Family Travel

Are baby strollers allowed in New York City Musuems?  The answer can be tricky. While many allow strollers, some have limitations on where you can bring your stroller, or the type of stroller you can bring. once you've wrangled your stroller through the subway, you hardly want to arrive only to be turned away, so we've compiled a list of popular museums and their stroller policies. However, calling ahead is always a good idea since rules change or you can find out if any current exhibits are off limits. 

You don't have to go far to have an amazing kid friendly farm experience.  In nearby New Jersey your children can crack corn, collect eggs, see baby pigs, goats and sheep, and even see how cheese and bread are made.  The foodie in you will rejoice in the cheese tasting while your children delight in the baby lambs. 

Where to see farm animals in New Jersey:

Going to Disney World feels like a can't-miss obligation for New York City parents: like if we don't take our children to the Magic Kingdom before they outgrow the magic it will just be another decade of therapy to pile on to all our other parental misdeeds.

I'm sure Walt Disney World is 100% as magical as it is said to be, but here are 10 reasons why New York parents should consider opting for Disneyland instead:

Want a fun outing that your kids will REALLY love? How about a tour of some of the best candy stores in New York City? The Lower East Side is chock full of unique and fun candy stores and you can hit them all in one day for a super treat on Valentines Day or any day you want to be the bestest parent EVER! Find your inner child, turn off that parenting voice and have fun going crazy for candy with your kids, if only for one day.

Last Spring the lovely people at Universal Studios Orlando invited us to visit their park in Florida for a VIP tour. It's not something I might have sprung for normally, but after having the most amazing theme park experience ever, I am completely sold that this is now the only way to ever see a theme park. And after doing a little frugal mommy math, I think I can even justify it as paying for itself.

So here's the deal with the Universal Studios VIP tour. I haven't been on any Disney World or any other theme park VIP tours so I don't know if they are all the same, but basically it works like this: You meet your guide and he chats with you about what kind of stuff you want to do. Then he takes you through the park, completely picking out the itinerary so you don't have to think about it at all. But the most amazing thing about the VIP tour is you cut every line (except like two rides that are too popular to let people cut without instigating a vengeful mob scene.) and move through the park at lightning speed, which not only is super cool and fun, but takes all the stress out of visiting a theme park, eliminates fights between siblings about where to go next, and completely eliminated my own exhaustion and fatigue.

What do the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Prospect Park and the Prospect Park Zoo all have in common? They're wonderful NYC cultural institutions that you almost feel guilty for not going to more often (or ever). You know they're great, they're just a little...inconvenient.

But now, they all have something else in common too...they're all stops on the brand new FREE Heart of Brooklyn cultural shuttle. The Heart of Brooklyn Culture Shuttle is a free hop-on hop off service running three different programs:

The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum just opened up again this weekend after a five year renovation. A lifelong New Yorker, I admit I had never been to the Intrepid before. Roaming around a big ship and looking at airplanes had never appealed to me. But since they took the trouble to redo it, and I now have a five year old son, I figured it was worth going to check it out and I'm glad we did.

The people at the Intrepid Museum obviously took families into consideration in their planning because they've created a whole new kid-friendly section called the Exploreum. In the Exploreum kids play their way through exhibits that teach them about the inner workings of the ship and life on the ship, plus the Intrepid's role in the Space program.

Riding the subway is the fastest, easiest way to get from point A to point B in NYC. And it's a great way to travel with kids. But if you're not 100% familiar with the subway system, are traveling with a stroller, or hit schedule changes, it can really stink. We've rounded up the best online resources to make it easier to get around NYC by subway, especially with kids.

There are now a few sites that give accurate subway directions. Just type in your starting and ending addresses and they will tell you the best routes.

You don't need to burn a lot of dough or fossil fuels (meaning even more dough) to have a great Labor Day Weekend. We've got 10 fun family activities that you can enjoy for cheap or even free.

Labor Day Weekend for me is all about having one last hurrah for summer, so these activities all focus on getting outside, either with an easy day trip from New York or doing something in the city that makes you feel like you're not. This isn't like most of my free and cheap lists. Some of these activities cost a bit of cash, but I figure, if I'm staying in the city or skipping the hotel, it's worth it to pay a little bit to feel like I'm getting some vacationing in.

Here's 10 ideas that will take you away, without getting too carried away:

In my post about the farms you can visit in Westchester, I mentioned that it is easy to get to Philipsburg Manor and Stone Barn Farms without a car, using public transportation. I thought it would be cool to write about some of the other day tips you can take from NYC using public transportation. There's really no reason to be stuck in the city just because you're carless (or want to save your gas money on, say, the down payment on an apartment). There are plenty of fun family day trips that can be easily accessed using Metro-North trains or busses.

The MTA actually has an entire section of their website dedicated to what they so romantically dub MTA Getaways . You've probably seen this advertised in the subway, but I know I never really looked into it before. Many of the trips you could do any time, but the MTA has also worked with local tours and groups to create specific event packages.

Dutchess County Fair
For instance, this weekend you could take Metro North up to the Dutchess County Fair and buy a discounted ticket that includes your train ticket and admission to the fair. The package costs about $30 per adult (children get in free to the fair and are only $1.50 RT on the train). I figure this out at about a $7 discount. Keep in mind that once you take Metro North to Poughkeepsie you have to take a one hour connecting bus ride to the fair grounds for a total travel time of almost 3 hours, so I don't know if I would recommend this unless you did it as an overnighter.

But here are some other ones that are definitely worth a try: