A&K’s Connections
Two years after launching its lower-priced Connections by A&K product line, luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent is expanding the popular offering to include family departures. A&K will offer Connections Family Journeys to 10 destinations — Amsterdam, Paris, London, South Africa, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and Russia. Each tour is designed to be suitable for travelers of all ages, with engaging local guides, fun and enriching activities, and child-friendly hotels. For example, Italy: A Family Journey includes learning pizza making in Rome, painting Venetian Carnival masks and having lunch with a family who produces balsamic vinegar.
Preferred Families
The Preferred Hotel Group’s Preferred Family certified properties in Europe have created a number of activity-driven programs especially for families. For example in Italy, families can learn Italian together at Castello di Casole, a 4,200-acre, all-suite estate in the Tuscan countryside, via 90-minute language sessions that use fun, real-world applications – like ordering dolci and gelato. The property also offers family bike rides, pizza making and ceramic painting. At the K Club, a luxury 19th century chateau estate near Dublin, the property enlists a local guide to teach families to fly fish. Learn how to bait a hook, cast a rod and reel in fish in the River Liffey. When parents and grandparents want to sneak off for a round of golf or the spa, your children can ride horses or learn cricket and archery. The Preferred Family Certification program qualifies hotels based on their offerings for children from infants to teenagers, requiring them to meet comprehensive age-specific criteria in five categories: hotel amenities, facilities, programs, services, and entertainment. The collection includes more than 260 family-friendly hotels in 47 countries.
Tauck Bridges in Africa
Tauck Bridges in collaboration with BBC Earth has added two new and exciting Africa trips for 2015. Book now before they sell out! The South Africa: Epic Family Adventure is a 10 day tour that includes visits to Cape Town, the Garden Route and a safari camp in Sabi Sands. Unique experiences include an elephant walk, a private lecture on the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, bike tour of Soweto, ostrich rides and more. Tanzania: A Grand Family Safari is an 11 day tour that includes Tarangire National Park, the Serengeti (two different safari camps) and Karatu. Your family will meet Maasai villagers, witness Africa’s Big Five game, take a hot air balloon over the Serengeti, visit a local school and more. Both trips include unique access to a BBC Earth cameraman’s gadgets, including thermal imaging, infrared camera trap and night vision goggles and an exclusive on-tour film produced by BBC Earth. Groups are also limited in size to 30-34 and most meals are included.
Family Style at the London Edition
The new and trendy London Edition Hotel is showcasing a Family Style promotion. Stay in a Loft or Loft Suite and enjoy a complimentary connecting room with both big kid and little kid treats including breakfast, a kid’s guide to London, movie night and a London inspired in-room tent (suitable for ages 3 -7 years only). The Ian Schrager designed hotel is part of the Marriott chain and located in Fitzrovia at the edge of Soho. The hotel offers 173 rooms and suites, restaurant, gym, specially programmed iPods and iPads for use, free internet and more.
More Disney News
Adventures by Disney will be going to the Amazon for the first time in 2015 — or more exactly, to the
Napo River, a major tributary in Ecuador. The river cruise will be aboard a new 20-cabin vessel, the Anakonda. In addition to looking for wildlife, your tour will stop in villages where you will create your own souvenirs. In the next phase of the 12-day/11-night Ecuador trip, your family will fly to Quito and learn to make ceviche in an upscale restaurant, then continue to the Galapagos for a land-based tour based out of the Finch Bay Eco Hotel on Santa Cruz Island. You will also take a private yacht to Santa Fe Island to view wildlife.
Tauck Groups
Tauck Bridges creates wonderful memories for families especially for multiple generations traveling together. If you and 7 family members (or friends) book the same Tauck Bridges tour, the 8th person travels free! Tauck’s tours include just about every vacation expense – over 100 different cost components on every tour and cruise along with value-added enrichment featuring cultural and educational experiences. Tauck Bridges offers tours in Africa, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the US along with river boat cruises in Europe.
Patagonian Adventure
The Singular Patagonia, a family owned-and-operated property, has created a special family experience 
in Southern Chile with generous savings. Your second room for children will be discounted by 40 percent. In addition, the hotel has crafted a variety of family-oriented activities and tours to immerse you in the wonder of Patagonia. Excursions include hiking to the Mylodon Cave to learn about the prehistoric creatures that once lived there, horseback riding to Lake Sofia, a boat tour on the Fjord of Last Hope to see the Serrano Glacier and a nature walk through Torres del Paine. Children can also participate in a child-friendly cooking class. Located just outside Puerto Natales in the Chilean town of Puerto Bories, The Singular is a five-star luxury hotel located a former cold storage plant!
Thomson Family Adventures
Thomson Family Adventures let us know that your family can save from $200-600/person if you book a 2015 trip before June 30th. They also let us know that their new destinations for 2015 will include Croatia, Brazil and they are working on a Cuba trip! Active families will love a small group Thomson trip where a mentor comes along to keep children and teens engaged and your children receive a penpal before travel. Thomson’s other destinations include Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Tanzania, Belize, Panama, China, Morocco, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey. Trips vary in length and activity level to suit all ages of children through young adults as well as multi-generational group and are available during most school breaks.
Irish Ease
Did you know that two of Ireland’s airports allow U.S. citizens to clear customs before they depart;
so that the plane can land at a domestic terminal in the US? Such flights are available from Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 or Shannon Airport. When the plane lands simply walk out of the airport rather than waiting in another line! Just 10 minutes from the Shannon Airport is the family-friendly Inn at Dromoland that sits on the renowned Dromoland Estate where the famed castle is located. Enjoy 450 acres of wooded countryside along with a gym, indoor pool, kids club on selected week-ends, playground, outdoor games, indoor play center and several dining options. On the estate your family can also enjoy a spa, golf, fishing, falconry, archery, clay shooting, horseback riding, hiking trails and more. This past winter the inn built new superior family rooms (with one large and two single beds or one large and three single beds), and opened a new gastro pub. Nearby your family can enjoy Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Craggaunowen and Ennis town.
Tauck Bridges on the Rhine
Tauck Bridges is adding a new river cruise for families for 2015. Cruise along the Rhine River between Basel and Amsterdam aboard the new ms Inspire, visiting Switzerland, France, Germany and The Netherlands. Family travel experiences include a bicycle ride through forests and vineyards along the Rhine riverside; a taste of fondue, Swiss folklore and more in lakeside Lucerne; a ride aboard the world’s steepest cogwheel train to the top of Mt. Pilatus in the Swiss Alps; exploring the fascinating ruins of hilltop Heidelberg Castle in the medieval university town of Heidelberg; learning about the Lorelei and other Rhine River legends while keeping an eye out for fairy-tale castles; discovering the art treasures and historic canals of Amsterdam; an exclusive gala dinner for Tauck guests only at thousand-year-old Reichenstein Castle, high above the Rhine; becoming “French for a Day” aboard the riverboat with French language lessons, songs, a cooking demonstration and a chocolate tasting; a close-up look at the importance of the Carnival season to Köln (Cologne), Germany, and much more!
