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Planning the Perfect Prince Edward Island Getaway
18 Plays27 days ago
Alicia Richards has been traveling with her family for 24 years, often planning the trips solo — and Prince Edward Island is one of her all-time favorite destinations. In this destination-style episode, she shares what makes PEI so magical, from scenic drives to quiet beaches and charming towns. You’ll get practical tips for planning a relaxed, memorable trip (even if you're doing all the planning yourself), plus heartfelt encouragement for moms who need a reminder that yes — the effort is worth it.
Follow Alicia on her blogs: Travel with the Crew and The Seasoned Travelers.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Alicia, the Travel Writer
00:00:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
Hey there. Welcome back to Go Far Girl. I'm so excited for our show today, you guys. We're going to dig in here with Alicia. and Alicia is a writer who contributes to the Associated Press. She specializes in travel and food. So obviously, i love her already. Yeah.
00:01:04
CHANTELLE KINCY
She has been traveling with her family for about 24 years and brings a wealth of real world experience to the table today.
00:01:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
it comes to planning meaningful and memorable trips. So I'm excited to dig in today. And she's going to talk about Prince Edward Island, which I don't know about you, but I'm not super familiar. So I'm so excited to learn new things.
00:01:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
Alicia, tell us about
00:01:25
Alicia
right
Family Travel Traditions and Blogs
00:01:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
your background first, and then we'll dig into the good stuff.
00:01:30
Alicia
Well, I grew up as an army brat. And so we moved all over the world. We lived a lot of our lives in the Middle East. um And when you live in the Middle East and you go to school, all your school things are all over the world too.
00:01:46
Alicia
So let's say you have a tennis match. Well, you have a tennis match in Greece, or you you travel to Abu Dhabi to do United Nations, or you travel, try to think of the real actual places, but you you get to move around a lot. And my family has always traveled.
00:02:03
Alicia
um My grandmother, i think, was first on a plane in the 60s. And when I mean the whole family, I mean the entire family travels. So I don't think I necessarily traveled that much more than any of my siblings or my cousins.
00:02:18
Alicia
but I travel a lot more in the U.S. than I think I used to now that I write bunch of things about travel and family because a lot of
00:02:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
Prince Edward Island: A Unique Destination
00:02:29
Alicia
great family travel stuff is in the U.S.
00:02:31
Alicia
or Canada. And so I probably do a lot of that. So um I've been writing for about 10 years on my blog, which is called Travels with the Crew. I started a new one last year. It's called The Seasoned Travelers.
00:02:45
Alicia
always forget that one. um
00:02:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
And I'll have both those links down in the description for anyone to
00:02:48
Alicia
Yeah. Okay. I'm passionate about travel. I love travel. um And I love traveling with my family.
00:02:55
Alicia
For me right now, that means my youngest is 17. My oldest is 24. And I've got one in the middle. But um we started traveling with them, I think, when my middle one...
00:03:07
Alicia
It was three months old.
00:03:08
CHANTELLE KINCY
ah wow.
00:03:08
Alicia
We went to Turkey for my dad's retirement for the army. So we took a three-year-old on Turkish air and a three-month-old.
00:03:19
Alicia
And it was a great trip. And um so they've been traveling. They've had passports since before they remember. So we're big we're big travelers. We love it. And we love Prince Edward r Island.
00:03:29
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. So how did you start going up there? When was your first trip to Prince Edward Island?
00:03:35
Alicia
Okay, so strangely enough, we went up for the first time on my husband and my honeymoon. So we wanted to do something that was different. You know, everyone went the same, like, warm places, and we are not warm weather people.
00:03:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
Mm-hmm.
00:03:50
Alicia
My husband burns if the sun looks at him for two seconds, but... So we were like, where can we go? That's not, we got married in August. And so we wanted to go somewhere. Wouldn't be really too hot. We didn't have time.
00:04:03
Alicia
We felt at the time to fly overseas. So we're like, well, let's go to Quebec city. We'll stay there for a couple of days and then we'll take the train over to New Brunswick, be there for a day or two and then go over to Prince Edward rhode Island which I knew very little about, except I knew someone who had been and they said it was beautiful.
00:04:23
Alicia
And I knew all the Anne of Green Gables stuff had taken place there.
00:04:26
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's all I know. Yes.
00:04:27
Alicia
Yeah, that's what I think most people know. And so we ended up in Prince Edward rde Island for about five days back in the early 90s. And it was, well, no, mid 90s.
00:04:38
Alicia
But it was a very different place than it is now. So um we live in Connecticut. And, you know, when you travel a lot as a family, you run out of places to travel to that you can drive to.
00:04:52
Alicia
I'm sure you can relate to this.
00:04:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yes, absolutely.
00:04:54
Alicia
You know, all of New England has been explored a million times over. Anywhere south has been explored a million times over. West, you know, all of it. And so we were like, oh, let's start going to Canada. And and we did. And so...
