Gatlinburg, Tennessee

We drove down to Tennessee to see the Great Smoky Mountains, and it was really fun to hike the trails and see the clouds clinging to the mountaintops. But right outside the entrance of the park is a completely different experience that's found in the town of Gatlinburg. Unabashedly touristy, it's a complete wonderland for kids. From mini-golf to mountain coasters, Gatlinburg features every kid-friendly amusement in existence. The downtown area resembles the Las Vegas strip, but for families.

Unfortunately, our visit coincided with a spike in COVID cases just after the pandemic, so we had to stick with outdoor activities where we could socially distance safely. This meant that we weren't able to check out many of the indoor attractions and restaurants we wanted to visit. But here's what we were able to safely do, with masks on and a lot of hand sanitizing.

What to Do

Our first activity in Gatlinburg was a ride on the Rowdy Bear Mountain Coaster. Gatlinburg has no fewer than four mountain coasters, and I picked this one for its fun name. A mountain coaster is a single or double seater roller coaster that is pulled to the top of the mountain on a track, then winds its way down at about 30 mph. My kids had a blast and each rode the coaster three times.

A few yards away from the mountain coaster is Hillbilly Golf, an absolutely delightful mini-golf course. You have to take a funicular to the top of the mountain, where the course begins, then putt your way down the mountain, through 18 holes. The course features a moonshine-making theme, and also has some interesting signs along the way about the recent fire and tornado that devastated Gatlinburg (and the mini-golf course). Our favorite part was the Plinko-inspired hole.

Gatlinburg's neighboring town is the equally touristy Pigeon Forge, which is where we visited the Paula Deen Adventure Park and Lumberjack Show. Here, you get outfitted with a harness so you can participate in activities like the log roll, speed climb, ropes course, and zipline roller coaster. I've never seen a lot of these attractions before, and the kids had a really good time at the park.

The lumberjack show plays at least twice a day and features lumberjacks (and jills) competing against each other with axes and chainsaws. The show is family-friendly, with many kids in the audience receiving lumber "cookies" (slices of wood) throughout the performance, and the competitors are very impressive in their athleticism.

A short drive from Gatlinburg were two other activities that we had a blast with: ziplining and white water rafting. We did the ziplining with Climbworks, and it was amazing. The ziplines were really long and high up in the trees — sometimes it was hard to see the next landing because it was so far away! It was the kids' first time ziplining, and the fantastic staff made it really fun for them.

For the white water rafting, we went with Smoky Mountain Outdoors Rafting, the largest outfitter in the area. We were lucky enough to have a raft and a guide all to ourselves, and everyone had a great time rafting through class 3 and 4 rapids.

And finally, we spent a lot of time in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, our whole reason for visiting Gatlinburg in the first place. Here's my post on some great hikes to do in that park.

Where to Eat

As I mentioned, we didn't feel particularly safe eating in Gatlinburg's crowded restaurants, so we ended up cooking most of our meals at our Airbnb home. We did do takeout once, from Mama's Chicken Kitchen, just a few minutes drive from the main drag. The fried chicken and all the sides were absolutely delicious, particularly the biscuits with gravy and jam. Everything was all eaten up before I remembered to take a photo.

Where to Stay

Because we were traveling post-pandemic, I decided we'd rent a home outside of the downtown area. The home we found, dubbed the Royal Chalet, was absolutely perfect — tucked at the top of a winding mountain road, nestled in the trees. The panoramic windows were great for bear watching, although no bears actually came around during our stay. We did spot one digging through a neighbor's garbage cans, though.

What's Nearby

Just two hours from Gatlinburg is Asheville, North Carolina, a fantastic city with so much good food and more great hikes. Here's my itinerary for that part of our road trip!

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Lake George, New York

We had some amazing trips planned for 2020, but COVID-19 ended up pulling the plug on all of them. Instead, for Memorial Day Weekend this year, we drove to the nearby town of Lake George in New York for a "pandemic getaway" at the newly reopened Sagamore Resort. Since we would be the first people staying there after the hotel shut down two months ago, I figured it would be as germ-free as possible.

