In all honesty any travel vs local ball has to be tuned to the desire of the kid. My son loves to play and actually will be joining his first select/travel team at the age of 12. I purposely held him back until he was older simply because I wanted to make sure that he wanted to play at that level and not simply be some kid who plays just to make his dad happy.
I do agree that many of the travel teams have higher caliber coaching and in general better players but that isn't always the case. My son was lucky to have coaches at the 10U and 12U level that were very good at teaching basic fundamentals and sportsmanship. My son has played some travel teams in All Star play (he consistantly makes all star teams in his district) and many of these kids are very good but I have noticed that in some cases the coaching emphasized winning over good baseball and sportsmanship. That may be fine at the high school and collegiate level but I was not pleased to see that at the 11 year old level.