If there’s one thing that family travel has taught me, it’s that you never know what’s going to happen from year to year.
Ever since I started recording my family’s travel vita with our 2015 year in travel, each year has looked increasingly and increasingly epic. This wasn’t by design. It was simply that our family’s want for travel was seemingly insatiable.
This year, our lust for travel was still strong. But there was a major transpiration in our lives that we had only got a taste of in 2021 and 2022. The boys are older now. 2023 was the year that they were both in their double digits. Cohen turned 12 in March, and Dylan turned 10 in September. And with age comes the growth of their own passions.
This year, both boys have unfurled their growth in a sport they’ve come to love, and anything that you love deserves the time and energy to alimony that passion alive. As parents, we want our kids to follow those dreams and wilt the weightier they can be at what they love.
Unfortunately, chasing any passion comes at a cost. And for us, the biggest rencontre is time.
So, in 2023, we unfurled to retread how we chased our love for travel. Christina and I had to ventilator some of our travel goals independently, including trips to Kazakhstan, Japan, and Peru. Between us, we still managed to visit eleven countries and create some wondrous travel memories by packing our breaks full of vita in European countries such as Greece, Belgium, Netherlands, and Turkey.
New York City, USA
The Brooklyn Bridge
Typical for me, my travel year got started in New York City. Every year, I shepherd a massive priming tabbed the International Media Marketplace (IMM). This priming is where travel professionals from wideness the world get together to connect and discover potential projects for the coming years.
This time, the theme of the priming was Indigenous travel, something that I’m incredibly passionate about. I got to see some good friends in the Canadian Indigenous travel polity talk to an ruminative crowd.
While I was there, I got to connect with some wondrous friends as well as take some time to explore the municipality on my own, finding some veritably incredible photo stops virtually town.
Berlin, Germany
Kevin Wagar, Juliana Broste, Jenn Weatherhead, and Mike and Ann Howard at ITB Berlin
Continuing on my professional travels, I made my very first trip to Germany. Specifically, the municipality of Berlin to shepherd the world’s largest travel conference, International Travel Berlin (ITB). This was my first time peekaboo ITB, and to be honest, it was worthier and increasingly upturned than I liked at a conference.
But the priming did requite me a endangerment to meet some wondrous new people, such as Juliana Brost from Traveling Jules, as well as connect with good friends, including Mike and Ann from Honeytrek and Travel personality Jenn Weatherhead.
It moreover unliable me to explore an incredible municipality and see things like sections of the Berlin Wall, fascinating museums, and historic locations from WWI and WWII. It was veritably humbling walking among the Holocaust memorials and stopping to see the famous Checkpoint Charlie, one of the only ways in and out of East Berlin surpassing the wall fell.
Berlin is an wondrous city, and I’ll be putting out a guide to it later this year.
London, England
Watching Wicked in London, England
After two rented conferences and traveling alone, it was heady to get together with Christina and the boys for some family travel. And this would be flipside one of our epic travel journeys.
Christina had been traveling in Eastern Europe for work, and I was in Germany. The boys flew to London, England, with Christina’s parents. We all met up in the historic municipality for some wondrous experiences that included a Willy Wonka tea time at One Aldwych and a tour of the Warner Brothers Harry Potter set.
These were combined with some exploring of the municipality core, where we walked wideness the Tower Bridge and checked out some of the city’s wondrous historic sites.
Greece
Dylan takes a selfie at the ruins of Mycenae in Greece
As a group, we made our way from London to Athens, Greece, to start ten days of exploring one of the most wondrous and trappy countries in the world.
Over the next week and a half, we visited sites from one of the boy’s favorite fantasy series, Percy Jackson. Withal the way, we stopped in Mycenae, Nafplio, Epidareus, and Corinth. We then made our way to Mystras and the trappy walled municipality of Monevasia.
As we crush through the mountains, we stopped in the historic municipality of Delphi and then in Olympia, where the first Olympic Games were held. Our next stop was two nights in the jaw-droppingly gorgeous town of Meteora surpassing stopping at the hill of Kolonos, where Leonidas and his 300 Spartans made their final stand versus the Persian empire.
