Thanksgiving Break – Big Families Can Travel Too

Bora Bora, French Polynesia with two kids, four adults

Wow. We spent five days in The French Polynesia during spring break, March 2024. My husband, two sons, my in-laws and l flew from Chicago to Los Angeles to Tahiti to Bora Bora. While this post will be dedicated to Bora Bora and Tahiti, we also:

Took a day in Joshua Tree National Park during our layover in LA

Boarding “Air Moana” to our final destination

Waiting for our boat shuttle at the Bora Bora airport

We boarded our 11 pm plane to Tahiti after hiking all day at Joshua Tree National Park. We were tired from climbing boulders and ready for an overnight flight with pillows in hand. We landed at Tahiti airport at about 6 am the next day. We traded pjs for summer clothes and gladly hung out in their outdoor waiting area until boarding “Air Moana” (“No one goes beyond the reef!”). Once landing in Bora Bora (and taking SO many photos from the airport dock), we took a water shuttle to the shuttle area for the hotels, where they loaded our luggage and we arrived by car/wagon to our hotel for the four days in Bora Bora, which was Maitai Polynesia Bora Bora. We were greeted with beautiful flowers and just in time for an early lunch and drinks.

We had two free hotel.com nights to use, so OF COURSE, we had to book a cabana over the water. They were so expensive, so this was the only way we would ever do this. I am usually the cheap one on vacation, but even I can admit, this was so worth it with kids. We spent our whole time on that private deck. We used the dock all day for fun in the sun, but also used it at night for star viewing (INCREDIBLE). My son fell asleep on a beach chair each night that week while we listened to the waves and watched for shooting stars.

Pros of cabana: private access to the beautiful warm water from sun up to sun down
Little window in the floor to view sea life (although we didn’t see too much since ours was the furthest one out, away from the man-made coral gardens)
We often hosted everyone over for after lunch drinks without dragging stuff from rooms to the hotel beach after a grocery run
Star gazing at night and falling asleep on the beach chairs
Cons of cabana: water was deep, so I might have felt unsafe if the boys were younger and less strong of swimmers
Supporting destruction of shorelines for cabana builds (we saw a ton of these in construction when we were shuttled to the hotel) and realizing we, the consumers, are responsible for the demand

After spending all of our hours on the outside deck, we finally made plans to leave our beloved cabana. We did two amazing excursions; 1) a private boat tour that required a boat reservation from a third party (swimming with reef sharks and giant sting rays and tour of the island views), and 2) kayaking to the Coral Gardens from our hotel. First are pictures and videos of the private boat tour:

Private boat tour snorkeling. Video from my father-in-law’s camera 😀

While I loved the boat tour for the kids, I have to say I personally preferred the next day’s free kayaking because of the real sense of adventure (we tend to do these types of unguided activities… see Holbox post here: https://bigfamiliescantraveltoo.com/2023/04/02/holbox-mexico-in-5-days/). Considering the price (free), the coral gardens were the most amazing snorkeling I had ever seen! My mil/fil might have preferred the boat tour with the guided swimming with sharks and sting rays. We have snorkeled in the Caribbean, Mexico, and even the Indian ocean, but the Coral Gardens were something else entirely. I finally understood the pattern of forests: we have the trees above ground and the coral forests below sea. It was as if I was swimming through an underwater forest. Imagine being up so high and looking down on a large oak tree (or broccoli crown) and then looking into the distance to see endless tops of trees. Of course I did not take my phone with me when kayaking to the Coral Gardens, but I will include the route that we took on kayaks on the map below (blue star is our cabana, blue line to the yellow smiley face “Coral Gardens”). My two sons, husband and I ventured across the darker blue water to the Coral Gardens since my in-laws did not trust their kayaking skills. Word of warning: I brought sunscreen to re-apply for the kayak ride back (over 20 minutes) however I still got severely burnt on my legs (THANK GOODNESS we all wore sun shirts). My legs were blistered and so painful after it, but I gotta say, it was worth it. I would highly recommend covering up your legs for after snorkeling, bring a towel even if it gets wet in the kayak. I know better (snorkelers are prone to severe burns because you lose track of time in the water), but didn’t consider the kayak ride back and sun damage to my legs.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND kayaking to coral gardens if you stay close by

