FOUR WAYS TO FUN TOWN
Striking a balance between good times for the kids and for the grown-ups is vital for an enjoyable March Break getaway. Here are four ways to find a sweet spot that actually is fun for the whole family.
ROAD TRIPS
This classic family trip is a great way to explore locations both close to your home turf, or further afield, and is a lot more pleasurable for parents thanks to iPads and other personal entertainment devices (or, go old-school and try doing it electronics free if you have a strong enough mental constitution).
What’s key is ensuring that you build in enough stops where kids can run around and do super fun stuff around the stops you want to make to art museums and craft breweries etc.
Get your kids to help plan the itinerary by showing videos and tourism guides before you go, or if you have older kids ask them to find stuff online that they’d like to do on your chosen route. Get the whole family invested in the trip before you get in the car.
Suggested trip A drive through Quebec. Fly into historic Quebec City, and check out the excellent Musées de la Civilization (mcq.org/ en), the polar bears, stingray touch-tank and fish at the Aquarium de Québec (sepaq. com/ct/paq). Ride the opentop Le Bus Rouge to see everything without having to navigate the city’s one-way systems. The high-energy free circus performances every night at the L’Agora du Vieux-Port are superb.
From here, drive east through the pretty Charlevoix region, making Baie-St-Paul your base for a couple of days. Roam the grounds of Musée maritime de Charlevoix (museemaritime.com/ fr) and climb onto the ships to explore the cabins, and the meticulously restored 19th-century watermill at the Boulangerie Meunerie La Rémy (moulindelaremy. com/le-moulin), then eat your way through the glorious cheeses made at farm/ museum Laterie Charlevoix (fromagescharlevoix.com). Bed down at Auberge La Muse (lamuse.com), a sweet Victorian Inn on the main drag, which is next door to Le Saint Pub (saint-pub.com), a microbrewery and restaurant where both the food and beer are fantastic.
Catch the ferry over to Rivière-du-Loup from StSiméon, but before you cross stop at the sweet Poterie de Port-au-Persil (poteriedeportaupersil.com) for a pottery lesson. Once in Rivière-duLoup, go out whale-watching on the St. Lawrence River with Croisières AML (croisieresaml.com).
Overnight at Hotel Universel (hoteluniverselrdl.com), which has a good-sized pool with waterslide, and nice adults-only Nordik Spa area you can escape to. CafeL’Innocent is a good kid-friendly place to go for dinner, and the lamb crêpes are amazing.
Drive west to beautiful Kamouraska and gorge yourself at the traditional German bakery Boulangerie Niemand (boulangerieniemand.com) and stock up on treats at La Fée Gourmande chocolate factory (lafeegourmande.ca). Stay on the south side of the St. Lawrence River for the longest drive of the trip from here to Montreal ( just under four hours).
Here, wander the cool Mile End eating St-Viateur bagels hot out of the oven and shop in neat boutiques. Head to the Olympic Park area where you can have close encounters with animals at the Biodôme (espacepourlavie.ca/en/biodome), explore the Botanical Gardens and Insectarium.
On the drive back to Quebec City, stop for one last decadent French lunch on the sunny patios of Le Castel de Prés (casteldespres.com) in Trois-Rivières.
CRUISING
If you want to do very little on your vacation, and only really have to interact with your kids at mealtimes and in the evenings, then a cruise could be the best idea ever. (Make up for not seeing your kids on the shore excursions and lessen any potential guilt that way.)
Many cruise lines cater so well to children that your kids may actually resent being forced to leave the services offered to them in order to spend time with you (it happened to me). Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth has night nurseries where nannies take care of babies from six to 23 months so you can kick back every night, as well as various day programs. Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas have a surf simulator, teen casino, and DJ Academy where
teens from 15-17 can learn to scratch and spin vinyl.
If you have older kids, cruises are a great way to visit multiple places and get a taste of culture (on a European river cruise, for example) or just to go somewhere really amazing and unique (such as Myanmar or Alaska) but have everything taken care of for you so there’s very little stress involved.
