If you’re still a little bummed that all the Harry Potter books and movies are already out, don’t be. There’s an award-winning theme park dedicated to the world’s favorite boy who lived. It’s been thriving on muggle fanaticism for nearly two years now, and lucky for us Americans, it isn’t all the way off in London, where the books were first published.

Located at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was constructed to replicate the village of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts School. J.K. Rowling herself approved everything, from the Butterbeer recipe to castle design to the menu fonts.

Visitors can explore the inside of Hogwarts, take a spin on both thrilling and children-friendly roller coasters, and dine at a recreation of the tasty Hogsmeade haunt “The Three Broomsticks.” A host of wizarding shops sell movie prop replicas, magical sweets and goodies, Quidditch brooms, and a whole lot more. Perhaps the most popular attraction is Ollivanders Wand Shop– if you have the patience to wait in line, you can pick out you very own magic wand. It’s a dream come true for those of us who grew up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

If you’re already planning spring break, consider a family trip to Universal Studios’ The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Find more info at: http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/

Christmas is officially less than two weeks away. Everywhere is decked out with holiday decorations, lit up, and bustling with shoppers and carolers. Weekdays seem to drag on like petulant sloths, but weekends bring fun Christmas events and activities to partake in!

This year, the Enchanted Garden of Lights hosted in Rock City, GA, promises to be one of the most exciting festivals of the season. A gorgeous array of flowers and plant life by day, the Enchanted Garden will be specially lit up with over a million holiday lights, making the garden tour all the more breathtaking. Families can warm up with hot cocoa and gingerbread cookie decorating, while kids can get their very own Sugar Plum Fairy makeovers. These magical nights end with live music, an optional VIP Dinner with Santa, and guaranteed elf sightings. Can you think of a better way to celebrate December?

Tickets for the Enchanted Garden of Lights are available every night in December, excluding Christmas Eve. I highly recommend you get them today and treat yourself to an evening of bright lights and delicious sweets.

In case anyone needed reminding, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. That means kids and teenagers (and college students especially!) are buzzing with joyous energy that inevitably comes with the holiday season. You can channel that energy by hitting up as many local events and festivities as possible, and you can start with Ruby Red Christmas!

Ruby Falls, a vast underground waterfall in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the ultimate travel destination. It’s got breathtaking sights, zip lines, tours, dining, and activities for all ages. Oh yeah, and a 145-foot waterfall inside a gorgeous mountain. Every December, they host Ruby Red Christmas, a celebration of the season with an abundance of events that families can enjoy together. After a reading of “‘Twas the night before Christmas” by none other than Mrs. Claus, take the special Christmas tour of the waterfall and surrounding cave. The North Pole Workshop offers arts and crafts activities for kids such as constructing their own spectacular gingerbread houses or creating their own tree ornaments. Finally, everyone can experience the magic of a Christmas horse and carriage ride at the end of the evening. With live music, tasty treats, and a castled decked with boughs of holly, this is a celebration you can’t miss.

Why do we love Halloween so much? Is it the free candy? Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s the only day when it’s socially acceptable to walk around in a disguise and ask for free candy? Yes, that’s one of the reasons. But Halloween is also a chance to get outside and celebrate the season. Jack-o-lanterns, witch hats, candy apples, and haunted houses are all unique to this time of year. Two years ago, Teen Travel Talk went to Blaze and had a blast. So even if these particular Halloween events aren’t nearby for you, there are bound to be a few in your area. Check them out–you won’t regret it!

On that note, our final recommendation for this Halloween is that you save the date for the town of Bristol’s Halloween Carnival that takes place October 30th in Rockwell Park. Though this celebration is more for younger kids, who doesn’t like to watch a costume parade amidst gorgeous fall colors on a lovely autumn day? Other highlights include a magic trick performance, carnival activities, arts and crafts, rides, and yes, plenty of clowns. Bring younger siblings to win prizes and show off their costumes. Bristol Parks and Recreation is hosting the carnival for the seventeenth year in a row, which is a testament to its local popularity, and attendance is free! Halloween isn’t just for trick-or-treating, so head over to Rockwell Park for extra spooky fun.