Kayaking to Coral Gardens, which you can see off in the distance in my husband’s photo

Our four days and three nights in Bora Bora were sadly at an end. But the next morning we boarded our 45-minute flight to Tahiti, where we had about a 24-hour layover. We arrived in the afternoon (12 pm) and went to our hotel for the night, Te Moana Tahiti Resort (https://www.temoanatahitiresort.pf/). My husband arranged for a driver to/from the hotel. This last day was about relaxing, so we spent the entire afternoon and evening at the hotel, swimming in the hotel pool until sunset and finishing with dinner at the hotel restaurant, Taapuna. Our nine-year old fell asleep at the dinner table, haha. The next morning we boarded our flight back to Chicago, which had a small layover in Phoenix. Pictures of our beautiful day at Te Moana hotel below:

The perfect end to our vacation!

Isla Mujeres island vacation for four days with two kids

All you can eat ceviche bar… do we even need to say more?

Snorkeling all day everyday at Mia Reef Resort

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Every year, we take a small five day trip before feasting with in-laws and traveling to visit family. It is the perfect combination of time off: sun, family, and food. This year, we stayed at the amazing Mia Reef Resort for four days Sunday, November 29 to Thursday, November 24. We were pleasantly surprised that Chicago O’Hare airport was not very crowded on our travel dates.

https://www.hotelmiareefislamujeres.com/?partner=8570utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=MyBusiness

In September, we snagged tickets to Cancun for $250. We had a layover in Miami on the way there. On the return trip, American Airlines gifted everyone with a surprise of removing the Philly layover and our return flight became a direct flight from Cancun to Chicago. First time that’s ever happened for us. It usually pays to book the flights with layovers (unless it’s a layover in NY or NJ b/c of price of ubers and hotels).

Additional expenses included:

– Miami hotel “Even” ($109 with free shuttle from/to airport)

– Cancun Airport Transportation from Cancun airport to the ferry (round trip $100). This was kind of pricey.

– UltraMar ferry rides to Isla Mujeres ($135 roundtrip for four people)

– Mera lounge passes in Cancun ($60 for four people due to benefit from American Express Platinum cc). These reservations were well worth it since it included unlimited food/drink, and Cancun airport is so expensive.

– We did not redeem any hotels.com rewards since they changed their ways of applying rewards unfortunately. We may need to find a new hotels booking website.

We also saved on transport walked from the ferry to Mia Reef Resort (15 minute walk through the cute northern downtown, an $8.50 cab ride). Mia Reef is pretty much its own island off of Playa del Norte.

Checking in with security and crossing the bridge that leads to the resort

We spent most days in the water snorkeling, swimming, and kayaking. The resort had complimentary snorkel gear, paddle boards, and kayaks, although we brought our own snorkel gear. We all loved the snorkeling at the Mia reef. We saw numerous schools of both big and little fish, sting rays, and so much beauty under the sea. We saw tourist groups come through to explore the snorkeling at Mia Reef while we were there. You could see some fish from above the water even:

One day after dinner, we ventured across the bridge and walked into the downtown area for souvenirs. It was cute.

We also explored “King’s Pool”, which was a natural cove at Mia Reef Resort on the eastern side of the island for snorkeling. The snorkeling here, and in addition to the beach snorkeling, was just amazing. We used swim shoes that we had packed.

Along with fish, urchins, and snails, the kids found a live conch shell in the King’s Pool

We also spent a good amount of time at the giant chess board:

We started in a villa room with double beds, but the front desk was more than accommodating by upgrading our room to the Ocean Villa, which included a king and a sofa bed, but most importantly– the outdoor bed. Plus, the ceviche bar brought us the lunch ceviche due to our close proximity. It was the most luxurious thing I have experienced.