It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny weekend of outdoor activities; it almost seemed pre-pandemic! And I felt grateful to be checking out a local destination that I probably would've overlooked, since I typically have my sights set on much farther flung locales. Lake George is gorgeous and laid back, and it's perfect for a long weekend getaway.

Where to Stay

I've always been interested in the Sagamore Resort, but it's normally quite pricey. There were significant discounts being offered for their reopening weekend, so we decided to take advantage of that and check out all that the famed hotel has to offer. We stayed in a lodge suite with a lake view from the back patio, and boy was that nice after several months of being cooped up at home.

The resort is indeed very grand, with so many ways to view and enjoy the lake. There are plenty of activities, from the pool to croquet to kayaking to tennis. And there's a crazy fun rec center on the premises, which is where my kids spent most of their free time. The rec center is housed in a huge and airy barn structure, and it features mini golf, ping pong, basketball, billiards, video games, and a baseball diamond for wiffle ball. There was a fire pit for roasting s'mores every evening.

What to Do

The Sagamore is located in Bolton Landing, about 20 minutes from the town of Lake George proper. That's just the right distance to be away from all the hustle and bustle, yet close enough to enjoy everything the town has to offer. We drove in a few times for various activities.

The first thing we did was go for a bike ride along the Warren County Bikeway, which we picked up on the corner of West Brook Road and Beach Road in Lake George. The trail is technically 10 miles long, but we only did 5 miles before turning back because that was quite a workout already. The path starts off at a gradual but steady incline, which sapped a lot of our energy right at the beginning. Being able to zoom down on the way back was super fun, though! Nearly the entire path is covered in a canopy of trees, so at least the whole thing was shaded — and beautiful.

Just across the street from where the bike path starts is Million Dollar Beach, which looked like a lot of fun. But since we were trying to social distance and be more low key, we opted to drive to the smaller Memorial Beach near our hotel instead. That beach is tiny and peaceful.

An impromptu activity that we decided to do was go parasailing with Lake George Parasailing Adventures. My kids thought it was the best part of the weekend! And it was really fun, being flown like a kite above the lake. I liked that it included a ride on a high-speed motor boat across Lake George — it was like two activities in one. The small crew on the boat with was great, and the activity felt thrilling yet completely safe at the same time!

On our last day at Lake George, we rented two double kayaks from Lake George Kayak Co. to row out onto the lake. The weather was gorgeous, the lake was calm, and it was the perfect thing to do for an hour.

There were a few things we would've done in the area, like Six Flags Great Escape or the Adirondack Extreme Adventure Course, but they were still closed from the pandemic.

Where to Eat

Our food options were limited during this trip, since many restaurants were still closed and the ones that were open were only doing takeout. But we managed to score some delicious sandwiches from Bella's Deli, on Lake George's main drag, Canada Street.

And just before heading home on our last day, we stopped off at the famous Martha's Dandee Creme in nearby Queensbury for soft-serve cones. It's a really fun place to get ice cream, with people lining up in different lanes at each window and a rotating daily menu of soft-serve flavors. You can get everything from a cherry-dipped cone to pineapple Dole whip.

What's Nearby

Last year, we passed through Lake George on our way up to a weekend in Vermont — where we stayed in a treehouse! Check out our itinerary for that trip.

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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando: A One-Day Itinerary

So you want to see and do everything Harry Potter at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Orlando. That's ambitious, especially for a muggle, but it can be accomplished if you know what you're getting into! I'm sharing my one-day itinerary below, but you don't have to do everything in one day. In fact, it's much more relaxing to give yourself at least two days at the two parks, and you'll have time to check out some of the wonderful non-Harry Potter rides as well.

Anyway, ready? Here we go!

