Category: Holidays Page 12 of 13

If you’re planning a romantic trip, for Valentine’s Day or any other time of the year, you’ve got a lot to think about.

You want to make sure that the destination you’re traveling to is beautiful and serene, not crawling with tourists.

You want it to be a place your partner will love.

And you want it to have enough restaurants, sights, and natural attractions that you’re not stuck in your hotel room the entire time – unless, of course, you want to be.

The places on this list meet all those criteria. One of them is bound to be the perfect destination for you and your love. Just make sure you snap a few cute couples’ selfies to remember your trip by!

San Francisco

The City by the Bay is hard to beat for romance, what with its incredible bay views, unique architecture, and proximity to natural wonders like the redwood forest of Muir Woods, just 16 miles from the city.

You’ll have no trouble finding great restaurants for a romantic meal, whether it’s Valentine’s Day or not. But if you want to really take advantage of San Francisco, opt for a picnic in one of the many parks – Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, and John McLaren Park are some of the most often recommended.

Asheville, NC

If a quiet cabin in the woods is your idea of a romantic getaway, look no further than Asheville, N.C. This mountain town is not only in the middle of vast swaths of protected forest, it’s also home to the major historic attraction the Biltmore Estate and the storied Grove Park Inn.

The Biltmore, an 8,000 acre estate and the largest private home in the country, was built by George Vanderbilt and today hosts tours as well as romantic special events.

The Inn hosts one of the best luxury brunch buffets in the Southeast, and has a world-class spa as well. It’s perfect for a romantic couples’ weekend. Bonus point for literary buffs: F. Scott Fitzgerald lived at the inn for two summers in 1935 and 1936.

Paris

What isn’t romantic about Paris? The City of Lights can give any couple plenty of opportunity for romance, from boat rides on the Seine, to lavish candlelit dinners, to evening strolls on the Champs-Elysees.

But for something more unique, visit the often-overlooked Musee de Montmartre, or rent a rowboat for a row down the Grand Canal at Versailles.

New York

Like Paris, New York is replete with romantic offerings for couples who want to get away for a bit. If you and your partner are urbanites at heart, you can’t go wrong here.

Museums like MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Met, and the countless theater and performance events that run daily will give any couple an endless list of activities to enjoy together. End your evening with a romantic dinner or drink at one of the city’s high-end restaurants and a stroll through the High Line, the trendy park that stands on a disused railroad spur on the Lower West Side.

Romance can be found anywhere if you’re with the one you love – but it never hurts to get out of town for a bit and enjoy a new place together. Make sure you remember your special trips by taking some romantic photos. For more ideas on how celebrate love this Valentine’s Day, read our post “The Best Valentine’s Day Photo Gift Ideas.”

With the kids out of school, you’ve probably found yourself at a loss for ideas to occupy their time at least once or twice.

Luckily, there are plenty of fun, easy DIY crafts that you can do with your children that will let you spend quality time together, while making your home more festive. Here are a few of our favorites.

Candy Cane Garland

If you’ve got old paint chips lying around that you’re not going to be using again, use them to create a candy cane garland.

Trace candy cane shapes on them and let kids cut them out. Then use a hole punch and twine to string them together.

via Real Simple

Cookie Cutter Ornaments

These stylish cookie cutter ornaments are perfect crafts for older kids who are handy with scissors. With some inexpensive aluminum cookie cutters, festive paper, photographs, and glue, you can turn these out in a matter of minutes. They make lovely additions to gifts, too.

via Martha Stewart

Tiny Wreaths

Making wreaths you can hang on the door may be a great craft for you, but it can be a little much for the kids.

Instead, help them make a kid-sized wreath by wrapping pipe cleaners around an embroidery hoop and providing decorations that they can add. Pompoms, glitter, felt leaves, and sequins all make perfect additions.

via Real Simple

Salt Dough Ornaments

Salt dough ornaments are an old standby when it comes to holiday crafts – in fact, you probably made some when you were young.

With just a few dry ingredients and water, you can easily create keepsake ornaments that kids love to paint and decorate. Do these every year and you’ll have a whole collection of special memories to hang on your tree.

via I Heart Arts and Crafts

Wine Cork Reindeer Ornament

With all that holiday shopping, gift wrapping, and baking you’ve got going on, you’ve surely got some wine corks sitting around! Make good use of them with this cute reindeer ornament craft. All it takes are pipe cleaners, googly eyes, pompoms, and bits of pinecone.

via Remodelando la Casa

Styrofoam Snowmen

Those styrofoam balls you can find at craft stores make adorable snowmen. Attach two or three together with toothpicks, punch out some black construction paper circles with a hole punch for eyes, and use pipe cleaners for a nose, arms, and scarf.

