This post is sponsored by Nomatic. However, all thoughts and opinions, are 100% my own.
I’ve heard the term, “Backpacking through Europe,” countless times in my life, and up until recently, I honestly thought it meant people were taking a tent, sleeping bag, and a backpack, and literally backpacking across the mountains in Europe. It wasn’t until our trip to Europe two years ago, where I finally understood what was meant by “Backpacking through Europe.”
Traveling in Europe can be difficult, especially with a large family. Many of the streets are cobblestone, trains don’t have a lot of room for luggage, hotel rooms are small, and large taxis/Ubers aren’t readily available to fit a family of 5 along with their large amounts of luggage.
Europe Trip 2017
When we went to Europe two years ago, I was unaware of these difficulties. Each of us packed a full size suitcase, as well as a carry-on size piece of luggage. To say we had a difficult time getting around would be an understatement. When we were in London, each time we went to or from the Train Station, we had to take two Taxi’s, because there just wasn’t a taxi large enough to fit us and our luggage. The hotel room was so small, that we literally could barely open the door, because our luggage sat on all available floor space.
So fast forward two years and we once again, decided to vacation in Europe. As soon as we booked our trip to Italy, I knew there was no way we could make the same mistake with our luggage as we did last time. I knew for this trip, we needed to find a way to consolidate all our stuff into two suitcases, or better yet, backpacks.
So back to Backpacking through Europe. If you’re smarter than me, you probably already knew that the phrase, “Backpacking through Europe,” does not mean what I had envisioned. What it actually is, in place of a suitcase, the traveler uses a large backpack (bigger than your school backpack) so they can easily travel on planes, trains, taxis, and not have to roll their suitcase over bridges, stairs, and cobblestone. Genius!
I began scouring the web trying to find the perfect travel backpack for our trip. There were many options, some too big, a lot too small, but I finally came across the backpack I knew would be perfect. There is a company (and it just so happens to be in Utah, where I live) by the name of Nomatic that specializes in backpacks for travel. They have many options, but the one I was interested in, is their Nomataic 40L Travel bag. This bag is carry-on size, fits 3-7 days’ worth of clothing, has pockets for your laptop/tablet, shoes, socks/underwear, and water bottle, as well as a safe pocket that you can lock (think passports). The backpack is waterproof, has a sternum strap, as well as a waist strap, for easy backpacking. Also included, is a laundry bag, so you have a place for your dirty clothing. The bag also has handles, if you choose to carry the bag by hand. It’s perfect and I had to have it.
Now let me tell you a trick I learned from a friend. If you roll your clothes instead of folding them, you are able to fit a lot more in your backpack or suitcase. The Nomatic 40L Travel Bag claims to have enough room to fit clothing for 3-7 days. However, with my rolling technique, I was able to fit all my clothes for our 11 day trip. Yes, you read that right! Eleven outfits along with all my underwear, socks, a swimsuit and coverup, a jacket, laptop, and a pair of sandals.
I still don’t think I took full advantage of all the different pockets and compartments for organizing all of my stuff, but I intend to use this backpack for a long, long time so I will have plenty of opportunities to make the most of it. I can’t recommend this highly enough as the best way to travel, whether by plane, train, or automobile, it is the best solution for luggage.
Nomatic has been generous enough to offer my followers a 10% discount with code: MINDIE10. This code is good from now until September 3rd.
Disclaimer: For this trip, we were hosted by Visit Concord for our accommodations and received complimentary passes to Hurricane Harbor as well as some local restaurants. All opinions are 100% my own.
Since this is the last summer with our daughter living at home, we wanted to make sure we created lasting memories as a family. We decided one of the best ways to do this would be to go on a family vacation. The difficult part was choosing where to go. Everyone wanted to go somewhere different, but unanimous among the kids was a beach and a visit to Alcatraz. Because San Francisco isn’t known for it’s warm weather and beaches, we decided we’d head to Maui for a week and then make a 3 day stop in San Francisco.
