Hi Reader,

I just got back from a family trip to New York, ten of us in all, to celebrate the Fourth. Somewhere between booking show tickets and mapping subway routes, I remembered that when travel planning is your actual job, you never really clock out. I don't mind it. I went to school upstate and spent years in the city, so I have opinions, and a group trip is basically an invitation to use all of them.

Doing The Classics, First-Timer Style

It was my nephews' first time, so we clocked some of the greatest hits: Empire for the view, dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, shopping at Printemps, and a proper red-sauce dinner. We saw Operation Mincemeat (genuinely phenomenal), got the kids their first New York slice, and even taught them the "Goldilocks fold."

The Two Problems Nobody Warns You About

Then came the curveballs. My husband's birthday fell mid-trip, so I needed a grown-up dinner that felt like an occasion (we adored our meal at Chinese Tuxedo). I also had to find a spot where ten of us, minors included, could watch the World Cup. But the real lesson, every time, is pacing. Build in the slow mornings and time to rest in the afternoon. Skip that, and the grandparents are wiped by day three.

Why This Is Pretty Much Our Whole Thing

True, I don't have kids, but I have five siblings, four parents, and eleven nieces and nephews, so I have been planning family trips for decades. And I am not alone. Rachel travels with her husband and their kids; Kristen with her fiancé, his kids, and her siblings. So when we say we have firsthand experience juggling different ages, budgets, and personalities on a single trip, we mean it both professionally and personally.

Family Travel Guides For High Season Travel

Which brings me to something I am excited about. We realized we had never actually put any of this down on the site, so we pulled together a little series of family travel guides for the summer high season. There is an article on helping kids beat jet lag, which is as useful for Europe as it is for East Coast families flying to Hawai'i (who almost always underestimate the impact of the six-hour time change). There is a bigger-picture guide to planning a family trip to Europe and a deep dive into Italy with kids.​

Here's to the trips where the nephew and the grandparents both go home happy,