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Vacation Rentals with Kids in BC, WA and OR
Imagine creating a gourmet spread in your temporary house: warm Seattle-baked bread, locally-crafted cheese, and tiny strawberries from Seattle’s Pike Place Market. After lunch, your toddler naps in the house’s second bedroom while you catch up on your reading. She wakes and you head to the local playground. There, your family exchanges a hello with newfound friends. It’s like a little slice of Northwest life. Or perhaps you’d rather stay on the San Juan Islands, where water laps the shore outside your door. Then again, how about a condo in Portland’s Pearl district? If only to be closer to the  neighborhood pub – which welcomes children, of course. Vacation rentals…
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Tips and Hints: Finding a family-friendly hotel
Kid friendly hotels – whether in Portland (Oregon) or Portland (Maine) — are blessedly similar. Sure, the landscape changes, but a great hotel offers both respite and recreation to vacationing families. Here are questions we ask before we go, we or read over hotel websites to find the answers. Any of these points are equally valid if you’re looking for family friendly New York City hotels or kid friendly Las Vegas accommodations. And of course, you’ll want to take into account customer reviews or guidebook recommendations (I recommend dozens of kid-friendly Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and Portland hotels in my book Northwest Kid Trips). However, it’s rare to find a hotel…
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How to Score a Four-Star Priceline Deal
I love using Priceline to go on our frequent trips. Using Priceline, I think I’ve stayed in almost every four-star hotel in Vancouver, BC and Portland, Oregon. But I rarely pay over $80 per night for these rooms, while other hotel visitors are spending over $175! I’ve stayed in Vancouver for $65 per night (winter), Portland for $50 (winter) and  Seattle for $75 (summer!). This approach works best for staying in four-star hotels (and sometimes three) downtown, and in big cities: Seattle, Vancouver BC and Portland. For Whistler, use Suite Secrets (no rebid, but good deals). It is difficult – if not impossible – to use Priceline in Victoria, BC.…
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Packing Checklist for NW and BC Vacations
Our weather is unpredictable but our climate is mild. We dress in layers, and prep for rain and sun. The Cascadia uniform: T-shirt, hoodie, rain-proof jacket, jeans, water-repellent shoes. The Pacific Northwest dress code is casual and natural. We wear a lot of dark and vibrant colors. White, not so much. In the cities, women don’t typically wear much make up. We wear jeans to fine restaurants and yoga pants pretty much everywhere else (I’ve shown up to pick up my kids from school in my pajamas, and no one even noticed — or maybe they were just too Seattle-nice to say anything to my face). If you look in…
