Vacations & Weekend Trips

20 Random Tips for Visiting Walt Disney World

By Rachel Hoeing If you are traveling to Walt Disney World with your family, I’ve got 20 tips to share with you today! My sister, daughter, and I took a magical vacation to Disney at the beginning of December. I have always loved Disney World, but something...

Vacation Idea: Busch Gardens Tampa

By Katie Moosbrugger What do you get when you combine a fantastic zoo with fabulous rides and roller coasters? You get Busch Gardens, of course! Our family visited this amusement park in Tampa, FL, and it made for a memorable vacation that’s worth sharing. Obviously a...

Visiting Disney: In Defense of “Off-Site”

By TMoM Team Member Sarah Blackwell The first question anyone asks when they hear you are heading to Walt Disney World is, “Are you staying on or off property?”  When I started researching a trip for my husband and two children last fall, this question caused me quite...

Vacation Idea: Family Trip to Williamsburg, VA

By Guest Blogger Kelly Gunzenhauser You may ask, why write about a trip to Williamsburg in the wintertime? My boys are ages 9 and 12, and it is getting to that point we all reach, especially with boys, where toys are starting to fall by the wayside. I don’t like to...

Hooray for Dollywood

By Rachel Hoeing When looking for fun family excursions, I came across the idea of visiting Dollywood. My children (ages 13 and 11) and I met up with another friend of mine and her kids (ages 13, 11 and 6) for a weekend getaway. We stayed in Pigeon Forge and enjoyed...

Family Trip Idea: ACE Adventure Center

By Guest Blogger Jen Corbin Are you looking to do something different with the family this summer? Or are you already thinking about a fall getaway before the temperatures drop? Well, I have a place for you in my home state of West Virginia.  Yes, I said a weekend...

Road Trip Idea: Pittsburgh!

By Guest Blogger Kelly Gunzenhauser I love a good road trip. Road trips for me mean getting out of the house and stopping the fighting and the begging for screen time. Fortunately, we get to visit our cousins in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh, PA every August....

Weekend or Day Trip Idea: Roanoke, VA

By Guest Blogger Jeana McLean About a 2 hour trip from most parts of the triad, we discovered this fun little gem when we had a long weekend but didn’t want to drive too far. We didn’t do much research in advance, so were pleasantly surprised by all the fun things to...

Weekend or Day Trip Idea: Tweetsie Railroad

By Guest Blogger Suzy Fielders Tweetsie Railroad is the perfect family location for a day trip or as an addition to a vacation in Boone or Blowing Rock. There is plenty to do there! We recently went up and visited during Fourth of July weekend. They really do have one...

Family Vacations – From Day Zips to Week Trips: Tennessee

 By Guest Blogger Dennette Bailey Just a few weeks ago my family and I visited the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge areas of Tennessee. If you read my last blog you know I plan these trips with great detail and so our theme this trip was sing along. Only, besides my...

Disney: The Most Exhausting Place on Earth

By Guest Blogger Anna Hargett, author of This Perfect Mess Today’s blog is not only informative, but absolutely hilarious! We hope you enjoy Anna’s tale of her family’s trip to Disney World. Be sure to check out our Disney category here for more tips...

Foodie Road Trip: Kinston, NC

By Kelly Hines “You’ll never guess where I’m going to celebrate my 20th anniversary!,” I said over and over to friends. They’d guess a cruise, or New York, or even Asheville, and then look confused and dejected when I shouted, “Kinston!” Kinston? North Carolina?...

Vacation Idea: The Big Apple

By Guest Bloger Julee Nunley Today’s blog is a continuation from yesterday’s blog. Note that day one was spent in DC, days two and three in NYC and days four and five in DC again. New York City On Sunday morning (day two) we woke up early from our hotel in...

Vacation Idea: The Nation’s Capitol

By Guest Blogger Julee Nunley My husband and I been discussing a family trip to Washington DC for a while, but our boys’ growing interest in New York led us to question whether we should go there instead. As we were debating which trip would be better, my husband had...

Great Getaways For Girlfriends

By Katie Moosbrugger Girlfriend getaways: It’s a guilty pleasure we all should indulge in and not feel guilty about. Even if you’re only able steal one night away a year, you should try everything in your might to make it happen! Without a doubt, I think a mini vaca...

