Resources

Before we started Heard About Travel, we used dozens of similar blogs, YouTube channels, travel sites, and more to help us get started on traveling more. As a shout out to some of the best, take a look at some of our favorites below, we hope they'll help you as much as they've helped us.

The Best Informational Travel Websites & Official Resources

Travel.State.Gov

Bookmark this one now, and never go anywhere else when attempting to get a new passport or renew one (USA citizens only). There are dozens of pseudo-legitimate to scammer sites out there claiming to be the official way to obtain a passport, but this is the one and only real deal.

Smart Traveler Enrollment Program

Also an official US government resource, STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) is a free-to-use tool specifically when planning travel to outside the United States, even if within North America. In the case of an emergency, registering your trip here will expedite communications and resolutions for you through local embassies and the like. It will also provide you official travel advisories and up to date information, including notifications, about your destination. This is also an official resource are to renew an existing US Passport.

Flightradar24.com

One of our personal favorites for knowing where your plane really is, where its coming from, and information about the aircraft itself.

The Best Travel Blogs & YouTubers for Families

DFB Guide (Disney Food Blog)

DFBGuide

Welcome to the DFB channel, where we focus on bringing you everything edible in Disney’s parks, resorts, and cruise ships: a guide to all of our favorite restaurants, foods, and experiences. You can use our videos to help plan your trip, to stay updated as things change around the parks, or just to get a taste of Disney World and Disney Land dining. Food IS a theme park, and we want to show you how much fun it can be. Launched in 2009 -- the original Disney Food Review website -- recommended by a long list of media like National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Parents Magazine, and more. Check out our web site to learn more! http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/about/

YouTube

This one is obviously very Disney specific. Despite the name, this also just isn't about food at Disney. It's one of the most comprehensive and up to date channels for knowing what to do (and not do) at Disney World. Although the team there does cover news and happenings from all Disney parks, we've found it most useful for tips and tricks regarding traveling to Orlando and DisneyWorld specifically. It helped us tremendously on our first trip to the house of mouse, and continues to do so. While the title implies Disney-only content, they also cover Universal Orlando and Orlando-centric news outside of the Disney bubble, just to a lesser degree. As with most of the resources, we found the YouTube channel the most helpful.

Harr Travel

One of the best cruise travel YouTube channels if you're most interested in ship tours, state room tours, and generalized information about each line and ship, particularly for travelers in the USA. Hard Travel is also a full fledged travel agency, and we suggest asking for Maggie by name when calling to make any reservation through Harr. We rarely use a travel agent of any sort for our own travels, but Maggie at Harr is one of the best we've encountered and if you want more hand holding when booking a cruise, this is a great place to start.

Harr Travel

So many people want to travel, but don’t know where to start. Our goal has always been to share the love of travel with the world, and hopefully give you a better idea of what options are out there. And we are so excited that YouTube has given us a larger platform to share our passion with all of you! Here at Harr Travel we love to cruise, so naturally we specialize in cruise ship tours (cruise cabins and full ship tours) What many people don’t know is that in our 40 year history we have booked nearly every type of vacation you can think of, and perhaps others that you never thought possible. So join us, grab the family, and choose your next vacation! And when you are ready to book your next trip Harr Travel can create the vacation of a lifetime, at an unbeatable value.

YouTube

Tips for Travelers

Tips For Travellers

If you want to get cruising right, my Tips For Travellers makes it fun and easy to discover, plan and enjoy an incredible cruise vacation every time. There are so many choices that have to be made at every stage of your cruise vacation. If you make the wrong choices, like I have done in the past, you and your family won’t have that incredible experience you are dreaming of. I learnt that enjoyable and memorable cruise vacations don’t happen by chance. They are made and crafted through being well-informed, and then making intelligent choices at every single stage. That’s why, I set up Tips For Travellers to help travellers who want to get cruising right, the advice, tips and tricks to make it easier to plan and have a memorable experience every time. All my tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 95 cruises I have done to date. If you want to get cruising right, subscribe and start making it easier to have those incredible cruise experiences you dream of right now.

YouTube

Also almost entirely cruise-centric, Tips for Travelers run by Gary Bembridge and has been a resource for general cruising tips. While not focused on family travel and cruising, Gary does have some great insights as to which ships and lines to avoid or to focus on depending on how much kid-centric or family-friendly features you want out of a cruise. Tips for travelers also has a strong emphasis on premium and luxury cruise lines, which are often not the ships and lines associated with family travel. But hey, sometimes we do leave the kids behind and need that insight.