My husband and I were so happy with the food choices including quality seafood cuisine for the adults and a nice variety for the kids. We don’t usually go back to the same place, but we may make an exception for Mia! It was everything we wanted in a vacation.

Holbox, Mexico in 5 days with one little

The best food at Villas HM Palapas del Mar

Fall break 2022 (November/Thanksgiving) marked the start of our annual relaxing beach vacation. We spent five days exploring the sand bars of Holbox, Mexico. We redeemed free nights through hotels.com for an all inclusive, chic hotel off of the beach called Villas HM Palapas del Mar.

O booked transport from Cancun to Holbox ferry ahead of time. We bought ferry tickets upon arrival.

After making it to the hotel in Holbox (and room with a private hot tub!) we spent each day about the same: breakfast, pool, explore sand bars/beaches/island and nightly private hot tub.

One afternoon we ventured out at low tide and walked the sand bars towards the bird sanctuary, however by the time we started heading home before supper, high tide started coming in. We definitely had an adventure! The three of us, with the backpack over Orlando’s head, and me helping our seven-year old in the deeper parts for him, made it back to the coast, where we considered how likely we would find salt-water crocodiles living in the mangrove forests. Thankfully, a few other groups were ahead of us, and we all made it back to the main part of the island. Orlando swore he stepped on something that tried to bite his swim shoe. He later told me that story once we were safely back at the resort…

We left Holbox via ferry and private car, where we stayed one night in Cancun before our flight. We had so much fun jumping waves. A different type of beach entirely from the quiet shallow shore of Holbox, but it was fun! Pictures below:

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our little island adventure together!

Seville, Spain in four days

It was 9 pm when our driver pulled into a small alleyway in the historic center of Seville. The kids were exhausted from the day of travel but peering out their windows- unusual for teenagers. A pleasant woman from Seville Luxury Rentals welcomed us and gave us a brief tour of the condo, a map of the old town and new town, and some recommendations for supper. Seville was like another world. We quickly descended the iron staircase with map in hand to enter the beautiful historic old town, and walked down a lively street to find a late night supper. Our kids were falling in love as they questioned why so many families and teens were out late at night. We ate at a small tapas place that welcomed us like we were family they were expecting. That night, we all fell in love with the culture, flavors, glass window panes, and historic city of Seville.

The kids eventually found sleep, which began a new sleep-wake cycle for our family (late nights, late mornings). We started our day at a simple breakfast place across from the Seville Cathedral. We planned to spend the day at the Cathedral and the following day, at the Plaza de Espana and Parque de Maria Luisa.

We did some shopping and found amazing deals on Spanish clothing brands. If you’re familiar with any Spanish brands, they were even more affordable from the Spanish stores. My favorite clothes are still my five-year old’s Spanish sweaters. Such good quality and so detailed. After much shopping, we steered towards Bartolomea restaurant for tapas. They were everything we had hoped for. Also- the Sangria in Spain is like no other.

The next day, we began with a simple breakfast, but discovered our youngest’s little cough had developed into a dysfunctional cough and subsequent wheeze. As he spewed his microbes to poor unsuspecting breakfast diners, we altered our plans for the day to include a stop at the hospital for a quick check-in. Many hours later, we shuffled grumpy teenagers to the pharmacy to collect the doctor’s prescribed medicine to treat our youngest’s wheezing and constant cough. Looking back, we do wonder if Henry had contracted the Coronavirus, as he had fever, wheezing, and flu-like symptoms. We ended the long day the best way we knew how; renting scooters that our teenagers could whiz around Plaza Espana and Parque de Maria Luisa.

We were able to turn the day around and headed back to the Seville Cathedral neighborhood. We had made reservations a month ahead at Milagritos. It was for tapas and a Flamenco performance. It. Was. Amazing.

It was easily the coolest experience for me. We walked back to our hotel and prepared ourselves to say farewell to the amazing experience that is Seville.

Happiness is Seville.

