Because a travel-savvy mom knows best

Travelsavvymom.com offers personal recommendations for family-friendly hotels and travel gear from parents you can trust.

What’s hot: The quality. The moms who contribute regularly have written for Smithsonian, New York Times, Washington Post, Parenting, Utne Reader, Christian Science Monitor and others. The hotel reviews (most are on U.S. and European properties, with emphasis on California, New York, Hawaii, England, France, Italy and Spain) are written by moms who stayed somewhere family friendly and liked it enough to write an unsolicited review. The TravelSavvy partners then vet the reviews to make sure they’re legitimate. In the Travel Gear section you’ll find such articles as “10 iPhone Apps for Kids,” “Top 10 Quiet Travel Toys” and a review of a Kelty Convertible backpack. It’s not all tips and advice. Don’t miss the “ha ha ha” category of amusing personal stories and misadventures. I laughed out loud at “Sleeping With the Enemy,” about the struggle to get kids to sleep together in a hotel room with only two beds. Founder Jamie Pearson networks regularly on Twitter, and a blog roll points readers to 16 other travel-related parenting blogs.

What’s not: The blog has more than 250 hotel reviews and was nominated for Lonely Planet’s 2009 Travel blog awards. To build on that success, the site might consider a makeover. I’d love to see more sophisticated functions such as an interactive Google map for the hotel reviews and age-specific categories so readers can go straight to what’s relevant to their child.

-- Jen Leo