Latest news with #AdventuresbyDisney
Business Insider
05-07-2025
- Business Insider
My teenagers loved our trip to Italy. Booking a guided group tour made it easy for me.
I took my kids on a guided group tour across Italy. Visiting Europe with my teens was magical, and I didn't want to come home. I'd recommend Italy to families looking to try traveling abroad. My husband and I visited Italy for the first time a few years ago on a Disney cruise, kid-free. Italy was so special, I returned home dreaming of returning with my teenagers. It took a few years, but this summer, we booked an Adventures by Disney trip — a highly organized form of group travel — and spent more than a week experiencing Rome, Tuscany, Florence, and Venice with our 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter. I love traveling with my family, and we've been on some pretty incredible trips. But with responsibilities back home, I'm always ready to get back to the real world. As we walked through Venice on our last day in Italy, gelato cones in hand, I said to my family, "I wish we could stay a little longer, suspended in time just like this." Preparing for our trip to Italy in advance made it go smoothly I'm not sure if it was the specific trip we booked or Italy as a whole that captivated my family, but everything about the country fit our vacation style. Before traveling, we spent a few months learning basic Italian and, since we'd received our itinerary in advance, we watched videos and read articles about things we'd do in Italy, from touring the Vatican Museum to seeing Michelangelo's David. Taking kids who felt familiar with Italian culture on a tour across the country made everything run smoothly. We did touristy things, but I let my kids do teenager things, too It was delightful to watch my teenagers experience the country for the first time. Little things felt incredibly rewarding, like watching them savor delicious pizza or learn to make fresh pasta by hand. Yes, my teens liked checking out important bits of Italian history and culture, but they also loved ordering different menu items from Italian McDonald's or finding Starbucks shops and trying new-to-them sips. When my husband made a comment about them only wanting to do things we had back home, I reminded him that it's their vacation, too, and the way to get kids to enjoy travel is to let them pick some activities based on what they like. There was something to do for everyone Although our group tour consisted of about 40 travelers we were exploring the country with, we loved that there were periods of free time built into every day. On our own, we took my film-loving son to a movie at a Roman theater and saw my daughter squeal with excitement over shopping for clothes at Italian stores. Italy felt like the perfect place to see sights and learn, but was also a wonderful spot to do things my kids were interested in, right down to the cat sanctuary we visited in Rome, located within the ruins of the spot where Julius Caesar was killed. A group travel-style trip is perfect for a family's first time in Europe My kids had been out of the US on vacations before, but mostly to places like all-inclusive resorts in spots like Turks and Caicos. I was nervous about taking them to Europe for the first time, and was glad I turned over the planning to a company like Adventures by Disney so I could enjoy the trip without worrying about logistics. Everything on our trip was handled by our guides, who traveled with us and helped get everyone in our group safely to the next activity. Tickets for a tour of Rome's Colosseum or a walking tour of Doge's Palace in Venice were all part of the trip cost, as were fun activities like a pizza-tasting party and dinner at a medieval villa, complete with Italian folk music performers. I wasn't alone in my appreciation for the itinerary-planning help: Every mom I chatted with on the trip said they'd booked it because all they had to do was show up and enjoy, rather than spending their entire vacation buying tickets, scheduling activities, and dealing with things that would inevitably go awry. Visiting a foreign country with kids can feel daunting, and doing so as part of a group travel experience with dedicated guides made all the difference. Our trip was so successful, my teens already want to go back to Europe My kids loved Italy so much that they're already asking when we can travel abroad next. Bitten by the European travel bug, they've asked about visiting countries like France and England. Italy was the perfect jumping-off point for my teenagers, and the friendly people there (who graciously spoke English whenever they realized we were Americans, and were very patient with us practicing our Duolingo-learned Italian) were so kind to my kids. In fact, while I'm thrilled they want to visit other countries, I'd take them back to Italy again to try to recapture the magical time we spent there.
