I've been concentrating on hotel deals for families of five on the East Coast of the United States. My favorite this last week was a room with double queen beds and a rollaway (i.e. sleeps 5) at the Nassau Inn for $159.00 USD. This is an historic and charming inn located in the heart of Princeton, New Jersey.
A great find suggested by another parent included two new websites that offer temporary deals for hotels and airfare. The first is oriented around North American Hotels: http://www.travelzoo.com/. The second is http://www.momondo.com/ which is oriented around European Hotels. Both websites search the internet for the best deals. The Momondo site does not allow for more than four people when searching hotel rooms, but it will provide information on the best deals if it is necessary to book two rooms.
Holly Jacobsen
Sleeps5.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
10 Tips for Budget Family Travel to Europe
Whatever your reasons for taking your kids to Europe, there are ways to be there within a budget. Taking the kids costs more - in airfare, food, hotels, and activities (I'll save my dreams of spending an entire quiet day in the Louvre for another lifetime era) - than having my DH as my sole globe-hopping partner. But with advance planning, and at least one person who can say "NO" to extras and yummy temptations (my kids will tell you who that is in our family with rolling eyes and a head tilt towards me), the trip can be affordable.
We have 3 children, have taken them on two 15-day trips to Europe, and here are the practices we relied on to keep the bank account in the black:
1. Sleep in one room. For a family of 5, see Sleeps5.com! They are hard to find, but large hotel rooms with 5 beds all together are cheaper than booking two smaller rooms. (And booking apartments often requires a minimum 4 to 7-day stay and lacks reception services.)
Extra benefits of booking one "family room":
Convenience with children -- If you are a family with three little kids, it would be difficult to have Dad in a 'triple' room with, say, a 3 year old and a 5 year old while Mom's down the hall in a 'double' with a toddler. How would you help each other with bedtime duties, and how would you talk about the next day's plan, and what if the toddler's toothbrush is in Dad's travel bag?
Supervision -- I don't know about your kids, but even now that my 3 boys don't need help with bedtime tasks anymore and are in charge of their own belongings stowed in their own luggage, a separate hotel room of their own is still out of the question. They would certainly break something or each other if left alone, even with a connecting door through which I could check on them often. In hotel rooms I am ever vigilant about preventing other guests' annoyance, constantly reminding "hands to yourself" to stop the hitting and wrestling of each other, or "step quietly" to stop them from jumping and thundering across the floor. I rest assured their behavior is monitored when I'm right there in the same room.
Safety in Hotel Rooms -- The budget hotels we stayed in were often located in semi-questionable areas such as near train stations. If part of my family were in another room, how could I check and double check (ok, I fret a lot: triple check!) that their windows and doors are locked? And, emergencies such as fire alarms worry me in the best hotels. Would the kids or my DH know what to do or remember how to reach me? I felt secure knowing my kids were nearby, in the same room with me, in our room for 5.
2. Book hotels that serve breakfast. What better way to start your day than with a spread of buffet food to choose from that is all included in the room rate? Our kids loved the cereal choices each morning, especially since there was a chocolate flake option - something we don't normally have at home! Nutella, that sugar spread of chocolate and hazelnut, was also available for smoothing on bread, and again - not offered at home, in my no- or low- sugar kitchen. Another favorite of theirs was the orange juice. At each hotel it was a kid-friendly no-pulp variety. For me, the sliced tomatoes, meats, cheese, pastries, and coffee were mu-u-u-uch appreciated each morning.
Extra benefit of breakfast at your hotel:
Save time for your itinerary -- Breakfast buffet in your hotel saves crucial sight-seeing time. Eliminated is the time to get to a restaurant, the time to choose and order, the time for the food to cook, and the time to request and then pay for the bill.
3. Pay for your rental car before you leave home. If you rent a car the day you need it, the price is higher. Shop for the deals, reserve your car, and pay for it before your trip begins. Use a company that offers 24-hour phone service for problems or questions that come up, such as gemut.com. Ideally, pay for the rental car with a VISA or other credit card that provides insurance that covers any damage to the car, and be sure to use the same credit card at the counter (they'll ask for one to cover any shortages of gas or damage upon return of the car) when you pick up the car or else your insurance coverage may be voided.
Research boarder crossings ahead of time, too. We considered picking up a rental car in Munich and driving to Denmark, until presented with the steep (as in double the 3-day rental rate) fees to drop the car in country #2.