00:05:09
Alicia
You know, we did a number of trips other parts of Canada before that, but one summer I was like, let's just rent a house and let's take our kids to Prince Edward rho Island. And
00:05:17
Alicia
thirteen years ago And they fell in love with it immediately. And so we've been going ever since. We go every other summer because we're so busy, but we every other summer in August, you'll find us there.
00:05:30
CHANTELLE KINCY
Don't you love when your kids fall in love with a place that you think is cool too?
00:05:33
Alicia
Yes, because then you can go.
00:05:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
Because sometimes I'll show them something like, oh, I used to love this as a kid. And they'll be like, that's lame. But not so much places, but like a TV show or something.
00:05:41
Alicia
Yes.
00:05:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
They're like, you really like that, huh?
What Makes PEI Special?
00:05:45
CHANTELLE KINCY
So it's always fun when you love something and then they also love it.
00:05:46
Alicia
I know.
00:05:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're like, oh, wait, okay.
00:05:49
Alicia
Yeah, and I mean, they were little, so they kind of like like anything you tell them to like, you know, when they're young enough. You remember those days when you're just like, this is fun.
00:05:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
But they kept coming back, so.
00:06:00
Alicia
Yeah, that's true. And in fact, we're trying to figure out this year, my son is finishing up school in Utah, and we're trying to get him out. We're trying to figure out a week we can actually do PEI this.
00:06:13
Alicia
And Prince Edward Island, you call PEI if you're in the know.
00:06:15
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right, for those who don't know.
00:06:16
Alicia
Yeah.
00:06:17
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, then you're then you're trendy.
00:06:19
Alicia
Then you're really cool. um But we're trying to figure out a time he can come just for a week because it it doesn't feel the same if not everybody's there. So, yeah.
00:06:28
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. So what is, what do you think it is about it that is great for families or even just women in general?
00:06:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
Is it safe?
00:06:37
Alicia
Okay.
00:06:37
Alicia
Well, so so they're pretty much the exact same reason.
00:06:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
It's clean. What,
00:06:41
Alicia
So part of it is it's a small farming community. The island itself, I think... I've driven it from tip to tip. Takes about four and a half hours, maybe four hours to drive.
00:06:54
Alicia
um It's long and it's thin. There is a ah point in Summerside, which is one of the bigger cities, where I think it's like two miles and everything else is thicker than that.
00:07:06
Alicia
But it's not it's not a very big island. You could do the whole island and drive from one end to the other and back in one day.
00:07:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:07:14
Alicia
So anyway, but the point is, so it's small and it's a farming community. So the tourism areas are really centered even either in Cavendish, which is where Avonlea, if you're an Anne of Green Gables fan, is supposed to have been.
00:07:31
Alicia
in In her mind, obviously it wasn't a real place, but it has really nice beaches in Cavendish. There's tons of things for families to do. i r family is beachy, bikey people.
00:07:43
Alicia
And um so we bring our bikes and bike up and down the dunes over by the beach. You can kayak, you can go hiking, although the hiking isn't great.
00:07:54
Alicia
um If you're a golfer, there's a ton of golf. places And if you just love Anne of Green Gables, there's a number of things you can see that, um like Lucy Maud Montgomery's childhood home, you can see Green Gables.
00:08:07
Alicia
which is what she based, her aunt and uncle had a house there. She based it off of that house.
00:08:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, wow. Okay.
00:08:13
Alicia
terms of safety, i i don't think anyone there locks their doors or their cars. it would be surprised. um It feels safe and you're really connected to a nature in a way you're not on a lot of other vacations.
00:08:27
Alicia
Meaning, at least for us, that's all we want to do is be outside. It's beautiful. It's temperate. um We normally go at the towards the end of August, and it's generally, for Americans, it's generally between 65 and 70 degrees, which is still great for a beach because the beaches, the water is warm, but it's a very safe and convenient location.
00:08:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's awesome. how do you do you How do you get into it? Where's your jumping off point?
00:08:56
Alicia
So that's a great question. So we drive, they do have an airport, but it is crazy expensive.
00:09:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:09:04
CHANTELLE KINCY
I bet.
00:09:04
Alicia
and I'm talking like $700 to fly from New York and we're taking everybody. So it we drive from Connecticut.
00:09:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:09:12
Alicia
We live in the New Haven area and we drive, it's a 13 and a half hour drive and we do it in one day, just get it done. There is ferry that leaves from Bar Harbor, Maine and gets you to New Brunswick.
00:09:27
Alicia
which if you want to, we've done that a couple of times where we're like, we can't do this sitting this whole time and we'll do that.
00:09:33
Alicia
it's a town where you cross over on a bridge that was built from New Brunswick about 25 years ago. And from there, you can go north to Cavendish, which is what we normally do.
00:09:46
Alicia
Or you can go west and head up in Charlottetown, which is the capital. And there's quite a bit to do there, too.
