If you've read our story on the Panhandle, you might already know that we love the Northwest part of Florida. Now the WaterColor Inn is giving us one more reason to do so: its culinary packages.

The 4-day packages (available in March, May, and October) include hotel accommodations, activities, and meals. Activities are everything from taking a field trip to learn about beekeeping and tupelo honey to night flounder gigging. 

Depending on what kind of mom you are, this collection of family travel essays might inspire you to stay home and be happy you aren't out gallivanting the world with your kids...or it might remind you that even the most hellish of travel mishaps are actually what you'll end up talking about (with love) for the rest of your life.

In the South Congress area in Austin, we drove by this super cool cupcake trailer. It was surrounded with kids who all came after school...even though I didn't eat one, they looked amazing.

Posted by:
Matthew Hranek

When the "It's GOOP-GO" Newsletter came today we couldn't wait to link to it. It's sweet, smart, and features great places in Paris.

Wow, there are some good food bloggers in Cleveland. I just found this one, which even has a section that is called "kid approved", with some pictures of what the kids ate, and very honest and well written posts about the restaurants (and their kids' menus) they go to as a family. I really think a Cleveland story is in order.

Posted by: Yolanda Edwards

Jackie Cooperman / Travel Writer

Before my daughter Livia was born in 2007, I was based in Milan and later London, and often vacationed and reported stories in vaguely exotic, sometimes glamorous destinations. So the travel snob in me was dubious about our recent trip to Naples, Florida, but the sybarite mom in me stands converted to its rejuvenating charms.

We arrived in Naples in dire need of a break from a rough Manhattan winter. The morning of our departure, our toilet started leaking, nearly flooding our apartment. The day before we left, Livia came down with croup. Our pediatrician gave us the okay to travel with her, but I was worried. I called Paul, the concierge at the Naples Grande Resort, to inquire about nearby hospitals and pediatricians - just in case - and he reassured me that the hotel was quite close to excellent medical facilities. I requested a humidifier, and two hours later Paul called me with a question to warm any parent's heart: "cool mist or warm?" He was at the nearby CVS (open 24 hours, btw), picking us up a new humidifier for us.

The terrific car service we took to JFK, Legends Limousine charged us just $5 to provide a car seat, and the new Jet Blue terminal had a Fisher Price play area where Liv whiled away the pre-flight period. Things were looking cheerier.

We arrived in Fort Myers and drove 45 minutes to Naples. We'd booked a bungalow suite, located outside of the hotel's imposing tower, and it was nearly as large as our Manhattan apartment, with outdoor seating, a small fridge and a separate, large living room.

We loved that the hotel was baby friendly (the check-in desk gave me an envelope with a map of local pediatricians and their contact info when we arrived), with a good solid crib, high chair and the aforementioned humidifier in our room, but also decently stylish (I had a great massage at the hotel's Golden Door Spa and daily espresso from their Illy coffee bar) and sufficiently adult (the bar had a Veuve Clicquot happy hour).

I found this really lovely food blog about all things food in Cleveland. I never have had the chance to go there, but after reading about all the great restaurants, it makes me think it should go on the travel wish list. The blogger is also a new mom, so she now has the mom lens on when eating out. I first found her blog when she did a post about the kids cooking classes at Bar Cento--they make their own pizza with their parents and the chef, Jonathon Sawyer, a father of two, with all local and organic ingredients.

Posted by: Yolanda Edwards

Why does everybody else seem to get it so right? TSA, please have a look!
It keeps us safe, and keeps us from spending too much on water after
security checkpoint, and, it looks cool.

Photo from Monocle.com

Continental Airlines is offering flights to Europe starting at $110 each way, that means a round trip for less than $300. That's cheaper than it is for New Yorkers to fly to LA. And now with the Euro being back around $1.30, going to Europe actually seems reasonable again.

Fares are not just for the East Coast; cheap flights are also offered from Texas, California, and Ohio.

I just read about this amazing place to stay in Transylvania (for those that
are geographically challenged like I am, it's in Romania, and is a 3 hour
drive from the airport in Bucharest). Not that it is convenient in the
least, or that I have any plans to be in Romania any time soon...but check
out how cool these guesthouses are:

First of all, they are on the estate of Count Kalnoky, whose family has
owned it since the 13th century. The guest cottages are from the 1800s,
filled with Transylvanian antiques, wood stoves, local textiles, and wool
mattresses.

Food is prepared in the main guesthouse, with vegetables from the kitchen
garden (organic), and milk and meat comes from animals raised in the little
village the guesthouses are in, Miklosvar.

There are so many activities to do, from horse back riding to hiking to bat
watching...

Check out the website, and do look at the press section-- there are so many
articles from British papers that rave on about it.

Posted by: Yolanda Edwards