Lafayette, Louisiana
Throwing beads to the prod at the Mardi Gras parade in Lafayette, Louisiana
Shortly without my family returned from Greece, I was invited to visit the municipality of Lafayette, Louisiana, during their yearly Mardi Gras celebrations. This was an eye-opening trip for me, as I had only overly been to Louisiana once before, on a visit to New Orleans with Christina.
Lafayette is nothing like New Orleans. And the Acadian roots here have influenced the region’s Creole heritage in a far deeper way.
Being in the region at Mardi Gras unliable me to witness the local surcharge personally, including their popular Mardi Gras parade and the wild house parties. At these raucous events, Acadians travel from house to house in full costume to ventilator yellow and eat copious amounts of food.
Toronto, Ontario
Cirque du Soleil Kooza in Toronto, Ontario
To gloat getting when together as a family, Christina and I took the boys into Toronto to wits the latest Cirque du Soleil extravaganza, Kooza. We started taking the boys to the Cirque du Soleil shows a few years back, and they’ve unchangingly been veritably entranced by them.
This show was just as fun and energetic as past ones. There were new and heady displays of acrobatics mixed with an heady and interactive tint that really kept the whole prod engaged. Dylan particularly loved the part when I had popcorn dumped all over me!
Maine
Rock climbing in Maine with Equinox Expeditions
As the spring turned into summer, I jumped into priming season again, and one of my first stops was with the reputable Venture Travel Trade Association in the state of Maine. I joined some old friends, such as Lora Pope from Explore with Lora and Davey Sutton.
The ATTA priming is unchangingly a blast. Among the wondrous meetings I had the endangerment to do some fishing, waddle climbing, hiking, and cycling virtually cities, including Camden, Rockport, and Portland.
Rideau River Provincial Park
I returned from Maine and had a short two-day unravel with the family surpassing I made the momentum up near the Canadian Capital of Ottawa to trammels out a new-to-me Ontario Provincial Park, Rideau River. The project was in partnership with Ontario Parks, one of my favorite local organizations.
They had some wondrous new roofed accommodations that I had the pleasure of experiencing. The park is gorgeous, with unconfined camping, hiking, and cycling trails, all located right withal the trappy Rideau River.
Kazakhstan
One of the coolest things that has arisen from me turning my unobtrusive little family travel blog into a full-fledged topnotch family travel website is stuff invited to some heady new destinations that have evaded my travel radar.
Earlier in the year, the Society of American Travel Writers had invited me lanugo to Lafayette, Louisiana, to take part in the city’s Mardi Gras Celebrations. But that was nothing compared to the next invitation that I got from their Digital Publishers Council.
In conjunction with the country’s tourism department and USAID, I was invited to visit Kazakhstan, a country that had just recently opened its doors to tourism. On top of getting to visit an incredible new country, I’d have the endangerment to spend that time with some good friends, such as my merchantry partner Chris Mitchell, with whom I co-founded the websites Ultimate Ontario and We Explore Canada. Moreover on the trip were Lina and David from the Divergent Travelers, Marlyn from Urban Bliss Life, Keryn Means from Twist Travel Magazine, and Lindsay Niemenen, a fellow family travel writer from Carpe Diem Our Way.
I’ll shoehorn that I knew nothing well-nigh the country surpassing visiting, but it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the country and its people. The Kazakhs were some of the friendliest and most wonderful human beings that I’ve overly had the endangerment to meet.
Exploring their fascinating nomadic history, withal with the country’s ridiculously gorgeous natural treasures near the city of Almaty, was eye-opening. I learned that Kazakhstan will be hosting the incredible World Nomad Games in 2024, and I’m urgently trying to see if I can get to the country to visit when they do.
