What’s the hardest thing about planning a family trip?
Trying to figure out where you can go with your 6-year old who hates to walk, your 12-your old who has a thing for dragons and your 14 year old who is smitten with Justin Bieber .
How do you find a spot where you can be reasonably sure that all of them can have a good time? If only there were a way to find out what a family just like yours did and enjoyed on their vacation?
You could turn to the internet and spend countless hours searching for a stroller accessible, medieval castle with Bieber ties, or you could try your luck with “Minitime,”a new vacation site aimed squarely at families who travel.
In a nutshell, MiniTime’s approach is to show you – through their online portal – traveling families that have families that are similar to yours so that when you get a review of a family friendly attraction or hotel, you’ll know that “other 6 year olds loved it too” or that “you might want to do this one with only the tweens.”
It focuses on hotels and attractions and if when filling out your profile you state the month and year of your child’s birth along with their sex, it will weight reviews from other families with similar characteristics in the results when you’re searching.
Some have described the new project as a “tripadvisor” for families. Over time you can expect that you’ll begin to “follow” – just like Facebook – families that seem to share your interests and have kids the same age as yours. And that could save you time and money while allowing you to book things with confidence.
I tried out the MiniTime site this week and was surprised to find how easy it is to use. It only takes a few minutes to put up a review and I can already see the value in being able to get another family’s opinion on a specific spot. For example, I added my two cents to the Newseum discussion and realized I wasn’t the only one who thought it was incredible. And though, I only added information about our visit to the Capitol to my review of Capitol Hill, it was useful to see that others have recommended places to eat and stay nearby. It’s the kind of information I wish I’d had during our visit.
It’s clear that the families who are trying it out are happy too as many have more than one review up on board. I’m looking forward to having MiniTime in my corner as I plan future trips with the boys.
Take that Justin Bieber! ;)
This post was sponsored by MiniTime. As usual all opinions are my own.
Thanks! We are hoping to do a cruise in September and MiniTime has some great articles on family-friendly cruising.
No problem Alison. I’m excited to see how the site grows. The more families use it, the more we’ll all benefit.
What a great idea! This sounds like such a great tool for families. Will check it out!
Great! I was pretty impressed.
Heading on over now :) Thanks