Travel Tips Archives - 2 Travel Dads

Taylor Family Sponge Shopping in Tarpon Springs Florida 2

Easy Florida Weekend Getaway Ideas on the Gulf

Florida is full of fun and relaxation. If you’ve not explored beyond the big cities like Orlando, Jacksonville or Miami, you might not know how diverse and chill it is. Speaking of Miami (said Mee-ahh-mee), it’s a completely different world when you head to the Gulf Coast from Miami and

Med Sailing Holidays sailboat in port of Vis Croatia 1

Sailing Croatia: how to plan unforgettable Med Sailing Holidays

So, who followed along on our incredible sailing adventure through the Dalmatian Isles of Croatia? What?! You missed it?! Well we’ve got lots to share about the whole experience from ports of call to booking your travel. Med Sailing Holidays was an awesome host for us and we’re happy to

Taylor Family at Mission Beach San Diego California 34

San Diego family vacation: budget savvy travel with IHG Rewards Club and Chase

Getting to travel for a living has its perks for sure, but we also are really careful and deliberate about how we do it. We joined forces with IHG and Chase to plan and have a great San Diego family vacation while using and earning IHG Rewards Club points along the

Sun Protection for traveling: from travel planning to sun block guidelines

Summer is here! Huzzah! We’ve shared before about ways the we keep the kids safe while we’re traveling, including sun protection. You know that we think it’s important to ensure everybody has good information about keeping themselves and their families healthy, but with that know that we’re not advocating any one

Taylor Family with sunblock by pool at Universal Cabana Bay Resort Orlando Florida 1

Keeping kids healthy while traveling (and at home too!)

We share a lot about staying healthy while traveling and keeping the kids’s learning wherever we are, and that’s because we know how important it is and because we love to give out free advice. 😉 Well here’s another helping of advice that’s extremely useful, both for parents and for

Stress free travel prep is easy with these 6 simple steps. From spring cleaning out the medicine cabinet to organized To Do lists, travel preparation can be a breeze. 2traveldads.com

Spring Cleaning Anytime and 5 More Tips for Stress-free Travel Prep

When I was a kid I thought that Spring Cleaning was just something they did in cartoons or that my grama talked about. We didn’t do that in our house, or at least that I realized. Now, as a dad I totally get it and we totally do it, particularly

Outdoor Activities with Young Kids along the Scenic Route

We love when we get to share our favorite spots to visit, tips we’ve learned and ideas for exciting times along the Scenic Route. We’ve created a really fun video to inspire new and wild times with young kids as you travel beyond the city… but you have to visit

Packing and safe storage of travel products is about both containing the mess and keeping kids safe. Travel tips for keeping OTC medications, personal products and liquids up and away from kids while traveling. 2traveldads.com

Safe Storage of Travel Products: kid safety on the road

When we are traveling with the kids we typically have all kinds of products with us, from toothpaste to bug spray. Safe storage of our travel products is important, and not just because we don’t want to have all of our toiletries covered in sunblock due to the pressure change

As a day trip added onto an Orlando vacation, a day with Paddleboard Orlando is ideal to explore Blue Spring State Park and the Wekiva River. Hundreds of manatees flock to Blue Spring in Central Florida and Wekiva is teeming with alligators and turtles. 2traveldads.com

Paddleboard Orlando: nature adventures just beyond the city!

So, you know how we’re all about kayaking and do it all the time? Well, after many attempts I’ve had an incredible time Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) and it’s going to be my new favorite activity. After spending a whole day with Ned, the owner of Paddleboard Orlando, I can

Rob Taylor Handstand in water at Isla Holbox 1

Self Care and Traveling for Health: being your best you for your family

Being on the go so much, it’s really easy to get distracted and stop paying attention to how you should be taking care of yourself. Last month, we shared about how to stay healthy while traveling, particularly during cold and flu season. What about the rest of the year though,

Rob Taylor and Friend at Universal Cabana Bay Resort Orlando 4

Universal Blog Squad: Harry Potter and scouting for future fun

Hooray! We get to be a part of the Universal Orlando Resort Blog Squad! This is going to be a crazy and fun experience. What does this mean? It means that throughout the year we’ll be taking several trips to Universal Orlando for fun events, new experiences and just generally

Staying healthy while traveling is so important, especially when you have kids with you. Sharing helpful tips to prevent sickness during cold and flu season. 2traveldads.com

Staying healthy while traveling: cold and flu season tips for kids and adults

As parents who travel with kids constantly, we’re in all kinds of places throughout the year, including airports and train stations during cold and flu season. It’s rare that our household gets sick and I think that in large part it’s due to our daily habits and making the kids

