Booking Resources and Vacation Planning tools
I love planning our family vacations but I know how overwhelming it can be.
Learning Escapes is entirely devoted to making traveling with kids fun, easy and fulfilling: use this page as a starting point to navigate our travel guides and + use the links below to book your vacation via our favorite tour providers.
Disclaimer:this post contains affiliate links and if you make a purchase through them, we might make a small commission. These are all resources we regularly use ourselves and trust for our own travels.
Favorite family travel resources: accommodation
For accommodation, we rely on several booking systems:
Booking.com
One of my favourite travel sites ever, it offers a wide selection of hotels and apartments in a huge array of destinations, catering for all budgets.
They have a super handy system that allows you to cancel most rooms up until few days before travelling, making it perfect for people travelling with kids, when flexibility is a must!
Click here to check out their homepage
Home exchange websites
I am an avid home swapper and my providers of choice are Homelink.com and PeopleLikeUs. I have written extensively about them and they are the reason why we can take summer holidays in far flung places without breaking the bank.
Click here for my full overview of the system.
Favourite Travel Resources: tour providers and booking sites
LivTours
LivTours is my favourite tour provider bar none, both for kids’s tours and standard tours. They are the first provider I check and book with, in all destinations they serve. I know they are in Italy, France, UK, Spain and they regularly add destinations, I highly recommend you check all they offer: they are a high end provider with top notch guides and customer service and you can book direct with them, no third parties involved.
Click her to check their website
Get Your Guide
For day tours, tickets and day trips our favourite provider is Get Your Guide. They are a one stop shop for tours and showcase offers from different providers: you can see at a glance the tours available in your preferred destination and they offer a handy booking system so you can secure the one you want and get confirmation straight to your phone. Most have very good cancellation options and ‘skip the line’ tickets are often available: an incredible time saver! I find them excellent especially for tours and activities in Europe.
Click here to check their homepage
Viator
Another excellent tour booking site is Viator. You can easily compare and book tours available in your location of choice and get a booking voucher straight on your phone. Compared with the one above, I find they have a better selection for activities in North America.
Click here to check their homepage
EatWith
For food tours and food experiences I like EatWith. It’s an aggregator and it gathers a lot of independent providers, so you find here many local experiences you may not otherwise came across.
Train and Car Travel
I recommend booking train tickets directly from the train provider. However, when traveling across border where multiple rail system may be in place, I do find handy to book via The Trainline App, which gathers all train companies.
To rent a car, I like to book via DiscoverCars as they allows to select a car by size / card type / number of seats/ availability of car seats for kids and more. They always tell you what company you are booking with, which I like.
Favourite Family Travel Gear
Our go-to place for travel gear is Amazon
These are our favorite brands for all things travel and kids here
Family Travel Resources: websites we trust
Additional family travel resources can be found on:
- Mama Loves Italy for planning the perfect trip to Italy with kids
- Mama Loves Rome is the ultimare guide to Rome with kids
- Mama Loves Ireland has all you need for your family vacation in Ireland
- CreteInsider is why go-to website for all things Crete, written by a local mum who knows absolutely everything about the island and how to make the most of it
- Strictly Sardinia is my go-to website for Sardinia, an often overlooked destination in Italy
- DubaiTravelPlanner has all you need to know to plan a stay or even a relocation to the UAE
- Global Munchkins is an excellent resource for Disney travel, resort and large family travel
- Globetotting is a great resource for adventurous families and off the beaten path travel
- Wiki Ezvid Travel Resources for families, which features excellent family travel sites with tips and deals
Family vacation guides by destination / type of trip