It’s officially one week until Halloween! I hope you’ve all finalized your costume decisions. The next TTT-recommended Halloween event kicks the fright factor up a notch. Those who love to be utterly frightened around Halloween can’t miss “The Silo and the Supernatural,” on Sunday, October 30th. Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, CT is hosting a talk with John Zontok, and investigator for the Northwest CT Paranormal Society, and Bob Mills, a photographer who identifies authentic paranormal photos. This is the real deal, guys. Zontok and Mills will discuss their trade and the history behind paranormal photography, then share with the audience audio and visual clips of a ghost solider from the Revolutionary War. This presentation will be so eerie that visitors must be age 12 and up. Buy tickets in advance at hunthillfarmtrust.org, but only if you can handle the spook.

In eager anticipation of the sugar-loving world’s favorite holiday, I’ll be posting about some sweet upcoming Halloween celebrations. First up is the Spooktacular! If you’ve already assembled the perfect costume and are counting the hours to America’s favorite day of sugar-saturated spookiness, definitely stop by the Halloween Spooktacular next weekend in Litchfield, CT. The spine-tingling creation of a partnership between the Litchfield Historical Society and the White Memorial Conservation Center, Spooktacular promises to be both terrifying and tasty. Listen to well-known actors from the community read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by candlelight and then tour Gallows Lane, where America’s first mass murderer was hanged. The festivities aren’t all fearful, though. Visitors who make it to the end are fed delicious treats, which, let’s face it, is the whole point of Halloween. The event is hosted at the Tapping Reeve Law School on Rte. 63 South Street, starts at 6:30 p.m., and is totally free! Don that perfect costume and get over to Litchfield for a memorable celebration.

I went with a big group of friends and even the non-Harry Potter fanatics enjoyed it. You start out by getting sorted into a Hogwarts house, and proceed through the two-floor exhibit that takes about an hour to truly appreciate. The set-up is incredible, with music, film clips, costumes, set pieces, and scores of props that you’ll easily recognize. I got to pull Mandrakes out of pots and hear them scream, sit in Hagrid’s gigantic chair, and shoot Quaffles through Quidditch hoops. My favorite pieces on display were the huge jack-o-lantern from the Boggart scene in the third movie and Hermione’s dress from the Yule Ball (I was contemplating snatching the mannequin and making a mad dash for the exit, but thought better of that plan).

The wonderful thing about the whole Harry Potter phenomenon is that it can appeal to anyone between the ages of 4 and 74. We saw all kinds of people (a few not even from this country) in the exhibit and they all seemed to be having at least as much fun as we were. The gift shop at the end of the exhibit is wonderful, too, because you can buy wands, Marauder’s Maps, replica jewelry, and loads more.

After the exhibit, we had lunch in Bryant Park, which is pretty close by. There’s a carousel there, which we all immediately hopped on, to the surprise of the surrounding toddlers, and some domestic birds that you could hold.

Hanging out in New York City is never dull because there’s literally something to do around every corner. But the next time you visit, I highly recommend Harry Potter: The Exhibition. It’s only there until September 5th, so fly on over there or accio some tickets as soon as you can!

I’ve never been to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but I’d have to agree with Bing about Times Square. Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t actually anything to do there except look up, enjoy the luminescence, take some pictures, and move on. Manhattan has unlimited sites to see, neighborhoods to explore, and events to attend, so why bother hanging around in Times Square? Teen Travel Talk visited Times Square in the summer of 2009 and only made it a part of their trip, not the main feature.

Bing dismissed South of the Border as a tacky faux-Mexican amusement park in South Carolina and Madame Tussaud’s as underwhelming, considering its high ticket price. TTT’s Alexis seemed to enjoy it, however. You can read her review of it here.