Begin at Universal Studios and go straight to Diagon Alley, where you can watch a huge, very realistic dragon breathe fire every 10 minutes or so.

Ride Escape from Gringotts. Do this early in the day, before the line to get on the ride becomes too long.

Go to Gringott's Money Exchange to exchange your U.S. dollars for wizard money, which you can spend at any of the shops. You can actually converse with the animatronic goblin teller while you wait on line.

Attend the wand-choosing ceremony at Ollivanders, then buy a wand from the shop if you want. My daughter was actually selected from the audience to have a wand chosen for her, which was very exciting!

If you purchase an interactive wand, test it out at some of the magical spell locations. Your wand will come with a map that shows you the areas where you can cast a spell, but it's very difficult to read. It's much easier to print out the list of spell locations from this guide and bring it with you.

Watch the two shows, The Tales of Beetle Bard and Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees. They alternate on the same outdoor stage every half an hour.

Eat lunch and drink some butter beer at The Leaky Cauldron. That's right, there's no need to wait on line at those long stands to get a taste of the popular drink! Just order your butter beer at The Leaky Cauldron while you're ordering your meal. It's the same exact butter beer at the same exact price, no extra waiting.

Do some shopping at the Diagon Alley stores, including Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

Head out to the London waterfront to check out the Knight Bus and Grimmauld Place.

Go to King's Cross Station and hop on the Hogwarts Express. There's a point on the line where you can watch the people ahead of you through a transparent screen as they pass through the wall at platform 9 3/4. But note that when it's your turn to pass through, it won't look like anything; you have to see the magic happen through the screen while on line.

Head over to Islands of Adventure to visit Hogsmeade, where there's always snow on the rooftops, even when it's more than 90 degrees and crazy humid!

Ride Flight of the Hippogriff, The Forbidden Journey, and Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure in whatever order makes sense according to the wait times. Hagrid's Motorbike is easily the most popular Harry Potter ride, with an infamously long line. We waited a little more than two hours for it ourselves (at least it wasn't eight hours!) and we all thought it was completely worth it.

Watch the two shows, Frog Choir and Triwizard Spirit Rally.

Send a friend (or yourself) a postcard with a special Hogsmeade stamp through the Owl Post.

Buy some Harry Potter-themed candy from Honeydukes, including chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's every-flavor beans.

Eat dinner (and drink more butter beer) at The Three Broomsticks.

Catch the Nighttime Light Show at Hogwarts Castle. The show starts at sunset and plays every 15 minutes or so. We watched it from the bridge that connects Hogsmeade with Jurassic World, which was a great location.

And now that you have an idea of everything there is to see and do, here are some tips and tricks for making your magical day even more magical.

1. Buy the hopper ticket. Harry Potter attractions are located in both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, with each park requiring its own entrance fee. So a hopper is necessary for you to see everything in one day. The Hogswart Express connects the two parks, but you can also just leave one park and walk over to the other. If you plan on spending one day at one park and another day at the other park, you'll still need a hopper ticket to ride the Hogwarts Express.

2. Get the lay of the land. It's helpful to know that there are four Harry Potter rides across the two parks. Escape from Gringotts is situated in Universal Studios. Flight of the Hippogriff, The Forbidden Journey, and Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure are located in Islands of Adventure. As for the Harry Potter restaurants, The Leaky Cauldron is in Universal Studios, while the Three Broomsticks is in Islands of Adventure. Both parks feature wand shops, candy stores, pet shops, and clothing stores.

3. Consider buying the express pass. Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure offer two express pass options for an additional fee. The first and cheaper option lets you skip the line at most of the major rides one time. The second and more expensive option lets you skip the line at these rides an unlimited number of times. The biggest drawback to buying express passes (and the reason why we didn't get them) is because they can be very pricey. For example, on the day we went (considered a very busy day, crowd-wise), one express pass for one day was $118. Just one! We decided to pass on the express pass.

