Welcome to the June 2005 edition of SINGLE PARENT TRAVEL e-zines - a continuing series of monthly newsletters created for the community of single adults who travel alone with kids.

To sign up for our newsletter go to
http://www.SingleParentTravel.net. Forward this newsletter to a friend!

In this issue:

I. GLOBAL BRENDA'S MESSAGE
II. SINGLE PARENT TOURS
III. MULTI MEDIA APPEARANCES
IV. INCREDIBLE UTAH
V. MEETING OTHER SINGLE PARENTS
VI. SUBSCRIBERS SPEAK UP-REQUESTS, INQUIRIES, COMMENTS

I. GLOBALBRENDA'S MESSAGE

Dear Readers,

As summer approaches, I bet some of you "last minute bookers" are still stymied as to where to spend your summer family vacation. Check out what Single Parent Tours has to offer this summer in the section below. Also, we are now open for reservations for our ever-popular Rocking Horse Ranch Resort weekend in November. For those of you planning to visit Las Vegas, or a national park, read Section IV on Utah. If you don't have national park hotel reservation, you can book online at www.xanterra.com or give them a call. The numbers are posted on the Web site. Many of you may not be aware that this is a free reservation service. Xanterra does not pop up at the top when you do a Web search. Exercise caution if you use another Web site. Some Internet companies charge an immediate 12% non-refundable booking fee, certainly not the case with Xanterra. On another note, if you are planning to visit Yellowstone National Park this summer, be aware that Highway 212 (Beartooth Highway), the incredibly scenic northeast entry to the park, is closed until October, due to mudslides. There is a longer alternate road that gets you to Cooke City from Red Lodge.

This past month Single Parent Travel has been busy with radio appearances across the country as well as feature articles in major publications such as the NY Times. June 15th is my next radio appearance, on www.worldtalkradio.com. Also I will be in Portland, Oregon July 9-10 to speak at the national PWP convention. Check out Section III for details.

On a personal note, I recently joined Maxim Tours, a boutique tour operator, as their Director of Latin American Operations. Maxim Tours specializes in Africa and Latin America. Please do not email me asking for advice on a "deal" to Cancun. For that type of information, call one of the travel agents listed in my book, "The Single Parent Travel Handbook." Maxim Tours specializes in custom- made itineraries for individuals and small groups. In 2006 Single Parent Tours will work with Maxim Tours to create a custom made package for single parent families to either Costa Rica or the "up and coming" destination - Guatemala. Due to my new job, I was unable to devote time to research "Single Parent Specials" but we will include that section in our July newsletter.

Happy Trails!
GlobalBrenda

II. SINGLE PARENT TOURS

Single Parent Tours still has space on all our one-week summer departures:

June 18 - Rock Springs Guest Ranch - Bend, Oregon
July 24 - Beaches - Turks & Caicos
August 21 - Beaches Boscobel - Jamaica

All these beautiful resorts offer family and kids' programs, as well as childcare facilities. Come join us! You will have a great time and you and your kids will make new friends as well.

If a one-week resort trip is not in your family vacation plans, then join us for an activity-filled weekend at Rocking Horse Ranch Resort, November 18-20. Eee Haa!

For pricing and further details on these trips, click on
http://www.SingleParentTours.com
For reservations and information, call 877- GOGO SPT. Ask for Janet or Lynda.

III. MULTI MEDIA APPEARANCES
Memorial Day Weekend I was a first-time guest on Anne's new Friday night Singles Party Show, that broadcasts to Wisconsin and Minnesota. On Mother's Day I was a repeat guest on "Ask Heloise," a nationally syndicated radio show broadcast from Texas. On June 15th, I will be a guest on World Talk Radio, an Internet radio program that streams live via the Net. The show, called "American Explorer," will air live between 8 and 9:00pm EDT. Click on http://www.worldtalkradio.com to hear the show. Or you can access the archives 24/7.

Single Parent Travel was featured in the Sunday, June 5th travel edition of the New York Times, as well as the June edition of Parent and Family Magazine, which services West Central Ohio. Readers, if you read other articles about Single Parent Travel, please let us know right away. We can always access the article via the Internet. Journalists will occasionally extract information from my Web site without calling us and we like to follow up to establish a relationship with the writer, as well as check the articles for completeness and accuracy.

Lastly, I will be speaking at the national convention of Parents Without Partners on Saturday, July 9th, in Portland, Oregon. The convention will be held at the Embassy Suites Airport. If any of my Oregonian readers would like to join us, please let me know, or if anyone wishes to have me speak before a gathering of single parents, I will be happy to do so. I will be Portland July 9-10.