Planning NYC with kids: from building an itinerary to booking with rewards

New York City with kids is both a dream and stressful idea. I mean, it’s New York. It’s the Big Apple and the ultimate American experience. We learned a lot about doing NYC with kids and can say that it is worth the effort and can be unforgettable in the

Cow Elk at Mammoth Yellowstone National Park Wyoming 1

Experiencing the best of Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park

In addition to geysers, the exciting thing about going to Yellowstone National Park is the wildlife. There are the standard deer and chipmunks that you’d expect to see, but there is so much more. The bison were a real hit with our family… but then so were the bears

Finding the best places to eat on Oahu: poke to pork and everything in between

Watching people travel and eat on television has become such a staple in America. We tune in and find “the best unknown burger counter in Philly” and the “most decadent ice cream sandwich in Portland” or the “best places to eat on Oahu,” but what do you actually want to

Rob Taylor Watercolor of Amtrak Empire Builder passing Glacier National Park in Fall 1

Amtrak family train travel to Glacier National Park

Train travel is so common around the world, but here in the United States most of us always opt to fly places. We just did our first family train travel with Amtrak and it was pretty cool. We don’t do many trips in the northern USA in the fall or

Sunset from Kalaloch campground Olympic National Park 1

Camping rules for kids: 10 rules to keep kids (and parents) safe in the woods

When the family goes camping, nobody exhibits more enthusiasm, excitement and anticipation than the kids! Children not only see this as an adventure, but they like the idea of spending time with parents who aren’t texting, working and otherwise distracted. Our friend, Paul Turner of TakeOutdoors.com has some great insight

Disneyland tips for planning an awesome vacation, from where to stay to planning a day. How to take the stress out of a Disney vacation. 2traveldads.com

Dads in Disneyland: tips for planning an awesome Disney Vacation

There is no one destination on Earth that we’ve been to as many times as Disneyland. It’s actually shocking to start calculating how many hours we have spent in both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. Our Disneyland tips come from hundreds of hours of fun both with and without kids.

Flos V8 Cafe Cars Land Cars 3 Premiere after party at night Disneys California Adventure 1

A family Disneyland vacation & the unforgettable Cars 3 Premiere

This post is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark We’ve just returned from our first family trip to Disneyland with all four of us and it was incredible. We were so fortunate to get to experience not just Disneyland and California Adventure, but then also the Cars 3 Premiere and an unforgettable Cars

Taylor family playing at Manhattan Beach Los Angeles 3

Go-to products for traveling with kids: sunblock to sunglasses, what’s in the bag…

This post about summer travel packing and family friendly kid products is sponsored by Johnson’s Baby, one of our staple brands at home and on the road. Summer is totally underway. We’ve already had trips to Disneyland, Wisconsin, Florida and more. That means that we’ve honed down our travel packing,

Horse drawn trolley on Mainstreet USA Disneyland 2

Dads in Disneyland: family guide to fun inside the Happiest Place on Earth

Disneyland with kids is amazing. It might sound silly but when we first found out that we were going to be dads one of the very first thoughts that went through my head was “ hooray! Someday we could to take our kid to Disneyland!” If you’re planning a trip

Mt Hood at Sunset from High Prairie Washington

Take better photos when traveling with these 5 simple tips

The most common thing we hear about our blog besides that it’s great that we travel with kids is that we have beautiful photos. Our photos are just like anybody else’s photos I guess, but after years of travel and working as professional photographers there are a few skills that

Taylor family and Escape Campervan at Collier Seminole State Park Naples 3

Escape Campervan: the coolest and easiest family camping. Ever.

Our new favorite way to explore the USA: in an Escape Campervan. Recently we completed an incredible family road trip up Florida’s Gulf Coast. We visited four different National Park sites and saw more wildlife than we expected, and did it all from the comfort of our campervan. We were

Whether for an afternoon or a whole vacation there are lots of free things to do in Los Angeles that are fun, unique and perfectly LA. 2traveldads.com

Free things to do in Los Angeles to make an awesome trip

If you’ve ever gone traveling with us then you know we like to have fun, we like to go to bed early, and we love when we find awesome free things to do. We know lots of the cool fun free things to do at home because we do so

Bell Tower at Muslim Quarter in Xian at night panoramic

Xi’an City Guide: experiencing China’s history, nature and culture

Seriously, I could write about China all day every day. Thinking about what areas of China to visit, people will probably research what spots are going to have the best tourist sites or most famous Chinese landmarks. If that’s the approach you’re taking, then no doubt you’re going to be