For some extra sparkle, lightly brush the styrofoam balls with glue and dust with glitter.

via Real Simple

Popsicle Stick Ornaments

Popsicle stick ornaments are another tried-and-true craft beloved by elementary school teachers the world round. That’s probably because they’re first, easy, and second, they allow kids to get extra creative.

The link below has instructions for reindeer, star, and tree ornaments, but you can make almost anything – snowmen, Santas, sleds, you name it.

via evite

Don’t forget to snap a picture or two while you’re making these crafts with your family – and then put down your phone and enjoy the moment. The pictures will look great on your Nixplay Wifi Cloud digital frame’s holiday photo playlist.

Who says you have to spend Christmas at home? If you’ve got a serious travel bug, then why not spend the holidays in a new, beautiful place, soaking up the local culture and celebrating in a unique way?

There are all kinds of ways you can create a special holiday while out of town, whether that means heading out on an outdoor adventure, soaking up the sun at a warm, sunny beach, or taking to the Alpine slopes. Here are just a few ideas of the best spots in the world to spend Christmas.

Tromso, Norway

If you’re not looking to escape the cold, visit this island city for its incredible Scandinavian culture. You can try dogsledding, eat authentic Norwegian food, and enjoy a vast array of markets, concerts, and other free Christmas-themed events.

The best reason to visit at Christmastime? Tromso is located in the actual Arctic Circle, and offers incredible views of the Northern Lights. Who knows – you may even come across a stray reindeer or two.

North Pole, Alaska

If you’ve got Christmas spirit in spades – or if you have children who’ll be making the trip with you – a visit to North Pole, Alaska is in order.

This small town a couple of hours outside Fairbanks is brimming with Christmas spirit. There’s the Santa Claus House Christmas store, a red and white landmark that’s been operating since the 1950s, streets like Kris Kringle Drive and Mistletoe Lane, and even a post office where 40,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus arrive each year.

And when you get tired of the kitsch, you can head to one of the many beautiful parks or wilderness areas that Alaska is known for. Just make sure to look up every now and then – you can see the Northern Lights from here, too.

Durango, Colorado

If staying stateside is what you’re looking for, try heading to Durango, Colorado for Christmas. This Western town is usually snowy starting in the middle of December, and it’s close enough to the ski town Telluride that you can easily head out for some skiing if the mood strikes.

One of the things Durango is most known for is its steam train, the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. At Christmas time, you can take advantage of several seasonal excursions: there’s the Polar Express for families, a Christmas tree run that takes you into the forest to cut down your own Christmas tree (and transport it back, of course), and a daily excursion into Cascade Canyon.

You also won’t want to miss the holiday events in town, like carol singing, holiday markets, and more.

Zurich, Switzerland

Featuring incredible views and old-world traditions, Zurich is beautiful at any time of year – but at Christmastime, it really stands out.

You’ll find lots of Christmas events in this Alpine city, from holiday markets and ice skating, to free, daily concerts and Lichterschwimmen, a breathtaking event when children send hundreds of floating candles down the River Limmat. And of course, when it comes to that favorite holiday treat – hot chocolate – you can’t beat Zurich.

Bali, Indonesia

In Bali, Christmas is part of the high season, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend your holidays there.

There are few places on earth that can boast the feelings of peace, tranquility, and goodwill that Bali does. The people are kind and friendly, the pace of life is slow, and the landscape is incredibly beautiful.

While there are plenty of Christmas events, resort deals, and Christmas meals available, you can easily opt for a quieter holiday by staying further out from the city center. A bonus? By moving further from all the people, you stand a better chance of booking a room with an incredible view of volcanoes or rice paddies.

Wherever you are this holiday season, make sure to stay in touch with your loved ones by sending your photos to their Nixplay Cloud WiFi Digital Frame via the Nixplay app! And if you need help creating a photo playlist to share with everyone back home, read our post “How to Create a Meaningful Photo Playlist to Share Your Trip with Loved Ones.”