Epoch Times
10-05-2025
- Epoch Times
A Unique Way to Honor Moms, Aunts, and Grandmothers
When Maria Haddad wanted to honor her grandmothers' cooking lessons, she didn't figure on being ahead of international travel trends. Fifteen years ago, Haddad, then just 23, and her sisters, decided to honor their memories—and those of other women in the family who had shared recipes—by starting a cooking school in what had been one of the grandmother's homes in a picturesque Amman, Jordan, neighborhood. Welcome to 'Cooking together breaks so many barriers,' Haddad explained after we had finished our lesson and eaten the delicious dishes we had learned to prepare. 'You are cooking together so at least you have one thing in common. …The idea has always been to create a platform to meet local women … so they can tell you about their lives and you can tell them about yours,' Haddad said, 'To celebrate women who have carried their culture through their dishes down through generations with every recipe telling a story of our land and heritage.' 'Everyone thinks it is normal for women to cook,' she continued. 'We want to show how much effort and creativity that requires. Arab moms focus on food as a way to show their love.' I'd say that's true in many cultures. And these days, growing numbers of travelers are seeking that entré to a new culture with cooking lessons and food tours, whether in a new city, a resort or even on cruise ships (there were nearly daily cooking demonstrations as our River cruises now have sailings that have a special focus on food, wine and beer, including an Adventures by Disney river cruise (You can Google food tours or cooking classes in the city you are visiting or try Haddad, now a mom of three, also noted that besides the women who teach, the school has provided opportunities for many local women to help support their families as they create homemade pantry products—everything from stock mix to spice mixes, bitter orange cordial, date molasses, and more. This is especially important right now as the Gaza war has decimated the important tourism industry here that employs so many people, though Jordan is entirely safe to visit, we found. While close to Gaza and other Middle East hot spots, there is no war here. Related Stories 5/5/2025 5/6/2025 Jordan is a 'quiet home surrounded by lively neighbors,' one local guide said. 'People don't realize how Jordan is so different from our neighbors,' he added. Our cooking instructors. Andy Yemma/Shutterstock We were about to start an While pounding dough into circles to make Arabic bread, we learned that the first loaf of bread was made 14,000 years ago in Jordan when people mixed wild wheat and barley with ground plant roots, added water and baked it. Bread here is often filled with different foods, including hummus, cheese, tomatoes, olive oil, or fava beans, with the bread serving as the fork and spoon. Jordanians share plates, we learned, communally dipping their bread into eggplant and beet dips and hummus, making the food symbolic of a connection and community. As my husband Andy chopped eggplant, tomatoes, and cucumber, stirred tahini and spices into dishes and pounded little rounds of dough into Arabic bread, I learned that one of our cooking teachers, Um Rween, immigrated from Iraq some 30 years ago when she married a Jordanian. Our other teacher, Um Muhamad, came from Egypt 25 years ago. (Here, women take their firstborn's name with 'um' in front of it which means 'mother of.' Andy cooking. Eileen Ogintz/TNS Haddad explained that Jordanian cuisine comes from the mix of cultures here. As those from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have all made their home here. Her cooking, she said, was influenced by her Lebanese grandmother, her Palestinian aunt and others. We learned to make Maghluba, a chicken and rice dish, and Mutabal, a roasted eggplant dip with tahini, yoghurt, and falafel, delectable fried balls of chickpeas with onions, garlic, parsley, and spices. The dessert was Qatayef, a crispy, sweet pancake concoction popular during Ramadan. I loved that later on in our Abercrombie & Kent tour, I was able to identify unfamiliar dishes on the hotel buffets and menus. Certainly you don't want to miss the great sites in Jordan, like the ancient city of Petra which is carved out of stone, or the Amman Citadel that dates back to the Bronze Age and towers over the city. 'Come for the experiences,' Haddad urges, 'But stay for the food.' Dear Readers: We would love to hear from you. What topics would you like to read about? Please send your feedback and tips to
