Traveling with children can be a trying proposition. Yet, we need to travel and share the world with our kids. I've been using a great site created by Debbie Dubrow - entitled DeliciousBaby.com - for a while now. It is chock full of city guides, great tips, and ideas for traveling with kids.

In Barcelona's Gaudi Park

Debbie's got a gold mine on her hands, and I recently had the good fortune to sit down and talk with her about the site. Here's what she had to say...

WE:  Please tell us about your site, DeliciousBaby...

DD:  DeliciousBaby is about traveling with kids. My goal is to inspire parents to travel with their kids, and to give them the information they need to make family travel fun. On the blog, I share our own family travel stories, tips for traveling with kids, and travel ideas. Our city guides feature cities in the US and international cities like Paris, Rome and Barcelona. Each guide lists kid friendly restaurants, activities and hotels. There are also helpful half-day itineraries complete with maps you can print out and take with you.

WE: What led you to start this site?

DD:  Travel is an important part of my life and my husband's life, and we think it is important to find ways to continue traveling even with kids. When my son was 6 months old, we spent a month in Paris, and when he was one year old we spent a month in Italy. When I planned those trips, I was suprised at how difficult it was to find the kind of practical advice I needed. The best advice came by word-of-mouth from other parents. As I traveled more, friends and friends-of-friends started to ask me for advice on their own trips. I started writing up information on topics like coping with a jetlagged baby or getting through the airport with a carseat.  Eventually I realized that there are lots of parents like us. Parents who had their children later in life, have experienced travel, and don't want to give up traveling just because they have a child. I put everything online to make it available to more parents and started to share our travel stories more broadly.

WE: How is traveling with your kids? In reading your website, I've found some excellent tips...

DD: I'm glad to hear that you liked the site. I've worked very hard to give the kind of down-to-earth information only a mom who has traveled a lot with young kids can give. It's no secret that traveling with young kids isn't as easy as traveling pre-kid, but I think it is worth the effort. Sometimes the kids have off-days, just like they do at home, and it's important to listen to their needs instead of trying to rush through a pre-set itiniary. We try to give ourselves plenty of time for each destination so that we don't feel rushed. We also find ourselves spending more time in grocery stores, playgrounds and casual local restaraunts. The combination of those things, plus the fact that people are drawn to young kids means that we more time connecting with locals. I think that we get a richer sense of each of the places we visit now, and our trips are less about seeing the architecture or art and more about understanding different ways of life and different perspectives. For me, that is very rewarding, and I think it's great for the kids too.

We see places in a totally new way with the kids too. Some of my fondest memories of Rome are experiences that wouldn't make any guidebook... the day we gave my son his first "Ice Cream," (a few bites of Gelato from one of the best Gelato shops in Rome), our morning ritual of walking through the Campo de' Fiori and being offered fresh fruit by each of the vendors, and his delight at splashing in the water fountains found in every piazza. Through the kids eyes, we notice things that we would have rushed past before, and I think our trips are richer and more satisfying as a result.

WE: What has been the most impactful aspects of your site?

DD: I find it very personally satisfying when someone sends me an email saying that they used some of my recommendations and had a wonderful first trip with their baby or child. There is so much negativity about traveling with kids, and for many families, once they get past the negative messages and give it a try, they find that they have a wonderful time. As the site has grown and has more readers, I've also started to realize I can use my influence to help make travel safer for kids. My stories on unsafe rental seats at Advantage Rent A Car spawned two undercover news investigations and resulted in a major policy change at an international rental car agency. I know from my readers that this issue isn't limited to just a single agency or a single location, and I plan to continue my reporting on this topic. As a parent, it's tremendously rewarding to be in a position to do something that helps other parents and helps keep kids safe.

WE: Travel is so important, especially to kids! What do you say to parents that are just thinking about traveling overseas with kids?

DD: Go slow. Give yourself plenty of time so that if you have a bad day, you can still see the things you want to see on another day. Don't expect that the kids will be impressed by the sites you've waited your whole life to see, and definately don't fall into the trap of thinking that they should appreciate you for taking them. Instead, let them find interest and beauty where they find it. It might be a butterflies in a park, dipping churros in chocolate or a new playmate at a local playground. They might not learn tons of history or architecture, but as a life skill I think it is more important to learn that not everybody lives exactly the same way they do. When you return home think about how to bring the trip back home with you, not just in terms of pictures or souveniers, but in terms of the new things you tried and loved as a family. While we didn't travel to London because we wanted to ride the busses and subway, once we found out how much my son loved it, I started making an effort to leave the car at home and take the bus when it's convenient. We have also brought home new food ideas, new games, and of course lots and lots of stories.

WE: Thanks so much, Debbie! Your site is an extraordinary resource for us traveling families.

For more information, please see:  http://www.DeliciousBaby.com

Traveling in Paris