When your family is ready for an entry-level adventure vacation, tiny Costa Rica is the perfect place to start. Costa Rica family vacations have it all, beaches, jungles, volcanoes, and abundant wildlife, all in one beautiful and relatively safe and compact package. Costa Rica has bestowed some of my kids’ favorite travel moments and memories […]

For the five years when our two kids were between the ages of 8 and 17, our family had one sacred summer ritual: climbing Half Dome in California’s Yosemite National Park. The George Family Summer Half Dome Hike became one of those cherished family rites that will bind us throughout our lives. But the beginning […]

When I was nineteen, a backpacker, and in Paris, many years ago, I looked out a train window and saw the Eiffel Tower. I’d forgotten about the tower’s existence so it was as if I had not only personally discovered it, but was the first to understand its stark, industrial beauty. This is one of […]