In this episode, Travel Mom Leslie shares her family’s adventures across Switzerland, Italy, and a Disney cruise. Traveling with her husband, Ted, and her five-year-old son, Nash, Leslie shares how living like locals in Lucerne, splurging on Lake Como, and cruising the Disney Treasure added up to the kind of trips her family will never forget.
For more family vacation inspiration, check out all the podcast episodes. Adventure Awaits!
Tell Us About Yourself
I’m the VP of Marketing for Mars, where I get to work on brands like Pop-Tarts and Rice Krispies Treats. But travel is where my heart really is. I’ve been to every state in America, and these days I get to introduce the world to my five-year-old son, Nash, one boarding pass at a time.
I recently sat down with the podcast to talk about three of our family’s biggest adventures yet: a European trip that started with a Green Bay Packers rumor, a splurge-worthy night on Lake Como, and a Disney cruise that turned my homebody son into a seasoned traveler with 40 flights already under his belt.
Why Travel Runs in the Family
I grew up in Wisconsin, halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. My grandparents farmed, ran a diner, and worked as a toolmaker. My dad owned a small shop. Family trips meant Up North Wisconsin, Disney World, or the Grand Canyon. But even then, my curiosity ran further than that. My mom still likes to remind me that when I was five, a neighbor was driving to Missouri, and I announced, “I’ll go,” with a little blue suitcase in hand.
That is exactly what I want to give Nash, and I believe it builds something bigger than good memories.
“It creates a space of confidence. Being able to say, ‘It’s okay, buddy, I’m here with you, and that is new, and that’s different.’ For you to experience that at five might give you confidence later in life that you might not have otherwise had.”
Living like Locals in Lucerne, Switzerland
Our European trip started with a very specific rumor: that the Green Bay Packers might play an international game in Ireland. My husband will never get back those two weeks in May when we were online trying to figure out if it was actually happening. The game never landed in Ireland, but we took the trip anyway because the real reason was to visit my childhood best friend, Stephanie, who has lived in Lucerne, Switzerland, for the last 12 years. She has a son Nash’s age and a daughter two years older.
Instead of packing our days with tourist stops, our first day there, we picked her kids up from school, rode bikes home, grabbed a baguette at the market, and sat down to a traditional Swiss meal. We zip-lined down a mountain, rode the local buses, and visited the neighborhood library.
“It wasn’t about doing all the tourist things. It was about living in the spaces of these communities. That is what the magic was to me. It’s living in those environments and cultures and just feeling what it’s like if you lived there.”
My best planning tip for Switzerland is to keep an eye on the calendar. We went between mid-September and the end of October, which lines up with the Swiss school year, so there were fewer crowds, cheaper flights, and a calmer pace that suited Nash. My other favorite discovery: some Swiss trains have a car with a built-in kids’ play area, basically a jungle gym on rails.
A Splurge and a Save on Lake Como
After Switzerland, we added a week in Italy, and I built in a deliberate split between a splurge for the adults and a low-key, budget-friendly stretch for the whole family. The splurge came first: one night at a stunning Lake Como resort with a Michelin-starred, five-course dinner and a private boat tour, Limoncello spritz included.
Then we moved on to a villa in Barolo wine country, near Turin and Milan, where my in-laws joined us for a milestone birthday celebration. We cooked at home, brought in private chefs, and let the kids run free.
“The kids remember ‘making wine’ in the dirt. I mean, they probably remember the Lake Como boat, maybe, but for them, we could do free things that they probably remember the most.”
It’s something I keep coming back to: a trip doesn’t have to be all splurge or all budget. I like to pick one or two moments that matter most to the adults, then let the kids’ memories form around the simple, free stuff, like harvesting grapes that looked more like mud and sticks than wine.
All Aboard the Disney Treasure
Closer to home, we took an all-in Disney cruise on the Disney Treasure with an extended group of 22 people: parents, in-laws, cousins, friends. Nash is a homebody, so the appeal for him wasn’t the ports. It was the stateroom, the crafts, and the private universe he built out of his stuffed animals and the Star Wars creations he made during the ship’s May the Fourth activities.
“He didn’t actually want to go to the kids’ club, he wanted to do all the crafts and bring them back to the room. He definitely created his own kids’ club.”
One of my favorite parts of that trip was the community around fish extenders, this tradition where families decorate their stateroom doors and leave small surprises for other guests. My top practical tip: if you’re traveling with a bigger group, book one of Disney’s private cabanas on its private island. For under $100 per person split across our group of ten, we got shaded seating, dedicated service, and a stretch of beach that felt entirely private.
I also can’t say enough about the level of care Disney staff showed toward the family members traveling with mobility issues, from wheelchair support to just making them feel comfortable.
Best Family Travel Tips
A few things have stayed true across every one of these trips.
Know your kid over the blogs. Travel guides are a great starting point, but my biggest lesson as a new traveling mom was learning to build the itinerary around who Nash actually is, not a packing list I found online.
“Apply what you know about them, and make it magical for them because you know what they like more than anybody.”
Don’t overbook. I skipped stacking shore excursions on the cruise. I knew what Nash would find joy in, and I didn’t want to end up with a $400 bill for an excursion we couldn’t even get him on the boat for.
Make it a vacation for you, too. Between working parents, sports schedules, and everyday logistics, it matters to build in moments, like that night on Lake Como, that are just for the adults.
“You’re technically on vacation, and if you take your hard-working PTO and you’re using it, yes, you want to create core memories for your children, and you will, but you also matter.”
Next Family Adventures
We already have two trips on the horizon. Nash has launched what I call a campaign to get me to become a travel agent, so we can go to the christening of Disney’s newest ship, the Disney Believe, when it debuts at the end of next year. And whenever the Packers finally schedule that international game, I’ll be there too.
Whether it’s zip-lining above Lucerne, a private cabana on Disney’s island, or watching my kid stomp grapes in an Italian vineyard, it always comes back to the same thing: know your family, and build the adventure around what actually lights them up.
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For more family vacation inspiration, tune in to all the podcast episodes. Adventure Awaits!