Friday shout-out to some Travel Sites I Love

Blogging is awesome – but it can be hard and lonely work, without much remuneration or recognition (which is one of the reasons that I created the Family Travel Sites I Love section of my site). Today I felt like sharing the amazing things some the sites I’ve listed in the past have been up to; a kind of carnival of family travel fabulousness if you will.

Let’s start with The Vacation Gals team of Kara Williams, Jennifer Miner, and Beth Blair, who have had a banner week – not only did they win the Best Family Travel Blog at the Destinology Bloggy Awards, they were awarded a Gold Lowell Thomas Award for travel blogging from the Society for American Travel Writers, winning first place over such small operations as the National Geographic and Fodor’s blogs. I’m so proud that a family travel blog took this honor because it shows that writing about traveling with kids is being taken just as seriously as more traditional travel narratives. Way to go ladies!

I’ve also got my eye on Pitstops for Kids, which has been growing by leaps and bounds – if you haven’t visited recently you should because the number of family travel recommendations here – from resorts to outdoor adventures – gets bigger every day. Blogger Amy Whitley is also showing all of us how to wear about ten hats at once – not only is she running Pit Stops, but she writes a great column for Go Green Travel Green, reviews for Practical Travel Gear and can be seen in print in Outdoors Northwest magazine – all while traveling nonstop with her family. I love Amy’s writing, no matter where it appears, and I admire how hard she works to inspire and inform family travelers.

The Suitcases and Sippycups family has set out on their first great road adventure! They are planning 80 days on the road in an RV. As of the beginning of this week they’d covered nearly 1500 miles and had already seen six states. I’m looking forward to when they make it up this way (blogger Jessica Bowers and I already have a girls’ night planned in Philadelphia). In the meantime I can’t wait to see where she and her family go.

I hope you’ll check out all these sites and maybe even subscribe so you can follow their adventures. I know I feel privileged to call all the women who publish them friends and colleagues.

The final shout-out I’d like to give today is not specifically to a travel site, but to the Ten Days, Ten Lives Challenge fundraiser I’ve had the privilege of being involved in for the past nine days. Working with bloggers from The Mission List as well as Water.org, we’ve exceeded our goal of raising enough money to give 25 people water for life. But we’re not done yet – we’re seeing how many more people we can help! The Ten Day Challenge doesn’t end until tomorrow. Donating would be a great way to start off the weekend.

Happy Friday all!