Much to our dismay, not all worthwhile and relevant family travel writing originates on Travel Savvy Mom.  What are you going to do?  Link to it, that’s what.

Our good friend Jennifer Margulis has a couple worthy entries this week, read her 10  Tips for Traveling with a Potty Training Toddler and Traveling Solo with Kids on the Disney Family Travel site.

Sue Rodman, of the handy Atlanta blog Field  Trips with Sue, has published some great round ups for lucky Atlanta residents and visitors.  We like both her Best Finds in 2009 and resolution-style Things To Do in 2010.

Dana Rebman of Ciao Bambino learns that kids and animals go together like peanut butter and jelly in Kids and Critters.

As if it’s not enough that Linda of Travels with Children road trips all over the place with her four children, she’s got food allergies to deal with too.  More on that in Food Allergies and Traveling.

Finally, it’s not exclusively about family travel, but Darren Cronian of Travel Rants had me rolling with Time to Share My Travel Mistakes.  Could it be time to share yours?  Oh yes, I think so.

Some might say luxury hotels aren’t for families – if you are traveling with kids then you are simply doomed to stay in a holiday apartment, indistinguishable budget hotel chain or moldy camper van.  It’s your punishment for breeding.

But, in my humble opinion, everyone deserves a little luxury every once in a while.  Even families.  Heck, especially families.  What parent doesn’t need a little pampering?

As a writer for Travel Intelligence, I’ve been invited to stay at some incredible properties across Europe.  All of them have gone above and beyond in terms of style, service and comfort.  But the best of these treat all guests like royalty – including four-year-olds with magic marker smeared across their faces.  Here are a few of my favorite family-friendly luxury hotels in Europe:

1.  Vedema Resort
Santorini, Greece

I’m sure you’ve heard Santorini is a romantic spot – the ultimate in honeymoon destinations.  It’s also a great place to go with kids if you have the right place to stay.  Skip the small cliffside resorts or holiday apartments in town and head to the middle of the island to Vedema Resort.  There, your family will enjoy plenty of room to move in large, spacious suites located in a white-washed village-like setting.

2.  Hotel Pulitzer
Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Kids will love getting lost in the hallways of this hotel.  The Hotel Pulitzer is 32 historic canal houses now interconnected in wily and wonderful ways – you may find it brings out the kid in you as well.  A central location means your family is never too far from sanctuary when the rain hits (which it always does) and kids will also enjoy the small play area in the central garden.

3.  Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski
Munich, Germany

Forget the idea that you need to stay outside the city when traveling with kids.  The Vier Jahreszeiten proves that families can stay in the heart of the city and still be satisfied.  When not out exploring the town, head up to the spa and splash around in the pool or enjoy a very family-friendly tea service in the hotel lobby.

4.  Hotel Phoenicia
Valletta, Malta

Malta is a fantastic family destination full of wonderful outdoor activities and cool pre-historic temples.  Make the capital city of Valletta your home base and enjoy being pampered at the historic Hotel Phoenicia.  Kids can alternate between enjoying the pool and running their ya-yas out in the large outdoor garden with play area.

5.  Four Seasons Georges V
Paris, France

Forget images of surly concierges and annoyed guests from the movie ‘French Kiss’.  The Georges V may be glamorous but it is never stuffy.  Kids will love taking behind-the-scenes tours of the hotel and restaurant – and being treated like a treasured guest in their own right.

This winter, my family and I were guests of the The Village at Squaw Valley, a charming component of the vast Olympic Squaw Valley mountain area. Squaw Valley’s 4,000 acres is part of beautiful Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra mountains. Visitors flock to Squaw for the snow in winter and heaps of outdoor fun in the summer. It is almost wicked to mention just five but if you find yourselves there, please include the following in your itinerary.

1. Squaw Valley Kids’ Ski school

Hubby and I pondered about whether to put our kids (age 7 and 4) into ski school. But after realizing we weren’t capable of teaching our kids to ski, we sensibly went ahead. Folks, this ski school was fabulous! Perhaps some of the best childcare I have ever experienced. Security and safety was well organized but what impressed me was the kindness, care and fun shown by these very enthusiastic ski instructors from all over the world. Book ahead, it’s popular!

2. Snowtubing

Come on, who wouldn’t enjoy sitting in an inflated rubber ring, accelerating down a mountain of snow at a bookable speed? This activity is surprisingly painless (on the whole) and can be found at the Papoose Discovery Center, next to Squaw Village. It’s on the expensive side for an hour but it is great fun. Share tubes to save some money.

3. Cable Car

Catch the cable car from Squaw Village at the bottom of the mountains to reach High Camp, 2,000 feet up. The ride is only 7 minutes long and is an adventure in itself. Watch for the car swinging as you cross the pylon – your kids will scream with delight. At High Camp, as well as access to a vast amount of the mountain to ski, bike or hike, there is ice skating, swimming (in summer) and several eating places.  The views are gorgeous.