By the way, the price of the express pass fluctuates depending on the crowd level that day. You also don't need to buy it in advance, since they sell them throughout the parks at kiosks and in the stores. But if you're trying to squeeze all your Harry Potter adventures into one day and you know you're definitely going to be purchasing the express pass, then go ahead and buy it in advance online to save yourself some time while you're in the parks. Note that the express pass doesn't cover Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.

4. Be at the park before it opens. I'd read online that sometimes the parks sometimes open before their scheduled times, and for us, this turned out to be true. Our opening time was supposed to be 9:00 a.m., but we were let in at 8:50. Those 10 minutes make a huge difference when everyone's making a beeline for the more popular Harry Potter rides! You'll want to reach the parking lot half an hour before opening to allow yourself enough time to walk the long distance from the parking lot to the park, go through bag check, and, in our case, exchange our AAA vouchers for tickets. (Yes, AAA offers discount prices to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure!)

5. Eat lunch and dinner early. If you arrive at The Leaky Cauldron at noon for lunch (along with every other visitor that day), you will have to wait at least half an hour just to get in and place your order. If you show up at 11:30 a.m. like we did, there's no wait. Being just half an hour ahead of the mealtime crowds can save you a ton of time. This is true for dinner as well. The Three Broomsticks, where we had dinner, was virtually crowd-free at 5:00, but completely packed by 5:30.

6. Experience the magic. Both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are extremely detailed, with hundreds of little touches that bring the Harry Potter world to life. Along with all the details that you can see are tons of things that you wouldn't notice unless you're looking for them. Here's a great list of some of the secrets hidden throughout the parks.

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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Our latest adventure brought us to the United Arab Emirates' capital city of Abu Dhabi. Every time I mentioned to friends and family where we were going, I was met with a slightly puzzled reaction. Abu Dhabi is one of those places that hardly anyone from the United States will ever visit — or even take the time to learn where it is, exactly. I was guilty of the latter before planning this trip! It's too far (14 hours from New York by plane), too foreign (in the Middle East), and too obscure (overshadowed by Dubai, the UAE's more glamorous city). But I have a cousin who's been living and working in Abu Dhabi for the past few years, and we finally decided to take her up on her offer to visit.

Well, it turns out that Abu Dhabi is like nothing I could've imagined. It's both an ultra modern city, with gleaming skyscrapers and international eats, and a gorgeous beach destination, with miles of sand bordering the azure blue Persian Gulf. There's so much for kids to do. It was an absolute delight to visit, and the three days we spent there wasn't nearly enough time to see it all (we ended up spending the rest of our week in the Maldives). Our trip took place in February, a month where the temperatures are pretty perfect — mid-70s and sunny. In the summer months, it's blazingly hot (it's the desert after all!), but during the winter months, the weather is gorgeous and makes for a great getaway from a Northeast winter.

What to Do

Hands down our favorite part of the visit was checking out the Abu Dhabi Desert with OceanAir Travels. We chose an afternoon package that included dune bashing, sand boarding, camel feeding and riding, a barbecue dinner, and a dance show. Dune bashing, in case you didn't know, is riding in an SUV with a licensed desert driver who cruises over, down, and along the side of sand dunes. It's a wild ride, and everyone in our car had a blast!

The sand boarding was super cool as well. We basically slid down a steep dune on sleds and snowboards. It wasn't hard to do and really thrilling, but you end up eating a lot of sand!

We also loved feeding the camels and then going on a quick loop with them in the desert. The ride was no longer than five minutes, which I thought would be too short, but turned out to be the perfect amount of time for riding a camel.

And finally, we ate dinner at a camp in the desert that was set up around a low, carpeted stage. The barbecue tasted great in the cool, desert nighttime, and the dances put on by the whirling dervish and belly dancer were impressive and entertaining. All in all, we had the best time on this excursion.

