Blog Address: http://www.travelmamas.com
Facebook: Travel Mamas
Twitter: @TravelMamas
Pinterest: ColleenLanin TravelMamas
WHO ARE THEY? - Well actually there's quite a few Travel Mamas (and one Travel Daddy I believe), but the head Travel Mama is Colleen Lanin. She's a budding media mogul based in San Diego, and when she's not traveling she keeps herself busy writing articles for magazines, making appearances on television, and I think I even saw her hanging out in the same room as Oprah at one point. Of course all that goes on the back burner if it's playtime with her kids or date night with her husband. Well...maybe not all that. Her husband might have to wait a few minutes if Oprah wants to have drinks first.
WHAT DO THEY WRITE ABOUT? - Travel Mamas is about traveling with your kids. Colleen and all of the contributing writers are experts at getting their kids out and seeing the world, and you probably won't find a site with more great information to help you do the same. Colleen does also cover some travel without kids however. I've seen her write about solo travel, romantic getaways, girls weekends, and wine....she sure seems to mention wine a lot.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THEM - If you have any questions about traveling with young children, you'll probably find your answer here. Travel Mamas is almost four years old now, which means there's a huge collection of helpful information catalogued away on it's many pages. Pretty much anywhere you're going, Colleen will have some great reference material for you to help you plan your trip. Unless you're heading to Kelowna. For some reason Colleen just seems to be avoiding my hometown. She knows we have lots of wine up here right?
WHERE YOU SHOULD START - Like I said, you're four years late to the party, so the best way to catch up in a hurry would probably be to read over the Travel Mamas Year in Review 2012 featuring dog sledding, cruise ship nightclubbing, and the picture that proves Colleen and Oprah have been photographed in the same room together and thus can't be the same person. On the other hand, if you don't really like year end posts try starting with this story about Tubing at Big White which some brilliant, funny, and remarkably handsome guest blogger wrote for her site.
MY FAVORITE POST - This is a story that I haven't told before but without knowing about it, Colleen kind of inspired me to start More Kids Than Suitcases. Before I even realized that blogging was a real thing, I happened to check out one of the trending topics on Twitter one day which was called "TBEX". There were hundreds of bloggers tweeting about this conference they were at in Vancouver, and one of the most frequent and entertaining tweeters was Colleen (and yes, a few of those tweets mentioned wine). It inspired me to check out her site, and a few days after the conference ended Colleen posted this critique of TBEX 2011 which really got my interest up. Within a week I was beginning work on the site you're reading now, so Colleen can honestly say that she has inspired the creation of at least one new travel blog. I'm sure she can also claim to have prompted the start-up of at least a few wine based blogs, but I don't really keep statistics on that sort of thing.