Note: Cars in Europe are different (read: tiny!) than in the US and you won't find the spacious minivan like we have in our driveway! For our family of 5, a Ford Mondeo or VW Caddy was roomy enough for all of us plus our luggage. (And tight enough so that one boy's shoulder was touching another's and you can imagine what joyful moments we experienced then...)
4. Use public transportation in big cities. We stayed in bustling city centers, and could get to many sights on foot, but still needed transportation to get around to locations further away. Munich had a 3-day partner ticket that covered all 5 of us for 21 Euros. Berlin had a 3-day Welcome card that covered 1 adult (me) and our 3 children for 24.50 Euros. We then purchased a ticket each day for hubby for 2.10 Euros. The posted maps in each city were easy to navigate and using the group tickets, we were free to zip here and there on unlimited trips.
5. Airlines between cities may be best. Travel experts expound about rail passes being great deals. But don't assume taking a train is cheaper than an airplane for a family. It's certainly not easier. To get from Berlin to Legoland in Denmark, a train ride would have been over 6 hours, not including the two train transfers we'd have to accomplish. We opted to take a plane at just $15 more per person and which took just a couple of hours. And I'm sure that though the scenery out a train window is spectacular, my kids would not likely enjoy 6 hours of it.
6. Buy plastic bottles to refill each day. At your destination, as soon as you see a beverage available in a plastic bottle with a screw-top lid, buy it! Warning: The bottle's size should correspond to the strength of the person carrying it -- water is heavy! My hubby was kind enough to carry a large bottle for me to share with him, and the kids carried smaller versions of their own. Each morning, and at fountains throughout the day, we'd refill the bottles and sip (or gulp when it was real hot out) whenever we needed to.
7. No shopping. Admittedly, this is an easy one if you are traveling with your hubby and 3 boys. They hate to shop! Even if I had extra spending money, I would rather avoid their moaning and groaning than attempt to venture into a boutique while they waited. And my guys don't care much about souvenirs, either. But when they did want a trinket, we limited the purchases to postcards, hats, magnets, and pens. Knowing we were on a tight budget and agreeing on it ahead of time eliminated the temptations to buy stuff.
8. Keep away from coffee and ice cream chains. These days, the US dollar is doing better against the Euro or the Pound. Still, in Europe we found that Starbucks was very expensive. Likewise, avoid Haagen Dazs! Alternatively, we found many restaurants with an adjacent window through which you could order a 1 Euro ice cream cone, and other counter windows along pedestrian avenues. Fast food eateries, however, such as McDonalds or Pizza Hut, are cheaper than restaurant choices if you have hungry, cranky kids and are desperate for something quick.
9. Eat just one sit-down meal per day. Let your hotel take care of serving you breakfast included in your room rate, and find take out food for lunch. Subway hubs and train stations offered many choices for inexpensive food to please everyone. We found teriyaki, hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza, and more at the Berlin train stations, for example. For snacks, we bought granola bars for quick pick-me-ups on the go. Families can opt to save even more by making dinner with deli or take-out selections. But tightwad that I am, after a long day of herding kids and smoothing sibling skirmishes, even I really looked forward to spending a bit more at our evening sit-down meal.
10. Eat family-style at restaurants. At the sit-down restaurants, we ordered just 3 entrees for the 5 of us, and requested an extra plate or two. (Everyone got their own beverage.) The kids happily relinquished the vegetable or salad side dishes to me and DH. We treated the entree plates as serving platters and shared everything. The food was always enough, even though all 3 boys' appetites (age 10, 10, and 14) were the size of an adult's at the time of our last trip. To quell any misgivings amongst ourselves about potentially not being satisfied, before ordering we always said "if we are still hungry, we'll order more". But we never did and always left feeling full, with a little room to spare for an ice cream cone on the way back to the hotel. Even better - there was no waste!
Tip - Student neighborhoods are cheaper. Venture into university areas for inexpensive food. We accidentally ended up in a Munich university area in search of the U-bahn stop for the English Garden. A pizza & pasta restaurant/pub offered a tasty and very cheap dinner served by a friendly waitress who spoke little English but who conscientiously made sure we were taken care of.
Resources:
Family of 5 in London for 46 Pounds per Person per Day blog article
Family of 5 in Munich for 53 Euros per Person per Day blog article
For hotels with family rooms in major cities, see Sleeps5.com.
For airlines that serve countries in Europe, see Sleeps5.com airlines.