Here’s where I personally disagree with Bing: Wall Drug, a Western cowboy-themed attraction in South Dakota that started out as a little drugstore, is a fantastic place to visit while on the road. Yes, it’s kitschy, but that’s the point! It made me and my family laugh when we saw signs for it hundreds of miles away while on our cross-country trip. It’s such a phenomenon that you can’t help but enjoy it. Why is everyone obsessed with a giant gift store in the middle of nowhere? Who knows, but it’s funny!

I’ve never heard of Blue Grotto and I haven’t been up in the Arch, but I have been to Experience Music Project, and I disagree with Bing there, too. Experience Music Project is a museum devoted to rock music, with galleries devoted to legendary artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. There are a lot of hands-on exhibits, including one where you get to pretend to be a band, complete with instruments that play the right notes no matter what you strum or hit. There’s a picture hanging in the landing of my mom, my dad, my brother and me playing Twist and Shout, and it makes me remember the museum fondly every time I pass it.

I can’t believe Bing doesn’t like Fisherman’s Wharf! You can read my thoughts here. I also really loved exploring Faneuil Hall when in Boston, though I can see how it’s easy to waste your time there. The Hall is for shopping and chowing down at some great restaurants—there’s nothing wrong with spending some time there, as long as you get out and see the other nice parts of Boston! Bourbon Street is similar—don’t treat it as the highlight of your itinerary, but you want to at least experience it if you’re in New Orleans.

So, what are your thoughts? Do any of these places really strike you as terrifyingly tourist-trapping?

Can you guess which national park this is? It’s one of my favorites!

Even after this week of celebration ends, special events at national parks stretch throughout the year. Every Saturday until the end of October, for example, there will be bicycle tours of Stones River National Battlefield in Tennessee, bird walks below the Amistad Dam in Texas, and Folklife Demonstrations at the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice, Louisiana. This is what I love about national parks—there is always something for everyone to enjoy, and there is endless versatility in planning a visit to one. You can go on an afternoon hike with your family in upstate New York or plan a week’s road trip with your friends to hit all the mountain trails on the west coast. You’ll inevitably learn something about history or nature without tour guides or pamphlets (although those resources are always available to you). Most national parks are free year-round as well. But I highly encourage everyone to take advantage of this special week and enjoy the new season by paying a visit to one of almost 400 sites that display our nation’s ecological diversity and rich historical heritage.

One of the most important rules about traveling is that you never come home empty-handed. A souvenir (which means “to remember” in French) is a nice way to tell a friend or family member you were thinking about them while on vacation. But getting people the right souvenirs without spending too much time shopping around for them is a skill. Here are some quick tips for the novices among us:

1. Don’t get someone something he or she could easily find at home, like a cutesy t-shirt or a personalized mug. Souvenirs should be special to the particular region you’re visiting, whether you be 600 or 6,000 miles from home. When I was in France, I picked up an old French tin advertisement for chicken broth that I gave to some relatives. While obviously more decorative than practical, the vintage sign was a big hit, because it was like a piece of France I brought back to share with them.

2. If you’re souvenir-shopping for multiple age groups, buy gifts for the youngest ones first. Odds are that they’re more interested in whatever cool gift you brought them than how your trip went. On the opposite end of the spectrum, grandparents and elder folk generally don’t have the need for more stuff. Usually, I write my grandparents postcards, and tell them a lot about the trip when I get home. That sort of thing means more to them.

3. When in doubt, get food. Everybody eats, so if it’s the last day of vacation and you still haven’t gotten something for your great-aunt Georgia, get her a local favorite, like German chocolate, Brazilian coffee, or packaged pain-au-chocolat (one of the best things you can find in a French supermarket).

Obviously, buying souvenirs should not be the highlight of your trip, or even a prominent feature. But if you want your friends to bring you back cool presents from faraway places, I’d highly recommend hitting the local shops whenever you take a trip.