There are big vistas, like the one atop Mount Washington. There are impressive mountain ranges, like the jagged Mackenzie Range. With more than 2,100 miles of coastline, there are choices of water views, such as the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean or the island-studded Johnstone Strait.

But visitors can find plenty of hidden gems on this island of more than 12,400 square miles, the largest island on North America’s west coast. My family and I discovered some great places, despite the limited size. And if young children are among the travelers, an hour or two at these locales are well spent. Here are some worth including on a family vacation itinerary.

UCLUELET AQUARIUM

Where: Ucluelet, B.C., south of the Long Beach Unit of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on the west side of the island.

The attraction: There are bigger living rooms than this diminutive operation, but it’s all about the creatures and the kids.

What we liked: The kids got wet, they learned something new and they had fun. They have touch tanks and aquariums filled with sea stars, sculpins, crabs, a Pacific octopus, anemones, rockfish, jellyfish, sea slug, pipefish, coho salmon fry and more. All the creatures come from nearby Barkley and Clayoquot sounds, and are returned at the end of the summer.

The young staff of volunteers is eager to get kids to touch the underside of a sea star or touch the tentacles of an anemone. “I’ll touch it if you touch it,” was the common challenge among visitors.

And that’s the idea, said curator Dave Hurwitz. “When you make it fun, kids will learn. That’s what we’re all about.”

Inside scoop: The place was crowded on the rainy morning we visited. Now that permits have been issued to allow construction in the intertidal zone, the aquarium is moving forward with plans for a new building. Hurwitz said he is going to invite architecture students from a Victoria university to submit designs for the building. The goal is to have the new building open by 2010.

Cost: $5 per adult and $2 per child.

Information: www.uclueletaquarium.org

MUSEUM AT CAMPBELL RIVER

Where: At the south end of Campbell River, B.C., on Highway 19A

The attraction: A museum that focuses on the local history of this town on the island’s east side.

What we liked: This award-winning facility, celebrating its 50th anniversary, could serve as a model for small-town museums. Visitors are first introduced to the history of the First Nation people who lived in the region. From the First Nation gallery, exhibits led us through the growth of the logging and fishing industries, the community’s development and the rise of recreational salmon fishing and the gamed Tyee Club.

Among the movies at the museum is one about Ripple Rock. With its top just feet below the surface, the rock made the south end of Seymour Passage one of the most dangerous waterways in British Columbia. The movie detailed the amazing engineering feat in which tunnels were dug underneath the twin spires and then filled with explosives. The top of Ripple Rock was lowered in 1958 by as much as 61 feet by what the movies call the world’s largest non-atomic explosion. There is a viewpoint off the highway north of town that overlooks the passage.

Inside scoop: There is a great display of First Nation masks that are used to illustrate the narrated story of “The Treasures of Siwidi.” Robert Ostler Park downtown offers views of the busy harbor and Discovery Passage. They playground is a great place to let the young ones burn off energy before a picnic lunch.

Cost: $6 adults, $4 students or $15 for a family (2 adults and children younger than 19)

Information: www.crmuseum.ca

SPROAT LAKE

Where: On Highway 4, 15 minutes west of Port Alberni, B.C.

The attraction: There is Sproat Lake Provincial Park that has a good beach, picnic area, campground and petroglyphs and the nearby Coulson Flying Tankers, the world’s largest firefighting bombers.

What we liked: Be sure to do the short hike to the petroplyphs. There are nine images in a rock wall just above the waterline. A small dock gives visitors a good view but also protects the images by keeping people back. Little is known about the images, known as K’ak’awin, most of which depict sea creatures.

Coulson, a private firefighting operation, flies two World War II-vintage Martin Mars flying boats. The planes, with 200-feet wingspans, can carry 7,200 gallons of water or foam. When not in service, you can tour the planes at the lakeside headquarters. The small visitor center is filled with photos of the planes in action, and there are two videos to watch.

Inside scoop: Of the seven Mars planes built during the war, only two remain, Hawaii Mars and Philippines Mars. When we were there, the Hawaii Mars was fighting fires in California. Gift shop prices seemed high.

Cost: Day fees at the park differ depending on how long you stay, but $3 will give you plenty of time. Plane tours are $10 a person, but the visitor center is free.

