Travel Tips and Services

best vacation-planning website

This easy-to-navigate source features hotels and villa suggestions that seem like they're coming from your most travel-savvy friend. Every listing has information on children's amenities and policies. It even offers a free booking service.

best kid-centric travel-idea website

Clever activity ideas and thoughtful reading lists (including the likes of Paddington and Belinda) to prepare kids for their upcoming adventures.

best way to avoid uh-oh moments

If you hear, "Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom..." there's no need to panic anymore, since the devoted people behind this site provide a list of every public toilet from New York City to Tokyo, with hygiene reviews. Say bye-bye to the pee-pee dance once and for all.

best maps to use while pushing a stroller

These superslim book-lets are all laid out ingeniously—with foldout maps, organized by neighborhood and juxtaposed with only essential information, and everything easily negotiable with just one hand—making it a cinch to find a park, a pool, or an ice cream shop when you need it most.

best way to ensure a comfortable flight

With interior plans of every plane used by 40 major carriers, this site lets you know whether you'll get some extra reclining room in 26C—or if you'll be stuck next to the toilets in 43F—on your overnight to Europe.

best books to get kids in the spirit

Miroslav Sasek's 1950s and '60s collection of books goes beyond the dutiful checklist of tourist attractions and landmarks. With entries for Rome, Paris, Venice, London, New York, San Francisco, and beyond, the series gives kids a real sense of each city's character.

best geographically themed goodie bag

This airline prepares little travelers for their Scandinavian adventures with a Pippi Longstocking kids' travel kit, complete with a doll of the spunky heroine.

best green airline

It doesn't just care about you, it cares about your children (and their future) too. Continental has done more than any other carrier to go green, spending $16 billion over the past decade to create a more efficient fleet. And you still get a decent meal on board.

best way to bypass baggage check-in

It will have your bags picked up from your house and delivered to your destination, so you can show up at the airport with only a carry-on (a concept so alluring, you might not notice the steep price tag).

best plane-to-train stroller

Whoever designed this lightweight, collapsible-with-one-foot stroller deserves a medal. (The Volo also doubles as a luggage cart in a pinch.)

best-conceived airport store

These bookstores, in nine domestic airports, have a wide selection of kids' reading, as well as aisles wide enough for strollers and rolling suitcases.

best way to put the car-seat issue to rest

It operates in more than 600 cities across the country. Child seats are always available—so you can leave yours at home.

best domestic airport experience

With a local favorite for fish and chips (Ivar's), a wine bar (Vintage Washington), a place to pick up some smoked wild Chinook salmon to bring home (Made in Washington Store), and a 14,000-square-foot aviation-themed play area with soft-foam equipment, Central Terminal sets what we hope will become an industry standard.

best international airport experience

Spacious, airy Kinderland on MAC Level 3 offers a ball pit, a climbing tower, and soft giant Legos. Child care (free for the first 30 minutes; 10 euros an hour thereafter) is available for parents who'd like to peruse the rest of the airport—which has sushi, a number of beer gardens, smoothie bars, and shopping options.

best playground on wheels

The double-decker trains that zip between all the major cities in Switzerland don't contain mere play areas—they feature slides and space capsules. All this from a system that runs on time and offers views of the Alps that will blow little minds away.