In 1989, Cynthia and Lew Harriman took their kids out of school and went to Europe, living in houses in Spain, France and England for four months. The kids were 13 and 10 years old at the time.
The trip profoundly changed the family dynamic in wonderful ways, and opened up a world of possibilities to all family members. At 14, Libby decided to return to Spain on her own for the summer. Two years later she went solo to China, substituting a year learning Mandarin for her last two years of high school . Shortly after the trip, Sam spent 8 weeks in a school in Switzerland, later travelling by himself to France for a summer of ski racing on glaciers at age 14. High school summers were spent skiing on Mount Hood in Oregon and hiking in the Alaskan wilderness. In 1999, he completed a semester of intercultural studies in Zimbabwe while in his junior year at college.
Believing strongly in the benefits of these and other consequences of family travel at an early age, Cynthia wrote and self-published a book about that original trip: Take Your Kids To Europe. The book became a best-seller, earning praise from such travel gurus as Rick Steves (Europe Through The Back Door), Dorothy Jordan (Family Travel Times) and the editors of the widely-respected Let’s Go! series from the Harvard Student Travel Association.
The first edition was such a success that Cynthia invited readers to contribute their experiences and opinions. The response was overwhelming. With major additions, the book went into second, third and fourth editions, now with Globe-Pequot Books. The fifth edition was released in November of 2001. Like earlier editions, the new book has been substantially updated with reader contributions, current information and Internet URLs.
Take Your Kids To Europe has become the standard by which family travel books are measured, evolving and growing into a rich resource for travel of any duration in Europe. You can see many current reader reviews and order it directly at the Amazon.com website.
Here at the Mason-Grant site, Cynthia has posted the table of contents along with a few reviews and abbreviated chapters in case you do not need the whole book, or in case you would simply like to read a few samples before you buy.
