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PARK SLOPE FOODIES

The strollered tot would not stop squirming,

Annoying his mom a bunch,

Till finally she threw down the gauntlet:

"Stop, or no sushi for lunch."

[Thanks, Brian.]

And kids are the greatest ambassadors.

Traveling with kids can enhance not just their life experience, but that of their parents and everyone they meet.

My Jewish friends took their 1 1/2-year-old on a trip through Turkey for a month. They had a ball. Nathan was a positive magnet for attention and fun.

Why would Rick Steves possibly be a political hack? His adventures have all been spurious, perspicacious, and mendacious.

My family invited several families from Indonesia, Bombay, and Thailand to stay in our basement one summer. No one went down there, but having them in the house was a cultural experience. I know that's not exactly travel, but, well, whatever.

Rick Steves is a political hack!

I would like to tour the south bronx.

I've taken my son, now 13 around the world & the States to rich and poor places. The place that influenced him most was Burma, which he went as a 7 yr. old. He remembered the simplicity, difficulties, charms, deprivation, joy and sadness of all the people and family we met there. It wasn't the typical things that adults see in countries like Burma that seem to have affected him, but more the basic, simple things he felt and saw form the countless walks I would take him through the country to ordinary places. He recently wrote about that trip in his high school application on a place that impressed him the most, and I was touched by his remark that it was a place that made him will himself to want to grow up and help people in whatever way he can.

A great untraveled location for east coast Americans is also Alaska in terms of nature tourism. It is a primordial place, I visited as a child including north of the arctic circle. Very inspiring place.

-Morgan

We also had a pretty steady stream of adopted residents from all over the world at family dinners and celebrations - one in particular was from India in the 50s who dressed us in saris and and bangles and put third eyes on us whenever she came over - it did give us all a huge taste for living in other cultures - each of us (a zillion siblings) has lived in another country and mastered at least a second language. The next generation is following suit.

We are city folks without cars and we don't even drive. Last summer we took our 12 year old daughter to Alaska. It was wonderful--the glaciers were something you just no longer see in NYC! The smell is wonderful there! Everywhere you look, there is scenery. We also went fishing (something my wife and I had never done together--our daughter loved it and we brought back 50 lbs of halibut!!!) The train rides are great there. The people were great. Hard to top that!

Israel -- because it is the place where Judiasm and Christianity were born. My husband and I took our 16 year old nephew and 13 year old niece. They loved it. They were in awe of visiting ancient places where people have been living continuously more than 2,000 years. The experience of being surrounded by a new language (and alphabet) added to the fascination. My nephew went on to study Japanese in college and he credits this experience of being exposed to a different culture and language.

2 types of people -- travelers and non-travelers.

Has anyone else noticed how Bush -- who formerly did not have a passport -- has opened up to the world over the past seven years as he has traveled?

One time on a trip to China, we found that our visas and credit cards and money orders had been stolen. What followed for the next three weeks was a "Midnight Express" type ordeal that will leave a negative impression on me for the rest of my life. We were all searched in some of the most unprofessional ways and questioned intensively and not in the most comfortable of circumstances, about our true intentions in visiting the Yellow peninsula. After being released we took bike rides on the great wall, which would have been exhilarating if not for the experience we just had.

DISNEY! (China and Translyvania just aren't in my budget)

I don't know why so many of my fellow Brooklynite friends snub Disney. It is an amazing, inspiring, place full of design, city planning, art and theater. There is nothing like it.

My dyslexic 8 year old was inspired by the fact that Walt Disney, also a dyslexic, created all this great stuff. My son came back inspired to invent something just as good when her grows up.

We took our children to a friend's wedding in Thailand. We saw Bangkok, staying in a residential area, and Koh Samoi. They still talk about riding an elephant and watching the monkeys harvest coconuts and the fascinating street life and culture. And the Thai people could not have been more gracious and gentle. Although we love to travel with our kids, we probably never have taken them to Thailand if not for the wedding invitation but it opened up the rest of the world to us and whetted our appetite for more adventures farther afield than, the US and Europe, which we also love to explore.

Future plans:

Greece
Costa Rica
Vietnam

Future dreams

A safari in Tanzania
Turkey
Egypt
Argentina

When my son was in the 5th grade I took him on a civil war trip that happened to conincide with the beginning of the Iraq War, which I was vehemently opposed to. It was a road trip and we started at Gettysburg, then visited Antitam, Harper's Ferry, Chattanooga, Kennesaw and finally Andersonville Prison. We drove back up the Fredericksburg. It was a wonderful and touch trip where we were struck by the horrors of war, the violence of the battles and the horrible impact the war had on the country and the families of the soldiers - both union and confederate. It was a trip that neither of us will ever forget.

i have to say that the single most impacting trip my parnets took me on was to the grand canyon. i don't know if there is anything more humbling and awe-inspiring. this was the first and only time in my life that i've experienced awe, and it is an emotion that can only really be experienced when taking something so absolutely massive.

the power of time and gravity illustrated is a memory that can't help but make a lasting impression on young human beings.

The Philippines.

I went when I was nine, and it opened up my mind to global inequality and made me the empathetic person I am today.

Bogota, Colombia is a great city to visit. Perched atop the Andes mountains, this city is a cultural gem full of green.