00:09:54
CHANTELLE KINCY
That'd be kind of fun, though, to take the ferry and then take a bridge over. That's kind of
00:09:57
Alicia
I know it is.
00:09:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
i liny
00:09:58
Alicia
They used to, the first time we went, they, you could only get on the island by ferry, which was probably crazy inconvenient for the people who live there, but it was really fun.
00:10:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:10:10
Alicia
But now I think they still have a ferry, but the wrong side of the island. And you have to go to Nova Scotia and then take the ferry. So you just try it.
00:10:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
So it's not as convenient coming from the
Travel and Dining in PEI
00:10:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
U S yeah. So you just head up.
00:10:21
Alicia
No, not from the U.S.
00:10:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's amazing.
00:10:24
Alicia
Yeah, it I mean, it's a long drive, but we also trained our kids young to like a long drive or at least ah to tolerate a long drive, which is always a good thing.
00:10:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
For sure.
00:10:35
Alicia
yeah
00:10:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
Do you stay in the same place every year when you go?
00:10:38
Alicia
I wish. No. um So we try to book a house because we want to be able to cook and go out to eat. um There's so much fresh seafood there.
00:10:49
CHANTELLE KINCY
I bet.
00:10:49
Alicia
Nothing is better than going to like the little stands at all the piers and getting the fresh seafood and then going back and cooking yourself. And it's cheaper and also tastes better, in my opinion.
00:11:01
Alicia
But um no, Airbnbs seem to come up and go away really quickly. Same for Vrbo's. um places that we've rented, like one that we rented a couple times is now an ice cream parlor. Another one is now year round owner.
00:11:19
Alicia
So it is hard to find the same, but we always stay our favorite town to stay in is new London, which is just outside of Cavendish. um But, you know, we'll stay anywhere in that area.
00:11:32
Alicia
You know, Cavendish is nice to be around because the beaches in Cavendish have a lifeguard. They're red sand beaches. um
00:11:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, no way.
00:11:41
Alicia
And they they tend to have the most um the most normal beach, if that makes sense. Like, I love the other beaches, too. But it looks like you're going to the beach when you're there. They have, like, restroom facilities. They have snack bars. It's summer.
00:11:57
Alicia
It's more of a regular beach experience. And it it's a beautiful beach.
00:12:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
And you said the water is warm too?
00:12:03
Alicia
Yeah, it's really, I know they say it's the warmest north of the Carolinas.
00:12:04
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's surprising to me for some reason.
00:12:10
Alicia
So it's very shallow.
00:12:10
CHANTELLE KINCY
Really? Mm-hmm.
00:12:12
Alicia
That's part of it. But it also has the Gulf Stream that comes up and brings the warmth up from the south. And so, I mean, my kids are in there, even if it's chilly. We once went up and it was like I don't know, low 60s that whole week. We've also been up when it's been really hot. but um And they were still in the water.
00:12:33
Alicia
Of course, I mean, kids are always in the water. But yeah, it's lovely water.
00:12:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:12:39
Alicia
I mean, I wouldn't swim, but I like to wade in it.
00:12:39
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:43
Alicia
Yeah.
00:12:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's incredible. Oh my gosh.
00:12:44
Alicia
Yeah.
00:12:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
I told you already, but I'm going to have to go.
00:12:46
Alicia
That year in Wattagel, it's beautiful.
00:12:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
Now, now you said all the right words.
00:12:50
Alicia
Well, and one of the things that's so beautiful about it is the dirt is all red, including sand. And then you have all this green. And then you have these beautiful cliffs that almost look like they're falling into the water.
00:13:03
Alicia
So it's it's, yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful place.
00:13:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my gosh.
00:13:08
Alicia
Not very touristy either, which is wonderful.
00:13:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
Which is really nice. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:13
Alicia
Because, yeah, you can't go anywhere that isn't anymore.
00:13:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
Do you have a favorite place? You've talked about where you like to stay. do you have a favorite place to eat when you guys do go out?
00:13:23
Alicia
um We generally go big and we do, they do a traditional lobster supper is what they call it. And there's only one that we particularly like. It's in New Glasgow, um which is a beautiful town.
00:13:39
Alicia
But um lobster suppers used to be their fundraisers in the Maritimes. And so, you know, let's say somebody needed a new barn because something had blown down. that The community would put on a lobster supper and they always include lobster, mussels. Mussels are a really big deal in PEI.
00:13:59
Alicia
um Mussels, they would have like salads and pies at the end. And they would do that to help raise money for people in need. But now, I mean, now I actually have run into like churches that say lobster supper this day, but I've never been.
00:14:15
Alicia
They've been like the day after we leave. But the one in New Glasgow has been running the longest and is probably the best. But I mean, it's so much food. It's like all you can eat except for the lobster. And I, as we've talked about, i have teenage boys and young adult boys.
00:14:31
Alicia
And all they can eat is a lot.
00:14:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:14:34
Alicia
So, you know, I'll eat a couple of mussels and they eat buckets. I mean, they basically pull them out of the backyard because they've got mussel traps back there and they are they grow them back there and they put them on the table.
