You can find affordable family vacation spots in the Caribbean

You can find affordable family vacation spots in the Caribbean

Sue and Robin Ricketts started Anguilla’s flourishing villa business—ideal for multigenerational families and now manage some 80 villas on the island from the most luxurious ($1,000,000 a week) to totally affordable (a few thousand). Now they also run the boutique 27-room Anacona where rooms can be as low as $150 a night and all kinds of special programs—tennis, sailing, wellness, biking, yoga, art……

On Anguilla everybody sails, especially the kids

On Anguilla everybody sails, especially the kids

The Anguilla Youth Sailing Club that teaches local as well as visiting kids to sail (look for programs through the Viceroy Hotel and others) “Kids really rally round the boat racing…we start to teach them at age four,” says Paul Koeniger, who oversees the youth sailing club.

A day well spent at the stunning new Viceroy Anguilla

A day well spent at the stunning new Viceroy Anguilla

We spent the afternoon at the stunning Viceroy Resort down the road from where we are staying that employs 600 people for their 166 rooms. Did I mention the five-bedroom villas that rent for as much as $17,500 a night?

Five days in Anguilla on a best girlfriends getaway

Five days in Anguilla on a best girlfriends getaway

We’re here on a girlfriends’ getaway ensconced in a huge three-bedroom villa with its own pool, kitchen, and beach. I’m sitting aside the pool and hear the crashing waves as I write this. Did I mention the mile-long beach?

Discovering the History of Scenic Charlottesville, Virginia

Discovering the History of Scenic Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville, VA and the surrounding Piedmont region offers remarkable history, breathtaking scenery, a dining scene that blends upscale with down home and boutique inns that make for a uniquely charming getaway for your family.

At the historic Omni Mount Washington Hotel for the holidays

At the historic Omni Mount Washington Hotel for the holidays

There is plenty to do at this historic resort—from NH largest ski area, plenty of groomed cross country and snow shoe trails, dog sledding, sleigh rides and indoor and outdoor pool and gargantuan spa where my daughter and I indulged in blissful massages yesterday.

Families on a hike through the snowy woods of New Hampshire

Families on a hike through the snowy woods of New Hampshire

We’re hiking in the snow—micro crampons on our feet on the Crawford Trail in New Hampshire, with a guide from the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highlands Center. In case you are wondering, the needles on the spruce are spikey–thus “spikey spruce” and the needles on the balsam are soft (“friendly fir”!).

A special place for adventurous families from the AMC in New Hampshire

A special place for adventurous families from the AMC in New Hampshire

Welcome to the Appalachian Mountain Club Highland Center, a short drive from Mount Washington, New England’s tallest peak. Some of the families we meet the weekend before Christmas have made a visit here an annual tradition, like the Canes, who have come nearly every year since their nine year-old was a baby.