- Sandy Nielsen
We have 3 children, have taken them on two 15-day trips to Europe, and here are the practices we relied on to keep the bank account in the black:
1. Sleep in one room. For a family of 5, see Sleeps5.com! They are hard to find, but large hotel rooms with 5 beds all together are cheaper than booking two smaller rooms. (And booking apartments often requires a minimum 4 to 7-day stay and lacks reception services.)
Extra benefits of booking one "family room":
Convenience with children -- If you are a family with three little kids, it would be difficult to have Dad in a 'triple' room with, say, a 3 year old and a 5 year old while Mom's down the hall in a 'double' with a toddler. How would you help each other with bedtime duties, and how would you talk about the next day's plan, and what if the toddler's toothbrush is in Dad's travel bag?
Supervision -- I don't know about your kids, but even now that my 3 boys don't need help with bedtime tasks anymore and are in charge of their own belongings stowed in their own luggage, a separate hotel room of their own is still out of the question. They would certainly break something or each other if left alone, even with a connecting door through which I could check on them often. In hotel rooms I am ever vigilant about preventing other guests' annoyance, constantly reminding "hands to yourself" to stop the hitting and wrestling of each other, or "step quietly" to stop them from jumping and thundering across the floor. I rest assured their behavior is monitored when I'm right there in the same room.
Safety in Hotel Rooms -- The budget hotels we stayed in were often located in semi-questionable areas such as near train stations. If part of my family were in another room, how could I check and double check (ok, I fret a lot: triple check!) that their windows and doors are locked? And, emergencies such as fire alarms worry me in the best hotels. Would the kids or my DH know what to do or remember how to reach me? I felt secure knowing my kids were nearby, in the same room with me, in our room for 5.
2. Book hotels that serve breakfast. What better way to start your day than with a spread of buffet food to choose from that is all included in the room rate? Our kids loved the cereal choices each morning, especially since there was a chocolate flake option - something we don't normally have at home! Nutella, that sugar spread of chocolate and hazelnut, was also available for smoothing on bread, and again - not offered at home, in my no- or low- sugar kitchen. Another favorite of theirs was the orange juice. At each hotel it was a kid-friendly no-pulp variety. For me, the sliced tomatoes, meats, cheese, pastries, and coffee were mu-u-u-uch appreciated each morning.
Extra benefit of breakfast at your hotel:
Save time for your itinerary -- Breakfast buffet in your hotel saves crucial sight-seeing time. Eliminated is the time to get to a restaurant, the time to choose and order, the time for the food to cook, and the time to request and then pay for the bill.
3. Pay for your rental car before you leave home. If you rent a car the day you need it, the price is higher. Shop for the deals, reserve your car, and pay for it before your trip begins. Use a company that offers 24-hour phone service for problems or questions that come up, such as gemut.com. Ideally, pay for the rental car with a VISA or other credit card that provides insurance that covers any damage to the car, and be sure to use the same credit card at the counter (they'll ask for one to cover any shortages of gas or damage upon return of the car) when you pick up the car or else your insurance coverage may be voided.
Research boarder crossings ahead of time, too. We considered picking up a rental car in Munich and driving to Denmark, until presented with the steep (as in double the 3-day rental rate) fees to drop the car in country #2.
Note: Cars in Europe are different (read: tiny!) than in the US and you won't find the spacious minivan like we have in our driveway! For our family of 5, a Ford Mondeo or VW Caddy was roomy enough for all of us plus our luggage. (And tight enough so that one boy's shoulder was touching another's and you can imagine what joyful moments we experienced then...)
4. Use public transportation in big cities. We stayed in bustling city centers, and could get to many sights on foot, but still needed transportation to get around to locations further away. Munich had a 3-day partner ticket that covered all 5 of us for 21 Euros. Berlin had a 3-day Welcome card that covered 1 adult (me) and our 3 children for 24.50 Euros. We then purchased a ticket each day for hubby for 2.10 Euros. The posted maps in each city were easy to navigate and using the group tickets, we were free to zip here and there on unlimited trips.
5. Airlines between cities may be best. Travel experts expound about rail passes being great deals. But don't assume taking a train is cheaper than an airplane for a family. It's certainly not easier. To get from Berlin to Legoland in Denmark, a train ride would have been over 6 hours, not including the two train transfers we'd have to accomplish. We opted to take a plane at just $15 more per person and which took just a couple of hours. And I'm sure that though the scenery out a train window is spectacular, my kids would not likely enjoy 6 hours of it.