Information: www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks, www.martinmars.com

MACMILLAN PROVINCIAL PARK

Where: On Highway 4, about 10 mile east of Port Alberni, B.C.

The attraction: The small park is home to Cathedral Grove with its stand of 800-year-old Douglas firs.

What we liked: It was hard to grasp the scale and the ages of these giant trees. The largest Douglas firs measure more than 29.5 feet in circumference. There are plenty of places for kids to climb and crawl among the trees. But the park is more than big trees; we saw plenty of snails and slugs. The Cameron River flows along on edge of the park, leading to Cameron Lake. There is a picnic area just east of the park on the lake.

Inside scoop: A trail on the south end of the park is closed because several bridges were washed out by flooding. The park is on both sides of the busy highway so be cautious when crossing. Parking can be at a premium on busy days, so be sure your vehicle is well off the road if you’re not in the main parking lot.

Cost: Free

Information: www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks

WHALE INTERPRETIVE CENTRE

Where: Telegraph Cove, 15 minutes from Port McNeill, B.C., at the north end of Johnstone Strait.

The attraction: A great place to learn about the creatures that live in the nearby waters and the environmental and human challenges they face.

What we liked: This is the kind of place where you can let the kids go and know they will learn something, have fun and not get lost. The staff was very attentive, answering all the questions a visitor might have, regardless of age. The museum has an impressive display of full skeltons, including an orca, Dall’s porpoise, fin whale, bald eagle and a cougar.

Suspended from the ceiling, the 65-foot skeleton of a fin whale that was struck and killed by a cruise ship in 1999 dominates the museum. Fin whales are second in size to blue whales.

There also is a set of blue whale jaw bones that stretch from the floor to the ceiling almost two stories above visitors.

Inside scoop: The museum’s core message came through loud and clear. “One of our goals here is to educate the public that we can do things to protect the whales,” said museum guide Calida MacKenzie. “The good news is we are slowly learning, we just need to learn more. Every person can make a difference.”

Cost: By donation

Information: www.killerwhalecentre.org

OLD COUNTRY MARKET

Where: On Highway 4A in Coombs, B.C., not far from the popular destination of Parksville.

The attraction: Homemade pastries, bread, Cornish pasties and ice cream.

What we liked: OK, the goats on the grass-covered roof is pure kitsch, but the goodies inside are well worth the stop. So good, in fact, that we managed to stop three times while traveling around the island. We are fans of Cornish pasties, and the small ones sold made for a perfect lunch. They also had Jamaican patties, brioche, steak and kidney pies and African samosas. We also enjoyed the market’s desserts, such as fruit tarts, eclairs and hazelnut ganache-covered brownies. The lines were long in front of the ice cream counter featuring more than 20 flavors.

Inside scoop: A fun way to pass the time is to eat your ice cream outdoors and count the number of times a kid jumps out of the way after an adult says that the water trickling from the roof is really coming from the business end of the goats. There are a number of souvenier shops in the complex.

Cost: Depends on what you buy

Information: www.oldcountrymarket.com

ALERT BAY

Where: On Cormorant Island across Boughton Strait from Port McNeill, B.C.

The attraction: The island is the home of the Namgis (pronounced Namm-geese) First Nation. Places to visit include the U’mista Cultural Center and what is called the tallest totem pole in the world at 173 feet high.

What we liked: Our plans to visit the cultural center, featuring tribal masks and ceremonial regalia, were scrapped when there was a power outage on island shortly before our ferry arrived. But we did get to meet wood carver Johnathan Henderson, who is part of a well-known family of First Nation artists and has works at The Legacy gallery in Seattle.

The power outage forced Henderson outdoors to work on a large red cedar mask. When it’s completed, he plans to mount it on a carved circle of cedar measuring 46 inches across.

Inside scoop: Head for the cultural center first, especially if you are going to walk. It’s about 15 minutes from the ferry terminal. A cemetery featuring a number of totem poles is in the other direction.

Cost: The ferry was $30.50 for two adults and two children to walk on.

Admission to the center is $5 for adults, seniors and students and $1 for children younger than 12.

Information: www.umista.org

VANCOUVER ISLAND INFO SOURCES

Books

-”The Essential Vancouver Island Outdoor Recreation Guide” by John Kimantas (Whitecap Books). Lots of good information on island parks.

