Tauck Travel
Book 8 people on any Tauck Bridges tour for travel in 2012 and your 9th traveler goes free! Tauck reminds The Family Traveler that family group travel is really popular around the school holidays and that their family tours holiday departures sell out quickly. Their most popular group destinations throughout the year are Africa, Italy and Yellowstone – and River Cruising. Book early to secure your family’s space! For group travel (a minimum of 8 people), a $500 deposit is all that is required to hold your space. The deposit is due within two weeks of the booking date and is refundable up until 120 days before departure. Also past guests receive one free hotel night before or after their tour if booked by December 28.
A Very Potter London
London’s Rubens at The Palace, a member of the Red Carnation Hotels portfolio, is now offering a Harry Potter Experience package. Your family will receive
complimentary breakfast and a black cab with a qualified driver/guide providing a three-hour guided tour of the London film locations used in all eight films. Sites include Platform 9 ¾, Diagon Alley and The Leaky Cauldron, Leadenhall Market, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, the route of the Knight Bus and more. The package can be added on to any other Family Value offers at the hotel. Your rate includes accommodations in an Executive Suite; full English breakfast for the whole family on the day of the tour; Harry Potter tour; Harry Potter wand with cloak and glasses for the kids; Harry Potter cupcakes at turndown; framed family photograph taken at the start of the tour; and a certificate that acknowledges completion of the tour. The taxi can take a maximum of four guests and a minimum two-night stay applies. This package is valid until December 31. Prices start from $965 per night (excluding VAT) based on two adults and two children under 10 years sharing an Executive Suite (children sharing sofa bed).
Summer in Gstaad
Switzerland’s Gstaad Palace, one of the last family-owned palaces in the region, has a Wonderful Family Summer package featuring four nights in a Double Superior Nord room with a view of the Swiss Alps. 
Receive a connecting room for half off for children age 15 and under. Also included are Swiss breakfast buffet and dinner at Le Grand Restaurant for up to four people; four “easy access” cards valid for three days (for use on cable cars, local buses, train transportation and entry to several tourist activities and museums in and around Gstaad) and use of the Palace Spa with indoor swimming pool, saunas, steam baths, indoor pool with Jacuzzi and Olympic-size outdoor pool. The package rate per person including half board is from $1,290 and is valid through September 13. The Gstaad Palace also features Roy Emerson summer tennis camps for ages 16 and up and a children’s program for ages 5-12.
Down Under Rail Adventure
The Great Southern Rail in Australia is providing half-off kids fares for up to two children up to age 15 (a savings of up to $950) when accompanied by two adults for travel through September 30. You must book by June 30. Family fares (two adults/two children) start from $1,540. Experience cross-continental rail services from Darwin to Adelaide on the Ghan or from Perth to Sydney on the Indian Pacific. Fares include travel in the recently refurbished Red Service in air-conditioned sleeper cabins as well as access to the Red Gum Lounges, good for relaxing with the family in spacious and comfortable surroundings while admiring the scenery. These two journeys are the world’s only two transcontinental services and together with the Southern Spirit and the Overland services these four journeys complete Great Southern Rail’s portfolio of Australia’s Great Train Journeys. These train journeys offer a way to travel the great distances between some of Australia’s key cities and are a nice alternative to flying. You can also choose from a full or partial journey aboard either the Ghan or the Indian Pacific.
Free Nights at Four Seasons
The Four Seasons Seychelles is giving away two free nights with a five night stay for a week in paradise with breakfast for two included per room. Some black-out dates apply. 
This family-friendly island resort in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of East Africa offers a year round Kids for All Seasons Club (age 4-12) and junior spa services for ages 6 to 17 including massage, facials (12 and older), manicures, pedicures and mother/daughter or father/son packages. On arrival, children also receive a t-shirt printed with their name, chilled juices and other amenities placed bedside each night and child-size bathrobes. Enjoy gorgeous white sand beaches, a lagoon, amazing pool, water sports, gym with fitness classes, hiking, and a variety of outdoor adventures off the property. The luxury resort features rooms, suites and residential villas including 67 unique treetop villas perched on stilts on the jungle hillside or nestled amid greenery close to the beach. Each villa has expansive indoor and outdoor spaces and infinity edge pools.
