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So far, we've done theme parks or beach vacations. My son is 6 and we've started talking about going to see the Grand Canyon. I want him to be a little older so that he can do more of the stuff, like ride a mule down a trail and possibly go water rafting.

I am not sure when we could do Washington DC/Smithsonian museums, that's something I really want to do, but we will likely do that between his ages of 10-12.

And we've not really toured Europe either, my son has said he wants to go to Holland to pick tulips and I want to see midsummer in Scandanavia.

We did a cruise my senior year of high school, and a couple of friends and I got our own cabin. It was great because it felt like we had a bunch of freedom, but really we were pretty limited in where we could go since, obviously, we were on a boat.

My DH did a ranch trip in Wyoming when he was...maybe 12 or 13? He still raves about it to this day and wants to take our kids when they aren't so young. They lived on a "ranch", rode horses, etc etc.

We've done a bunch of ski vacations with our littles. They are super fun but still low-key & relaxing. BUT, we either have grandparents with us or go to CO where we have babysitters. So in the event you don't have that, I'd wait until the youngest kid can go to ski school (3y + potty-trained) unless you are with a group and can rotate which adults ski vs. which hang out with the littlest kids.

The best trip we have taken with our kids (almost 5 and 2.5 now + baby who was in utero at the time!) was to Palm Springs this past fall. We VRBO-d a house with a pool and spent most of the week just relaxing and swimming. It was great because we had the full kitchen, didn't have to haul gear to/from a community pool, and people could be inside (naps!) or outside as they pleased. As for things to do w/ kids, there is a tram to ride w/ easy hikes at the top, a "living zoo", and Joshua Tree National Park not too far away. Also plenty of shopping & restaurants/etc if you're into that. We'll definitely be going back a lot while the kids are little, since it's so nice to have a fun but flexible vacation spot to accommodate early bedtimes, naptimes, little legs, etc.

I want to do a lot more hiking trips (Glacier, Zion/Bryce, Yosemite, etc), but it's so hard with the mixed ages. DD1 is finally getting old enough to hike a decent distance, but DD2 (2.5y) is in that inbetween of too big for a carrier (slash wants to do it all alone!) but too little/slow to walk far on her own. Plus a baby!

The only vacations DD has been on so far is a beach trip with family and a Disney Cruise. The cruise was amazing and I'm definitely taking her on another in a few years.

This is on my list for travel with DD
-Disney World
-Alaska
-Hawaii
-Ireland

We've only done 2 "big" vacations but they were both great. We did a Disney cruise when DD was 16 months, then a WDW trip when she was 2.5. Both were great for her age at the time. Highly recommend cruising with LOs. We were actually trying to plan another one with our new DS but he ended up being too young for the cruise we wanted to take (non-Disney, and unfortunately required kids to be at least 12 months). So I think we will end up doing another Disney cruise, although we haven't finalized.

We've done a few other short trips, mostly to Cape Cod, which is within driving distance of our home, and one to DC. Those were nice but nothing super special.

My personal favorite trips, both as a kid and an adult, were to Hawaii. We haven't gone with our kids yet but I can't wait to go with them when they are a little older. If the flight from the East Coast wasn't so long, we'd probably have gone already.

M is 4 and H is one and so far we've done a Philly/Hershey/Sesame Place trip and a trip to Kennebunkport, ME which was a lot of fun and very family-friendly.

D is 4 and A is 1, and we've only done Florida with them. My parents have a place in Florida (The Villages), so we've gone to visit them. The first trip we took a few day trips to Disney with D (I was pregnant with A). This summer we're going to the beach for a few days, and then in November we're doing a Disney cruise with my entire family.

On our must-do list for the future:
-We'll continue going to Florida (probably every other year) and will spread out all the parks
-Maine
-Mackinac Island
-And this isn't necessarily must-do, but it's a multi-starred item on my bucket list - rent an RV and drive cross-country, hitting several National Parks along the way

@lawbee11: I think so! Actually I think almost any age is good for Hawaii. The main reasons we haven't gone are flight times and time change (and cost). My parents took me at age 3.5 and said it was awesome. My DD is that age now and I bet she could handle the trip at this point (now just waiting for the baby to get bigger!). Have fun!

