My ideal family travel destination

Long Beach on Vancouver Island.

The world is full of awesome destinations you can take your children to if you have the time and the resources.  For me though, the best place on earth to take my kids is the beach. What beach? Well, that isn't as important.

Crescent Beach, White Rock.

My family goes to the beach almost every weekend. Centennial Beach in Tsawwassen, Crescent Beach in White Rock, Spanish Banks in Kitsilano in downtown Vancouver, and Third Beach in Stanley Park (also in downtown Vancouver): these are some of our usual destinations. We've also enjoyed time on Long Beach on Vancouver Island.

Swedish beach, Burvik.

In the summers we've spent lots of time in Sweden at my parents' summer place on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. The water doesn't usually warm up past about 17 degrees Celsius, and sometimes the air temperature isn't much higher than that even in the summer, but the kids still have a total blast every time we go.

I think almost any beach is a good destination when traveling with children. Even of it's not that warm there's still stuff to do. You can look for shells and rocks and driftwood, throw shells and rocks and sticks in the water, skip stones, dig in the sand, watch the water, walk along the water's edge, lean on a rock or log, watch the birds, watch the boats, suntan, build a castle, dig a channel... And so on and on.

Baby Beach, Maui.

Still, my favorite beach destination is Maui. No shocker there. We went on a family trip there in 2009 and spent a lot of time on Baby Beach just outside Lahaina (the absolutely safest beach for little kids that we found on the island), and on many other beaches up along the west coast of Maui.

Beach time doesn't require a lot of extras. Only some good sunscreen, some snacks, some bottles of water, and some towels are needed to make it a great day. And some buckets and shovels if you really want to go all out.

Beaches are good travel destinations with kids anytime, any place. But as you might be able to tell from this post, I'm pining for summer. Are we there yet?