Suggested Trip Disney Cruises 7-Night Mediterranean Cruise from Barcelona (disneycruise. disney.go.com) takes you around Italy (Florence! Pisa! Naples!) and the swankiest bits of France (Cannes! Nice! Monte Carlo!). While on board the Disney Magic, there’s plenty to keep everyone happy as you move from character breakfasts to Broadway-style shows in the evenings.
By day the ship offers separate clubs for kids (starting at age three), tweens and teens, as well as plenty of opportunities to mingle with Disney characters and collect autographs, just like when you’re at a Disney park. The kids’ club also contains the Avengers Academy, for added awesomeness. There’s an onboard water park, fantastic dining, and plenty of adults only spaces and activities, so you never feel like you compromised by going Disney for the sake of the children. Price starts at US$11,317 for a family of four.
CITY BREAK
For older kids, or those who are really into cultural activities, a city break is a fun option. You can home in on places that match your kids’ level of interest, and build the trip around them, adding stops to great restaurants, a few kid-friendly beer gardens or bars, or whatever else it is that you enjoy.
Downtime is essential on a city break. If you plan a gruelling schedule with too much going on, then nobody is going to be happy. Too much walking, heat or strangeness could lead to your kids (or you) losing it (or you losing it with your kids). Skipping a less-important part of the itinerary because you spot a cool playground or park will lead to greater harmony for all.
Suggested trip New York has something for everyone, whether your family are theatre nerds, art buffs or pop culture freaks. You can do all the usual stuff like Times Square, the Empire State Building and visiting the Statue of Liberty, which is kind of essential for first-time visitors and thrilling no matter how cool you think you are, but there’s so much other stimulating stuff you can do.
Most museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim offer programming for kids and teens, making incredible art accessible for all. You could build something fun into your visit like a bike tour of Central Park (centralparkbiketours.com), or even a hip-hop tour (hushtours. com) of the city.
Finding a hotel with big rooms and a pool can be challenging in New York, but plenty of properties compensate by offering other family friendly amenities, such as the ideally located The Milburn (milburnhotel.com) in Midtown, which outfits its one-bedroom suites with PlayStations, sofa beds, and kitchenettes, or The Roxy Hotel (roxyhotelnyc.com) in Tribeca, which has pet goldfish in the rooms, and its own private movie theatre that screens kids movies during its excellent Sunday brunch (famous for its Bloody Marys, and the 1920s style jazz band that plays every week).
BEACH VACATION
Sandcastles, surf, sun: What’s not to love about a fabulous beach vacation? Perfect for families with younger kids, and those who want to do very little but just hang out together and relax. There are plenty of glorious destinations to pick from near and far, and lots of resorts offer amenities that will appeal to everyone (as well as child-care and activities for tots to teens).
So long as the weather co-operates, beach vacations are fantastic. If you’re stuck at an isolated resort with little to do should you end up with a week of monsoon rains, then it could be hard work indeed, so choose your destination carefully.
Suggested trip Just a few hours flight from most eastern Canadian cities, Bermuda is a wonderful, and safe, spot for a family vacation. Should you tire of burying your toes in the pretty pink sands, there’s plenty more to experience there.
Dive or snorkel with brightly painted fish and corals, then eat those delicious fish in sandwiches made with raisin bread and served with spicy fries at Art Mels Spicey Dicey, stroll the cobbled streets of historic town St. George (a UNESCO site) and check out St. Peter’s Church, which was built in 1612, or spend an evening at the The Swizzle Inn (swizzleinn.com), Bermuda’s oldest pub, open since 1932. The otherworldly underground Crystal Caves of Bermuda full of stalactites and stalagmites are spectacular, and little kids will love the excellent Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (bamz.org).
Stay somewhere incredibly luxurious like Rosewood Tuckers Point (rosewoodhotels.com/en/tuckers-pointbermuda), with its lovely private beach club, tennis courts, golf course, gardens, and incredible restaurants. The resort also has tween and teen programs that include jungle explorations, caving and swimming in hidden lagoons teeming with tropical fish.
Or, you can stay in a vacation rental instead and use bus passes to get around the island if you want to stick to a budget. Bermuda is wonderful, whatever you decide to get up to there or how much you spend.