6. Buy plastic bottles to refill each day. At your destination, as soon as you see a beverage available in a plastic bottle with a screw-top lid, buy it! Warning: The bottle's size should correspond to the strength of the person carrying it -- water is heavy! My hubby was kind enough to carry a large bottle for me to share with him, and the kids carried smaller versions of their own. Each morning, and at fountains throughout the day, we'd refill the bottles and sip (or gulp when it was real hot out) whenever we needed to.
7. No shopping. Admittedly, this is an easy one if you are traveling with your hubby and 3 boys. They hate to shop! Even if I had extra spending money, I would rather avoid their moaning and groaning than attempt to venture into a boutique while they waited. And my guys don't care much about souvenirs, either. But when they did want a trinket, we limited the purchases to postcards, hats, magnets, and pens. Knowing we were on a tight budget and agreeing on it ahead of time eliminated the temptations to buy stuff.
8. Keep away from coffee and ice cream chains. These days, the US dollar is doing better against the Euro or the Pound. Still, in Europe we found that Starbucks was very expensive. Likewise, avoid Haagen Dazs! Alternatively, we found many restaurants with an adjacent window through which you could order a 1 Euro ice cream cone, and other counter windows along pedestrian avenues. Fast food eateries, however, such as McDonalds or Pizza Hut, are cheaper than restaurant choices if you have hungry, cranky kids and are desperate for something quick.
9. Eat just one sit-down meal per day. Let your hotel take care of serving you breakfast included in your room rate, and find take out food for lunch. Subway hubs and train stations offered many choices for inexpensive food to please everyone. We found teriyaki, hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza, and more at the Berlin train stations, for example. For snacks, we bought granola bars for quick pick-me-ups on the go. Families can opt to save even more by making dinner with deli or take-out selections. But tightwad that I am, after a long day of herding kids and smoothing sibling skirmishes, even I really looked forward to spending a bit more at our evening sit-down meal.
10. Eat family-style at restaurants. At the sit-down restaurants, we ordered just 3 entrees for the 5 of us, and requested an extra plate or two. (Everyone got their own beverage.) The kids happily relinquished the vegetable or salad side dishes to me and DH. We treated the entree plates as serving platters and shared everything. The food was always enough, even though all 3 boys' appetites (age 10, 10, and 14) were the size of an adult's at the time of our last trip. To quell any misgivings amongst ourselves about potentially not being satisfied, before ordering we always said "if we are still hungry, we'll order more". But we never did and always left feeling full, with a little room to spare for an ice cream cone on the way back to the hotel. Even better - there was no waste!
Tip - Student neighborhoods are cheaper. Venture into university areas for inexpensive food. We accidentally ended up in a Munich university area in search of the U-bahn stop for the English Garden. A pizza & pasta restaurant/pub offered a tasty and very cheap dinner served by a friendly waitress who spoke little English but who conscientiously made sure we were taken care of.
Resources:
Family of 5 in London for 46 Pounds per Person per Day blog article
Family of 5 in Munich for 53 Euros per Person per Day blog article
For hotels with family rooms in major cities, see Sleeps5.com.
For airlines that serve countries in Europe, see Sleeps5.com airlines.
- Sandy Nielsen
Friday, April 24, 2009
Tube, U-Bahn, Subway - Family Travel Safety
Notice the logo used for this blog and our website, http://www.sleeps5.com/. The image is of a family of ducks on their way.
Even before Holly and I constructed our website we consistently utilized a duckling analogy to describe the image of traversing busy sidewalks in big cities with 3 children. You know - the mama duck waddles along leading the way and the youngsters waddle after her, all in a row. In a bustling city, there simply isn't room on pathways full of people, some tourists, some natives, some hurrying, some lollying, to walk 2 or 3 abreast, let alone all 5 of us grouped together.
I must confess though, that with our family travels, it is rarely me, mama duck, leading the way. I am not the map reader with the God-given talent of spatiality and genetic instincts telling me which direction to head to get back to our hotel. Yes, I could figure out the layout of the London tube system or the Berlin U-Bahn, but yes, it would take me all day. Thankfully, my DH complements my shortcomings and I rely on him to figure out routes and transportation systems. Heck, my kids now do a better job at that than I could.
But, we still walk in duckling formation. DH leads the way, and I bring up the rear, spending my time urging the 3 kids to "keep going", "follow Dad", "single file", "watch out". I like to keep track of the kids at every moment. I feel safe having one adult out front, and the kids sandwiched between us. My skill is tracking the 3 juveniles in my charge at all times, counting 1-2-3, 1-2-3, making sure everyone is present and safe.