00:14:46
Alicia
But yeah, it's very homey. it's not It's not like fine dining, but it's something we try to do at least once. Sometimes do it twice when we're there.
00:14:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
That sounds amazing. That's why I took my boys on cruises when they were teenagers.
00:14:58
Alicia
It is.
00:15:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
ah So that they could eat and not cost me a million dollars.
00:15:03
Alicia
Oh, they could eat. I know. Not your food. I know. yeah they They made that money ah for you back from the cruise. That's for sure.
00:15:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yes. I used to laugh.
00:15:14
Alicia
I know my voice at the same time.
00:15:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
I was like, haha, didn't see that coming, did you?
00:15:17
Alicia
Yeah, whatever. Teenage boys on and They still eat so much, but that's always a fun place. That's always a first stop. There's other places we like, but like if you want a real true PEI experience, that's where you go.
00:15:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
Well, it's fun to know the history of that too. That always makes it a little more meaningful when you're eating just to kind of know those little backstories.
00:15:35
Alicia
Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
00:15:38
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that.
00:15:40
Alicia
Yeah.
00:15:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
what about What about hidden gems? Places that you don't find necessarily until you're there for 12 years and you finally stumble across this great place?
00:15:47
Alicia
Yeah. I feel like everything there is a hidden gem on some level. And I will tell you some more, but truly most of their tourism comes obviously in the summer. It's cold, cold place in the winter.
00:16:01
Alicia
Um, but it's mostly people from New Brunswick or from Quebec and not even most Canadians have ever been to Prince Edward rhode Island. So it, um,
00:16:13
Alicia
You know, I know a few people who have been that and I'll run into people sometimes when I'm there that are from Connecticut. I'm like, wow, this is weird. But um so it really is not well discovered.
00:16:26
Alicia
But my personal favorite place, if we're talking about Anne of Green Gables, you can go to It's on Route 6. I think it's Route 6 in Cavendish past Green Gables. And there's a turnoff on the right that is hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for.
00:16:43
Alicia
But it's the next light on the right. And you can go to kind of the area where she actually grew up, Lucy Maud Montgomery. And, um, I don't know why it's such a beautiful spot and they have like quotes ah about PEI that she wrote.
00:17:00
Alicia
And don't know why it's one of my favorite places.
00:17:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, cool.
00:17:02
Alicia
My kids are always like, we are not going there again. So I go by myself and I love it every time I'm there. it's just beautiful. The way she writes about nature is, is much more than a children's book author.
00:17:16
Alicia
It's poetry. And, um, I don't know. That's one of my favorite special places.
00:17:21
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, I could, like my sisters and I would love there. We would, we would definitely be going there
00:17:26
CHANTELLE KINCY
No,
00:17:26
CHANTELLE KINCY
Because, i mean, we all read the books growing up and yeah, and would that would be amazing.
00:17:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
let's go.
00:17:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:17:35
Alicia
They have a large Japanese population of of tourists because apparently Anne of Green Gables is required reading in Japan. And so you will run into a lot of people from Japan when you're there, which is really interesting.
00:17:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
Who would have known? That is just the most random tidbit.
00:17:50
Alicia
Only if you're there would you know.
00:17:52
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:54
Alicia
but they're fanatics, apparently. So that's fun.
00:17:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
So it sounds like summer is the best time of year to visit.
00:18:00
Alicia
Yeah, I'm sure it would be nice in the fall. um We just have never done it or the spring, but you know, you're not, it's never going to be hot. I mean, I think the hottest, we had a week that was like in the mid eighties and that felt hot.
00:18:15
Alicia
Nothing has air conditioning. I mean, they don't need it.
00:18:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
They're not equipped for it because they don't, yeah.
00:18:18
Alicia
And so, so, you know, that wasn't great, but we also went in July that year because we couldn't do August. So You know, I really, I would say June or August are probably your sweet spots.
00:18:31
Alicia
By the time we go in August, a lot of their kids are back in school or PEIers are on vacation themselves. And so I feel like, you know, there's never very long lines. They really good ice cream um that they make in PEI. And when you're there at the wrong time, those lines are long.
00:18:51
Alicia
So.
00:18:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
Is it somewhere you would need a car?
00:18:52
Alicia
Yeah.
00:18:54
CHANTELLE KINCY
You would need to rent a car to get the best out of it?
00:18:54
Alicia
Yeah.
00:18:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:18:57
Alicia
There's no way. If you want to go to Charlottetown and just stay in Charlottetown, you could do that, but that's not necessarily where the fun things are. So, um yeah, you would need a car.
00:19:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:19:09
Alicia
It would be hard to do without a car.
00:19:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay. So those are good tips to know.
00:19:13
Alicia
Okay.
00:19:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
So how does this play into, you know, you're a mom of three kids. I'm a mom of three kids. And I know that you've mentioned that moms sometimes
00:19:19
Alicia
Yep.
