This week I am in Canada for the Wine Bloggers Conference (yep, I’m also a wine blogger over at VineSleuth Uncorked) and I want to keep in touch with friends and family back home, but I don’t want to incur hefty data charges for messaging.

FREE app for messaging internationally for FREE

Back when we hosted foreign exchange daughters, one of them introduced me to Whats App, an app you can download for free to your smartphone that uses wifi for messaging, rather than cellular data. She used it to keep in touch with friends back home in Germany, and now I use it when travelling internationally myself to stay in touch for FREE, anywhere I can access wifi. I also use it to message her and other friends in other countries from home or anywhere… it’s super convenient, just like text messaging. Whats App is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.

Text, photo, video, group messaging

With Whats App you can send messages, photos, video and even send group messages. Plus, as long as you are connected to wifi, you get notifications on your home screen, just like a text message. And did I mention it is FREE, even when out of the country?

So far, this has definitely worked for me. I love keeping in touch… and I really love not paying extra for it.

Any other Whats App fans out there? Or anyone know of any other great messaging apps for keeping in touch internationally?

Last year I shared 12 days of travel tips on Moms Travel Tales. Since the advice still rings true, I thought sharing those links might help yet again this year. Plus, you’ll find links in each of those posts to other great Christmas tips from other bloggers, too. Click over and enjoy your journeys this season…

12 Days of Christmas Travel Tips:

• Day 1: One pep talk about family travel
• Day 2: The two best ways to manage a time zone change
• Day 3: Three reasons to consider a hotel staycation in December
• Day 4: Four ways to minimize stress on travel days
• Day 5: Five ways to be a gracious overnight houseguest
• Day 6: Six ideas for pampering overnight guests
• Day 7: Seven people to tip when traveling (and how much)
• Day 8: Eight tips for international travel
• Day 9: Nine secrets for a great hotel stay with kids
• Day 10: Ten tips for a better flight with kids
• Day 11: Eleven tried and true ways to beat boredom while waiting
• Day 12: Twelve things I’ve learned about travel with kids

Is there  anything I’ve  missed that you’d like to know about? Please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to write about it soon.

Or, if you have your own tip to share, please leave that in the comments, as well.

Thanks! And Bon Voyage!

I’ve just checked in and yes, it an extreme WOW!

Here are the pics:

Extreme Wow Suite Living Areas:

Extreme Wow Suite Bedroom:

Extreme Wow Suite Bathroom

Check out all the nozzles on this shower… and there are two sets of these in there!

Toiletries from BLISS:

More toiletries, including a loofah mitt from BLISS in the shower:

And yes, the toilet seat is heated.

Extreme Wow Suite View

This is one of the views from the living room:

Not pictured is an additional bathroom, two closets, bar area and the electric blackout shades.

It’s pretty luxurious and no, not all that family-friendly. But I could get used to this for a getaway if I had to….

Does your family have a wish list of travel destinations?

Our family has enjoyed leafing through 1,000 Places to See Before You Die for years to build our own wish list and compare our experiences with the author’s, so when I was invited to review the newest edition and give three copies away to MomsTravelTales readers, I jumped at the chance!

This new edition features color photos of the destinations and more countries and destinations than the first edition. To keep the list at 1,000, Patricia Schultz lumped a few destinations together as excursions, so you are actually getting even more travel ideas jammed into this edition than the last.

No, this is not a family-specific travel book, but it still gives great insight on truly unique and gorgeous destinations worldwide.

For example, this weekend we’ll be traveling to Colorado with our three kids. After reading Patricia’s entry on Rocky Mountain National Park, I knew to plan extra time to allow our family to really take in the splendor. (And I promise to report back with photos!)

Each entry not only tells why that destination is spectacular, it also suggests places to stay (often in a range of prices), places to eat and often mentions tips for the best time to visit or special events to plan to see.

Just a few of the places she mentions our family has also enjoyed, including:

• La Sagrada Familia and Gaudi’s other architectural creations in Barcelona, Spain
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates (where our kids snow-skied for the first time– indoors, and also visited the world’s tallest building)
• Edinburgh Castle and Festivals
• Tivoli Gardens in Denmark

Not everything mentioned is so far away. Patricia also covers plenty of sites state-side including

• Route 66
• Boston, Mass.
• Big Sky, Montana
• The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
• The Outer Banks
• The Thomas Jefferson Trail
• and one of my newest favorite discoveries, the Finger Lakes of New York

And yes, I’ll admit it, reading through some of the pages makes me smile, remembering pre-family travel, like when I bungee jumped in New Zealand. (Gulp!)

 1,000 Places to See Before you Die is a great way to not only build a dream list of travel destinations, it’s also a great way to share geography with your kids in a very real way. Flip through the pages, pick a site to see, locate the destination on a map or globe and talk about what a trip to that spot might be like. You could even talk about what the people who live there might be like and plan how much a trip there might cost.

 Do you want to dream of new travel destinations and either add them to your own list or live vicariously through Patricia’s experiences?

Workman Publishing is going to give three lucky MomsTravelTales readers their very own copy of the book so you can compare notes, daydream a little and plan your next dream vacation.

 To enter, just leave a comment with 2 places you’d like to see before you die.

For extra entries, tweet about this contest, mentioning @MomsTravelTales, or “like” MomsTravelTales on Facebook. Then leave a comment for each telling me that you did.

I’ll pick three comments from the list randomly to select the winners. This contest is only open to those with U.S. or Canadian addresses.

Comment quickly. This contest ends when Labor Day weekend ends in the Central time zone, midnight, Tuesday morning, September 4.

 So… What are your two places you’d like to see before you die? Comment away and win!

 This contest is now closed.

Earlier this summer I shared photos of the Hyatt Regency Hill Country and now I’ve got the scoop on the rooms at the also super family-friendly Westin La Cantera. (I know this post is just supposed to have the pics, but I also just have to mention something else: The staff at the Westin is absolutely amazing and extremely helpful. For example: rather than just point me in the right direction, one employee walked me clear across the hotel when I was turned around. Also, everyone that works there just seemed so genuinely happy, and wanted me to be happy, too. LOVED that!!!)

The Hyatt might be closer to Sea World, but the Westin is closer to Fiesta Texas. Decisions, decisions! Both are very accommodating to families and luxurious.

I’ll try to share about the grounds and amenities later, but for now, here’s what you can expect from a double room at the Westin La Cantera:

No, my friend’s adorable daughter does not come with the room…

…And neither does my friend or my son.

The balcony in this room was a great spot to watch the fireworks from Fiesta Texas one night we were there.

Have you stayed at the Westin La Cantera? Was your room similar to this one?