Family Vacations
and
Family Travel

The idea for Vacationkids.com began in the summer of 1999. I had been working for one of the top online travel sites. Over the years, I've learned that you can travel affordably, just about anywhere, once you understand some of the secrets of the travel industry. That year I told my teens that they would have the fun and responsibility of planning our family vacation. I would make the final reservations and just pack my luggage. At the time I was also a single, over-worked mom dying to spend some quality time with my kids. I thought letting them plan our family vacation would be a good, practical, real life lesson for them to learn. At the time I had NO idea what I was getting myself into!

My kids were all experienced, savvy travelers and the type that enjoy doing online research projects like this one. Besides it was a great excuse for all of them to get some extra computer time. Our family met over pizza the following week and surprisingly, the kids were very discouraged. The had an extremely hard time finding family vacation information. They showed me all of their notes, the research they had done and the questions that still remained. I spent a great deal of time re-tracing their steps. I was really shocked to discover that there were very few websites available that offered correct and intelligent family vacation information. The sites that claimed to specialize in family vacations really didn't offer any of the practical knowledge necessary for families to make affordable and intelligent decisions. I had spent many years working in the travel industry. TV news people and travel writers often would call me for interviews about travel industry issues. Even I found myself at a loss as to the best place to vacation with my family. I found plenty of glossy brochure photos but little information to satisfy me as to whether or not my kids would end up happy and busy or bored and cranky. Of course any seasoned parent KNOWS if the kids are bored and cranky then it's certainly NOT a vacation for anybody in the family. After countless hours online and many, MANY phone calls to industry colleagues we ultimately found a great resort where we all enjoyed the time of our lives. Still, as I was happily lying under the shade of a palm tree staring out at crystal clear Caribbean seas, I was bothered by one nagging question...

WHY DOES PLANNING A FAMILY VACATION HAVE TO BE SO MUCH WORK?

The following year brought about many changes for our family. The happy change was that I married a wonderful guy named Brian Black. As challenging as it was to plan a single parent family vacation, we quickly found out that it's equally as difficult to find family of five friendly resorts. Later that year, thanks to corporate politics I found myself unemployed. I was pleased to receive many tempting job offers from travel industry colleagues but all of them meant many nights on the road traveling away from my family. After a long, heartfelt chat with Brian I told him I had this nagging idea to create a travel agency website devoted to family travel..."you know, all the information parents need to know that you'll never find in glossy travel brochures". I explained how parents need to work with travel agents who are experts in family vacation and travel issues. Family travel agents that have first hand experience in what families need while on vacation. With his whole hearted support, we started creating the vacationkids.com website and family travel agency.

We launched www.vacationkids.com in the Spring of 2001. We were thrilled as we received family vacation email requests, our family travel agents were busy, the phones rang and we started booking family vacations. We were excited to see that our hunch was right, families needed our help and we were getting them out there, traveling the world on vacation together. Then on September 11th, everything changed. Besides all the heartache and trauma every American felt that day, our livelihood was threatened. We had several scared families far from home as planes were grounded. Other families with impending trips called with questions and uncertainty. In the days and weeks ahead, many travel companies were forced closed their doors. Vacationkids.com grew! Family and quality time with children their became the highest priority of American parents. The need for expert family vacation advice grew at a fast pace. Thankfully we survived and thrived.

Behind the scenes, Vacationkids.com Inc. is a virtual company. We have all the bonds, licensing, expertise and credentials as the travel agency on your local corner. By virtual, we mean that we do all of our business, advertising and communication via the internet and phone. From a company stand point, we don't have any high rent, marble foyer, corporate corner offices to pay for. Less overhead means we can pass the best pricing along to our families when they book their vacations with us. Vacationkids really IS all about families and we live this mantra every day. All of our staff gets to work from the comfort of their home offices which means we all get to spend more time with our OWN families. We work efficiently and communicate with each other via email, IM, phone, carrier pidgeon, whatever it takes. So when you speak to us, we may be wearing our pink bunny slippers or you may hear the occasional kid chatting or dog barking in the back ground but we wouldn't have it any other way.

I am so very proud of our staff here at Vacationkids.com. There is an incredible wealth of knowledge and first hand travel experience between all of us. Everyone works well as a team, treating the needs of our traveling families with the utmost respect. If one of our clients comes to us with a question we cannot answer, we'll go to the ends of the earth to find someone who can answer that question for all of us.

Many people imagine that it's very glamorous to work in the travel industry. I'm sure after my agents have traveled thousands of miles, spent several long days marching around in the tropical heat checking out the latest and greatest destination and hotel offerings for families, they probably don't feel too glamorous. I can't begin to tell you how dedicated our staff members are here at Vacationkids...and yes, I'm proud of them but it bears repeating. They spend LONG hours sorting through all the travel deals and vacation offers to make sure what you see on our Vacationkids.com website is appropriate for families parents, grandparents and children at every life stage.

Yes, there's tons of great family vacation information to be found on our website but technically Vacationkids.com is a family travel agency. Every time you come to our website and make a reservation, our travel agents make a small commission. This is how they pay their bills and feed their own kids. This how we pay for our travel research and reviews to bring you and your family the latest information, details and knowledge making your travel experiences everything you want it to be and more. Our time is money. Our service, knowledge and expertise is free to our clients. That said, nothing ticks us off more than to spend a ton of time, answering millions of questions only to have people make their reservations with another travel company. It's very discouraging for us. And we can't tell you how many times we get calls from OTHER travel agencies trying to pick our brains. We tell them the same thing we tell our children...go do you own homework!

We do recongnize that there are folks out there that know EXACTLY what vacation they wants and perhaps want to make their reservations themselves, online or at a time when our offices are closed. I know what you're probably thinking, and the answer is “no”...you won't get a lower price by booking directly through one of our partners. The price you see on Vacationkids is exactly the same price they offer on their own site. We trust that by providing you with honest advice and by saving you aimless shopping hours online, you will reward us with your patronage. More often than not families can actually save money by using our travel agents. They have the experience and knowledge finding you the best deals that can save you from making costly mistakes.

So that's our story. Our family has benefited tremendously from our travel adventures and experiences. The opportunity to travel has taught our own kids so very much. Our mission is to empower and afford other families with the similar opportunities. Experience is always the best teacher. Traveling with your children teaches them so many important lessons as well as providing the entire family with a lifetime of memories. We look forward to bringing you great vacation deals and giving you good advice. Tell us what you think and ask us what you need to know. We love reading your suggestions. Let us know what you want to see on Vacationkids.com and we will do our best to bring it for you. Thanks for visiting our site, and we hope to hear from you soon!
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