00:19:21
CHANTELLE KINCY
well, not sometimes we do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to planning and executing these vacations.
Challenges and Strategies for Family Vacation Planning
00:19:27
CHANTELLE KINCY
And sometimes it cannot feel like a vacation by the time you go. um
00:19:32
Alicia
Yeah.
00:19:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
let's just talk about that aspect of it a little bit for all the other moms.
00:19:34
Alicia
Yes.
00:19:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
Um, you know, how just in general at this point, I mean, if PEI has a great thing that helps you get through those, that's great.
00:19:38
Alicia
You mean PEI or just in general?
00:19:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
But
00:19:47
Alicia
Well, no, PEI is great just because we've done it so many times. There's nothing i have to do. And if I want to cook, I cook. And if not, we just eat out.
00:19:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that.
00:19:58
Alicia
But yeah, but I mean, normally in terms of preparing for vacation, and this is not to say my husband who's in the other room and listening is not amazing. He really is.
00:20:09
Alicia
yeah. as the kids have gotten older and we're just traveling together, he will often plan that. And he does a good job, but he says, I can't let go of it either.
00:20:19
Alicia
um Because you do most of the work. Now, for me, I think it might skew it that I'm in a business where we travel a lot anyway, and I need to hit certain things depending on what I'm writing about.
00:20:33
Alicia
But in general, i think You know, if you're taking kids, and I'm talking younger kids on vacation, you're the one making sure that they've packed off the packing list you've given them.
00:20:44
Alicia
You're the one making sure that um you have somewhere you can eat right after you get off the plane because they're going to be hungry and grumpy. You're the one who's making sure that the flight times are the shortest flight times you can.
00:20:58
Alicia
I mean, for me, family travel, I plan everything, and then I give my husband a day to to plan, and And I give each of my kids a day that they can pick something they want to do.
00:21:09
Alicia
And that's turned out to be really good for us. But ultimately, the overall planning is always me. And I think that's hard as a mom because, yeah, you get there and you're exhausted already and you still have the vacation to go through.
00:21:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:21:24
Alicia
I think I changed a lot of it by saying, you know, when we were younger and poorer, we would cook most of our meals in there. But i was like, this is not my vacation. If we're renting a house and I'm cooking the whole time, where is my vacation?
00:21:39
Alicia
And um so we solved some of that by going out more. My husband would cook or I'd cook before we went somewhere. If I could carry it, we still do this, but like I would make, I don't know, something that could easily be frozen.
00:21:56
Alicia
And then we would take that in a cooler up to wherever we were going. And that way the work was done before, which adds to more work before, but I didn't have to stop doing fun things when we were at our destination.
00:22:10
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's a great tip. And I love, I've always made packing lists for my boys to give them some of the, you know, responsibility of making sure their own stuff is there.
00:22:15
Alicia
Oh, yeah, I know.
00:22:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
And that's one less thing I have to do. um So I think those kind of tips you,
00:22:24
Alicia
But did they do it well for you?
00:22:26
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, no, they did pretty good. had one that would always make me like check it off and he'd go in there and like make me watch him put everything from the list in the bag and I'd be like, okay, I get it.
00:22:32
Alicia
Yeah.
00:22:35
Alicia
Yeah.
00:22:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
But he's also the same one that didn't bring shoes one time. So I guess it was worth me looking at every single time.
00:22:42
Alicia
Oh, yeah.
00:22:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
Um...
00:22:44
Alicia
one time opened, it was seven at the time, I opened my son's suitcase and there was nothing but two pairs of underwear in it. And he had been good before, so I didn't check.
00:22:56
Alicia
How stupid was I not to check? We had to just go out. I don't remember where we were. Oh, we were in Ireland. I had just go buy him clothes. He had nothing but what he was wearing to wear.
00:23:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
That was his plan. He wanted a new wardrobe.
00:23:10
Alicia
Yeah, at seven, he just wanted to be left alone.
00:23:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
i had I had one time where I didn't do a list. I said, we're going driving down to California from Washington, pack a bag. And when I opened it, it was a Game Boy, ah coloring book, and like some maybe like action figures or something, but we hadn't gotten the car yet.
00:23:28
Alicia
but yeah
00:23:29
CHANTELLE KINCY
So they were planning on like their entertainment, I guess, which was good. but But like the tip of cooking ahead of time, that's such a good tip.
00:23:34
Alicia
Yeah, but they also need to close, I know. Yeah, you do have to do a list. and yeah
00:23:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
i Yeah, especially if you're driving somewhere.
00:23:42
Alicia
Well, thank you. know
00:23:42
CHANTELLE KINCY
I mean, why not? That's that's a game changer right there.
00:23:45
Alicia
Yeah. We go up to Quebec City for Christmas most years just because it's pretty and it's not a long drive. And got to the point where i don't like being at home for Christmas. i don't know why.
