Getting Ready to Travel with Family? Check Out MiniTime + Twitter Party 6/6

I will receive compensation as a co-host for The Motherhood at the Twitter Party.
All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.

This summer, Frank and I will be traveling with the three boys to Maui for my little sister’s wedding.  If you’ve traveled with kids before, you know that can be challenging!  Finding kid-friendly places to stay, places to eat, and activities to do can prove difficult.  How would you like to plan a vacation with kids and have it be faster, easier and more fun with personalized recommendations on places to stay and things do based on the ages of your kids.  That’s where MiniTime comes into play.

MiniTime has fantastic tools that make planning and sharing a memorable family vacation a breeze.  The site has a new Trip Planner tool that lets you make custom itineraries for your next vacation, create journal entries, upload photos and more.  You can also connect with a community of other parents with kids the same age as yours – something we really love – the share travel experiences, reviews, tips and photos.

Takeaways From the MiniTime Webinar Briefing

As a participant in this campaign, I had the opportunity to participate in a Webinar Briefing with MiniTime at the end of May.  The presenters included John Smelzer (CEO, MiniTime) and Suzanne Rowan Kelleher (Managing Editor, MiniTime).  Here are a few things I learned from the webinar:

What is MiniTime?

MiniTime is the first family travel site to make travel recommendations based on the ages of your children.  On the site, you can find expert travel advice for parents, as well as a community of like-minded parents.  MiniTime also provides powerful user tools  to help parents plan, book, and share their family travel experiences.  The site was launched 6 months ago and has been curating content on top family travel destinations ever since.

Traveling with Family

MiniTime conducted a survey on family travel and found the following:

– In 90% of households, moms are the key decision makers for vacations
– One in three parents consult more than nine online resources
– More than half of parents are spending nine or more hours planning a vacation
– 63% of parents would like to save time by researching and booking on the same website
– 88% of parents trust recommendations from parents with kids the same ages
– 65% trust sites offering comparative pricing from multiple online travel agents

MiniTime’s Features 

– Over 1000 hand-picked destinations, accommodations and attractions, recommended for your family based on the ages of your kids

– Detailed kid friendly amenity lists

– Maps showing proximity of kid-friendly accommodations and attractions

– Reviews from parents with kids the same age as yours

– Tools to help you plan, book and share

 – Trip Tips:

(a)  Features original travel articles written by Suzanne Rowan Kelleher and other family travel bloggers and writers

(b)  Stories are distributed on Yahoo!, MSN, Fox News and Huffington Post

(c)  Trip Planner:

(1)  Newest MiniTime feature that allows you to create custom vacation itineraries

(2)  Makes planning easy by allowing you to drag and drop places to see, stay, and eat into your interactive itinerary

– Mobile-friendly so you can update and use Trip Planner while traveling

– Includes a daily map with turn-by-turn directions to guide families on their way, as well as a journal, calendar and the ability to store family photos.

– You can share your Trip Planner with friends and family

– Connect MiniTime with your Facebook and share your trip’s itinerary, photos and more with friends and family

– Wish List feature helps track what you didn’t get to do on a trip and remember it for future trips