-”Hidden British Columbia: Including Vancouver, Victoria, and Whistler” by Eric Lucas (Ulysses Press). Offered plenty of information on towns and things to see.

-”Backroad Mapbook Vancouver Island, B.C.” This is the Canadian eqivalent to the DeLorme Gazetteers so popular with outdoors types here in the United States.

-”Frommer’s Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands & the San Juan Islands” by Chris McBeath (Frommer’s). Your standard Frommer’s guide, very formulaic.

Online

www.HelloBC.com

www.travel.bc.ca

In light of rising costs of fuel, food and hotel accommodations, the American Automobile Association advises that you do your research before getting behind the wheel.

Fortunately, the Internet is an excellent resource for the budget-conscious traveler, with web sites offering everything from helpful tools such as fuel calculators to ideas about innovative and affordable lodging opportunities such as house-sitting.

An estimated 32 million of you braved the nation’s roadways during the first weekend of summer this year, according to AAA. But even if the higher costs make you think twice before getting behind the wheel for a road trip this summer, the Internet can help you find ways to stay within your budget.

“If you know where you are going, you can plot out your trip and find the cheapest gas along your route,” says John Townsend, manager of public and government relations for AAA’s mid-Atlantic region.

“If you were able to make the trip last year,” Townsend adds, the higher costs “don’t have to be a deal breaker this year.”

To help make this summer’s trip both enjoyable and economical, here are some online resources to check out before — or even during — your trip:

Research destinations and lodging

What you want to do on your road trip is just as important as your budget. Whether you are looking for an amusement park or a national park or someplace unique you’ve heard about from a friend, there is an assortment of travel web sites, such as Road Trip America, eTravelogue, AAA, and Rand McNally, to help you research destinations.

Most sites also include cost-saving tips. “The biggest single expense on road trips tends to be lodging and whatever attractions you’re going to visit,” says Mark Sedenquist, publisher and managing editor of RoadTripAmerica. “One way to reduce costs is to camp as opposed to staying in motels.” Online camp reservation sites include Reserve USA and KOA Camping.

For more creative lodging ideas, check out house-sitting opportunities at the Caretaker Gazette and House Carers. For discounts on hotels, museums and attractions, Laurie Borman, editorial director for Rand McNally, advises checking out the web sites for city convention bureaus.

Map out your trip

Lodging or excursions used to be the highest ticket item for a road trip, but now gas prices are a top consideration, too. You can save fuel by taking the most direct route to your destination. Google Maps, MapQuest and AAA provide free services to help you plot out driving directions. Given that this is your family vacation, however, you may want to stop and see various attractions on the way.

Some road trip web sites, such as eTravelogue and Rand McNally, have features that not only let you plot out your driving directions but locate attractions en route based on interests (family visits, historic sites and national parks, for example) and distance from the main highways.

Next you can generate customized driving directions including all your stops. Chris McGowan, the publisher of eTravelogue, points out that his site even lists radio stations for news, jazz or whatever you want to listen to along your trip. Want to know which restaurants and hotels are located near a certain exit ramp and where you can get free Wi-Fi? TravMatix’s web site provides this information for major U.S. highways.

Calculate how much it will cost

It pays to try to get estimates about how much your trip is going to cost. AAA forecasts that the average cost of lodging is $164 per night this year. A family of four is expected to also spend about $80 per day in meals. Web sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Hotels can help you compare costs of different accommodations. You can also keep meal costs down by picnicking once a day and keeping snacks in a cooler (use the travel-planning web sites to pinpoint grocery stores along the way).

Fuel calculators are also available online from AAA, RoadTrip America and the aptly titled Fuel Cost Calculator, where you can figure out how much you’ll spend for gas based on your distance, regional prices, and the make, model and year of your car. Other sites, such as GasPriceWatch and GasBuddy, also clue you in on the least expensive gas where you’re headed.

If you’re worried about the cost to the environment for all the driving you’ll be doing, you can make a donation to offset the CO² you’re generating at the Carbon Fund organization’s web site.

Keep kids occupied

For parents who want to avoid hearing “Are we there yet?” over and over, there are several ways to keep the kids involved during your trip.