Sauble Beach, Ontario
Celebrating with family at Sauble Beach, Ontario
Kazakhstan was eye-opening. But the second I got home, I was yellow-eyed to spend some time with Christina and the boys again. And there was no largest way to do this than at our yearly escape with Christina’s family up in Sauble Beach, Ontario.
Each summer, virtually Father’s Day, we make the journey up to the shores of Lake Huron for a long weekend of sand, sun, and family bonding. The boys get to spend time with their cousins, and all the parents get to gloat together with campfires and wondrous food.
Every year, our time in Sauble Waterfront is spent exploring the picturesque town, the world’s second-longest freshwater beach, and the new restaurants that seem to be constantly popping up in the waterfront town.
North Bay, Ontario
Riding horses with Chris Mitchell, Kathryn Dickson, and Davindra Ramnaran at Von Doelers Rance in North Bay, Ontario
Just three days without returning from Kazakhstan, I was on the road then to flipside conference. This time, it was just a few hours north of home in the municipality of Sudbury, Ontario. My family had just visited the municipality the year surpassing and had an wondrous time.
But surpassing stopping in Sudbury, I got the opportunity to trammels out its sister city, North Bay.
North Bay is a municipality that I’ve never had the endangerment to stop in, plane though I’ve made the Sudbury to Thunder Bay momentum myriad times. An wondrous bonus was that I was going to be visiting North Bay with some of my weightier friends, including Chris Mitchell and Kathryn Dickson from Kathryn Anywhere. Moreover withal for the ride was my good buddy Davindra from Goat Roti Chronicles and Steve Lyons, a fellow travel writer whom I had met in Maine a couple of months earlier.
North Bay turned out to be a pretty incredible city. We ripped some of Ontario’s weightier mountain wanderlust trails, went kayaking, took hikes withal trappy rivers with gorgeous waterfalls, and enjoyed some wondrous horseback riding vita at the wonderful Von Doelers Ranch.
North Bay was increasingly than just the outdoors, though. We enjoyed some wondrous breweries and the city’s new “Cookie Crawl,” where stores throughout downtown have cookies for sale. Those who hit all the cookie stops get an wondrous package from North Bay Tourism.
Sudbury
Kevin Wagar and Chris Mitchell win Weightier Travel Blog for We Explore Canada at the Travel Media Association of Canada awards in Sudbury, Ontario.
Straight from North Bay, I made the short momentum to Sudbury for the yearly Travel Media Association of Canada conference. This is one of my favorite conferences of the year.
Each year, friends and colleagues from wideness Canada and the United States gather together for a week of networking and learning in tomfool locations. Sudbury is a town that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but for me, it’s the gateway to trappy Northern Ontario, and I love the city.
Chris and I picked up the “Best Travel Website” ribbon for We Explore Canada, which was a huge thrill. But I was very excited for a endangerment to revisit Kivi Park and other trappy areas virtually town.
Thunder Bay
Celebrating our hike to the Top of the Giant with Kathryn Dickson and her family and Chris Mitchell.
With hockey season finished and the boys confirming their places on teams for the pursuit season, it was time to get when into family travel mode.
Northern Ontario is one of my favorite places in Canada. The landscape and nature up north are unforgettable. So when the family and I had a endangerment to throne straight from the end of school up north to visit the municipality of Thunder Bay at the top of Lake Superior, I didn’t bat an eyelash.
As a bonus, my friends Kathryn, Chris, and Chris Rudder, who runs Road Trip Ontario, and their loved ones were going to join us. Kat, Chris, and Chris all co-founded a local blogger group with me when in 2018 tabbed the Toronto Blogger Collective, and we’ve been unconfined friends overly since.
While we were there, we had the endangerment to trammels out some incredible places, including Pigeon River Provincial Park, which sits on the verge with Minnesota, and the wondrous Fort Williams National Historic Site.
One of the weightier parts of our visit was spending Canada Day at the For William First Nation Pow Wow. This blazing polity just outside of the municipality had dancing, music, unconfined food, and loads of Indigenous-run shops to explore.
The biggest reason that I took on this project, though, was so that my family could take on the famous “Top of the Giant” hike in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.