Our ticket method: Using the duck-family system in London, each person had a ticket and needed to insert it into the reader, walk through the turnstile, then retrieve the ticket as it zipped out of the machine. So at every entrance, DH distributed the tickets, went through himself, waited while the kids went through, then I went through as DH collected the tickets from each of us for safe-keeping. Thankfully, we traveled after the morning workday rush, so hopefully we annoyed as few people as possible with our pauses, consultations, and reconsiderations.
Safety tip: Board the train, or Tube, or Subway, or U-Bahn in the same duckling fashion. Have an adult board first, then the kids, then the second adult. Hold as many hands as you can as you enter in bulk. I held hands and elbows and shoulders, trying to keep the kids as close as possible while simultaneously ushering them ahead of me, feeling a sense of urgency to cross the threshold without any separation in my kin group of 5. My fears escalated if there were traveling masses of strangers pressing in with their own efforts to board on time. I could foresee what would happen if I didn't take these measures: the doors would shut unexpectedly and irreversably, and one of my children would be isolated unaccompanied on a mode of transportation, or on the platform.
I always breathed a sigh of relief when we were all together on the moving subway, or all together climbing up the staircase leading outdoors towards our next siteseeing agenda item. And I kept counting, 1-2-3, 1-2-3.
-Sandy
Even before Holly and I constructed our website we consistently utilized a duckling analogy to describe the image of traversing busy sidewalks in big cities with 3 children. You know - the mama duck waddles along leading the way and the youngsters waddle after her, all in a row. In a bustling city, there simply isn't room on pathways full of people, some tourists, some natives, some hurrying, some lollying, to walk 2 or 3 abreast, let alone all 5 of us grouped together.
I must confess though, that with our family travels, it is rarely me, mama duck, leading the way. I am not the map reader with the God-given talent of spatiality and genetic instincts telling me which direction to head to get back to our hotel. Yes, I could figure out the layout of the London tube system or the Berlin U-Bahn, but yes, it would take me all day. Thankfully, my DH complements my shortcomings and I rely on him to figure out routes and transportation systems. Heck, my kids now do a better job at that than I could.
But, we still walk in duckling formation. DH leads the way, and I bring up the rear, spending my time urging the 3 kids to "keep going", "follow Dad", "single file", "watch out". I like to keep track of the kids at every moment. I feel safe having one adult out front, and the kids sandwiched between us. My skill is tracking the 3 juveniles in my charge at all times, counting 1-2-3, 1-2-3, making sure everyone is present and safe.
Our ticket method: Using the duck-family system in London, each person had a ticket and needed to insert it into the reader, walk through the turnstile, then retrieve the ticket as it zipped out of the machine. So at every entrance, DH distributed the tickets, went through himself, waited while the kids went through, then I went through as DH collected the tickets from each of us for safe-keeping. Thankfully, we traveled after the morning workday rush, so hopefully we annoyed as few people as possible with our pauses, consultations, and reconsiderations.
Safety tip: Board the train, or Tube, or Subway, or U-Bahn in the same duckling fashion. Have an adult board first, then the kids, then the second adult. Hold as many hands as you can as you enter in bulk. I held hands and elbows and shoulders, trying to keep the kids as close as possible while simultaneously ushering them ahead of me, feeling a sense of urgency to cross the threshold without any separation in my kin group of 5. My fears escalated if there were traveling masses of strangers pressing in with their own efforts to board on time. I could foresee what would happen if I didn't take these measures: the doors would shut unexpectedly and irreversably, and one of my children would be isolated unaccompanied on a mode of transportation, or on the platform.
I always breathed a sigh of relief when we were all together on the moving subway, or all together climbing up the staircase leading outdoors towards our next siteseeing agenda item. And I kept counting, 1-2-3, 1-2-3.
-Sandy
Friday, April 10, 2009
Our New Sleeps 5 Blog!
Welcome to our new blog! Here we will describe our trials and tribulations about traveling with our families, and tell you about travel bits we've noticed. Bear with us as we figure out this tech-y blog system - it is after midnight and this has just been configured and the format will likely be changed and then changed again. We're happy to tell you that our website visitor numbers are growing, with people from all over the world finding us, and we've been so encouraged when families seeking hotels with 'family rooms' thank us for the listings on our website.
Our main site with hotels is www.sleeps5.com . Thanks for looking!
-Sandy and Holly
Our main site with hotels is www.sleeps5.com . Thanks for looking!
-Sandy and Holly
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