What was the inspiration behind this site?
I love to travel (Who doesn’t?). I’ve done so solo since the age of 8, when I flew in a succession of puddle jumpers entirely on my own from Tulsa to Kansas City to visit my BFF. (No unaccompanied minor concerns back in the stone ages of jet travel). When I was 17 I flew by myself again, this time to Mexico to kick off a school year as an international exchange student. I’ve eagerly lived and worked abroad in South America and Europe.
Currently, my ability to jet off into the sunset is extremely limited. My elderly parents live 2000 miles away. Visiting them caused me to use up most of my annual personal time off, and took a good chunk of the kids’ summer vacation time as well. Luckily my folks live in a beautiful resort area. Even so, dragging the kids with me every year got to be less and less enthralling for them. As much as they love their grandparents, anything else there is to do in the area tends to lose its lustre year after year. I always strive to find new things going on, which has been especially challenging as they make their way through their teen years. It seemed to me that many tourist attractions appealed primarily to adults or young children.
TL; DR: I wanted to share other options to help teens feel included in the fun without their having to spend a school year away from home ;-). The teen years are an amazing time of life, and seeing the world at this time of transition from childhood to adulthood should be a part of it! If any teenager finds something totally rad to do while out of town thanks to my website, I will have accomplished my goal!
How do you know what teenagers like?
I have years of experience teaching high school. My students taught me probably more than I taught them. Moreover, I confer with my personal advisory board, aka my two kids, Sean, who’s 17 and Holly, who’s 14. They are quite different from each other. Sean is geeky and loves technology, video games, and playing sports. Holly prefers drawing, singing, horseback riding and gabbing with friends.
No two attractions will appeal the same to both of them, just as no two attractions will universally appeal to you, my legions of teenage travelers. If you don’t want to go to a recommended museum, then I truly hope you don’t go. But I and my advisory board think that it will still be something memorable and fun for someone else your age.
I know of something totally lit that you haven’t included.
Niiiice. I’d love it if you would share the info with me. Shoot me an email and I can hopefully include your suggestion soon!
Why don’t you include info like opening times, admission charges, etc?
I try to include concise information in my attraction descriptions that will help you and your family decide if it’s something you will enjoy. If you require more deets, I would ask you to click on the attraction’s link for visitor information directly from the source. I am working feverishly to add as many cities as possible and don’t have time to keep this kind of information updated, unfortunately.
All these destinations are in the USA only.
Yes. But under the category World Travel Ideas, you’ll find some great ways to travel virtually anywhere in the world!
I would love to travel overseas; can’t afford it, though.
If you can save up the funds for a round-trip airplane ticket, there are work opportunities such as living in Australia or teaching English virtually anywhere that you can take advantage of!
How do you decide which destinations to write about?
As I get the website underway, I am writing of places where I live, have lived, passed through, or have frequently traveled throughout my life. My intention is to keep adding one to two locations per week, with the help of a lot of research and assistance from those in the know! Write me (maggie at totallyteentravel.com) and let me know what to write up next!
