Family Summer Vacations

When the sun heats up city sidewalks take the family on a summer vacation in cooler climates. Here are mountain resorts, East and West, where you and the kids can enjoy family adventures hiking, mountain biking, river rafting and learning more about nature's natural rhythms. Several resorts have kids adventure camps, so your children will have lots of fun while you play a round of golf, go fly fishing, get pampered in a spa or attend an outdoor concert.

All of these mountain resorts offer a variety of family friendly packages every year. Here's a sampling of the packages you and your children can enjoy. To learn more about specific resorts and find other family vacation packages click on the links below.

Vermont: Smugglers' Notch Fun Fests Entertain the Family

The single-price Family Fun Fest packages at Smugglers' Notch in Vermont's Green Mountains are loaded with a mix of togetherness and age-specific activities. During the daytime, take a hike or play Aqua-Volleyball, while your 16-year-old is introduced to kayaking or a high-ropes adventure course. The younger age groups have their own entertainment, from arts and crafts for 5-year-olds to a Creek Peak or Forest Explanation wilderness journey for pre-teens and teens. Prices and length of packages vary throughout the summer, and accommodations can be in one- and two-bedroom units.

Colorado: Summer Festivals at Keystone

Keystone Resort, high in the heart of Colorado's Rockies, has festivals almost weekly during the summer. It's easy to wrap a visit around one of these special events. Book directly with Keystone Resort and you'll get an Adventure Passport that includes a variety of free activities from bike and paddle-boat rentals to a gold panning session. For details, visit Keystone Resort or call 800-468-5004.

Colorado: Communing with Mother Nature at Winter Park

Take the family rafting on the Colorado River and explore the surrounding national forest while mountain biking on the 600+ miles of trails in the Fraser, Colorado, area, a scenic one-hour drive from Denver over the Continental Divide. The Family Mountain Adventure package at Winter Park Resort includes four nights' lodging in a two-bedroom condo, a raft trip on the Colorado River, bike rentals and an all-day pass for resort activities, which includes rides on the Zephyr Express chairlift and the alpine slide, mini-golf, the Human Maze, the Leaps & Bounds Bungee and more. For details visit Winter Park Resort or call 800-979-0332.

California/Nevada: It's Heavenly Above Lake Tahoe

When riding up the gondola at Heavenly resort Lake Tahoe is on display below. While walking down hiking trails threading the ski slopes (or sailing downward on the Heavenly Flyer zipline) you'll see sailboats and motorboats dotting the lake far below. Take the kids for a paddle-boat cruise, go hot air ballooning, soak in hot springs, or just relax on the beach and help the kids build sand castles. Here, where California and Nevada butt up against each other, lodging choices range from comfortable condominiums to rooms in hotels with casinos. Two-night lodging packages are available in a variety of lodging, which include a cruise for two on the Lake Tahoe Queen. The summer JAMPACK deals include lodging and tickets for concerts with such headliners as Foreigner, Rita Rudner and James Taylor.

One evening you could attend one of the jazz, bluegrass or other concerts at the Valhalla Summer Art & Music Festival. Or, take a picnic dinner, sit on the shore of Lake Tahoe and introduce your older kids to a Shakespearean play.

More Summer High-Mountain Resorts for Family Vacations

Click on the "next" link below for family vacations at Aspen and Snowmass in Colorado; Deer Valley, Utah; Big Sky, Montana; Waterville, New Hampshire; Killington, Vermont; Boyne, Michigan; and Squaw Valley, California. You'll also find links to tips on planning family trips and a list of adventure travel companies that feature family vacations.

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The 50Plus Crowd Gravitates Toward This Adventure Travel Company

Overseas Adventure Travel's tours are designed for the 50plus age group, but that doesn't mean the trips are stodgy and big-bus tours. Among the more than 75 trips offered this year, there are plenty of active vacations and trips to new destinations, include Myanmar and Tibet.

Many of OAT's travelers are older women who are traveling solo.? Friends of mine say they go with OAT because the groups are small, have good guides and make traveling logistics easy.

Photo courtesy of Grand Circle Corporation

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Conditioning Wear to Keep You Playing Sports Longer

This performance sports apparel has an exoskeleton power system that targets key areas, focuses power into your muscles, and speeds recovery. Weekend warriors and professional athletes love this conditioning wear because they can ski, run and bike longer, remain feeling strong and recover faster.

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Travel Along the Underground Railroad Bicyle Route

The 2008-mile-long Underground Railroad Bicycle Route is a pedal-friendly network of routes from Alabama to Ontario that trace the paths, hideouts and historic sites of the slaves who fled northward to freedom during the pre-Civil war years. ? The Adventure Cycling Association, which developed the routes, recently finished the Detroit Alternative route for bicyclists who want to veer off the main route and see different sites.

Photo by Dennis Coello

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Beach Vacations for Adventures

Cliff jumping ensures an adrenalin rush to many visitors taking a beach vacation at a resort perched on Negril's West End Cliffs in Jamaica. If you think leaping or diving off a cliff and jumping into the ocean sounds appealing, but you're staying in a hotel along the popular Seven Mile Beach, just hop in a car or take a taxi for a quick ride to the cliffs. The cliffs range in height up to about 40 feet above the ocean, and cliff jumpers and cliff divers often can scramble up the side of a cliff to choose the height from which they want to jump or dive. Head to Tensing Pen, one of resorts on the cliffs, and you can jump off a bridge into the water.

Don't want to try it but you'd like to watch others climb up and leap or dive into the ocean? Snag a table and a beer at Rick's Cafe.

Along the Seven Mile Beach (which is actually about four-miles-long), sunbathing beachgoers can enjoy a variety of water sports from kayaking and sailing to jet skiing. Breezes Runway Bay Resort has multiple trapeze nets for guests who want to fly high.

Thanks to Kesey Blodgett, one of the editors at Oyster.com, for this suggestion. Oyster.com is a Web site with unbiased reviews written by experienced travelers who are paid to visit hotels as guests. The photos taken by reviewers depict what the resort actually looks like as well as the surroundings.

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