Frommer’s 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up
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500 Places to Take Your Kids allows parents, grandparents, and kids to create a lifetime of shared memories while visiting destinations the whole family can enjoy. Here are cities, zoos, sports shrines, museums, castles, beaches, outdoor activities, and more—500 thoughtfully-chosen places that will enchant and beguile both the young and the young at heart. Each entry contains all the information families need to help plan a trip: age ratings, service details, and nearby kid-friendly hotels. A Specialty Index organized by type of trip helps families discover places and activities for all ages and interests, while a Geographical Index allows families to locate attractions across the world or simply across town. Photos throughout the book help bring destinations to life. Free companion podcast is available for download!Amazon.com Review
Product Description
500 Great Reasons to Say,”Are We There Yet?” This bes… More >>
I had high expectations for this book but they fell flat. First, the layout is o.k. but not great. Areas are grouped by categories such as “Out and About” and “On the Water.” As the book covers the world, I think it might have been better to be laid out geographically and maybe cross-referenced. As for the selections, they are very diverse. Some make sense but some I really don’t feel are appropraite for children, except for maybe the very well travelled child. For example, number 397 is Mount Fuji: Scaling the Symbol of Japan. The age range is 8 and up. The author writes, “Take a shortcut directly to Kawaguchiko’s Fifth Stage by bus from Shinjuku Station (be sure to book in advance); the trip takes about 2 1/2 hours. From this starting point it’s about a 6 hour climb to the summit, with another 3 hours to make the descent; at the top, a 1-hour hiking trail circles the crater. The highlight of the classic Fuji Climb is to watch the sunrise from the peak, which in summer means being there by 4:30 am.” I was hoping for more “kid friendly” suggestions. I don’t think I’ll be visiting number 280 “Hiroshima: The Original Ground Zero” or number 277 “The D-Day Beaches of Normandy” with my son anytime soon. Perhaps the child that is a huge history buff would understand the significance.
The positives are that the author provides good detail for each area with tips and tricks, good hotel, airport and contact information, and age ranges. There are some very unique groupings which make for an interesting read.
The negatives are that is it is an unrealistic travel guide for the average family, the “Why They’ll Thank You” is weak, and it still didn’t help me decide what to do next summer!
I’m surprised by the number of negative reviews of this book so I thought I would offer my own counterpoint. This is the best list I’ve found of aspirational places to take children. The only comparable list book I’ve found is the ever-popular 1000 Places to See Before You Die, which isn’t oriented around kids at all. Of course they will all want to go to Disney World, but this is a different type of list. These are places that kids should visit to understand more about the world, how people behave, how science works, and what life is like for people who aren’t always like themselves. It is not a list of fun places to take little kids.
We’ve been lucky enough to have visited 97 of the places with our kids, now aged 15 and 20. It’s been a blessing to us to be able to visit places like Thailand, which is wonderful, and the Great Barrier Reef and indeed Mount Fuji and Hiroshima. People in Japan take many kids ages 8 to 10 to the muesum at Hiroshima; it’s a fantastically well done museum about a topic that every kid–and adult–should understand. The only one of the places that really didn’t give us much of a thrill was Agate Fossil Beds in Nebraska. My guess is that the authors HAD to pick something in Nebraska. We just used the book to pick #97 which was the Spy Museum in Washington DC — a great spot we hadn’t heard of.
The only reason I don’t give this book 5 stars is that it really could benefit from a geographical cross-reference. Many items do offer a list of items nearby which is helpful.
So maybe it is easier to take kids to Disney World, but think about these places too. A terrific book to think about for a lifetime of travel with your family.
Wow, was I disappointed when I cracked this book open. My two main complaints are layout and site selections. I cannot believe that sites are grouped by general similarity rather than geography. The geographical index at the back of the book just does not satisfy me. Any book like this should be organized from a geographical standpoint in my opinion. You will be required to look at the geographical index at the back of the book to find anything specific. I was hoping the book focused on the US or let’s be wild and say North America. While I did not count them up, I would guesstimate that almost half of the sites are outside of North America. You would have to be extremely wealthy to visit many of these places and a fair number really are not place where I would want to take “kids” as they would only appeal to high school age or above. There are better books out there – in this case the Internet would serve you better.
I put off the purchase of the book based on the other reviews. I purchased a fodors family travel book instead. I hated that book so I decided to go back with my gut instinct and purchased this one. I gave it five stars because I thought the other reviews were harsh and unjust. I don’t feel the sections need to be in any particular order. Start at page one and read. Mark or just take note of the destinations that interest you. I don’t think the destinations are unrealistic. If disney or a caribbean cruise is your idea of the ultimate family vacation then this is not the book for you. I don’t say this offend anyone it is just that you may need to consider a different book for your needs. I do plan to take my kids to Asia, Africa, South America and so forth. You need not be wealthy to do so.
I had really hoped for more realistic ideas to go on vacation with my three children, one elementary age, preschooler, and toddler. I expected the book to leave out ideas for my toddler, but was surprised to see a lot of the suggestions left out my preschooler as well.
The books layout could have been better, by placing vacations spots by location, rather than ‘Weird & Wonderful’ or ‘Windows on History’. I guess Frommer’s makes up for this with the geographical index at the end of the book.
It seemed the book could have been condensed a little, like instead of listing Chicago’s museums seperatly in different catagories, just list the city then list the must see museums and zoo.
Some of the suggestions were just silly. I’m probably not taking my kids to Cambodia, Guatemala, or Thailand. (unless we had relatives there) And they left out Disney World. Everyone wants to take their kids to Disney World before they grow up!
There were some good suggestions, but not as many that we can afford that i thought there would be.
Hi! I really liked this book. A fun read with many cool ideas. Ya sure many aren’t for every family but playing it safe would have made for a boring book. I partly agree with the criticism of not having a geographical layout, but how many people would be using this as an actual travel guide. I imagine the idea was that most parents would sit down on the sofa at night and daydream away about where they might go next.
David Hogg
My Little Nomads
(The web site for Traveling with Kids)