This newsletter is devoted to the data, more quantitative in nature. The next newsletter will be a summary of your comments, which were VERY helpful, and more qualitative.

WHO ARE YOU?

The survey focused on single adults who travel with children. The majority of you are single parents, representing 86%. So who are the rest? Two noticeable groups of respondents are single grandparents traveling with their grandkids (8%) and married adults who travel frequently without their spouses (7%).

Of the single parents, 61% are the custodial parents and 16% are non-custodial parents. (The remaining respondents were sharing custody or provided no answer.) We are glad to see that both parents travel with their children. The majority of respondents were female (88%), but the men who did respond are highly involved with their children. While this doesn't surprise us, we hope in the future that more single parent dads' voices will be heard. Most (43%) dads are sharing custody or are custodial parents (25%). (The remainder either were not single parents, or did not respond to the question.)

Forty-seven percent of our respondents ranged in age from 40 to 49 years. Close behind are the thirty somethings at 31%.

KIDS, KIDS AND MORE KIDS!

The average number of children of our respondents was 1.7, just about two kids per household. The majority of you have children aged six through 17. See the chart just below.

INCOME AND TRIP SPENDING

Our biggest surprise was the fact that the majority (21%) of the respondents to our survey had incomes exceeding $75,000. The three categories, - under $30k, $30k-$39k, $40k-$49, were evenly distributed at approximately 17%. Overall, there really wasn't much differential between income categories. Regardless of salary, the majority of you (45%) spend less than $2,500 on your annual vacation. The next largest segment (31%) spends $2,501 to $3,999. From the comments, it was obvious to see that while the incomes of the single parent are higher than one would stereotypically expect, as a group you are receptive to bargains, particularly if the bargain targets the single parent family directly. Armed with these statistics and comments, we are writing to PR companies, hotels, airlines, ANY travel supplier to seek out travel bargains specifically that benefit the single parent. As you know, they are hard to come by. Our hope is that these statistics will encourage travel suppliers to CREATE some. (We did find one this month - see Windjammer above.)

HOW DO YOU TRAVEL?

Over half of you take quick trips of seven days or less. From the comments, we surmised that weekend trips are the easiest or most affordable time or money-wise. The next largest trip size, 8 to 10 days, was 31%.

Most of you fly (67%) or drive (30%) to get to your destination on your annual vacation. From the comments, we could see many respondents take multiple methods of transportation, flying, driving, etc., depending on the trip type. The comments were filled with respondents interested in cruising, but very few responded to taking a cruise for their annual vacation. We suspect that might have to do with the single supplements in the cruise industry that penalize single parents.

We were surprised to see how many of you like to travel independently (75%). Those who like to take a prepackaged tour represented 23%. Again, we think one reason may be because single supplements make prepackaged tours unaffordable.

The question about what type of trip you prefer is always a difficult one to quantify. Roughly speaking the majority of you like a mixture of activities and relaxation or like very active trips. The "other" category was filled with all sorts of comments including visiting family, skiing, hiking, Disney World, camping, ecotours, just to name a few. In your comments many of you mentioned those types of trips as well. We laughed when we read the mixed feelings about Disney! From "safe", to "too expensive", to "over-hyped". The comments ran the gamut. Our hope is to provide alternative affordable suggestions for Disney, but we have to admit we have a blast whenever we go there, although it is rare due to the price.

Our favorite part of the survey was the destinations. Since the majority of you are residents of the US, it is only natural that the majority of you travel within the U.S: 21% traveled to a place in the U.S. that was less than a one day's drive and 35% traveled to a U.S. destination that was more than a one day's drive. Ten percent of you have been to Europe, ten percent to the Canada, eight percent to Canada and seven percent to Mexico. Eight percent have taken a cruise. A few have been to Central or South America, Asia and Africa. We had at least one Aussie who has traveled within her own country!

WHERE ARE YOU

The easy answer is all over! Literally! We had a few international responses: the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium and Bermuda. Now that we are in the early stage of our mission of making travel easier for single parents, we are focusing on the US. Later, we will see if there is anything we can do for those residing abroad.