00:23:56
Alicia
But so I will often cook before then because I don't want to sit and cook in an Airbnb kitchen that doesn't even have things I need in it. You know, so...
00:24:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're spending half the time opening drawers and trying to figure out what the heck you need anyways.
00:24:08
Alicia
Yeah, no, I just, I've realized if I have time, I'm going to cook ahead.
00:24:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
and
00:24:14
Alicia
Yeah,
00:24:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
So you said something really great about um letting everyone kind of pick a day that they're, you know, get to do something they want.
00:24:19
Alicia
hello
00:24:21
CHANTELLE KINCY
I think that's such a great buy-in for kids, especially when they're younger. Like, okay, you may not want to go to Anna Green Gable's place, but tomorrow's your day and we're all going to do it.
00:24:25
Alicia
Yeah.
00:24:30
CHANTELLE KINCY
So suck it up. Yeah.
00:24:33
Alicia
so So my middle son um has ADHD and Tourette's and a lot of anxiety. And when he was little, if he didn't know exactly what we were doing each day, it would really stress him out.
00:24:48
Alicia
And which t was so hard because I'm not that type of mom who plans everything, you know, to the T. I have a general idea of what we're going to try and get done that day.
00:24:59
Alicia
But also with kids, everything takes longer. So I finally got to the point where I was like, you and your brothers each get to plan your day. And those and we'd sprinkle them between the days.
00:25:10
Alicia
And we were like, those are the days when you know exactly what's going to happen. And on the other days, I'm going to tell you as much as I know, and we're going to have to try and be flexible. And for some reason that was enough for him to be able to handle it better.
00:25:24
Alicia
So was one of those things that was born out of necessity, but has turned into something we still do. Like if we go somewhere, they're like, okay, on my day we're doing this or on my day we're doing this. And they're adults.
00:25:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
No, I love that.
00:25:37
Alicia
So
00:25:38
Alicia
Yeah, I think it was just one of those things where you're like, oh, my goodness, how am I going to deal with this six year old who doesn't get that you can't schedule everything? So, yeah, that's kind of what happened. He schedules the best days, actually.
00:25:50
Alicia
He one time we were in Ireland. and This was a different time than the underwear, but he found it was pouring rain and he found a place that had a VR experience, a Viking VR experience.
00:26:04
Alicia
And then after that, he took us to some sushi place that ended up being great. And i was like, okay, you can always plan a day. Maybe you can plan more. Yeah.
00:26:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're in charge.
00:26:15
Alicia
Yeah.
00:26:15
CHANTELLE KINCY
But that's so fun how you took, you know, his needs and turned them into a family tradition, essentially, that just really works for everybody.
00:26:21
Alicia
Yeah.
00:26:22
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's, that's just great.
00:26:23
Alicia
yeah I mean, that's what you have to do.
00:26:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
So I think that that's something that, yeah, I think that's a great tip for moms that are listening is we can't force everything to do, you know, we have to kind of
00:26:29
Alicia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:34
Alicia
don't want to do the same things you want to do is what it comes down to. And even if you think you're picking kid-friendly things for them, they want to do what they've picked.
00:26:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:26:44
Alicia
um And so, yeah, it was a hard lesson to learn, but i figured it out eventually.
00:26:45
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:26:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
And it's paid off. It's paid off.
00:26:51
Alicia
Yeah, sure has.
00:26:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's amazing. So what advice would you give to women who are kind of overwhelmed with the logistics of planning other than those little tips that I think are great that we talked about?
00:27:00
Alicia
Yeah. I would say, always tell people who will ask me like, how on earth do you plan a trip to like, we were, we went to Hawaii last summer and people like, how, like you haven't been, how do you know, what do you How do you do this? And for me, it always comes down I start by deciding where we're going to And a lot of that for us is dictated by flight prices.
00:27:25
Alicia
We'll be like, we have this week here, where can we go for the cheapest? Yeah.
00:27:30
CHANTELLE KINCY
Mm-hmm.
00:27:30
Alicia
And then, I mean, with five people, it's not cheap. So after you do that and you decide what where you're going, I like to look at what is available to do. And this takes all time. I don't do it all at one time, unless we're really like going somewhere like next week. And booked last minute, but... but I, um, I'll look at everything and then I will go through and highlight things or turn down pages of guidebooks of things I want to do. And then I give it to my husband and I say, what are these things are your most important things?
00:28:02
Alicia
He'll list it out. I give it to the kids or I talk about it with the kids. They'll list it out. And that's how I start making an itinerary. However, now I'll just be like, pick your day out of this. Pick your day. I love a physical guidebook. I know that's a horrible thing to say someone who, you know, makes a lot of their living by having people read what they say.
00:28:22
Alicia
But I like having something physical that then they can look through and say, okay, yeah, this looks like fun. And then from there, once I find out where we're going, then I look, okay, where can we stay so we can hit all of these things? Do we need to stay one more more than one place?
00:28:38
Alicia
That kind of thing. And then from there, normally plan about $150 $200 a for food.