When you were younger, you had the entire summer off and vacation stretched out forever. Now there’s a good chance that summer comes and goes without any special vacation from your work. But if you’ve let this one slip away thus far, don’t worry. You still have time to get away for a week or two and recharge your batteries. The best spots may need a reservation further in advance, but the great thing about our country is that beautiful destinations are never too far away. So check out some of these last minute travel ideas.

Gulf Shores
Located on the Florida-Alabama border, this coastal getaway is beautiful this time of year. And while it’s a popular destination, you can look farther down the beach from the main drag for some accommodations that are more likely to have openings.

Horseneck Beach, Massachusetts
The crowds will be at Cape Cod, but if you’re looking for a last minute adventure with fewer people on hand, your best bet will be Horseneck Beach. It’s perfect for campers, but there are accommodations at the Paquachuck Inn, as well as a private dock for fishing and boating.

Lake Mead
If you’re in the area and don’t want to make a drive to the coast, then why not check out Lake Mead. You can visit the Hoover Dam and Black Canyon National Trail, and remember that the Grand Canyon isn’t far, either. And since the lake is down nearly 60% due to drought, hikers can access previously underwater sites like the Old West town of St. Thomas. A bit of a mixed blessing, but you might as well see it while you can.

Nashville, Tennessee
There’s just nothing like some live music in one of Nashville’s famed honky-tonks, and there’s plenty within the city to check out, as well. Great food, fantastic nightlife, and a friendly atmosphere make Nashville a perfect destination when you don’t have weeks to spend at the beach.

Cannon Beach, Oregon
Named one of the World’s 100 Most Beautiful Places in the June 2013 issue of National Geographic, Cannon Beach is a must see for anyone planning a quick getaway in the Pacific Northwest. Go for a stroll on one of the dozens of public beaches, warm yourself by a fire in the evening, or just take in the stunning scenery. You can’t miss with a trip to Cannon Beach.

Montego Bay, Jamaica
It might be a little out of your way, but there are frequent flights into Montego Bay and plenty of hotels to choose from. So even this late in the game you’ve got a chance to score some rooms. Unplug, relax, and take a dip in the warm waters—you’ll thank us when you get back.

You’ll have plenty of pictures from your vacation—even a last minute one—so remember to show them off in the best way possible, with a wifi cloud frame from Nixplay. Check out our wide selection today!

Family vacations are some of the most memorable times you’ll have together as a family. As the kids grow older and begin lives of their own, you’ll find that you aren’t able to get together for that trip to the beach every year. Something comes up, or someone doesn’t have enough vacation days left when you make plans. So cherish your family vacations while you have your whole family together.

Another reason those vacations are so special is because of the photos that you take. Memories of the beach are great, but they don’t beat the photos that remind you how young everyone looked and how much fun you were all having—and get you thinking about doing it again.

And if you’re like a lot of people, you’ll frame one picture from that vacation, probably the “best’ one, and place it somewhere in your house. Or maybe you’ll send that picture as your Christmas card this year. So what happens to the rest? They end up in a box or a photo album that gets pulled out once every year or so. Or you might post them all to Facebook, but really the same thing happens. How often do you get online just to look at pictures from that vacation three years ago?

There’s a better way to keep all your vacation memories fresh, and it doesn’t involve letting your pictures collect dust in a box or an online album. With a digital frame from Nixplay, all your photos will be right at your fingertips. Your digital frame makes it easy to store all your vacation photos, but you don’t have to pick and choose which ones you see. All you have to do is plug in your flash drive or click on your Nixplay mobile app, and you can create a playlist of all your photos from vacation.

So while you’re cooking in the kitchen, your digital frame will be sliding from one image to the next. Days at the beach, mini golf, dinner with the family—they’ll all be there for you to see without a hundred different frames taking up all your counter space. And if you’ve seen enough of that vacation, you’ll easily be able to set up a new playlist. Say, one from your first trip with all the kids, or maybe that couples’ vacation you took for your 20th anniversary. The point is, digital frames give you the freedom to pick and choose your favorite photos, and then actually get to see them every day.

And when you’re looking at vacation photos regularly, you’re going to remember just how much fun you were having in the surf, or exactly how relaxing that beach chair was. And that’s when you start planning your next vacation—and all the memories that come with it. So check out our wide variety of digital frames, and find the perfect one for you and your family photos.