The Luxury Family Travel Writer Experience
An Interview with the Ciao Bambino Freelance Blogger, Nancy Solomon
Apr 17, 2009
Family travel requires a lot of planning, of course. Luxury family travel can take the edge off: Concierges at 5-star resorts can easily procure replacement toothbrushes, reputable babysitters are on tap, and there's often a children's on-site day camp as well. Even better? Ciao Bambino. Ciao Bambino is an online luxury family travel planning resource. It is of such sterling quality that parents looking to relax can practically hand all the travel planning over to Ciao Bambino, and rest assured that a great upscale vacation awaits them.
Luxury Travel interviewed Nancy Solomon, who is a regular blog contributor for Ciao Bambino. Pretty sweet gig, as freelancers like to say! Let's hear what she has to say about her experiences with luxury family travel.
Luxury Travel: Nancy, tell us a little about yourself; have you always been a traveler?
Nancy Solomon: First, I've never traveled professionally. I've developed my love for traveling with my family growing up and then as a young adult. Currently, I'm a stay at home mom (not sure when that happens) with four kids. Up until I had my third baby, I worked in Product Marketing. My whole life loved leisure travel: Even before we had money to travel, we loved in a dump of an apartment to save money so we could backpack around Europe. My husband and I actually met traveling while in college, on Semester at Sea. We were able to go to eleven countries around the world in four months. Knowing what an impact travel has had on us, we wanted to share our passion with our children. From the get go, we've been flying with them here and there! It's important for us to broaden their exposure and raise them as global citizens.
Luxury Travel: What is your role at Ciao Bambino?
Nancy: I found Ciao Bambino when we were booking a trip to Italy. In an age where travel agents have a diminishing role, Amie (the founder, who is so knowledgeable about global travel) was a huge resource for us. Later, I had some ideas on traveling and the next thing I know, I'm writing for them. We figured, with four kids, we get to know what works and what doesn't work really quickly. Now, I write articles and blog posts on a freelance basis. It's great for me to get back to writing, and it's so engaging to write about something I love to do.
Luxury Travel: Are there a few favorite high-end vacation destinations, that you'd return to whether or not work required it?
Nancy: This is a hard question for me. Part of my personality is to always be going and exploring. I love new destinations and cities. That said, my favorite domestic locations with kids are:
- San Diego, CA – You have the beach and a ton of fun activities. It's easy fun and reasonable.
- Sanibel, FL – I subscribe to the bathing suit flip-flop crowd ... not the bathing suit high-heel crowd. I like low-key places where we can really relax. There's nothing worse than going on a beach vacation and having to fight for lounge chairs. We've had that and I left more stressed.
- Jackson Hole, WY – Amazing! It was like going on safari in the US. We saw so many beautiful animals and there was a lot of activity for our high-energy family, so it worked extremely well. The only down side is that it was hard to get there.
- Washington DC – We are going here next week. There's no end to the exhibits and interesting museums that DC has to offer. Plus, you have plenty of space to run around and great biking .
Internationally, we loved Quebec (feels like Europe but close to Boston), Paris, & Turks & Caicos. Our top trip to date with kids has been Paris. Everyone loved it and it was much easier than I had anticipated. Paris had so many excellent activities to enjoy with kids. I wrote a post on "Making Urban Destinations Fun with Kids" that has some helpful tips. Turks & Caicos was easy, relaxed and gorgeous. There was nothing to do, which if you've noticed by now, would be great for me. I had no choice but to relax!
Freelance travel writer or no, Ciao Bambino is a wonderful resource for families seeking a luxury travel experience. With input from well-traveled bloggers like Nancy Solomon, it's a dependable site.
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