Irish Family Holidays
The Castlemartyr Resort in County Cork, Ireland, sister property to Dromoland Castle, is launching an enhanced version of its Castlemartyr Kids Club just in time for summer. From July 18 to August14, the luxury resort and its sprawling estate will be transformed into a recreational retreat for children. Children have their own check-in area and are welcomed in the room with milk and cookies, pint-sized bathrobes and small slippers. The Kids Club offers daily activities that are hosted by resident Irish Setters Earl and Countess, who will oversee the proceedings (with a bit of help from their human assistants). Programs are organized according to age: 4 to 8 and 9 to 12. Activities include a mini-Olympics; nature walks; off-site excursions (Fota Wildlife Park and Leahy’s Open Farm); arts and crafts; horse and carriage rides; storytelling; dog walking and cycling; face painting and games; and Kids’ High Tea every afternoon, followed by a movie night. Teens can engage in golf, archery, fly-fishing, biking and clay shooting. In addition, the resort has a pool, spa, gym with fitness class and several dining options. The property features rooms, suites as well as two and three bedroom self catering accommodations. A great break for a few days while your family is explores the Emerald Isle.
Disney Adds More Asia
Adventures by Disney is introducing a new Southeast Asia tour in 2013. 
The 12-day itinerary will include visits to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hoi An, Vietnam; Luang Prabang, Laos; and Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Family activities will include a tuk tuk treasure hunt around the Angkor Wat temple complex, learning the stages of rice production at an organic rice farm in Laos, and a Vietnamese cooking class after shopping for ingredients at a market in Hoi An. The Southeast Asia itinerary also includes time for fun in the sun along the coast of the South China Sea. Accommodations will include the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi.
Kids Rule in Victoria
The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, British Columbia is offering a Kids Rule Family Stay Package through April 27. 
Rates start at only $199 CAD per night and you can receive a third night at 50 percent off. Your rate includes overnight valet parking, children’s welcome toy, fun hotel Scavenger Hunt, one in-room pay per view movie with popcorn and non-alcoholic beverages for four and breakfast for 2 adults and 2 children. Also included are several discount vouchers to local area family attractions including Miniature World, the Undersea Gardens, Butterfly Gardens and more. Children 5 years and under eat free at the hotel and children 6 to 12 years receive 50% off food and beverage. This historic hotel sits on Victoria’s Inner Harbour and offers a spa, indoor pool, gym and several dining options. This year the City of Victoria is celebrating its 150th birthday with a variety of special events and celebrations.
Galapagos Discount
Enjoy an unheard of $1,000 per person discount on Thomson’s Family Adventure’s Galapagos Multi-Sport Adventure for June and July departures with the best that Ecuador has to offer. 
Your trip starts in Quito and then continues onto the beautiful Andean Highlands where your family will ride gentle horses through the hills of the highlands and wander villages and markets full of local color and crafts. Then it’s off to the Galapagos Islands for an up-close discovery of sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, tortoises, sharks, penguins and more. This tour offers the most special and unique way to see the Galapagos: You’ll sleep on land for four nights—two of them camping—and spend your days hiking, biking, and cruising in small boats out to some of the best snorkeling sites the Galapagos has to offer. From the best guides in the world, to the luxury of your gracious accommodations in a working hacienda, to the sand in your tent on a remote beach with the Southern Sky above, this adventure is one of Thomson Family Adventure’s most precious. Three departure dates are available: June 23; July 7; July 21.
Barcelona Dragon Hunt
Context Travel has added a two hour Barcelona orientation tour for families. 
The goal of the Dragon Hunt is to encourage active learning while introducing your children to the city’s history and architecture. Barcelona is home to the largest population of dragons in Europe. Carved out of stone, pieced together with bright tiles or forged in a hot fire and beaten into shape on an anvil, dragons guard ancient and modern facades all over Barcelona. As your family goes in search of the dragons, you will stop by some of the city’s most important monuments, tracing Barcelona’s history while discovering the city’s special relationship with dragons. The walk serves as a basic introduction to the city. Material from the Gothic period to the early 20th century will be covered. Depending on the age of the children, topics and difficulty will vary. The Dragon Hunt can run any day, however, we recommend Sunday mornings when the city hall opens its doors. It’s filled with some amazing spaces that you don’t usually get to see and of course lots of dragons. A real Medieval palace.