The last time I visited San Francisco (19 years ago), I swore I’d never return. We were celebrating our one year wedding anniversary, and as college students, money was tight. We stayed at a motel in a bad area of town, and I’m not joking when I say, I’m pretty sure a murder happened outside our door. I was terrified and I wanted out of there! So while I agreed to take the kids to San Francisco to visit Alcatraz, I did not want to stay there.
Concord, California is just outside of San Francisco and was the perfect place for our family to stay. It’s far enough outside of the big city limits, yet close enough for a day trip into the city. Concord is the kind of place I could live, and was more comfortable for our family. In fact, their town moto is, “Where Families Come First.” If you want to visit San Francisco to see the unique things it has to offer, but stay in a place where it is easier to get around, less traffic, easier to park, cleaner, quieter, etc. then Concord is a great fit. Now that I know there is also an airport there, I think if I want to visit the Bay area again, I’ll fly in and out of Concord as well as stay here.
We stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Concord and were so impressed with our rooms, the staff, the onsite restaurant, and the location. We were close to shopping, local parks, and restaurants, and I felt much safer here than the last time I visited Northern California. The rooms at the Hilton are spacious with the most comfortable pillows I’ve ever slept on, a nice size bathroom, a mini fridge (which is a major plus), a desk, wifi, etc. It is clean and modern and was in great condition. There is also a heated pool and fitness center at the hotel, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to use either of them, but they both looked great!
We started each morning off by eating the breakfast buffet at the onsite restaurant, Plate & Vine. This was the best breakfast I’ve ever had at a hotel. They have so many options to choose from (waffles, eggs, french toast, bacon, sausage, fruit, muffins, danishes, juices, etc.) and we all left overly full each morning. In addition to the breakfast buffet, you can also order from the menu, and the options looked fabulous. Plate & Vine is also open for lunch and dinner.
We got into Concord mid afternoon, and after checking into the hotel, we needed a break after the traveling. We changed into our swimsuits and headed over to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Water Park. Hurricane Harbor is a blast, and appeals to all age groups. At the park you will find a lazy river, wave pool, water play ground for the kiddos, water slides, and then the ever popular, thrill rides. Our favorites were of course the Thrill Rides, more specifically the “The Tornado” and “The Break Point Plunge.” Both of these are unique and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Our youngest son, couldn’t get enough of them. The Park also has a few places to eat, however, I’d suggest eating before you go because like the parking and lockers, it’s pretty pricey.
After spending hours in the sun, we were starving by the time we left Hurricane Harbor. We went back to the hotel and quickly changed so we could go out to dinner. We were all in the mood for Mexican food, so we went to Canasta Kitchen for dinner. The food was great and the chips and salsa were even better. After we ate, we headed over to Todas Santos Plaza (a park with shops and restaurants around it) and walked around. It’s a pretty spot with lots of green grass, a playground for the kids, and lots of outdoor dining. A definite place to go when you’re in Concord.
Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed into San Francisco for the awaited visit to Alcatraz. This former high security penitentiary is located on a small island in the San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles from land. Alcatraz was home to many “troublemakers” such as Machine Gun Kelly, Al Capone, Bumpy Johnson, Mickey Cohen, and The Bird Man. Alcatraz operated for 29 years before it shut down due to high maintenance costs and building decay in 1963. The stories that are told during the tour of Alcatraz are one of a kind. If you ever have the chance to visit “The Rock,” make sure and do so.
Three levels of cells
Some of the most well known prisoners who served time at Alcatraz.
The cell blocks are all named after major American Streets
One of the cells where an escape took place. It’s believed that hole was dug out with spoons over a years time.