Man, I think every vacation and every place is great with kids! I'm sure there are places that aren't; but that list is pretty short! I've found LO to be welcome basically everywhere we've gone and that LO has had fun everywhere.

Most fun with/for LO who is 4.5 now and places I would recommend for kids:

Sesame Place

Disney World and Disneyland

Caribbean cruise (we've done both a Disney cruise and non Disney cruise). I don't think Disney cruises are the end all for families - most higher end cruises compete well with Disney on everything except that characters, live shows and movie theater. Some surpass Disney on food and service.

Washington, D.C. - the zoo and museums are free and the historical stuff is plentiful

Tuscany, Italy. Very, very child friendly. People in Italy LOVE children. History, food, just wonderfulness

We're up in Quebec this weekend and it's also a fun getaway!

Next summer we're doing another Disney cruise in Europe this time (Spain, France and italy). Not sure about plans this summer.

We don't like camping or outdoors; so our trips are biased that way.

We have gone to Japan, San Diego, Seattle, Whistler, Canada, NYC, Disneyland, Orlando, a small unknown Pacific Island, Kauai and Maui. We live on Oahu. For LOs remaining childhood years we are planning to go to Big Island of Hawaii, Mexico, San Francisco/Yosemite/London, Colorado/Grand Canyon/Vegas, New Zealand, Boston/DC and some repeater trips.
Perhaps Spain, Portugal, France and Italy in her teen years depending on her interests.

So far best vacations with our toddler have been. Beach vacations. She loves splashing in the water and the sand and it's a relaxed pace for everyone. More adventerois options sometimes go okay, but sometimes are more trouble than it's worth for us. For big vacations we've gone to Mexico and Maui with LO. In the future we'd like to travel to Thailand, Peru, and the Galapagos with the kids. Probably will avoid Disney as long as possible as it's just not our thing (expensive, lines, focus on commercial aspects of travel). Defivteky look forward to more camping/hiking/National Parks as LO gets older too.

We live very close to DC and there is actually a surprising amount of kid friendly stuff to do. Even a lot of the museums (National Zoo, Air and Space especially) are so fun! My 3.5 year old also likes "United States"- so anything with Presidents, American flags, or history. There are tons of festivals there too.

I went to Yellowstone as a kid and I still vividly remember the trip.

We wanna do a big RV trip out to the Grand Canyon at some point too!

What have been the most fun trips you've taken with your kids and what age were the kids?
Our funnest trip by far was 2 weeks in the Canaries. The first half was spent in an all-inclusive resort. Then we stayed at a timeshare-type vacation rental. What we loved was the good food, good weather, and most importantly, the numerous playgrounds for LO I got a great deal, so that was truly a plus. LO was 1.5 yo.

What locations or activities are on your must-do list for traveling with your kids?
DD loves waterparks. She goes nuts! So far we've only been to a waterpark in Sweden and one in Rhodos, but we plan on going to a ton more. I've been looking into theme parks for DD's birthday and now have a list of local and nearby places to go. We prefer theme parks with open/free play with the option of lodging either in the park or in a small forest cottage. Places on our list include:

- Legoland Denmark (those camping barrels look awesome!)
- Lalandia Billund (huge waterpark)
- High Chaparral Sweden (DH's choice, but it looks like a place for older kids)
- Astrid Lindgren's World (although I'm more interested in the old tree in town )
- Trolska Skogen (looks magical)

Really, anywhere that's new, not too far, and has a few young kid friendly amusements works for us. When DD gets older, we're planning on doing more nature trips: camping in the north of Sweden, Iceland, visiting castles in Scotland, a summer in a pretty English town (Devon or anywhere-shire), Croatia. But it'll be a few years until DD is ready for that kind of vacation.