Asia Transpacific Journeys Offers Family Trips to Exotic Locales

Traveling to far-flung places in Asia and the Pacific with Asia Transpacific Journeys broadens everyone's viewpoint and gives children perspective on their life by developing critical thinking skills and learning about other cultures.

Marilyn Downing Staff, Founder and President of the nation's leading tour company for the Asia and Pacific region, believes that by visiting cultures so different from the American lifestyle children learn about other cultures and traditions early on, which helps them understand that the world is a much bigger place than they may have thought before.

Here are their top picks for family trips that are both educational and fun in nature through hands-on learning:

BORNEO: A Wildlife Adventure

On a trip to Borneo, tropical forests lush with wildlife invite moderate trekking through jungle trails, while monkeys howl on the white-sand shores. A visit to Mt. Kinabalu, home to 270 species of birds and more than 70 species of frogs is a great day trip for travelers of all ages.

Families can also visit an Orangutan Rehabilitation Center and observe such national treasures as Sumatran rhinoceroses and clouded leopards on night walks and passages over an aerial catwalk.

THAILAND: A Family Adventure

This Thailand vacation, originally developed as a family trip for the American Museum of Natural History, explores the family-friendly country's cities, hill tribe areas and beaches.

Families learn how to become mahouts (elephant caretakers), visit a puppet theatre, ride an elephant among hill tribe peoples and take a bamboo raft trip through the jungle.

The trip is not complete without a stay at one of Southern Thailand's famed beaches, where families can try sea kayaking and snorkel in the emerald waters.

CAMBODIA: Discovering Lost Temples

With a Cambodian vacation, kids can be an archeologist for a day when visiting the Sambor Prei Kuk area - which could pass for an Indiana Jones movie set if it weren't so completely authentic.

A visit to these lost temples will enable families to experience its serene atmosphere together with a fascinating sense of mystery and magic including wild parrots flying overhead.

Afterwards, parents and kids should head to Siem Reap to explore Angkor Wat, voted the most beloved UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 and simply a stunning sight for both old and young.

AUSTRALIA - Down-Under Wildlife Discovery Tour

On a trip to Australia, families can explore the country's eco hotspots, kangaroo to platypus.

Wildlife sightings in this naturalist's utopia co-mingle with hiking, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, and tramping through the World Heritage Daintree Rain Forest.

In Tasmania families can also marvel at the smallest penguin in the world – called the fairy penguin–and rufus wallabies, eastern quolls, brush-tailed possums, wombats and the famous Tasmanian devils.

For more information, please visit www.asiatranspacific.com.