After our Alcatraz tour, we headed over to Pier 39. Here you will find waterfront dining, shops, live performances, and of course sea lions. I don’t know if it’s because we were visiting on a Saturday, but Pier 39 was packed, like shoulder to shoulder crowded. We stopped and ate lunch at Wipe Our Bar & Grill. This is a cute restaurant right at the front of the Pier and they had something for everyone. We finished off our time at Pier 39 by having dessert at Doughp Cookie Dough.
On our way back to Concord, we took a small detour to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. The day was so cloudy and foggy that it was actually difficult to tell that the bridge is red, but at least we were able to check it off our bucket list.
The traffic was crazy and so it took us quite some time to get back into Concord. We drove around for awhile and then ended up back at Todas Santos Plaza. We walked around looking at the different shops and then stopped for dinner at Naan ‘n’ Curry and then topped off our dinner with quite possibly the best ice cream sandwiches at Cream.
On our last day in Concord we slept in, which was heaven. We ate at the hotel and then packed up and headed out. We had a couple hours to kill before we needed to leave for the airport. Across the street form the Hilton is The Veranda, an outdoor shopping center. We decided this would be a great time and place to do some back to school shopping for the kids. It’s not very often that they want to spend their summer vacation shopping, so it worked out well.
All in all, I enjoyed this trip to San Francisco much more than the first time. My whole family really found Alcatraz interesting, and the safer quieter place to stay made for a more relaxing close to our vacation. Hopefully our kids will have good memories of the time we spent together as a family, and hopefully we will be able to create more in the future!
For spring break this year, we decided we would take a mini family vacation. However, living in Utah, the options are slim, especially when you’ll only be staying for three nights, and plan on driving to your destination. We decided we would head to Las Vegas, (yet again) and try to experience some of the things we’ve never done before.
Las Vegas is often referred to as “sin city” for it’s gambling, nudity, drinking, prostitution, and partying. So why in the world would you want to take your family on vacation to this “sinful” city? While it’s true, the theme of Vegas is often, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” there are also many family friendly options here.
When we decided on Las Vegas as our Spring Break destination, the first thing we looked into was finding a family friendly casino to stay at. We knew we wanted this trip to be more relaxing and laid back, so we wanted a hotel with a great pool. After looking at just about every hotel, condo, and casino in Vegas, we ended up booking our three nights at The Mandalay Bay
View from our room
The Mandalay Bay is perfect for families. The rooms are large, there are plenty of restaurants on site, Shark Reef Aquarium is here, and the pool area, known as Mandalay Bay Beach, is amazing! Not only are there 3 pools, but they also have a lazy river, wave pool, cabana and gazebo rentals, 2 outdoor dining options, and 2700 tons of real sand.
Day One:
We woke up early Friday morning and headed to the highly recommended Baby Stacks Cafe for breakfast. If you like pancakes for breakfast, this place is a must! They have so many options that we ended up ordering a bunch of different plates and shared. I think the favorite ended up being the Cinnabun Pancakes and the Cookie Butter French Toast. We also tried the Rocky Road Pancakes, the Cookies & Cream Pancakes, and an omelet.
After devouring our breakfast, we headed over to the Neon Museum. This is a great spot to visit for all ages. The Neon Museum is a one hour tour of old casino signs such as, The Golden Nugget, The Aladdin, and The Sahara. As well as seeing these old iconic signs, you will also learn a bit about Las Vegas history. I have a post dedicated to our time at the Neon Museum that you can read here. The Neon Museum tour is outside, and so once we finished, we all wanted nothing more than to head back to the hotel for a swim. We ended up staying at the pools until closing, which is 6:00. We headed up to our room to freshen up so we could hit the Strip for some sightseeing and dinner.
The Las Vegas Strip is an amazing sight with all those lights! It truly is one of a kind. You can pretty much find anything and everything on the Strip. Casinos, shops, restaurants, museums, street performers, you name it, it’s there. If traveling with kids, be warned, there are some pretty inappropriate things to be found here, but also many kid friendly options as well.
