Get something for nothing! PRIZEY launches!

Jeremiah, of blog Z Recommends fame, has recently launched a great new team-blog called PRIZEY.  Straight from their home page, “PRIZEY is a listing service for great giveaways that don’t require blog links or abuse your personal data.”  In other words, they scour the Internet looking for freebie giveaways and then provide readers with a handy, comprehensive guide to all that’s out there.  Pretty neat!  If you’re a deal lover (and who isn’t), then PRIZEY is for you.

Is Las Vegas a kid-friendly destination?

Our family (kids aged 6 and 9) is planning a trip to

Las Vegas later this year and we’re wondering what you’d recommend in order to make our trip fun for everyone?

Despite the slogan and tone of

Las Vegas’s more recent marketing campaigns (“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”), there are still plenty of things to entertain an entire family in and around the city.

 

I’d recommend not traveling to Las Vegas with your kids in the middle of the summer.  Even if you spend only a little bit of time outside, you and your kids will quickly tire of the heat.  There are a lot of beautiful areas near the city like Red Rock Canyon, the Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon that you would probably enjoy more during a cooler part of the year. As far as lodging, there are a number of hotels right on the Strip that will still appeal to children,

although you might be best served by looking for a non-casino hotel a bit more removed from the gaming action.  If you do decide to be right in the heart of things, hotels like Excalibur, which has a medieval castle theme, and Circus Circus, with its regular showings of circus acts and nearby amusement park, are two of the better choices.

 

Once you’re there, you are going to want things to do.  Assuming you fill some of your time with outdoor activities, you could also take in a show – the earlier times tend to be slightly less crowded and risqué than the later ones.  Lance Burton, the magician, is a pretty good bet as are the Cirque du Soleil shows like Mystere at Treasure Island.  In all cases, I’d call the show beforehand to make sure that the material is age appropriate for your kids.  After dark, the water fountain show (sort of like the Mentos and Coke YouTube video, but much larger!) that runs regularly in front of the Bellagio is also worth the time and some children may enjoy the Fremont Experience and light show in the old part of downtown – and that show is FREE, a rarity in Las Vegas these days.  Restaurants are no longer bargains, but

Las Vegas does now possess one of the country’s best collections of fine dining restaurants in the country.  Since you probably do not want to eat a gourmet meal every night, there are also more casual, family-friendly places like Buca di Beppo and Applebee’s around town and most hotels have a casual diner or grill-type restaurant.

 

Many hotels no longer offer babysitting service, so if that’s something you’re interested in, it will require a bit of extra effort on your part.  Also, as a general rule, allow plenty of time to reach the airport and to get through security.  There is always something going on in Las Vegas and taxi lines at the hotels for morning departures can be absurdly long and the airport itself can get very crowded. 

Traveling abroad? Kids need passports, too!

The State Department has now caught up with their backlog of passport applications.  Beginning October 1st, some new travel rules went into effect that require all U.S. visitors to Canada, Mexico, and other locations that did not previously require passports to have a valid passport for re-entry into the United States for all passengers traveling by ship or plane (walking and driving across the borders will require a passport beginning January 1, 2008).    All children, REGARDLESS OF AGE, must also have their own passport, so if your child does not have one and you plan to travel outside the U.S., you should complete and mail in an application.  For children not yet able to sign their own names, the State Department provides the following instructions: a parent may sign for the child by writing the child’s name on the signature line and signing the parent’s name above the child’s name. Example:

Jane Doe for

Child M. Doe

Signature of Bearer

Family Travel Planning Poll

May Poll Results

We asked who planned the family vacations in your home and the results are in! 86% of all vacation planning involves Mom and over half of all trips are planned by both parents. In a sign of the times, travel agents didn’t play a role in any of the respondents’ planning and dads were the solo travel planners in only 5% of the cases.

Here’s a short write-up on the results from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.