Adventure Living Site
	Candyce H. Stapen BellaOnline's Adventure Living Editor

Adventures in Giving
‘Tis the season of giving, but most of the time during the holidays kids are consumed with thoughts about what they are getting. One answer: hand your youngsters Charity Checks so that they can give to others.

Book Review: Life is a Trip
With Life is a Trip Judith Fein has written a different kind of travel guide. Instead of pointing out the top restaurants, hotels or attractions, Fein reminds readers what the best of travel can bring: experiences that transform.

Book: the Best Family Destinations
Forget about doing the same old thing for your next family vacation. Buy Kyle McCarthy’s new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Best Family Destinations and peruse nearly 200 choices throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Golden Rules for Disney World
Disney World has great rides, exciting attractions and lively shows. But on our first visit, we overdid it. We snaked through lines, boarded attractions and crammed in experience. Along with magical moments, there were more than a few cranky meltdowns. Here are three Golden Rules to follow.

How to Choose An Adventure Tour Operator
Adventure tours eliminate the worries of adventure travel and add to the fun as long as you choose the right trip for you and the right company.

How to Survive a Major Airport Delay
When an airport closes due to a widespread storm, knowing what to do to salvage your trip is essential. As a result of a blizzard along most of the East Coast one winter, we found ourselves at a Florida airport on a Sunday morning, amid the crowds and confusion, with a ticket and no flight home.

Inspiring Adventure Quotes
There are many kinds of adventures. Skydiving and other extreme sports certainly qualify, but so does opening yourself to new experiences whether in your own city or through travel. That’s because an adventure results more from “how” you experience something that merely “what” you do. Here are some

Listening to Intuition When Traveling
Do you listen to your intuition when traveling or do you disregard this non-rational voice telling you to act a certain way? I’ve learned to trust my intuition more and more. Maybe it’s a “woman thing.” Who knows, but here’s the event that reminded me to go with my “gut.”

Multigenerational Travel
Finally, hoteliers have figured out what you always knew: it’s much easier and more enjoyable if the extended family, teens and parents included, meet on a trip instead of at your house. Along with convenience, milestone celebrations have also fueled the boom in multigenerational travel.

Nude Travel
Do naked travelers have more fun? Apparently, they do, say its devotees. When you take your clothes off, they say, you also shed your psychological baggage. That’s why one of the biggest groups of new converts to frolicking au naturel aren’t svelte twentysomethings, but women 45 and older.

Pet Friendly Hotel
Big dogs, unlike “pocketbook” pooches, get turned away at most city hotels, the majority of which only let sleeping dogs lie if they weigh less than 15-25-pounds. But Loews´ hotels offer one of the lodging industry´s most pet-friendly policies.

The Best Adventure Travel Companies
Discover the best adventure travel tour companies.

Tips for Traveling with Teens
After years of traveling with two teenagers, I’ve discovered some ground rules for great vacations with these painfully hard-to-please offspring. I’ve also come to value these getaways.

Travel Insurance
For big ticket vacations that require hefty deposits months in advance, especially those involving international travel, don’t leave home without travel insurance. Because you just never know. Not convinced? Then just say two words: “Icelandic volcano.”

Travel Products for Allergies and Tots
Planning is the all-important key to a great trip, especially if you have allergies or are traveling with young children. SelectWisely food cards present your special, dietary needs in more than thirty languages. BambinOz PortaChair lightens the gear you need to lug along with your tot.

Traveler’s Medical Emergency Kit
Going on an adventure? Then don’t leave home without a well-stocked emergency medical kit. If you have food allergies and don’t speak the local language, take along food translation cards that indicate what you cannot eat.

Traveling with Friends Without Becoming Enemies
It’s great to travel with friends—that is unless your shared vacation turns you into enemies. That can happen to even the most complementary of couples. We know. We tarnished a good friendship by not talking frankly ahead of time.

Using Frequent Flyer Tickets
Once in a lifetime trips,often begin with a plane ticket. Because cashing in frequent flyer miles delivers dream destinations almost for free (you pay taxes and award fees), we booked tickets--or tried to- from D.C. to Africa. Here’s what we learned.

When to Buy a City Card
Whenever we explore an urban destination, we typically purchase a city pass. For one fee these cards provide access to many attractions. In Europe, the cards come in handy because most cover transportation on public buses and subways.

When Trips Go Wrong
Despite the best preparations, some vacations are terrible. These misbegotten journeys become the ones remembered for all the wrong reasons. In Australia, my son, daughter and I discovered how a four-day camping trip could morph into family legend, an experience funny now, but not then.

Year of the Bargain
This is the year to take that adventure you’ve been dreaming about. With travel down as a result of the slow economy, hotels, airlines and tour operators are luring vacationers with some exceptionally good bargains.