“You don’t want them to be absorbed by DVDs during the trip,” Sedenquist says. “They can get that at home.” Depending on the age of your children, Sedenquist suggests that older children can take turns helping to navigate in the car, holding the maps and telling Mom or Dad to turn right or left. Children can also take turns planning sights to see on different days. Sedenquist also suggests that each child have a “go kit” for the trip — a backpack filled with crayons, maps, games, a journal and so on.

Road games are always popular, such as trying to find the letters A-Z on license plates, highway signs and business signs along the route. A web site, run by Mom’s Minivan, features 101 car games, including counting cows, scavenger hunts on the road and sing-alongs. You can print out more games at Disney’s Family Fun site. For the teens, give them a budget and let them visit their favorite digital music download site before the trip so they can create some custom CDs with their favorite songs and audio books for the whole family to listen to together.

Also, equip your kids with a digital photo or video camera to take charge of documenting the trips. After all, says McGowan, who plans to drive with his girlfriend and her nephew from Boston to Wyoming this summer, the economic slump doesn’t have to keep you from making memories on the road. “We don’t let a little thing like gas prices get us down,” McGowan says.

About The Author: Elizabeth Wasserman is a freelance writer and editor based in Fairfax, Va. She writes for a variety of publications including Congressional Quarterly and Inc. magazine, and she edits the online publication CIO Strategy Center.

Ask the hotel about child facilities

Some resorts are built for couples, with lots of spas and romantic nooks. Kids will hate this. You need a resort with plenty of indoor recreational facilities, where they can play safely, and happily. Some hotels will even offer babysitting or child care services, so you can do some shopping or sight seeing on your own, without someone tugging at your knee and saying, “Mommy, can we go now?”

Don’t overload the itinerary

Kids get tired more easily, or can rapidly become overstimulated and cranky. Make sure that the itinerary leaves lots of room for resting, snacks, or (if you’re taking toddlers) even naps. commercial carpet cleaners you should only cover two major destinations in one day (one in the morning, another in the afternoon). If you want to see more sights, make arrangements to leave your child to rest in the hotel (see tip number one) and do it on your own.

Bring a “child care pack”

This includes lots of water (kids get dehydrated more easily), an extra change of clothes, and small toys to amuse them at restaurants.

If you are going to a warm place (like a beach or a tropical country) remember that kids are more vulnerable to sunstroke and sunburn. Bring sunblock, a handheld battery-operated fan, and sports drinks (which will help them retain water). Avoid bringing them out in the hottest times of the day.

Choose a kid-friendly itinerary

Consider your child’s age. A toddler will not be able to appreciate a historical tour of the country’s Medieval churches, and even a seven year old may not be able to stay still in a museum.

Look at the places you plan to visit and think, “Will he be able to understand this?” Compare the length of the tour with the upholstery cleaning arlington amount of time he can concentrate on one activity. Do this even before you choose a destination-if he won’t enjoy 50% of the key attractions, find another vacation place.

Be prepared to pay extra for comfort

You can save a lot of money by roughing it out in 3-star hotels or taking long bus rides, but it’s just not worth it when you’re traveling with kids. how to clean upholstery extra for comforts that will keep them in a good mood: soft beds, big pools, 3-minute access to restaurants or tour buses. Because if they’re happy, you can relax, and actually have fun too.

Get older kids involved in the planning

Kids are more likely to have fun if you get them “psyched” way ahead of the trip. They can help pick the destination (narrow it down furniture upholstery cleaning places you love and let them have the final say). You can also help them make a vacation scrapbook, where they can put “fast facts” on the place you will visit, as well as photos, postcards and other mementos.

The site Mashable is all about the cutting edge of high tech but today there is this article that list 20 tools that Mashable thinks are the great online tools for your family vacation.

Most of the article is including sites to book hotels, cars and other stuff as well as journalling your vacation experiences online.

The first tech stuff I used on a vacation was back in 1999 when I brought a laptop along on a long 16 day road trip. I used the program Map Point that is really the old version of Microsoft Streets and Trips and was able to map our vacation as well as get myself out of trouble whenever we got lost.

The newer versions of streets and trips actually come with a GPS unit that you can plug into your laptop so that you can find out where you are when you get lost…out of town this is really easy to do espcially in big cities.

1. Fly fishing, Scotland
If your kids love to fish this is the ideal location where you can fish for salmon or trout. Fly fishing is great for older kids but the young ones would struggle a bit with the coordination. There are great places to fly fish all over the world.

