What is an appropriate age to take the kids on soft adventure vacations?
There is this myth that when you have a young child, you can't take an adventure vacation - that is a myth. There are resorts that were built for families to take adventure vacations, for example a place like Keystone in Colorado. They have a childrens center, but an adult can go rafting in the morning, or go play tennis, or go hiking, or go llama trekking. All of these things are available, and you can do them in what I call 'play and stay' places. If you are on a river for 5 days, it's not going to be easy to take your two year old. But there is sometimes a group that will take your two year old for the day while you raft and meet up with you after. There are lots of different things going on out there for families, but you have to decide what it is that you want. The world is changing. Let me give you a perfect example - a biking vacation. When I started writing about family bike vacations, almost every single family bike vacation was a camping vacation. I remember interviewing the head of Backroads, which is a super company, and asking him why - and he would say that the Inns and the places that they generally stay at are not appropriate for families. He subsequently became a father, and now if you look at his brochure, you have many different options for families - not just camping. For some people you know camping under the stars means how many stars the hotel has. You have to take that all into consideration.