For a completely different experience, we spent a morning visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, truly the grandest building I've ever been in. Sheikh Zayed was the UAE's founding father and revered all over the country. You'll see portraits of him all over the place, from the airport to restaurants to hotels. His body now lies at his namesake mosque.

You could tour the mosque with a guide, but since we were going with the kids, we decided to walk around at our own pace. It took us about half an hour to see all the parts that are open to the public, including a prayer room that holds the largest rug in the world! Note that women must be covered from head to toe when visiting the mosque. Men just need to cover their arms and legs, and the rules are more lax for children. If you don't have the appropriate clothing, they'll lend you an abaya (the red robe I'm wearing at the top), free of charge.

One of Abu Dhabi's most popular family destinations is the Corniche, which is a paved boardwalk that lines the public beach. We checked it out briefly to dip our toes in the Persian Gulf (chilly in February). There are many entrances along the Corniche for accessing the beach; I recommend Entrance 3 for the very nice playground on the sand and many food stalls.

The falcon is the UAE's national bird, and we spent one morning touring the popular Falcon Hospital. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the tour ended up being really interesting and informative. First, we got an overview of the three types of falcons that people keep as pets around here, along with some basic facts about falcons. Then we were ushered in the falcon waiting room, where dozens of falcons were quietly perched on astroturf-lined benches, waiting to be seen for various reasons. Most were there to be groomed. They each wore a little cap on their heads that hid their eyes so they wouldn't be aggravated by the sight of one another.

We watched two demonstrations in that room — one falcon was anesthetized and then got his talons cut short and resharpened, another falcon was fed a defrosted quail, which it ate, bones and all. It was really cool.

What to Eat

Because Abu Dhabi is so international, with many expats living in the city, the dining is similarly international. While in Abu Dhabi, we ate everything from sushi to pizza to many Mediterranean-influenced dishes that we'd never tried before. Our favorite was feteer, a flaky Egyptian pastry oozing with your choice of savory or sweet filling. We got three kinds from Khafayef Pastry: meat and potatoes; cheese and honey; and Nutella and honey.

We also tried a lot of Lebanese goodies. Some of our favorites included an herbed flatbread called manouche, a yogurt and chickpea mixture called fatteh, and a cotton candy-like dessert called ghazl el banet. Be prepared to eat a lot of pita and hummus. It's so creamy and fresh in every restaurant!

What's Nearby

About an hour of Abu Dhabi is the flashier city of Dubai. Featuring streets illuminated by sparkling lights, water fountain shows, and Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, it's definitely worth a visit. We checked out one of the many amusement parks in the area, Motiongate, and had dinner at Abd el Wahab, a Lebanese restaurant in the Dubai Mall, right across from Burj Khalifa and next to the fountain. The fountain puts on a show every half an hour that's similar to Las Vegas' Bellagio Fountains — but it's somehow even grander!

During our visit to this part of the world, we also hopped on a plane for 3.5 hours to relax in the Maldives for four days. I don't know how to properly describe this paradise in words. Think the bluest, warmest ocean you can imagine, white sand beaches, and superb resorts. They're not super expensive either; it's just expensive to reach this part of the world from the States. But if you're ever visiting somewhere nearby, definitely go. The Maldives easily ranks as No. 1 in my book of tropical locales.

The Maldives is made up of a series of islands, and each island houses a resort. We chose Kurumba, which is only a 10 minute ferry ride from the main island of Male, where the international airport is. You have to take a ferry or small plane from the airport to reach any of the island resorts, and we picked Kurumba because it was a relatively short ferry ride away.

The service at Kurumba is impeccable, the grounds are absolutely beautiful, and the food is top notch. We stayed in a beach bungalow, and our bed faced a set of double doors that opened onto the sand, with the ocean about 15 feet away. The kids couldn't get enough of the outdoor bathroom, my husband couldn't get enough of the snorkeling, and I couldn't get enough of the comfortable daybed on our private patio looking out onto the ocean. It was a truly wonderful stay in every way.