While preparing for a trip abroad with children, you must be not only very responsible choosing the direction of travel, but also the place where you are going to stay too. If the primary goal is to change the family environment, rest from the routine and you are planning to spend most of the time at the hotel, the choice where to stay becomes even more necessary.

Have kids who love art? We do, and we're always scoping out art experiences for her when we travel - from art museums to galleries to classes. We can't get enough - and often schedule our travel plans around art events and classes.

 Traveling with Artistic Kids to Newfoundland? Read this...

Some books come into your life and stay with you. For whatever reason, they strike a chord and fit right in. And while this is rare, it does happen. One book that is forever lodged in my heart is Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks, by Mark Woods. It's a personal look at natural spaces, at family and friends, at moving and doing, at being in nature. It's a thoughtful record of exploration and listening and thinking, of love, of essence of place.

Planning for a vacation is an exciting time for everyone, whether it’s for one or for a family. For some, it happens once a year, for those lucky ones, it happens more often, either way, thinking where to go and when to go is fun to do. What is not as exciting is the actually planning and getting everything ready, as far as searching for the right location, how to get there, the cost,  or wondering if the hotel or resort will be as nice as it looks on the web.

From luxury hotels and resorts to low-cost yet comfortable economical accommodation options, from high-end malls and designer studios to bustling streets and bazaars, from luxury world-class coaches to much reasonable Rajdhani and Shatabdi express trains, from a continental cuisine in a 5-star restaurant to the mouth-watering street food - India is truly a land of contrasts.