I’ve been up to Thunder Bay myriad times, and on every visit, this epic 21-km up-and-down hike eludes me. Not only did the kids and I tackle this hike with world-class views over Lake Superior, but Chris Mitchell and Kat, withal with her two kids, did as well.
What an accomplishment!
Belgium
Cycling in Belgium through the town of Bruges
With school and work out of the way, the summer was ours for adventure. To make up for all of the time that we didn’t spend traveling as a family during the winter, we planned an epic six-week tour through Europe.
Christina, however, had some last-minute work to do in the UK, so when we arrived in Amsterdam to start our trip, she made her way over to Unconfined Britain while the boys and I hopped on a train unseat for Antwerp, Belgium.
We spent five days kicking virtually Antwerp, Brussels, and Bruges, checking out music festivals, cycling the country’s renowned trails, and exploring some of the most trappy cities in Europe surpassing making our way when to Amsterdam, where Christina had a few increasingly days of work to complete.
Netherlands
Dylan gazes at the Battle of Waterloo painting at the Rijksmuseum
While Christina was nonflexible at work at a priming in Amsterdam, the boys and I spent a few days wandering virtually the museums and alleys of this notorious city. Despite unwittingly walking into the “Red Light” district at one point (which opened up some fascinating questions well-nigh the city’s focus as a “tourist town”), we had a blast.
Along with Amsterdam, we moreover got to take in some WWII history in Muiden and explore the historic windmills and churches of Haarlem. On our final day in Amsterdam, we reconnected with Christina for some travel fun surpassing starting the focus of our trip: adventures in the country of Turkiye.
Warsaw, Poland
A short but powerful visit to Warsaw, Poland
On our transit through Istanbul, we had the opportunity to make a quick six-hour stopover in the municipality of Warsaw, Poland. That was something that we simply couldn’t pass up.
Rather than spending that time spooky at the airport, we filled our visit with pierogies, World War II history, and trappy public art displays in the city’s historic center.
Turkiye
Christina watches the sky fill with hot air balloons in Cappadocia, Turkiye.
Our visit to Turkiye would take up the vast majority of our summer vacation, and we were unswayable to make the most of it. Without exploring the wonders of Istanbul, including a Bosphorus Strait trip and visits to the famed Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, we made our way south to the town of Selcuk, home to the iconic ruins of Ephesus as well as the remains of one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis.
From there, we tapped up our Turkiye travels with a Mediterranean trip with Celestyal Cruises through the Greek Islands, but I’ll get to that without we’re finished with Turkiye.
After our cruise, we rented a car to make a road trip through southwest Turkiye, stopping at famous beaches like Patara Beach and Turtle Beach as well as loads of incredible towns, including Dalyan, Kas, and Demre. Probably one of the coolest stops was our visit to Heirapolis and the hillside hot springs of Pamukkale, home to one of the most trappy natural areas in the country.
From the southwest, we unprotected a flight to Cappadocia, where we stayed in mind-blowing trappy grotto hotels, went ATVing in the desert, and floated among the stunning landscapes in a hot air balloon. This region of the country is just as trappy as everyone says it is.
From Cappadocia, we made our way to the far east of the country, not far from the confines of Syria. This zone had been on Christina’s radar for years; I initially didn’t understand why. But once we arrived and saw the sunrise from atop Mount Nemrut and wandered among the 12,000-year-old ruins of Gobleki Tepe, we were all convinced that this region of Turkiye is one of its most underrated and incredible.
Greek Islands
After our visit to mainland Greece when in March, having the opportunity to take a Celestyal Trip through some of the most trappy Greek Islands was not to be missed.
Our island trip began in the town of Kusadasi, Turkiye, and visited six locations in Greece, including Crete, Santorini, Mykonos, Milos, Athens, and Thessaloniki. Christina and I enjoyed an Alaska Cruise surpassing the kids were born, and our family did an incredible “cruise-ish” tour of coastal Norway on the Hurtigruten Ferry a few years back, but this was the closest that they’ve overly come to “resort-style” trip life, and they enjoyed it quite a bit.