00:28:45
Alicia
Like I said, I've got boys who are teenagers, and so I've always had to plan maybe more food than I would want.
00:28:49
CHANTELLE KINCY
Mm-hmm.
00:28:53
Alicia
And then we normally spend another $150 a day on entertainment, and I don't normally book that and unless I know I need to. I normally kind of let that go. I'm more a go-with-the-flow kind of traveler, which I know stresses other people out.
00:29:08
Alicia
But my advice would be to do it a little at a time. Most people are not planning a vacation for the next week. they're planning it some months ahead. And I like to get excited by it by doing the research, finding out what there is to do, and then letting the family come in together and kind of make their make a decision about what they're interested in seeing.
00:29:30
Alicia
So don't know if that helps at all.
00:29:30
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that. No, the research is my favorite part. I get so nerdy about it.
00:29:34
Alicia
I know.
00:29:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
And I like the books too. I know I'm a blogger and a travel writer, but um I like to touch a book.
00:29:37
Alicia
oh gosh we're both bad. i know.
00:29:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
And...
00:29:45
Alicia
What's your favorite book?
00:29:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
I am always like going between Lonely Planet and Fromers is good. um But I love going to Barnes and Noble and I'll just look sometimes for like, I like the smaller books too.
00:30:01
Alicia
Yeah.
00:30:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
Cause sometimes when they're too big or cover too much of an area, i get distracted.
00:30:03
Alicia
Oh, me too. I don't want to pick them.
00:30:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
And so I want like, if I'm going to Hawaii, what Island am I on? That's the book I'm getting.
00:30:12
Alicia
Yes, exactly.
00:30:12
CHANTELLE KINCY
I'm not getting like Hawaii times five or whatever, you know,
00:30:13
Alicia
Exactly. yeah
00:30:17
CHANTELLE KINCY
they
00:30:17
Alicia
I love eyewitness travel books. They're so goofy, but they have pictures in them, which sounds silly, but when you're doing that with a kid, if they can look at a picture, and sometimes it's something they've already seen in school, that gets them excited.
00:30:32
Alicia
so I always get the ones with the big pictures and the eyewitness ones.
00:30:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, cool.
00:30:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:30:37
Alicia
They're taller, but they're they're thin. and They always have a map and then just some info. and Not nearly like Lonely Planet or Frommer. It's nowhere near as well is good.
00:30:47
Alicia
But I don't know. For our family, that's like what I have a collection of the ones we've been to downstairs.
00:30:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
I'll have to look at those because that sounds fun.
00:30:53
Alicia
so Yeah.
00:30:55
CHANTELLE KINCY
Because usually, I mean, there's so much...
00:30:56
Alicia
They don't have the breadth.
00:30:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
going just so much information in some of them that it's overwhelming.
00:30:59
Alicia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
And I so kind of just scan through and catch out the highlights.
00:31:02
Alicia
Yeah.
00:31:05
CHANTELLE KINCY
But if it's like that, that's perfect.
00:31:05
Alicia
yeah
00:31:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:31:07
Alicia
Yeah, that's why I love them. i like If I even am thinking I'm going somewhere, I keep my eyes out at the thrift store. I always find ones that I'm not planning on visiting and I grab them anyway because they're like 50 cents to a dollar.
00:31:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:31:19
Alicia
And then if I don't have it in my collection, then I go get that.
00:31:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my gosh. I love that. Thrift store for guidebooks too is something I hadn't thought of.
00:31:25
Alicia
yeah Yeah, I love it.
00:31:29
CHANTELLE KINCY
Ooh, such a good idea.
00:31:31
Alicia
you know, and then it makes you dream about it you end up going anyway. So...
00:31:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah Yes. But I think the bottom line is it's always worth it, right? All the stress, all the packing, all the mishaps, whatever.
00:31:41
Alicia
Yeah.
00:31:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
You always come home with a lifetime of memory, something that you and the boys will talk about forever
Educational and Bonding Benefits of Travel
00:31:50
Alicia
yeah Well, and it's something that you've had these amazing experiences of learning something together. And I think that's even bigger than just like being together. It's like you're learning about somewhere that you're going along with them. You don't know any more than they do. And that doesn't happen very often as a parent and a child. And for me, that was like the big takeaway always is like, oh, we don't know about this, but we're going to learn about it together. And to me, that was always really special.
00:31:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
forever.
00:32:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
Well, and I think, and my your boys probably too, but mine are also different, even though they were you know raised by the same parents or whatever.
00:32:24
Alicia
oh
00:32:26
CHANTELLE KINCY
But you get ah a view of a place from four different sets of eyes and opinions. Because I saw something this way, and then one will be like, oh, but did you notice that this?
00:32:39
CHANTELLE KINCY
And then the other one will say, oh, because I was looking at that.
00:32:40
Alicia
Yeah.
00:32:42
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like everyone has their own thing, their own experience in the same place.