2. Dude ranch stay
Give your kids an authentic taste of the old West and take a step out of your hectic family life. Where I live in Alberta Canada there is a lot of this as well as in Montana and Idaho.

3. Cappadocia, Turkey
Kids will love this region of underground cities where they can explore the subterranean levels and the labyrinth of tunnels.

4. Galapagos, Ecuador
Take the family to the famed Galapagos Islands and enjoy the diversity of marine life by exploring the islands by sea kayak. The Galapagos are famous for the wildlife and are apparently where Darwin came up with a lot of his ideas on evolution.

5. Skiing Mt Cook, New Zealand
If you’re in this part of the world and really seeking a white winter family vacation, this is really the best place to go. Interesting item on this list. I always think of skiing as a bit expensive but have always done it only in western Canada. I would have to wonder how expensive it would be to ski in New Zealand…during the North American summer of course.

6. Horse riding, Argentina
Go on a unique family vacation on a horse Estancia in the Cordoba hills to try some home rides, long-distance pack trips, polo, bird watching, walking or simply relaxing. You can horseback ride anywhere in the world but the history and culture of Argentina and the cowboy lifestyle that they have there would be fantastic to see.

7. Ice Hotel, Quebec, Canada
Families with kids are more than welcome at this amazing hotel, constructed entirely of ice and snow, for either overnight stays or day trips. This I have seen pictures of and have always wanted to see.

8. Morocco
Live like a desert nomad for a night, ride a camel in the Sahara, relax by the beach in Essaouira, souvenir shop in the souqs, sample the tasty cuisine or even journey into the Atlas Mountains. Again Morocco is fairly safe but as with any non north american or european destination you need to be alert at all times.

9. Elephant safari, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Visit colorful ethnic hill tribes and sleep deep in the jungle on these safaris on elephant back. Elephants are sometimes tame but you need to take this seriously as bad trainers can breed angry animals.

10. Egypt
This is such an adventure location and can really bring ancient history to life for young minds.The pyramids are a hot place and the people around are a little dodgy but no one has every been unimpressed with seeing these.

I was in Winnipeg last week for work and purposely stayed at the Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton. The Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton is a great Airport hotel that is situated right acoess the street from the Winnipeg Airport which is great for travelling quickly overnight but if you are staying in Winnipeg for vacation it is not so good. The sheraton Four Points hotel and the Winnipeg Airport are about a 45 minute bus or 30 minute drive from downtown Winnipeg.

In staying at the Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton I had a chance to check out the amenities and dealt with the staff. First of all for some reason my room card failed to work in the morning at the hotel so I needed to get it reactivated and the staff did this really quickly, because they were a little short staffed they switched the card and then advised me that if it did not work that they would go ahead and send someone up.

The girl at the front desk knew exactly where my room number was on the floor and told me that there is a courtesy phone on a desk right behind me if I need to call them from outside my room.

I had an early afternoon flight out and when I phoned the front desk to find out the check in time I told them of my flight time and they immediately gave me a late checkout. I have had trouble getting late checkouts in the past, hotels make you feel like they are doing you a real favor usually when you ask for a late checkout and this was a great bit of service from the Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton.

The amenities at the hotel are not too exciting there is a fitness room, no showers or pool, and the equipment is all fairly new in the fitness room, a TV is in the corner and the windows of the fitness room look out over the parking lot but out to the downtown of Winnipeg.

The room I had at the Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton was nice as you can see in the picture above, tastefully decorated and had a desk, free internet with a network cable in the room and a comfortable desk (Wifi is in the lobby). I had one king size bed in the room and even though i was right next to the elevator I never heard any sound from the elevator all night.

Nice hotel.

Bookmark the camping checklist and use it the next couple of times out camping and see if you start to pack better as well.

Happy Camping

Some call it “multigenerational travel.” Others call it “grand tripping.” But the idea of grandparents swooping up children and grandchildren is one of the fastest-growing segments of the travel industry, according to the Travel Industry Association.

While the Web and guidebooks are full of tips on what makes for a successful three-generation trip, my husband, Larry, and I didn’t read any of that before going.