Family Vacations – From Day Zips to Week Trips

By Dennette Bailey “Freedom, freedom!” Those are the words my 8-year old daughter screamed in jubilation as we rode the Soarin’ Ride at Disney’s Epcot theme park. It was her first time on the ride and my second. If you haven’t experienced the awesomeness of this ride...

Are We Having Fun Yet?

By TMoM Team Member Allison Tobey On average, two million people fly per day, so I am sure every one of these two million passengers has their own story to tell. I want to share one of my flying experiences, because at the very moment it was happening, I felt l was...

Weekend Trip Idea: Cabin Camping

By Guest Blogger April Caudle Want to take your family camping but aren’t sure where to go or what to bring? You like the idea of “getting away” to camp but aren’t excited about pitching a tent and sleeping on the ground?  How about a fun and...

Family Vacation Idea: Universal Studios

By Katie Moosbrugger (with help from TMoM reader Amie Blanks) By now you know we’ve featured several posts about visiting Disney World (we have an entire category dedicated to Disney HERE), but before now we haven’t covered other parks in Orlando. Quite simply, no...

The Not-So-Awesome or Relaxing Summer Vacation

By Guest Blogger Thea DeLoreto, author of the blog The Lint Trap  Ahhhh, vacation. The most anticipated week of the year. We go with family. We rent beautiful houses that we could never afford to own and swim in pools that we could never find time to clean. We sleep...

New Giveaway, Summer Film Fests, and Disney Tips!

By TMoM Team Member Katie Moosbrugger Exciting news to share in today’s Sunday Spotlight! Today we feature… ~ Enter for Your Chance to Win a $50 Gift Card to Swim Gear! ~ Find Out Who Won the Last Giveaway from Noble Academy ~ Summer Film Fests at Carolina...

Travel Apps for Families on the Go!

By Katie Moosbrugger I’m about to embark on my fourth eight-hour-door-to-door–no-hubby-support car trip with the kids this summer, and am already thinking about ways to make my life easier. Honestly, the trip is not difficult, and I am “that mom” who lets her...

Summer Day or Weekend Trip: Wilmington, NC

By Guest Blogger Kristen Bagwell Officially, Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County. Unofficially, it’s one of the coolest day trip spots in NC. It’s also the home of UNC-Wilmington (obviously), so if you have older kids,...

Summertime Day Trips

By TMoM Team Member Rachel Hoeing In case you are new to TMoM, you may not realize that we have an entire category on our website dedicated to Day Trips. These are destinations that are less than a few hours drive from most Triad areas. Our goal is to give you a great...

Leave it to Disney

By Rachel Hoeing Leave it to Disney to come up with one of the most brilliant ideas I have encountered in a long time. My family enjoyed a fabulous family vacation in October and were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to “test out” the Disney...

Are We There Yet? Surviving Summer Travel

By Dr. Aimee Lischke of Total Family Care of Winston-Salem Summertime is often considered a time for slowing down. School’s out, there are fewer extracurricular activities and generally the pace is relaxed. However, it is also a time for travel, whether to the beach,...

A Family Vacation That’s Really a Vacation

By Suzy Fielders I was lucky enough to take my 6 year old daughter on a Disney Cruise on the Fantasy boat this Easter during her spring break. I can say without a doubt the Disney Cruise is the most amazing vacation experience – better than other cruise lines and even...

Weekend Trip Idea: Asheville, NC

By Rachel Hoeing When was the last time you visited Asheville, NC? In the past 10 years, Asheville has been named the Happiest City in America (Self Magazine), Best Mountain Destination (Southern Living), and Best Southern Town (Outside Magazine). It was also noted...

Family Vacation Idea: Disneyland & Cars Land

By Melissa Kinsley Ever considered Disneyland before for a family vacation but nixed it because it was too far? Never considered Disneyland before? The new Cars Land in Disneyland’s California Adventure Park that opened this past June may just be the driving reason to...

The Mountains or the Beach?

Let’s daydream a little. If you had the opportunity to own a vacation home, where would you choose? Would you hightail it to a mountain chalet or lay low at a beach bungalow? If you asked me this question last spring I would have quickly answered, “The...