai dances. The culture furthermore includes of course its deep rooted Buddhist religion, martial arts, crafts and beautiful clothing.

Visitors to Thailand can experience Thai culture by witnessing one of the Thai classical dance performances. These classical dance performances are generally performed by gracious Thai ladies wearing beautiful Thai local costumes.

These special Thai dances are fortunately still popular throughout Thailand including with the present younger Thai generations. Most resort areas and many hotels frequently offer these special Thai culture dance shows for foreign visitors.

Thai Greeting

The unique Thai gesture of greeting another person, the Wai, is especially one of the greatest aspects of the culture. The Wai is when a person joins both hands to either head or chest level while bending their head slightly towards their hands.

This way of greeting is especially done when a younger person greets an older person and it indicated a sign of respect to their elders. Employees would also Wai their superior’s even if the supervisor or manager would be younger then themselves as the seniority of the other person would be respected.

Bangkok

Bangkok is the main city of Thailand and has been the Thai capital since the end of the eighteenth century and with several Sports Bar Bangkok to check international sports if you are a fan. Observing culture in Bangkok can be a great experience as the blend of modern times and traditions have created a one of a kind atmosphere. Bangkok still offers a package of culture which showcases Thai culture through numerous beautiful Thai Buddhist temples, interesting museums and many example of ancient Thai architecture.

Places to Visit in Bangkok

One of the best places in Bangkok to experience Thai culture is in the Sanam Luang area. Visitors can visit such Thai national landmarks such as the Grand Palace which includes the Emerald Buddha Temple and also offers visitors to see many other prime examples of Thai architecture at its best. A trip like this is much easier if you plan it with a travel agency.

Another location in Bangkok where one can enjoy and see Thai culture is at the famed Bangkok national museum. The large museum is located near to the Pra Pin Klao bridge in case you would like to visit the Bangkok National Museum.

The famous museum offers visitors and tourists an opportunity to view national treasures and unique Thai art pieces with some dating back as early as the late sixteenth century.

James is currently living on Phuket and is working on a number of projects. If you are looking for a great Phuket hotel then do consider staying at Club Bamboo Resort. Read more about Samui in his Samui Travel Guide. Travelling to Phuket and looking for somewhere to stay, check out Luxury Villas in Phuket at https://trisara.com/.

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The site is best known for its 3-year-old Sky walk, a $30 million glass-and-steel platform that juts 65 feet off the canyon’s rim, enabling a bird’s-eye view of the canyon 4,000 feet below.

Exciting View of the Grand Canyon

The 22-year-old tribal tourist enterprise also sports reproduction Indian dwellings, an Old West town with Western entertainment (think cowboy shootouts — ironically, sans Indians) and Hummer tours alongside the grand canyon walkway..

But its remote location has limited visitation, at least compared to the Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim tourist hub, which lies about 250 road miles east of the attraction.

The tribe says it will open a wider runway by the end of 2010 year, making air tours from Southern California possible.

As you can see from the picture to the side here, the grand canyon walkway looks like it is just suspended in midair and from people I have talked to in the past it was pretty short of amenities so these additions are very welcome indeed.

I know that I have been guilty of many of these, probably all of them at one point or another when travelling on family vacations with the kids. Family vacations give you a chance to make lifelong memories with your kids. Don’t let these top five family travel flubs spoil the fun.

Overpacking For Family Vacation

We’ve all been there: Your packing for the kids devolves into finding the largest bag on hand and stuffing it with anything they might possibly want or need — their 10 favorite board books, 14 pairs of socks, a ski jacket “just in case” (never mind that it’s mid September).

Instead of packing on the fly, get organized with a checklist.  Many accommodations have laundry facilities on site. And don’t be afraid to leave behind supplies that are readily available where you’re headed. There are diapers almost everywhere.

Overscheduling the Family at Destination

You go on vacation psyched to take your destination by storm, only to realize by 3 PM that the whole family is ready to drop and you haven’t even done half of what you’d expected.

The natural tendency when visiting a new place for a short time is to try to see everything there is to see as quickly as possible. But if you cram your schedule too full, you’ll miss the whole point of your vacation: to take a break.

Besides, with kids in tow, you’ll want to allow extra time for bathroom, snack and nap breaks, not to mention jetlag and serendipitous detours. Make sure your schedule is flexible enough to allow all of you time to relax and recharge.

Not Getting Out Off The Beaten Path

Most people drift toward the usual tourist stops, and for good reason. If a lot of vacationers keep going to the same place, it’s probably worth the visit.

But your vacation is your own, and you shouldn’t worry about going to the same old haunts just because they’re there.

If your family is having more fun at the public playground than you would at the famous museum up the road, it’s perfectly acceptable to skip the Egypt exhibit for some quality jungle gym time.

