Tips for Families

If you have enough trouble getting your kids out of the house in the morning, dragging them thousands of miles away may seem an insurmountable challenge. But family travel can be immensely rewarding, giving you new ways of seeing the world through smaller pairs of eyes.

How to Take Great Trips with Your Kids (Harvard Common Press) -- published in 1983 but revised in 1995 -- is packed with good, still relevant general advice that can apply to travel anywhere.

Set goals for your family for your travels in Greece. The whole family can head for the beaches. At the other extreme, however, think twice about taking younger kids along on a full-day exploration of museums and archaeological sites. Travel with infants and very young children -- say up to about age 5 -- can work; most children ages 6 to 16 become restless at historical sites. If you're lucky, your children may tune into history at some point in their teens.

There are the occasional "kid-friendly" distractions in Greece: playgrounds all over the place; water parks here and there; and zoos. Greeks boys now play pickup basketball even in small towns -- if your kids go for that, it's a great way to be quickly accepted. The kid-friendly icons throughout the book indicate places we feel might appeal to young people.

Most hotels allow children under 6 a free bed or cot in your room, and offer reduced prices for children under about 12. Some museums have children's prices, but by and large, Greece is not set up to offer reductions at every turn.

As for passport requirements for children, go to the State Department's website, www.travel.state.gov. If you are traveling with children other than your own, you must be sure you have full identification as well as notarized authorization from their parents.

Familyhostel (tel. 800/733-9753) takes the whole family, including kids ages 8 to 15, on moderately priced domestic and international learning vacations. Lectures, field trips, and sightseeing are guided by a team of academics.

Recommended family-travel Internet sites are Family Travel Forum (www.familytravelforum.com), a comprehensive site that offers customized trip-planning; Family Travel Network (www.familytravelnetwork.com), an award-winning site that offers travel features, deals, and tips; Traveling Internationally with Your Kids (www.travelwithyourkids.com), a comprehensive site offering sound advice for long-distance and international travel with children; and Family Travel Files (www.thefamilytravelfiles.com), which offers an online magazine and a directory of off-the-beaten-path tours and tour operators for families.