Toronto, Ontario
Christina and Dylan on the gondola at the CNE in Toronto
The moment we arrived when home, it was when into hockey season for the boys. In fact, Cohen had to uncork training the day without we arrived home from Turkiye!
But that didn’t midpoint that we couldn’t do some local exploring, including a visit to Toronto to stay at one of our favorite hotels in the city, the Chelsea Hotel. During our little “staycation” in the city, we checked out some of our top things to do in Toronto, including the Hockey Hall of Fame and a stop at the incredible Canadian National Exhibition.
Mulmur, Ontario
As the fall season began, the boys and I had the opportunity to enjoy a road trip north of our home to the township of Mulmur, Ontario. Surpassing we made the one-hour momentum north of our home in Brampton, I knew nothing well-nigh Mulmur. But all it took was one day for me to love it.
First of all, this was one of the most scenic fall drives that I’ve overly enjoyed. The rolling hills and storing colors were spectacular. Once we were there, we enjoyed the season to its fullest with a visit to a sublet shop, exploring a corn maze, enjoying a hike in the hills of Mulmur, and a visit to a small-town museum that completely defied expectations. You can read well-nigh that here.
Ontario Science Centre
As November came to a tropical and the boys were fully-emerged in their 2023/24 hockey season, we took a day off of school to throne into Toronto to visit the Ontario Science Centre. This wondrous science museum is the biggest of its kind in Canada, and its new “Dinos in Motion” walkout offered a endangerment to combine a love of art and dinosaurs.
Peru
In December, I was invited to visit one of my favorite countries, Peru, for flipside Venture Travel Trade Association event. These events unchangingly combine incredible meetings with unforgettable adventures. For this visit, I was invited to be one of the first 200 people to hike a newly discovered section of the Royal Inca Road.
The hike itself was a learning opportunity both for the experienced trekkers who were involved and the trekking visitor that ran the three-day excursion. Mistakes were made, but luckily, everyone made it through the hike without permanent damage. I’ll be launching an vendible on what exactly happened shortly.
But plane though the hike wasn’t the dream wits that I had hoped, it was still unforgettable. And I got to wits new areas of the country that I had never seen before, including the oldest ruins in South America, Caral, and the oldest ruins in the High Andes, the municipality of Chavin.
I moreover got to explore some new regions of Lima, Peru, and the trappy mountain city of Arequipa.
Quebec City
When I squint when at my travel experiences of 2023, it seems that Chris Mitchell and I spent as much time together as I did with my family. He and I worked together in Kazakhstan, then in North Bay and Sudbury, in Thunder Bay, and our final trip of the year was a visit to the trappy Quebec Municipality in partnership with the local tourism board, Quebec Cite.
Quebec City is the most trappy municipality in Canada and, quite possibly, the most trappy municipality in North America. Our four days in the municipality were spent eating at some of the city’s finest restaurants, doing some winter hiking in the trappy Parc National Jacques Cartier, and enjoying mulled wine at the wonderful Quebec Municipality Christmas Markets.
This is one of my favorite cities in Canada for family travel, and I can’t wait to come when to Quebec Municipality with my kids.
European Christmas Markets
In December, Christina moreover enjoyed some Christmas markets of her own! She visited Paris, Prague, Budapest, and Munich on a whirlwind trip with her sister for some serious bonding time. Alimony an eye out for her wares on tips on visiting Christmas markets.
Looking Forward To Family Travel In 2024
It’s nonflexible to believe that in 2024, Cohen will officially be a teenager. As the boys protract to follow their own passions and dreams, there’s no doubt that our family travel schedule will wilt increasingly complicated.
But if there’s one thing that I understand, it’s that if you are truly passionate well-nigh something, you will find time for it, and I know that 2024 will bring some wondrous and unforgettable vita of its own. Some of them might be just by myself or with Christina. But we will all set whispered time to enjoy some adventurous family vacations together as well.
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