4. The Skyjump

By the time my kids tried the Skyjump in the pretty Events Plaza in Squaw Village, my husband and I had realized that a ski trip is NOT for the faint of purse. So we sucked up the $12 for five minutes per child. From the kids point of view, this activity was the most fun (and they LOVED skiing, so you can imagine their glee). Jumping with elastic cords on a personal trampoline is pretty hard for a kid to resist. At least we could watch with a coffee in hand from one of the local stores, and warm our backsides on the outdoor fire.

5. Personal S’mores

While at High Camp, call in at Alexander’s Cafe & Bar (booking is advised). Never mind the (very pleasant) entrees, go straight for the dessert and order the personal smores plate. They bring you a fire to the table and you cook your marshmallows right there. Maybe not for very young children but terrific fun for 4 or older.

The video version, in which we squash a whole weekend’s worth of fun into one minute:

Let it Snow! from TravelSavvyMom on Vimeo.

Read the review of where we stayed at the Village at Squaw Valley. You can find  information about these activities and more at The Village at  Squaw Valley website.

I love serendipity.

New Year’s is a holiday that can be hard to explain to young kids.  After all, they aren’t usually welcome at midnight champagne toasts – and if they are, well, they tend to be a little on the cranky side.  I wasn’t sure what to do with Chet this year since we would be up in New England and more than a little jet-lagged.

And just as I was commenting it was too bad there wasn’t anything specifically for Chet to do, Heidi from the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire invited us to come check out their New Year’s Day celebration.

I’m so glad we did.

Outside of the fact that the event included make-your-own-New-Year’s-hats, a ginger ale toast and an early ball drop with glitter and confetti just for the kids – we were also free to roam the museum itself.  And I’m here to tell you, it’s a pretty incredible place.

Chet handles radar in the submarine.

Natives of Dover may remember this building as the Old Butterfield Gym.  Now it’s an incredible hands-on educational museum full of magnet building stations, a dancing green screen exhibit, the obligatory train table and Mindball.  And, I can’t forget the main attraction, the Yellow Submarine.  It was hard to get Chet out of it.  Or his Dad, for that matter.

The museum is definitely worth a visit even when there isn’t a big event going on.  (In fact, you might be better off without the crowds).  Young kids will have so much fun, they won’t realize they are learning stuff.  Parents will have to stop themselves from pulling other kids off exhibits so they can play, too (and to that one little girl:  I still say it was my turn to play Mindball and your Mom should have told you to give the strange lady a shot).

So next time you find yourself in the Dover area, make a detour to the Children’s Museum.  You’ll have a blast.

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Want to learn more about the great events being put on at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire?  Visit their Web site calendar or follow them on Twitter @kidmuseumnh.

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side·track (sīd´trăk): n. 1. A diversion from the main course. 2. A detour taken with children that you would never, ever take without them.

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Who and What:
My husband, our two kids (7 and 4) and I.  A visit to the (spectacular) locations in the Tunisian Sahara where scenes from Star Wars were filmed.

Why:
We were in northern Tunisia and decided to fly to southern Tunisia, where we could organize a desert trip of special interest to our 7-year-old Star Wars fanatic.

The High Point:
Visiting Ksar Haddada, one of the whimsical structures which once stored grain and served as a trading post for itinerant Berber merchants and the mostly uninhabited Berber town of Chenini, carved into the rocks and perched dramatically over the desert. Riding a camel through the stunning Eastern Erg, with its dramatic, wind-swept sand dunes as far as the eye can see.

The Low Point:
Reaching places of interest in the desert means lots of bumpy, off-track desert driving in a jeep. The stunning landscape is extremely impressive. Unfortunately, our youngest son is prone to motion sickness and, well – you guessed it. Definitely the low point of an otherwise perfect day.

The Kids’ Take:
“Wow!”and “Cool!” were what we heard most. Our Star Wars fan loved seeing scenes from Luke Skywalker’s home planet and Annakin Skywalker’s slave quarters on the planet of Tatooine (named for the Tunisian desert town of the same name). Both kids were enthusiastic about riding a camel through the desert and running up and down the sand dunes at full speed.

The Adults’  Take:
My husband and I  certainly do not share in this obsession with all things related to a galaxy far, far away.  Still, it was an amazing experience for the entire family – and it also happens to be the location where those beautiful desert scenes in The English Patient were shot.

The Bottom Line: You definitely can’t do this trip on your own, with tough driving conditions over lots of unmarked paths through rocky desert. Hire a good driver and a guide. There are many tour agencies that can arrange your itinerary – we were pleased with Experience It Tours .

We’ll definitely be back in a few years to take a longer, 4 to 5-day camel ride through the desert, camping out in Berber tents along the way. The kids are already holding us to this. Let’s just hope our littlest desert explorer overcomes his motion sickness by then…