Have you heard of the ice hotel (Hotel de Glace) in Quebec?  It just opened for the season on Friday.  You can go for just a few hours, and take a tour, or eat brunch.  Or you can stay overnight. You can even have your wedding there!   And, because it literally disappears every year, the ice hotel is redesigned each season. I think that’s kind of neat.

Would you stay over at the ice hotel?  Even though those people in the picture up there look cozy, I hate being cold, so I’d probably only go for a visit.  Either way, it’s pretty rad.

I thought I’d interrupt the gift ideas to share this… Budget Travel has posted their annual list of top budget travel destinations for 2012.  Wouldn’t Belize or the Azores (shown above) be a lovely place to visit in February?

More gift ideas tomorrow and next week!

Nothing drives fear into the heart of this experienced traveller like the thought of flying with a kid.  We did it successfully back in September, on our trip to NYC, but that was a pretty short flight.  What if we want to go a bit further?

A friend and her 7-month old babe are flying to San Francisco this week, and I’ve been thinking about them.  That’s a 5 hour flight from Toronto (longer if you do a layover).  Yikes!  In order to try and help her out, I compiled a list of blog articles I’ve read about travelling with babies:

Ten Tips for Traveling with a Baby from Cup of Jo

Tips for Flying with a Baby from Hannah of akhmatova

Traveling with a Toddler from You + Me

Up, Up and Away from Coos and Ahhs

A bajillion handy articles from the Canadian site, Have Baby will Travel

And in this weekend’s NY Times, there’s a great article about flying with children.

Have you flown with your little ones?  How did it go?  Do you have any more tips?

[image via here]

Do you get intense wanderlust for a quiet place in the woods, like I sometimes do?  Check out Cabin Porn, “inspiration for your quiet place somewhere”.  Dreamy.

I saw this print hanging in Desmond & Beatrice (an amazing cupcake shop/bakery on Queen St East) last week, and it made me smile.  That, and the cupcake.

Do you sometimes wish you could escape to your own private island? You can. It’s called Nanuku Island in Fiji, and it’s only $400 per night, which seems like a deal, don’t you think?

Der Schwarze Koelner Biergarten is a… wait for it… German beer hall.  Yep, bet you could have guessed that one. Ian, the beer enthusiast, loves their selection of hard-to-find German beers. I love their brezels – soft German pretzels, served with mustard or cheese.

But without a doubt, the reason why we both love Der Schwarze Koelner the most is because of their “beer and babies” playgroup. On Thursday afternoons, before the bar opens to the general public, they push back all the tables, set up some playmats and toys, and encourage parents to bring their tots for playtime and a drink. I’ve been to this sort of thing before in Toronto, where you can have a coffee or tea while your little ones play. But a baby playgroup in a bar? Where you can drink amazing beer while your kids play?  BEST IDEA EVER.

The “beer and babies” playgroup is called Stutengarten Brooklyn, and they have a Facebook page here. We’ll be heading over there this afternoon!

[images of Der Schwarze Koelner taken by me on my iPhone, and stitched together using PicStitch.  That's Clara at Stutengarten Brooklyn, playing with a crinkly-book toy.  Don't you love her argyle pants and socks?]

Yesterday was a gorgeous day in NYC, so we decided to check out Brooklyn Bridge Park – a strip of public green spaces and piers along the East River, around the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.  One of the main attractions, Jane’s Carousel, just opened.  So of course I had to take Clara on a ride, which she loved (she smiled and stuck her tongue out – her new trick).  Then we strolled around, enjoying the sunshine and the views.  What a great spot.

We’ve been in NYC for about a week and a half now (of our three week trip), and I would love to share some of our adventures and my travel picks with you.

First up is Fort Greene, the neighbourhood in Brooklyn where we’re staying. We LOVE it here. Residential tree-lined streets with gorgeous brownstones and old estate homes, great restaurants, Fort Greene Park and its green space, excellent access to subway lines, the only Target in Brooklyn, etc, etc. And everything is extremely family-friendly.  You can’t throw a stone around here without hitting a baby stroller. When people say that Leslieville is the “Brooklyn of Toronto”, this is what they must be referring to. This area certainly feels like home, but better.

Our favourite spots in Fort Greene (so far):

The Smoke Joint and Not Ray’s Pizza for delivery – they’re both really fast, cheap, and delicious. The Greene Grape has amazing gourmet groceries and coffee. Habana Outpost offers crazy-good Cuban food in a family-friendly atmosphere. They have an outdoor courtyard with a cool fountain, where kids run around and people chill in hammocks. The beer list at the Brooklyn Public House is impressive, and they didn’t blink when we brought our baby to happy hour.

Butterfly Nail Plaza is a no-frills but clean NY-style nail bar, where I got a great inexpensive manicure. Fort Greene Park is a good spot for a picnic and people watching. There’s a farmers’ market there on Saturdays with fresh produce, dairy, breads, fish, and more. The independent Greenlight Bookstore has an excellent selection of books by local writers (including Nicole Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer), lots of books about Brooklyn and NYC, and great cards.

I have a few more great spots to share with you, but I’ll save them for their own posts later in the week.

[pic of Dekalb St in Fort Greene taken by me]

This past Saturday, we flew on Porter Airlines from Toronto to Newark, in order to get to the apartment we rented in Brooklyn.  We could have flown another airline that would take us to JFK or LaGuardia airports, which are much closer to Brooklyn… but we chose Porter specifically because we’ve had great experiences with them in the past, and we trust their high level of customer service.

I was very apprehensive about flying with baby Clara, who is just over 5 months old.  Before our trip, I googled air travel tips, trying to find as much info as I could in advance.  I even called the airline’s customer service line and asked all kinds of specific questions (exactly how much baby formula can you take with you?  can we bring our own bottled water for mixing the formula?  can we gate check the stroller AND the car seat? etc etc).

In the end, the flight went swimmingly.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about.  Both Porter and Clara were amazing.

Now that we’ve done it, I’d like to share some tips with you, if you’re interested.  (click on those three little dots below to continue reading)

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