Baja California Sur Road Trip: #familytravel meets awesome

When you say Baja California, I think most people are instantly going to think “Off-roading and military car inspections…” Well, yeah, that’s totally possible and I’m sure you’ll come across that, but we’ve had some pretty incredible Baja road trips. Doing a road trip through Baja California is a really

Saving for the future: making travel and early retirement attainable

Our notes here about saving for the future originally appeared on GaysWithKids.com, which is a great resource for families and same-sex couples looking to take the plunge into parenthood. Recently, we saw some online promotion and hashtags around saving up for the future and just general thoughts on good practices

There are tons of holiday activities in Atlanta, from Christmas lights to fundraisers. 2traveldads.com

Chistmassy Holiday Activities in Atlanta, Georgia

Christmas is such a hoot. We love getting to do Christmassy, holidayish things and especially love traveling during the holidays. We just returned from Atlanta where we were visiting family and did a few fun, special holiday activities there. In addition to visiting the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, we also

Colorful Urchins and Fish in Cabo Pulmo National Park

A complete guide to snorkeling in Cabo San Lucas

As heartbreaking as it is to realize that you’re kids are growing up it’s also amazing. We are able to do so many more fun things and share even more new experiences with them. One that is really exciting is snorkeling! Snorkeling in and around Cabo San Lucas is surprisingly

Voting with your dollars… your travel dollars

Following the recent shocking election of Donald Trump in the United States, our minds are spinning out of control of what to do. We cannot relocate our lives and run away from this. We can’t secede from the Union (or can we?) and we can’t just sit at home moping

The USA holds a lot of quirky attraction for non-Americans, including drive thrus and Florida's conch fritter stands, from JustGoPlaces

Making travel plans for the USA: an expat’s view of visiting home in America

We’ve written several times about what we look for in a destination, from activities to cost to previous visits. We’re pretty good at making travel decisions together to create the most fun vacations for our kids. Following the recent election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States

Playing in Pool at Playa Grande Cabo San Lucas

Why using a timeshare is smart family travel

Among frequent travelers, and especially in the travel blog community there is a weird tension about “traveler vs tourist” and it’s really funny and irritating. It’s typically approached in a condescending way and despite we not caring where we fall into the array we still make the effort to be

A friendly reminder about hiking safety and family travel tips

We always are traveling with friends or family, internationally and locally. Not everything we do is a group activity, but a lot of things are. Hiking as a group is always fun and usually is uneventful, but every now and then something happens and that’s when you have to think

Seattle is a great starting point for a Puget Sound loop roadtrip showing you the best of the PNW! 2traveldads.com

A family travel adventure: Puget Sound itinerary

We get a lot of questions about visiting the Pacific Northwest with kids. People want to know the obvious like “what are the can’t-miss sights?” or “should we really pack for cold weather in July?” We’ll answer that second question first: yes, it rains. For the other questions though, here

Exploring Oregon Caves National Monument w/ kids

Spelunking: the act of exploring caves and wandering deep into the earth… with kids. That’s what we got to do at Oregon Caves National Monument. We had an the best experience, which we were a bit worried about before starting our tour. We were welcomed by Oregon Caves National Monument

Taylor Kids at Battery Point Lighthouse Crescent City 2

Battery Point Lighthouse: worth getting your feet wet

I went to Crescent City, California once when I was a kid. I just remember being told that in 1964 a tsunami (tidal wave) crashed into the town… and then I was terrified of visiting Crescent City or any place on the coast. Well, I’m a grown up now and

Taylor Family Beach Day at Pacific Reef Hotel Gold Beach Southern Oregon Coast

the Southern Oregon Coast’s Pacific Reef Hotel

Sometimes family travel is so tiring that all you want to do is check into your hotel, take off your shoes and sit on a balcony. With the door closed. With no children needing you. We found that. After going non-stop for two weeks we finally arrived on the Oregon

Hunting for gnomes in Redwood National Park

We grew up in a great period in film history, where there were movies like the Land Before Time, Ferngully and, from even before we were born, The Gnome-Mobile. On our way to California’s North Coast and the Redwoods, the boys got to watch The Gnome Mobile in the car

Rob Taylor using Stanley Stainless Steel Pint and Growler 2 2traveldads.com

Stanley products: #Stanleyness & useful dad-gear for dadding

Probably the best thing about being a blogger is getting to tell stories about what we do every day instead of just keeping it to ourselves. We love talking to people! Having a blog to share our ideas, tips, and just fun times is great. One of the things that

St Louis: awesomeness in the Midwest

It’s been a long while since we’ve visited St Louis and we haven’t taken the kids before, but we’re always looking for new places to explore. When we think of St Louis the two things that come to mind are the Gateway Arch (#FindYourPark) and the Cardinals (because baseball, you

Category: Travel Tips