We didn’t even give a moment’s thought to rerouting to a kid-friendly spot such as Disney World. We were in love with the villa-in-Tuscany idea, no matter how arduous the logistics. And the Bryn Mawr agency that helped us book our villa, Doorways Ltd., assured us we were not pioneers.

About half of its bookings (about 3,100 people last year) are for grandparents taking their entire families, a share that’s been growing since 1994 when Kit Burns launched her villa rental business.

“When we first started, the renters were mostly couples and some families. Now it’s caught on with three-generation families,” she says.

The grandparents “can stay home one day or baby-sit while others go out. Also, it’s a different way for teenagers to experience their grandparents.”

Have you tried a holiday like this? I am sure that it is much more common than we really tend to notice. If you want to make multigenerational travel work well for you then it is best to make sure that everyone gets their space, kids, parents, and grandparents because having so many people together in a foreign place could be very stressful.

This though is the perfect opportunity to have a great vacation that no one could forget.

Americans have been making fun of family vacations from the time they came into style after World War II. The emergent medium of television captured some of the travails of the traveling family in late-night variety shows. Morey Amsterdam opened his show one evening in 1949 with a monologue reporting that he was just back from a vacation to Florida with his family: “I steered, my mother-in-law drove.” He commented on the expense of the vacation: “It cost us $400—a day.” It was “ten dollars for an aspirin.” He suffered the usual fate of the New York tourist in Florida when he admitted he went out on the beach and “walked away one big beautiful blister.” Morey Amsterdam’s jokes made television viewers feel better about spending the money and putting up with their families on vacation because they could laugh at themselves. Perhaps at least they recognized they weren’t alone in their stupidity!

In their comedy show on NBC television in 1952, Bob and Ray satirized the summer vacation by offering for sale a summer vacation kit “for people who want to be uncomfortable without leaving home.” It included a dozen items, among them “a bathing suit that makes you look kind of silly” and “a hard table so you feel like you have slept in a camp cot.” It came complete with a beach umbrella, along with a “handsome lifeguard to divert your wife’s attention while you are setting up the umbrella.” Finally, the sound effects man added the sounds of a day in the country: bullfrogs, owls hooting, crickets chirping, waves pounding on the beach, moose calling, the horn of a passing train sounding. Summer vacations were a lot of trouble and not really much of a vacation, but the men were caught up in this travel ritual for the sake of the family.

The family vacation parodies are based on the middle-class American vacation experience that many recognize as part of their own childhood memories. If the family vacation is such an ordeal, why do we go on vacation together? How did this madness get started? How has it changed from the days of our parents and grandparents, who stuck us in the backseat with our siblings? And why do we still spend our money and take time off work to go on vacation with our children? What does this say about us? Why do we do it?

This book is a cultural history of the American middle-class family vacation in its golden age. The era began as World War II ended in 1945, when family vacations became an established summer tradition, and lasted until the 1970s, when family road trips declined in popularity. Record numbers of parents loaded the luggage in the trunk of the family car, stashed the children in the backseat, and drove America’s highways together. Unprecedented prosperity and widespread vacation benefits at work meant most middle-class families could afford to vacation. Rising rates of automobile ownership and the construction of new highways facilitated the family road trip. An ideal of family togetherness in the baby boom justified spending money on a vacation.

To say the era was the golden age of family vacations does not mean to suggest a rosy-hued portrait of the past. Although it may have been the golden age for the white middle-class family on vacation, it was hardly a golden age for African American families who had to sleep in their cars after being turned away from motels that refused to rent them rooms, or for Jews who saw signs that read “Gentiles Only” or “Clientele Carefully Selected,” leading them to build their own resorts in the Catskills. Yet despite the discrimination, even these families joined the throngs on the nation’s highways in pursuit of family time together on vacation during the golden age of American family vacations.

