great takes on family travel in the U.S.

I recently discovered a site that has become a wonderful resource for me and my wife. We are recent transplants to the San Francisco Bay Area, and as a result, we are always looking for new and exciting things to do that we can easily drive to in an afternoon or go to in the evening after a hard day at the office.

71miles has turned out to be one of the best places to find this sort of information. Their basic premise is that there are a zillion things to do nearby any major metropolis, so why not travel locally?

For the moment this site the most comprehensive information focused on the Northern California area, but they also have a guide for the Washington DC area.

The reason this site is so good is because their information is all very relevant to the local person dwelling in one of these areas: they have a great list of destinations for road-trips, Half Moon Bay, for example or the San Mateo Coast are both in easy striking distance with lots of cool stuff to do.

The other great thing is that each destination has a “cheat-sheet” at the top with 5-6 of the best activities, and good descriptions of each spot, so that it is easy to make a judgment on whether this destination is going to give the right feel for you.

Each destination also has a great little video reel of the destination that gives a flavor of what you would be getting yourself into.

It also looks like the man in charge of this site actually went to each destination himself and scouted them out; personally I’m thinking that this is a great way to create a guide, but also I’m totally jealous of his approach to making a site, maybe I can figure out some way to turn creating a great product at here at Kango into an excuse to visit Tahoe…