Ignoring The Fine Print, and Getting Scammed

When you’re excited about a vacation, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in a hotel or attraction’s flashy photos that you forget to read the fine print.

But in this case, sweating the small stuff ensures you’re a lot less likely to find surprises on your bills, in your seat assignments, and in your rental upgrades.

Nothing dampens vacation fun like finding out that your child doesn’t quite make the height requirement to ride a mule at the Grand Canyon, or that your hotel’s kids-eat-free policy applies only to kids under 6.

Skimping on Supplies For The Trip

Like shorts maybe? I once went for a 10 day holiday with just 2 pairs of shorts, in Mexico in July! Don’t forget that your family vacation involves some actual travel time.

Make sure you’ve got enough snacks and entertainment to keep hunger and boredom at bay, lest you face the terrors of a nine-hour flight with a starved and restless travel companion.

Bring a few light snacks and a couple of small, special new toys specifically for the flight or car ride to keep your kid (and you) content till you can answer “Are we there yet?” with “Yes!”

Seaworld Orlando Shamu Show

The big show of course is the Shamu show in the Shamu Stadium amphitheater, we saw the show in San Diego last year but this one seemed to be on a much bigger scale even though the San Diego show was already a huge attraction.

We were lucky enough to sit right near the front in the Splash Zone.

Of course the adults never want to sit in the splash zone but every kid sure does. I can tell you that water is very very salty and sticky like the ocean after you dry off

Another thing we really liked at Seaworld Orlando was the dolphin show.

The show is as much about the dancing and acrobatics of the performers as much as it is about the dolphins. It really is a spectacle and in some ways we liked it a lot better than the Shamu show.

Manta Roller Coaster

This was the first time that my son really had the nerve to go on a roller coaster and every park brought him to a bigger an better one. The biggest coaster in Seaworld is the Kraken but it was a little too big for a 10 year old.

Instead we went on the Manta Roller coaster. It was awesome as instead of sitting in a car you actually hang in the ride (very well bolted in) and we spun around at high speeds. My son said that the Manta was the best Roller Coaster he ever went on.

Lots Of Fish To Learn About And See

Seaworld Orlando has lot of exhibits and lots of opportunities to learn bout fish and their habitats.

We all learned a lot and the kids are like little sponges, they now have a much better understanding of the ocean, the habitat of different fish, and what it takes to sustain the ecosystem that the fish live in.

I was surprised and really happy to see that instead of only having rides and shows that Seaworld will also teach us all about animals and sustaining sealife.

Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins

This is a new exhibit and there is quite the lineup for this. Really, how often do you get to see penguins up close. There is a ride that starts you off with a little story about a little penguin and then when you get off the ride you are inside the area with the penguins and get to see and hear them.

Fantastic for a few minutes and as much as we loved seeing it the lineup was a little too long for young kids that just want to see a penguin and move on.

• A theater
• Seven restaurants
• And four bars
• There are even two-bedroom villas available on the grounds.

Royal Solaris Cancun Kids Club

Young guests at the Royal Solaris are treated to fully supervised beach and pool games, a children’s pool, a kid’s club, and swimming contests, and they keep the pool clean for this by using the best intex pool pump you can find online.

Children are also treated to drawing lessons, water painting, finger painting, face painting, and puppet making.

To fulfill your fitness needs, the Royal Solaris Cancun is equipped with a fitness center, tennis courts, four swimming pools, and a basketball course. Daily aerobics is held at the pool.

A miniature golf course and a marina for non-motorized water sports are also available on the grounds. Other activities include beach volleyball, Olympic day, daily scuba demonstrations, swimming contests, bicycle tours, and snorkeling lessons. You can also enjoy a game of polo or water polo as well as windsurfing and pedal boats. Also surfing is very popular in Cancun, you can literally pick any malibu surfboards and start showing of your skills with the locals.

The Resort also offers guests stretching and exercising classes, Spanish classes, card games, tournaments, Latin-style dance classes, cooking lessons, bingo, and tennis lessons. There isn’t only great entertainment to be had; there is also plenty to learn at the Royal Solaris Cancun Resort.

Royal Solaris Cancun for Adults

The Royal Solaris Cancun Resort is famous for it’s fashion shows where they exhibit the best fashion stores like Fifth Collection Chanel, as well as the Miss Solaris Bikini Contest which draws participants from all over the world. The hotel hosts many theme parties, and The Tehauacan Theater features live shows as well. The Royal Solaris Cancun Resort also features a full-service salon with spa treatments, so you can not only relax, but also look your best for the parties.

Special rates, packages, and privileges are given to Club Solaris Cancun Members, including airport shuttle transportation from royal-american-tours, express check-in, personal registration, a welcome party, and exclusive activities. Other all inclusive packages are also offered to non-Club Solaris Members.