IV. INCREDIBLE UTAH
When people think of national parks, a few famous ones immediately come to mind - Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Banff, to name a few. But there are hundreds of other national parks in the U.S. and Canada that are not as well known. Among those are the jewels of Southern Utah - Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands. I wrote about these 5 national parks extensively in my book, "The Single Parent Travel Handbook." In the book, I discussed trails - which ones are good for the wee ones, as well as older kids. I also discussed things to do and see on the way to and from these parks, as well as where to stay. This article will be much briefer discussion, but one that I hope will inspire you to buy the book and then get out there with your family and see and hike some of the most captivating scenery in the world.

Continue this story here:
http://www.singleparenttravel.net/Writing/Utah.htm

V. MEETING OTHER SINGLE PARENTS

A single dad in Boston wants to meet other single parents in the same area. Check out his posting here: http://tinyurl.com/exxh5

myjujubes is a single mom from upstate NY looking to take a trip with others to Walt Disney World in August 2005. Read her post here:
http://tinyurl.com/clb3l

Please note that this bulletin board service is provided free of charge to our readers. The Single Parent Travel Network does not monitor postings or have any knowledge of the exact nature of the individuals doing the posting. BEFORE communicating with anyone on the bulletin board, please take precautions to protect you and your family. Also, please note that if you post your email address on the bulletin board, there is a likelihood that it will be harvested by spammers. Thank you.

VI. SUBSCRIBERS SPEAK UP-REQUESTS, INQUIRIES, COMMENTS

Christina from NW Florida writes: First of all thank you for your wonderful website. I wish I had known about this last year when I took my then 7 year old from Florida to Tennessee, North and South Carolina and back again. It is very frustrating and most of the time much more expensive to travel with one child. We are planning another trip in July (about 1 week) and are not sure about the location yet. Maybe Washington DC, which would require a flight and public transportation, or anything in driving distance (we are in Northwest Florida). If you have any suggestions and/or ideas I would appreciate it. She loves art, history, science, etc. has been to Italy (Milan, Venice, Rome,etc), Germany, New York. Maybe New Orleans, but am a little worried about safety. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

GlobalBrenda's response:
I referred Christina to my book, "The Single Parent Travel Handbook," that has a chapter on Safety. I also referred her my Web site - the Single Parent Specials Section the archived newsletters that discuss some of the destinations she has in mind. Since Christina leaves in July for her trip, readers are welcome to email Christina directly at cm@gnt.com.

Jenni from Barcelona, Spain writes:
I enjoyed reading your advice in singleparenttravel.net concerning traveling with kids as a single parent. I downloaded some of the advice for a Catalan friend with the double motive of helping to plan his vacation and improve his English at the same time. Reviewing the article to attach some translation notes I noticed the repeated use of the word "Mom" in the "rules of the road" section.
Can I offer a bit of editor´s advice to the great travel advice? Not all single parents are women. A growing number of them are men. Running the risk of lengthening the articles a bit, can we all remember to say Mom / Dad when publishing advice about parenting? It´s a great feeling to be recognized in print and I think that conscientious single dads deserve the moral support of being fully recognized members of the parenting club. Thanks for hearing me out on this point.
GlobalBrenda responds:
Thank you for your valued feedback. Approximately 20% of my readership is single parent dads. At the time I was writing my book, "The Single Parent Travel Handbook," several dads wrote to me saying that their voices were not heard, that they too, could be loving and organized when they travel with their kids. So I put out a message to my single parent dad readers: Send me your stories and they did. My book contains 7 delightful and heartwarming stories from single parent dads, each of them very different. If you tell me where you found rules of the road, I will be happy to go back and re-edit the article.

Darlene writes:
I came across your site by accident and am so happy that I did. However, I am bummed as I already booked my trips for this year. How far in advance do you book for the following year? Have you thought of doing a Caribbean vacation around Easter? I would be interested in booking for 2006. Your site made me feel better. My daughter (10) went to Jamaica at Easter and had a wonderful time, so good in fact that I booked a Riviera Maya trip over 4th of July. I was getting a little nervous about traveling to Mexico when I came across your site and read the wonderful review and "not to worry." Thanks so much! GB responds:
Thank you for the kind comments. We currently have no plans to book spring tours. I recently did a survey to determine when people had school vacation time and the time period spanned 8 weeks! So we abandoned that idea. We hope you can join us next summer.

Sue writes:
I'm a single mom with a 9-year-old daughter. In August I might like to do a road trip, undecided destinations so far. I'd love to hook up with other families like ours, especially if you are interested in camping. Please contact us at: sudok@aol.com to offer ideas or companionship.

