Welcome to Stack the Miles!
Inspiring families to explore more, spend less, and see the world together.
Family Focus
Practical trips that work for real kids, real schedules, and real parents.
Smart Spending
Points, miles, and strategy to stretch your travel budget further.
Cultural Connection
Helping kids learn the world by experiencing it — not just seeing it.
Hi, I’m Mel — a mom, teacher, and family travel planner.
I help busy families travel farther, spend smarter, and plan trips that actually work with kids, without burning out or blowing the budget.
Here you’ll find real-life itineraries, honest destination guides, sports travel tips, and simple ways to use points and miles to make travel more affordable. Everything here is based on trips we’ve actually taken as a family.
Start Here: Plan Your Trip
Choose your travel style below to find guides, tips, and real-life experiences that make planning easier.
What to expect in Italy with kids, including Rome, Venice, and the little things that make the trip easier.
Planning a trip to France with kids, including what’s worth it and what to skip.
Easy day trips, castles, and what travel actually looks like in Germany and Austria with kids.
Planning your Disney World trip? Start here for hotels, park strategy, Lightning Lane tips, and ways to save money.
Where to eat and drink at Disney World, including restaurants by park, dining plan tips, and what’s actually worth it.
Complete gluten-free guide to Disney World, including park-by-park tips, snacks, and what actually feels easy (and what doesn’t).
Packing lists, weather survival, and real-life tips to make tournament weekends easier for sports parents.
Everything you need to plan your Cooperstown baseball tournament—from costs and packing to what to expect during your week.
The tournaments, games, and sports travel experiences that have shaped our family trips.
What to do in Boston with kids and teens, plus easy ways to plan your days without overpacking your schedule.
Visiting NYC with kids, including what’s worth it, what to skip, and how to make the most of your time.
Family-friendly Philadelphia travel guides featuring museums, historic attractions, food spots, and things to do with kids, tweens, and teens.
Tips for choosing a family-friendly all-inclusive in the Caribbean or Mexico and what’s actually worth it.
Tips for visiting Universal with kids, including rides, planning strategies, and what to expect.
Family travel tips that make trips easier, including packing, travel days, and planning around busy schedules with kids.
From indoor water parks and snow tubing to rafting, hiking, and family weekend getaways, we’ve spent years exploring the Poconos with our kids. Browse our favorite resorts, activities, and family-tested tips.
What’s New? – Helpful Travel Tips
If you’re planning travel tournaments, Disney trips, or family vacations, these are the posts readers find most helpful.
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Cold Weather Baseball Tournament Packing List: What Parents & Players Need
A cold weather baseball packing list becomes pretty important when you have an 8 a.m. game in March or April and know you could still be sitting at the fields hours later. After years of travel baseball in the Northeast, we have packed for plenty of tournament days that started out freezing, warmed up in the afternoon…
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Best Heated Gear for Sports Parents: What Actually Keeps You Warm
If you’re looking for the best heated gear for sports parents, I’ve spent enough cold games on the sidelines to have some definite favorites. I’m someone who gets cold long before most other people do. With spring sports starting while it still feels like winter and fall sports stretching into colder weather, I’ve tried plenty of…
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Who Is Hotel Xcaret Mexico Best For? An Honest Family Fit Guide
Who is Hotel Xcaret Mexico best for? After visiting with our 13-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter, I realized that the answer isn’t as simple as families with kids or even families who love adventure. Hotel Xcaret Mexico offers a very different kind of all-inclusive vacation, and the right family can get an incredible amount out…
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What to Pack for Hotel Xcaret Mexico: What We Actually Used
What to pack for Hotel Xcaret Mexico is a little different from what I would normally pack for an all-inclusive beach vacation. Our family spent a lot of time in the water during this trip. We swam through rivers and caves, rappelled into cenotes, kayaked, rafted and spent time at the pools and beach. We…
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Xcaret Photo Package Review: Is It Worth It?
The Xcaret photo package gave us some of our favorite pictures from our entire trip, but at $359 for our family of four, my husband definitely questioned whether we really needed it. After coming home with 537 photos from the hotel and three Xcaret parks and experiences, we were both glad we bought it. The photos from…
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How to Stay Warm at a Cold Baseball Game: Tips From a Baseball Mom
If you’re trying to stay warm at a baseball game, the biggest challenge is that you’re sitting still while your player is running around the field. We’ve spent years at baseball fields in the Northeast, and some of those early spring and late fall games are freezing. I hate being cold, so I’ve gotten pretty particular…
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The Ultimate Cooperstown All Star Village Planning Guide for First-Time Families
A Cooperstown All Star Village planning guide would have made my life a whole lot easier before our son’s tournament week. I did plenty of research before we went, but there were still so many things I didn’t completely understand until we were actually there. I had questions about what tournament days would really look like, how…
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Is a Cooperstown Baseball Tournament Worth It? Our Honest Take
If you’re wondering whether a Cooperstown baseball tournament is worth it, I can tell you that our answer changed quite a bit between the first time we heard about Cooperstown and the week we actually watched our son play there. When our son was younger, spending thousands of dollars and using a week of our summer…
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Honest Cooperstown All Star Village Review: What Our Family Really Thought
If you’re looking for an honest Cooperstown All Star Village review, here’s my opinion after spending a week there with my family. Before our trip, I spent months researching what to expect and reading other families’ experiences. Now that we’ve been there ourselves, I can honestly say Cooperstown All Star Village exceeded my expectations. Is it…
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Welcome to Stack the Miles
Hi, I’m Mel — a teacher, mom, and family travel planner helping families travel farther, spend smarter,
and make unforgettable memories using real-life tested advice from our own trips.
All content © Stack the Miles. Photography and imagery include original family travel photos and select licensed stock for visual storytelling.