Why Upscale travel?

Traveling can be one of the great joys of life. Whatever ranks on our own personal "Best Things In Life" list--whether it be witnessing a purplish-blue sunset, shopping in Paris, eating mud pie, drinking good wine, making love, snowboarding, getting a Swedish massage--to it, we might add traveling. Yet, learning the intricate art of travel poses a challenge for many. And for those of us with small children, the difficulty of the challenge may seem, at least initially, to multiply threefold.

The seasoned traveler knows that behind the magical, musical moments of vacation lies a great deal of preliminary work. Only in the movies do people hop in their cars on a whim and head west to balmy beaches, luxury resorts, and vacation paradise. In the real world, we start with the unglamorous task of first determining the most appropriate destinations to meet our vacation goals. We must then discover the best places to stay, to eat, and how to best focus our activities while on vacation. We then need to plan what we will and will not pack, as well as our mode of transportation, and we might also seek travel deals. Throughout all of this preparation, we try our best not to allow the many details to destroy our sense of humor or to eclipse the excitement of our travel.

This site not only explains why traveling with your young children can be a wonderfully satisfying adventure for everyone in your family, but also elucidates a more European philosophy of travel which I believe allows for deeper and longer-lasting benefits than most Americans are accustomed to experiencing from vacation.