Dolphrnlvr writes:
My daughter is 14 and we usually take a trip over her Christmas break from school. Last year we took a Carnival cruise for 8 days to the Mexican Rivera. Very fun. This year I am looking for another trip around the last week of December. Is anyone else looking at this time frame for a trip and do you have suggestions for an all-inclusive resort? We probably will end up on another cruise as she really loved it with all the activities for the teen group, but I felt kind of lost and lonely with not much to do all by myself. GB writes: Readers can respond directly to "dolphfnlvr" at beachlvr08@cox.net

GB writes:
In our last newsletter Amanda had some documentation questions and readers copied me on the responses. Here are two sample responses: (Readers, keep in mind my Web site has sample consent letters under the Documentation section).
A reader responded:
"I, too, have a child with a man to whom I was never married. I have full custody as well. We traveled to Jamaica last year and thanks the advice on Brenda's site, I was well prepared. I wrote a note that basically said... I give (my name) permission to take our son (son's name) to Jamaica from 4/15/04 thru 4/22/04. His father signed it and I had it notarized. I must note that it is supposed to be signed in the presence of the notary. At the time I was unaware of this and the notary made an exception (she was a relative). Hope this helps! Teri wrote: "I'm a single mom of a 6-year old girl. My situation is the same as Amanda's, her father and I were never married, we do not have any formal custody agreements drawn up, and she has always lived with me. My daughter does have her dad's last name so when I applied for her passport, he had to sign off on the application. We traveled to the Bahamas last year and just to cover our bases, her dad (he's an attorney) drafted a letter that included our complete itinerary and granted me permission to take her out of the country. Hope this helps".

Veronica writes:
I want to thank you for your newsletters, very informative. I am looking for other single parents in the NJ area. I am a single mom of 2 girls, aged 11 and 12 NJ. Looking to find other single parents to take trips or do day activities with. (GB: Readers can respond directly to Veronica at vekj@optonline.net

Tammy from New York writes:
I'm a single mother of an adopted soon to be three-year-old girl. First off I want to say that I think the Hamptons House is a wonderful idea. Now if we can find someone who would be interested in running a Mount Snow Ski Share house for single parents that would just make my day. Anyone interested? As for suggestions for all inclusives, how about Club Med or a cruise? Cruises are so difficult to take as a single parent because they base their prices on double occupancy. I just can't see paying full price on a cruise for a three year old. (GB: Readers can respond directly to Tammy at TammyPR33@aol.com)

Kim from Vancouver, B.C. writes:
I have been receiving your emails regularly but found it quite frustrating because most of the stuff you have is from the States. I'm from Vancouver BC. I have 2 daughters and we'd love to meet some local single parent families to travel together. Do you have any suggestions for me?
(GB: Readers can contact Kim directly at: ntkh2@yahoo.com)

Tammy from California writes:
Help..any suggestions! I am a single mom with a 13-year-old son that likes to skateboard. We find ourselves in an unusual situation this year that a lot of people wish for. But making decisions is really hard on this one. I have all summer off of work and he has all summer off of school. I have a travel budget off about $10,000. We both have fantasies of a huge car trip but the reality is that he would miss his friends and I get tired of driving. We may do a series of small trips, planning European trips only 2 weeks in advance. He is interested in England and Spain. I'm interested in Thailand. Also, I found a camp in Vermont called Common Grounds that we may go to as well. I like staying in small hotels and family hostels. We live 45 minute train ride from SF so I am accustomed to the train and like the idea of staying just outside of big cities and taking the train in to see the sites (like London, Barcelona). Can you suggest any such towns on the outskirts? I'm going to contact Women Welcoming Women as your newsletter suggests. Confused with too many options, drowning in research.....
(GB: Readers can contact Tammy directly at: tampulley@aol.com).

Nancy writes:
I am a single parent of two great kids. Samantha my daughter is 10 and my son Grant is 13 and we would like to go on a trip this June when they get out of school. I'm having trouble this year because they are at different maturity levels and like different activities. Because of the long lines and the heat of Disney and other parks, I am trying to stay clear of that idea. I would like an adventure vacation with of course some relaxation for myself. Does anyone have any ideas? I was thinking of a big city that includes theater or learning how to scuba dive. It would be great if we could join some other single parent families. Please, I need some one's help!
GB responds:
I know exactly how you feel. My children are 7 years apart in age so it was even more of a challenge for me at vacation time. I have literally hundreds of superb suggestions for you and they are all contained in my book. I recommend you purchase a copy of my book, "The Single Parent Travel Handbook." It is informative, entertaining, and will save you money. It was written for people just like you. Here's how to order:
http://www.singleparenttravel.net/book/
Secondly, I recommend you go to my Web site - http://www.singleparenttours.com -
and look at the 5 tours we offer this year. One of them may suit you and you will be in the company of other single parent families. Thirdly, go to my Web site - http://www.singleparenttravel.net - and click on Single Parent Specials on the left hand side. I cannot guarantee you will find lots of single parent families on all those trips but you will get some great rates!