Leave the itinerary up to the kids

Turn your holiday planning into a family project, says Kerri Jackson.

BoundRound is a travel planning website - and app for children with phones - aimed at the tween market, with content created by kids for kids.

Intrepid junior explorers can watch videos about destinations and activities filmed by children their own age, as well as play games, send email postcards and read up on different activities, with links to websites.

Kids can plan in advance before they leave or hop on to the site as they're travelling and plan each day as they go.

Sarah Reid was surprised how quickly her children Sally, 11, and Jack, 8, became engaged in the BoundRound site when they planned a trip to Rotorua.

After exploring all the information and videos on boundround.com, Sally and Jack decided Rainbow Springs was top of their must-do list.

They were sold on the place after hearing about its many birds, reptiles and fish, the Big Splash water ride and the prospect of getting up close to kiwi, tuatara and fish that could be fed by hand.

Other Rotorua activities on BoundRound they quickly added to their holiday itinerary included Kuirau Park for hot springs and boiling mud, Mitai Maori Village, Rotorua Museum and the Agrodome for more up-close animal encounters.

They also suggested a side-trip to Taupo's Hukafalls Jet; "just in case we have time, mum".

Sarah says the children have done all sorts of extra research, including working out how long it takes to get to places.

"They've even looked around the site for things to do in our home city of Auckland."

NEED TO KNOW

• Boundround.com is a travel website aimed at children aged 8-12, featuring travel and activity ideas and including videos made by children talking about each attraction. It is also available as an iPhone/iPad app. Both the website and the app are child-safe.

• Kids can register to become BoundRound reporters, uploading their own review videos to the site.

• The app features 70 city overview guides and 15 detailed destination guides for places such as Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Perth, Uluru, the Blue Mountains, Lake Macquarie, the Sunshine Coast, Phillip Island, Dubai, Fiji, Hong Kong and Singapore. New Zealand destinations include Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. The app includes more than 1000 kid-friendly attractions and venues.