London, England in three days

Suspended whale skeleton in the Natural History Museum

I had a lovely chat with a Parisian woman, who happened to be a speech-language pathologist too, before we boarded the underground train to London. We spoke about our two countries politicians and my youngest’s artwork. I love meeting people during our travels. We parted ways and followed the many signs and guards pointing us in the direction of our train. We arrived at King’s Cross Station in London to a rainy afternoon and the surprise that our oldest had left his luggage back in France. He submitted a missing item form on their website and we hoped for the best. Unfortunately, we never saw that backpack again.

We made our way to the condo that we rented south of the River Thames for the entirety of our stay. The rain let up and we walked to get supper near Buckingham Palace. I made the mistake of taking my four children to a traditional Pub, thinking it would be a cool experience and better than the chain-looking restaurants we were passing. There were many older gentlemen smoking cigars and no other children around. The polite host gave us a quizzical look and promptly seated us in the back room. The food was delicious, but still my teens were relentless.

We walked to Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey that night. Big Ben was unfortunately closed for repairs. We spotted old telephone booths and picked up a sweet treat for the morning.

Next morning, we walked to the most amazing free museum I have ever visited: The Natural History Museum. Our dear Chicago has incredible museums, but for our family, it usually costs $200 to enter. My husband wasn’t too jazzed about going to a museum, but it was rainy and he conceded. No regrets!

We walked the rest of the day through Kensington Gardens from the museum and ended up in Piccadilly Square, where we bought a few souvenirs at a Christmas market and ate a giant meal. We walked back home and slept very well. Our place at Chelsea Bridge apartments ended up being in close walking distance to the sights in London. The next morning we left for Seville, Spain.

Overall, the kids enjoyed seeing the sights in London, but the weather was very rainy most days. This was a fun trip for teenagers. I can’t recommend the Natural History Museum enough, especially for a rainy day.

Europe, London

Three days in Paris, France

It’s Thanksgiving break 2019, and my husband, three teenagers, preschooler, and I took our first family trip to Europe. We flew from Chicago to Paris, boarded the underground train from Paris to London, and flew from London to Seville, Spain. This post will be dedicated to our first leg of the trip: Paris.

We loved Paris. During our three days in the city, we walked and photographed all the major landmarks in the city (Notre Dame, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, Seine River), which were all close to our hotel, Grand Hotel St. Michael, in Place St-Michael. I used various walking tours of Paris from Pinterest to walk efficiently to the best spots in the various arrondissements.

My favorite parts of the city were the playgrounds where my four-year old could play and the older kids snacked on decadent pastries and espresso purchased from a nearby cafe. See pictures below!

Once we were done walking through Luxembourg Garden, we toured the Eiffel Tower. Henry and I played in a park near the tower while the older kids and dad tried to find a bathroom. Hint: searching “public bathrooms” on Google Maps saves a lot of time! We watched the night show of the Eiffel Tower before walking back to the hotel for the night. The kids were exhausted and slept so well needless to say!

The next day we enjoyed brunch and more sight-seeing. We missed the Paris Catacombs, however, which were something the older kids really had their heart set on. My regret is that we didn’t buy tickets in advance. That night, the kids were relieved when we took an Uber to the Christmas Market outside of the city. The kids tried (and enjoyed!) escargots before we inhaled a box of beautiful macaroons. We visited Santa and bought a few souvenirs before leaving the festivities to return home before our early morning train ride to London.

All the macaron flavors you could imagine! Lessons learned in Paris:

Buy a durable, compactable, travel stroller before the trip like your husband suggests (and not in a Paris mall on the second day of the trip because your toddler refused to walk and your arms were burning from carrying a 50-pound child across the city!)
Eat early in Paris on weekday nights because places suitable for kids closed unexpectedly early (and our teens prime hunger time seems to be after 9 pm)
Enjoy the afternoon tea time that many hotels observe, where they set out pastries and coffee for their guests
Purchase Catacomb tickets prior to your trip
Double check that your oldest son has his luggage in the Paris train station when it’s time to board the 6 am train to London!