The five most represented states in order are California, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We didn't hear at all from Arizona, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. If you have friends in any of these states, please tell them to sign up for the newsletter so when we have our next survey, their voices will be heard! The most represented cities/towns were New York, NY and Houston, TX. Other cities/towns that had good representation are Los Angeles, CA; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Greenville, NC; San Antonio, TX; and Arlington, VA. So that those in our nation's small towns don't feel underrepresented, we listed a few places below.

Oxford, AL
Jonesboro, GA
Davenport, IA
Mundelein, IL
Chesterton, IN
Leawood, KS
McGregor, MN
Fredericktown, MO
Janesville, WI
Huntington, WV

III. SUBSCRIBERS SPEAK UP-REQUESTS, INQUIRIES, COMMENTS When we first started this newsletter one year ago, it had a much smaller readership and the comments were few and far between, so we simply included them in the newsletter. Now, we are getting a greater volume and some inquiries are time dependent and can't necessarily wait the full month for the newsletter to come out. So, I wanted to take a vote. Please let me know (via e-mail at globalbrenda@yahoo.com) if:

Scenario A: You wouldn't mind me just forwarding those comments directly to the list. That means more traffic, say five to ten emails a month instead of just the newsletter

Scenario B: OR you would prefer me to just copy and post them to the monthly newsletter as I have been doing. Thank you for your feedback.

On to the comments.

tanderson141@attbi.com is "Looking for travel companion for summer 2002. I live in the Chicago area, have a 7 yr old boy, with Downs Syndrome. Looking for M or F with 1 similarly aged or younger child. Travel destination open." Please contact tanderson141@attbi.com directly.

JLB from Germany. writes, "Hey, My wife wanted to "find" herself and what she found was a lover on a chat line here in Germany. My family now consists of myself 43, my 9-year-old son Nicolai, and my 12 year old daughter Nadja. We will stay in Germany and travel is a big part of our lives. I am looking for places in Europe, hotels that caters to kids as well as big kids. If there is anyone that has found places like this please forward that info. also if anyone is planning a trip to Germany we live in Bavaria near Nürnberg. Keep smiling." Please write him at zinsk2001@yahoo.com

BULLETIN BOARDS: My daughter spent two months struggling with the technology for bulletin boards and couldn't find the time to get the bulletin boards running. So we decided to hire someone to install them. We need to save a little money first, so please bear with us!

IV. DOCUMENTATION; LEAVING THE U.S. WITH PROPER PERMISSION
An enormous number of e-mails have inquired about what documentation is needed to leave the U.S. with your child and without the child's other parent. The situations are varied and often the other parent is unwilling to help or is simply unavailable. The short answer is there isn't a steadfast rule. The situation depends on the destination and often the whim of the airline, cruise and customs officials. We are researching this topic and hope to have some answers for you over the next few months. In the mean time, we have found the only source on the Web that offers some help, Family Travel Forum (www.FamilyTravelForum.com). With their permission, we have supplied you with an excellent article and sample notarized letter. Please click on the link below. http://www.singleparenttravel.net/Articles/Documentation/

We would like to share a recent experience by a subscriber traveling to Mexico: "I was able to travel with my daughter with only a small problem in Mexico. I didn't have any problem in Los Angeles since I have a passport in her name and not just the birth certificate. The Mexican Tourism Board told me that since they had changed the laws last July, that you need a letter from the other parent in order to get a passport for a minor, that you no longer need a letter in order to go to Mexico. Unfortunately that information has not made its way to the immigration department at the airport in Cancun.

So there was no problem with me leaving LAX, but after waiting an hour in line the man at the immigration counter in Mexico asked me for the letter. I tried to explain to him about the changes and that I had spoken to the Mexican Tourism Board and that they told me that it would be okay. He clearly didn't believe me, but since I was already in Mexico he decided to just let us through and not call over his Supervisor.

I am very glad that I was able to go and had a wonderful trip, but I probably won't be planning any other vacations to Mexico or Costa Rica since they are the only places that have this law regarding the letter. My daughter's father is a dead-beat-dad who works under the table to avoid child support and it was very frustrating that he was almost able to stop us from going on vacation." - C.C.

POSTING MESSAGES
Feel free to send me your comments, queries or feedback to me directly at: globalbrenda@yahoo.com or to the list directly at: SingleParentTravel@yahoogroups.com. Please note that comments sent to the list must pertain to single parent travel.