The trip with Vallarta Adventures we paid $60 or $70 a person the day before and had to meet up at the Port which was about 10 minutes away from our resort at Conta Del Sol. The trip started at 9:00 but the fellow at the hotel told us to get there for 8:15, not sure why do early. For boating supplies to get ready for your next trip navigate here and get the best ones !

At the Port there were buns and coffee and there was an opportunity to get pics taken (for money of course) with a big parot (which we didn’t take), and a big sea lion (pics were just too cute not to pass on, visit vpnroad.com for see all the pics).

Finally just before 9 we got pictures taken by a statue and headed onto the boat. Big catamaran that held 100 people or so and this day there were probably around 40 of us.

On The Water to Marietas Islands

As we left the port our guides were great to introduce themselves and orient us with the boat. There were two separate washrooms each for men and women, only smoking in the back of the boat, and then a great breakfast with pancakes and eggs as well as juice, coffee, whatever we wanted.  It was a lovely cruise, but if you want something more romantic then you should attend a dinner cruise for a wonderful night.

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And don’t forget the sunscreen. We had gotten special eco-sunscreen the night before and slathered it on. No one wants a sunburn. More on that later…

Once we got going the sea was a little choppy and we stopped in one area in Nuevo Vallarta to pick up a few people and then off again to the Marietas islands to do some snorkeling. This is what we came for!

The guides on the boat were great in showing us how to use their equipment. Really good info on what to look for and finally about sharks. He told us that if we see a shark… call him over because in all his time he had never seen a shark there. Great ice breaker for everyone that was a little nervous about jumping off a perfectly floating boat.

We still had some trouble getting the snorkel and mask on, finally got into a small boat and over by and island we snorkeled for probably 30 minutes or so. The time went really quick and we saw lots of tropical fish but also had a few problems, mostly with the fact that we were wearing lifejackets (safety first) and the water was really deep so it was hard to keep ourselves together.

After we finally got back in the boat after snorkelling there were some other things that we could do, including standing paddleboarding.

My 12 year old son and I went on the paddleboards and I warned him to watch his balance. He just stands up and asks why? I had a bit more trouble getting myself stood up but was able to paddle myself around a bit better. Finally when it seems that my son and I were definitely headed to south america one of the friendly guides came by in a little motor boat (that thing is sure handy) and gave us a ride back. To know more about Lucky Charter Mallorca visit us here.

While I was getting back in the little boat I apparently scratched my knee and the staff on the boat were all excited to help me out. The cut was really small but on my wet leg it dripped down. The head guide told me to let my family know that I barely got away from the shark on time and we all laughed.

Finding The Marietas Islands Hidden Beach

After we were finished with all these water sports we went over to the most famous island in the Marieta Archipelego and that is the island with the hidden beach. Again we had to take the little motor boat closer, don our life jackets and drop back into the ocean.

There is a cave that you have to swim through to get to the hidden beach and just because of the different currents this can be a bit tough to swim through.

I sure with we had a camera with us when we go to the beach. It is smaller than we expected but amazing looking with a hole in the island above you and actually to one side we were able to go through another cave and see ocean waves crashing into a big cave. The sand is like dust, so fine and we found a few shells that we were able to bring home as souvenirs.

After the swim back to the boat my wife had her accident, as she was getting into the boat she slipped off the ladder and went butt first into my daughter – we are still laughing about that weeks later and my Michelle has to admit she is not very graceful

Then lunch. The lunch were these great burgers with chips and lots of toppings and other food. And now that we were finished with jumping off the boat the bar was open! My wife does not drink and I decided ahead of time that I would be watching my booze intake on a boat. Last thing I would want is seasickness after drinking.

Finally Coming Back to Puerto Vallarta

The boat trip back to Puerto Vallarta was uneventful. We looked for dolphins, which are common in the area, but we didn’t see any which is too bad, my wife and kids have swam with dolphins before so we were not heartbroken over this.

The staff know that everyone is getting tired by this time in the afternoon so they keep the energy up with music and games. We laughed, enjoyed the afternoon and had a great time coming back. Lots of pictures as we got closer to shore.

We got into shore around 5:15 or so. The day was a little long but full of stuff done and time together.

Finally as we were getting off we noticed that maybe we had not reapplied the sunscreen enough times. We all burnt. Good thing we were going home the next day anyway as the sunburns were pretty bad and even my head was peeling for a week afterwards.

Even though we were nervous about spending so much money for an excursion we were really happy that we took this trip. We expected ahead of time that the highlight would definitely we the snorkeling but there were so many things that were fantastic, so many memories of things that we had never done before that we really enjoyed.

This was one of those days that we are glad we have lots of pictures of and memories to remember for years to come. Always a few problems on a long day our like this but in the end well worth it.