Finding a restaurant on the Strip at 8:00 on a Friday night can be difficult. Every place we stopped, had a long wait, and we were all starving. We ended up eating dinner at Bobby’s Burger Palace. You can never go wrong with a Bobby Flay restaurant. There was no wait, the options were exactly what our kids wanted and the prices were very reasonable for anywhere, let alone a prime location on the Strip. The menu is pretty straight forward; burgers, fries, shakes, and sodas. They do offer some vegetarian options as well as kids meals. I ordered the Bacon Crunchburger (bacon burger with potato chips on top) and it was so good.
Day Two:
We woke up Saturday morning (later than planned) so we stopped by Einstein Bros. for a quick bagel before heading over to the Mob Museum. The museum offers a view into the world of organized crime throughout the world, as well as how the Mob came to be in Las Vegas. For a more detailed guide of the Museum, head over to my blog post that is dedicated to our visit there. We had a great time here, and I would highly recommend it, especially if you have older children.
Once again, we found ourselves at the Mandalay Bay Beach in the afternoon. Before jumping into the pool, we ate lunch at the poolside cafe. There’s just something fun and relaxing about sitting at a table enjoying lunch and a Coke Zero while listening to music and being outdoors. The prices are a bit steep for the small amount of food you get here, but we thought it was worth it to be able to eat and then within seconds, be in the pool. The kids spent most of the afternoon enjoying their time in the lazy river and wave pool while Win and I just enjoyed lounging in the sun.
We decided last minute that it would be fun to take the kids to see a comedy or magic show. The bad part was, because we waited so long, and because it was a Saturday night, a lot of tickets were sold out, and it is hard to know which shows are “family friendly.” We ended up getting tickets to the Mike Hammer, “Get Hammer’d” Comedy and Magic show. The show is held at the Lady Luck Casino in “old” Las Vegas. The best part of the entire show, was when I was picked to come up on stage and be part of the closing act. We all got a good laugh, and the kids kept asking me how he pulled off his final magic trick. I just kept telling them, “I have no idea!”
Once the show ended it was late, and everyone was starved! Win and I wanted to head back to the Strip for dinner, but the kids said they couldn’t wait, they needed to eat now! We ended up at a buffet (against my better judgement), and let’s just say it was below average. I’ll just leave it at that. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and went straight to bed.
Day Three:
Sunday morning came all too soon! We slept in until ten, and then had to rush to be packed and out the door by eleven (check out time). It’s always hard to see a vacation come to an end, but we had a great time exploring Las Vegas and doing things we hadn’t done there before.
If you’re getting ready to head to Las Vegas on a family vacation here are some more family friendly places that I recommend (from previous trips).
Places to Stay:
Tahiti Village: Family friendly and fun! This is not a casino, but is located on the Strip. Lazy River, sandy beach, and large pool make it a favorite for the kids.
South Point: Further south on the Strip, so you are not in all the traffic. Large rooms and they have a Steak n Shake inside.
The Orleans: Off the Strip, so traffic is a lot better. Large rooms, bowling alley, movie theater, and tons of restaurants on site.
Places to Eat:
The Yardhouse: Great for dinner! Get the chicken nachos as an appetizer. They will feed your entire group.
Wicked Spoon: Our favorite buffet in Vegas. It’s a bit pricey, but oh so yummy!
Hash Hash A Go Go: Great breakfast restaurant. Lots of options and fun atmosphere.
Raising Canes: An inexpensive restaurant for a quick lunch.
Bahama Breeze: Another favorite dinner location.
Margaritaville: It’s a bit of a wait since it’s on the Strip, but its’ such a fun location for kids. They have a pirate ship, they do a little singing show every hour or so. Lots of fun!
Things to Do:
Nathan Burton Magic Show: I highly recommend this for kids! Our kids still talk about this show and we went probably 5 years ago.
New York New York Roller Coaster
I did receive free tickets to the Mob Museum and The Neon Museum, however, all opinions are my own.