The modern family road trip had its roots in the auto camping of the 1920s, when one young couple from New York City piled their belongings and their six-year-old (dubbed “Supercargo”) into their Ford and camped their way to San Francisco through twelve states in over thirty-seven days. In The Family Flivvers to Frisco, not much is made of the burden of traveling with a child who had a mind of his own. When they were forced by passing cars into a ditch near DeKalb, Illinois, the Supercargo “scrambled over the door and started, a small irate figure in yellow oilskins, to walk in the general direction of New York.” By the 1930s, family vacations were curtailed somewhat by the Depression, but so strong was the habit, they did not disappear. In Edward Dunn’s 1933 account of a western family vacation, Double-Crossing America by Motor, the four children were part of a traveling party of eight. As long as they stopped for their afternoon treat of ice cream, the children seem to have posed no problem at all. This family, who could afford a cross-country jaunt to Arizona for a month at a dude ranch, was far wealthier than most Americans, especially in the depths of the Depression.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is harnessing the power of Google Earth to build an interactive, three-dimensional tour of Walt Disney World Resort that brings you one step closer to a true park experience. With direct links to Disney’s online travel-planning tools, Walt Disney World Resort in 3D will re-invent how people plan and book vacations.

Beginning today, Disney guests can use Google Earth, a program which offers a 3D digital model of the world, to virtually tour Walt Disney World’s four theme parks, as well as its 22 hotels and resorts. An overview of Walt Disney World Resort in 3D, along with instructions on how to get started, can be found at www.disneyworld.com/3dparks. Existing Google Earth 4.3 users can see Walt Disney World Resort in 3D by enabling the “Gallery” folder within Google Earth, or by selecting any of the 3D buildings within the resort.

“You know the phrase ‘next best thing to being there’? Walt Disney World Resort in 3D is going to deliver on that,” said Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “Guests and travel planners can now explore our world with just a few clicks of a mouse, and they can book vacations while being immersed in what the destination has to offer.”

Disney’s digital mapping project, Walt Disney World Resort in 3D, will become the ultimate online travel guide for Walt Disney World Resort, integrating the Google Earth 3D experience with the planning features of Disney.com. Whether guests book through the Disney reservation center, a travel agent or online, nearly nine out of ten Walt Disney World guests use the internet to plan their vacations and Walt Disney World Resort in 3D provides the latest technology available to enhance that experience. From Google Earth, guests and travel planners can click on images of their favorite attractions and hotels to purchase tickets, make reservations, and map out the vacation that is right for their families – in 3D and with the click of a mouse. Disneyworld.com visitors can view videos and other information about viewing Walt Disney World in 3D at www.disneyworld.com/3dparks.

The depth and vivid detail of Walt Disney World Resort in 3D project makes this a unique, truly immersive experience within Google Earth. Visitors begin their virtual tour of Disney World with a stratospheric view of the globe, a starting point familiar to anyone who has ever used Google Earth. A skydive takes visitors past the flatlands of Florida to a view of the Seven Seas Lagoon in the Magic Kingdom. Guests can then fly through the streets and explore in and around the hotels and resorts, down Main Street to Cinderella Castle, from the heights of The Tower of Terror to base of the Tree of Life. To enter the virtual park:

* Download Google Earth 4.3 by visiting www.disneyworld.com/3dparks.
* Launch Google Earth and search for ‘Disney World’
* Click the Gold Mickey Ears to open an info window.
* In the info window, click “Show Disney World in 3D.” Now explore!

“This is the most detailed 3D rendering undertaken within Google Earth to date,” continued Rasulo. “The work done here will provide a professional counterpart to the wealth of Disney images and 3D models from around the world contributed by thousands of volunteers. The difference Walt Disney World Resort in 3D provides is one of scope and interaction.”

During the project’s first phase, eight photographers worked for 10 days to shoot all the visible surfaces of Walt Disney World, including every building façade. A total 100,000 photos were taken in all; these became the start for some 1,500 3D models that populate the virtual tour. Walt Disney World Resort in 3D creates a new level of usability for vacation planners and makes detailed information about one of the world’s foremost destinations available to Google Earth’s 350 million users, furthering the Google Earth team’s goal of recreating the world as it really is.

About Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is where dreams come true and magic comes to life. This segment of The Walt Disney Company encompasses 11 theme parks at five of the world’s leading family vacation destinations – Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. It also includes: Disney Cruise Line; Disney Vacation Club; Adventures by Disney; Disney Regional Entertainment, which operates the ESPN Zone sports dining and entertainment centers; World of Disney stores in New York, Orlando and Anaheim; and Walt Disney Imagineering, which creates and designs all Disney parks, resorts and attractions. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts had approximately $10 billion in revenues in fiscal 2006. More information about Disney Travel on Demand and all of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts can be found at www.DisneyParks.com.