Everytime I visited it was nice and magical...

We camped every year growing, but visiting the colonial Williamsburg Village, and the colonial Sturbridge Village really left a lasting impression of our history. It fascinated me to see and understand how we lived before there were the modern conveniences we were accustomed to.

Thanks for your show! (...and welcome back -- missed your voice). : )

Mesa Verde in NW Colorado and Canyon De Chelley in NE Arizona. Wonderful magical part of the country, de Chelley is on the navajo rez.

Moving tour through cliff dwelligns. when i was 14 my parents took on a horse back tour of the canyon. Most amazing thing i have ever done.

Camping in National Parks, particularly in the western states (Glacier Park, Yosemite, etc). Rangers provide great campfire programs for kids. The U.S. is vast and gorgeous!

I think you're right, Brian - My father was a doctor made house calls to an Indian Reservation and to family farms some sundays - every weekend somewhere maybe kids should go to because they may not be around much longer. My brother is a doctor who goes to Haiti in rickety planes and does surgeries several times a year as a volunteer -

Do you ever wake up in the morning thinking, "The Organization to Promote Family Trips's dream is to rule the world, or failing that, annihilate it?" Well, so do I. In the first place, I hate it when people get their facts wrong. For instance, whenever I hear some corporate fat cat make noises about how there should be publicly financed centers of elitism, I can't help but think that my long-term goal is to feed the starving, house the homeless, cure the sick, and still find wonder and awe in the sunrise and the moonlight. Unfortunately, much remains to be done. As you may have noticed, we can divide The Organization to Promote Family Trips's press releases into three categories: ornery, saturnine, and deluded.

I was dragged to St. Augustine in Florida. As a diversion we were permitted to visit the beach. I almost died in a rip current.

ROAD TRIP!!!!

something every family must do. there is def something about the whole family stuck in the car together for a few days...we used to drive from brooklyn to alabama to see family every summer. we never had enough money to fly but i wouldn't have wanted to even if we did have the money. the road trips are some of my favorite memories.

I always liked North Dakota. The pie stands, homemade flowers, crafts, and roadside veggies were insanely great.

Many times, our parents would take us to Indonesia, where we got great deals on spices and clothes. I always will cherish those memories, because it expanded my cultural horizons and made me more open to ideas from "other parts of the world."

Almost any spot in the National Park System. Especially Yosemite and the Grand Tetons. Of course, everybody should get to Sedona, AZ as well.

ANYWHERE that is different from one's regular environment is really GREAT!

And a bonus is that they would not say most of the ignorant stuff that govern so much of our daily lives (including talk show guests and commenters...)

When I was a small child, my parents took us on back to back trips of Disneyland and Disney World to compare both. Unfortunately, both parks experienced power grid failures in two separate sides of the park, and in both our experiences, we were forced to wait on 3 hour lines for each ride. It was a cranky, unpleasant trip.

In the mid-Atlantic, I was five and my sister three when my parents drove across the US with us in the back seat. We took a big tent and went with another family in their car, but all slept in the big tent. My dad rigged up a sleeping platform in the foot well of the back seat, when we drove through. A grizzly bear came into our campground in Yellowstone and turned over the 55 gallon garbage can and I thought it was a big teddy bear. We took another trip with me in my late adolescence in a VW bus with the seats taken out, and also camped out to Minnesota and back. I enjoyed 'On the Road' much better after doing such.

When I was a freshman in High School my parents (both teachers) took my younger brother and me on a 4 week cross country trip. We rented a camper and visited family, friends and some great sites. We went to Chicago, Minneapolis/St.Paul, the South Dakota Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Yosemite, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Grand Canyon and other smaller sites along the way. It was a great trip and the memories will last forever.

I'll never forget the time we spent the summer in Newark, having just moved from Bel Air. It was a great summer in 1972. One of the greatest ever. And it was breezy.

Depends on what region of the country you live. If you live in the northeast, then a trip to the southeast or west coast is in order.

In my case, because I grew up in Florida (southeast region), it was essential for me to see snow at some point during my childhood. When I was 13, I finally saw snow for the first time during a late November visit to North Carolina, during which time my brother, a high school senior, was checking out colleges.

We stopped at a fast-food restaurant, and I jumped out of the Dodge Van onto the parking lot. My dad snapped photos of me squirming happily on the ground, where there rested about a quarter inch of fresh white powder. I still have those photos, and that vacation topped all our typical ghastly summer camping vacations, where my five brothers and sisters packed into the station wagon and headed to various campgrounds around the southeast.

Roger (Manhattan)

Places you must bring kids:

I have a 5 and 9 year old and have brought them to Spain (Alpujarras) Italy (Venice, Rome, Chianti and France (Provence) since my oldest was 1. This year we are heading to the Loire, France. It is so important for children to experience different cultures. We don't stay in hotels when we travel - we generally rent small homes in little villages so the children can experience daily life. We are very fortunate to be able to take vacations for a period of 3 weeks at a time. My son (9) particularly loves cities (London, Rome, Paris, Lisbon, Seville).

Future Plans - when the children get older.
Argentina - Patagonia
Australia - Ayres Rock, Cape Tribulation, Barrier Reef
Costa Rica - Rainforest
Norway
Canada - Coastal Islands of British Columbia