00:32:45
Alicia
Yeah.
00:32:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
And then- I always love to look through my kids' pictures after places because they're all so different.
00:32:48
Alicia
Yeah.
00:32:52
Alicia
hello Oh, the things I take pictures of, well, some of them are bad.
00:32:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
They're so different. Well, some of them are girls, but...
00:32:57
Alicia
Like I had, I had one where my son took pictures of every animal and that's all he took pictures of. Rats, birds, cats.
00:33:10
Alicia
I mean, I was just like, I'm so glad we took you to Italy.
00:33:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
But it's so funny now, right? Because that's what...
00:33:16
Alicia
yes, of course.
00:33:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's what he was paying a attention to that trip.
00:33:20
Alicia
Yeah, that's what mattered to him. Yeah, exactly.
00:33:22
CHANTELLE KINCY
And you have landmarks. You have the real pictures.
00:33:25
Alicia
It's true. He doesn't need them.
00:33:27
CHANTELLE KINCY
You can supplement with rats.
00:33:27
Alicia
And I asked him, I said, yeah, I was like, why are you taking pictures of rats? He's like, they're so cute. I'm like, we have different ideas.
00:33:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay. Well, that's not great, but
00:33:37
Alicia
He's cute.
00:33:39
CHANTELLE KINCY
that's so funny.
00:33:40
Alicia
He's a riot, that one. I know.
00:33:42
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, don't you love them? That's so funny.
00:33:44
Alicia
Yes. They're the best.
00:33:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, I love that. Well, thank you so much for talking to us today.
00:33:50
Alicia
You're so welcome. It was really fun.
00:33:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
i think we learned a lot about Prince Edward Island, but also just some little good tidbits about traveling with our kids and our families. What's up next for you guys?
00:34:01
Alicia
good
00:34:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
Are you going to PEI this year?
00:34:04
Alicia
ah We're hoping to. a lot depends. My son is trying to see if he can take... One final ah day early so that we don't, I mean, we have to fly him out either way, which is horrible because it's so expensive, but um he wants to be there for the whole week.
00:34:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:34:21
Alicia
So yes, we're trying to late August. um And then what's next?
Future Articles and Research Plans
00:34:27
Alicia
We've been doing, I'm doing a paper about, or a an article for AP about multi-generational family resorts.
00:34:36
Alicia
And so we went to one last week. We've got one this coming weekend, the next coming weekend, the weekend after that, then it'll be all written. So that's kind of what our family's up to right now.
00:34:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
Are those all in the Connecticut area, the resorts that you're going to?
00:34:49
Alicia
they're all in They're all in the Northeast.
00:34:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:34:52
Alicia
So they're all like in within two to four hours.
00:34:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:34:56
Alicia
I think Maine is ah is the farthest one. But yeah, so it's really, I didn't know all of these things existed. We were too busy you know traveling other places, not doing resorts at home, but it's kind of fun.
00:35:05
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yeah. Isn't our job the worst?
00:35:08
Alicia
Yeah.
00:35:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like we have to do all this hard research. It's exhausting.
00:35:12
Alicia
I know, it's really miserable.
00:35:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like you have to go to another resort this weekend and it's just, but someone has to do it.
00:35:15
Alicia
Yeah. you
00:35:19
Alicia
I know.
00:35:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
So like, I appreciate your service. I, you know, good for you.
00:35:22
Alicia
Well, thank you. I appreciate yours. i know. I think it's funny when I, cause I also work as a teacher and when they're like, what are you doing this weekend? And I tell them, they're like, well, like you just have fun all the time.
00:35:35
Alicia
I'm like, yeah, but you don't see me on Monday morning at six in the morning when I'm trying to write that article while trying to also make sure my kids are awake, you know, that you don't see the yucky part of it.
00:35:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:35:46
Alicia
The yucky part isn't that bad though.
00:35:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:35:48
Alicia
Yeah.
00:35:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
It's not that bad. I always try to like get some of my writing done on the plane ride home.
00:35:50
Alicia
um
00:35:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
I'm like, look.
00:35:53
Alicia
Oh, I do too. And then I'm always too tired because I go like hard until we get there. It takes me two days to recover these days.
00:36:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yes.
00:36:02
Alicia
But anyway.
00:36:03
CHANTELLE KINCY
So awesome. Thank you so very much.
00:36:06
Alicia
You're so welcome.
00:36:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
i want to have, I want to have everybody follow you. So go ahead. And even though I'll have the links in the descriptions, tell us where we can find you.
00:36:10
Alicia
Oh, okay.
00:36:14
Alicia
So Travels with the Crew is probably my largest site, um but I started a new site called the Seasoned Travelers with an S, and that's um there's a lot more food in that as well as things that we have done more recently.
00:36:30
Alicia
I think Travels with the Crew skews a little more younger children, and the Seasoned Travelers is more a place to be when you're traveling with just random members of your family.
00:36:43
Alicia
a
00:36:44
Alicia
You're