How do you choose where to go for your family vacation? The location must satisfy you all, and that is no mean feat when you all have different ideas on what you want your vacation to be like – especially if it must cater for differing age groups. To help you decide on where to make your reservations, read on for some top tips to help you choose a family vacation you will enjoy!
Tips to Help You Choose a Family Vacation
Journey duration
Your idea of bliss may be an idyllic tropical island, but that type of destination may be a long-haul flight, which is hard work with young children. You know your children, some children are great to travel with, and others less so. You need to consider the time that it will take to get you to the location, and your children’s needs. Remember to include transfer times to and from the airport, the time for passing through security and checking in time; all this additional time spent traveling can impact massively on the level of stress you may experience! You do not want to feel like you need another vacation to get over the trauma of the journey home.
What is there to do?
Traveling with a mix of age groups can cause issues. You may wish to spend most of your time on the beach, but others in your party may not be so eager to. Check out what attractions are near to your planned destination. Most tourist destinations have a nearby city that can be explored for alternative days to the beach, and so it is worth your time researching the locality. For example, there are many spectacular Vancouver Island points of interest to keep you all happy, but you are only a ferry ride from Vancouver and what the city has to offer. You do not need to compromise on your vacation for everybody to be happy.
Where are you going to stay?
There are many different types of vacation accommodation, and you need to decide which one will give you a vacation too. Finances are the main consideration, but equally, you do not want to find that you are spending the whole time in the kitchen preparing food for your family if you have chosen a self-catering option. You must carefully budget for what you can afford. Often it is cheaper in the long run to have meals included in hotel costs, but this limits you to where and what you eat, and if you are traveling overseas, you may miss out on experiencing the local cuisine as a result.
Your family vacation is an opportunity for you to all spend much needed time together; however, in order for you to enjoy it, you need to spend time choosing the right vacation destination. Whether your party involves different generations with grandparents joining you, or a mix of young and older children, they all will have different expectations and needs for the vacation. Have discussions about the budget and sharing of the chores and childcare before you make your decision, so that you can make sure you get the vacation you want.
Good tips to ensure the whole family is included in the fun
Good tips. Right now, with a 5 year old and 20 month old, our favourite kind of vacation is the camping road trip. We get to see a lot, we only spend a few hours in the car before each destination so the kids aren’t stuck “in transit” for too long and it keeps the budget down.
Great tips, we always chose to drive down to Florida to avoid the cost (7 kids) and it was a nice drive down despite being long. The kids got to enjoy swimming pools in the hotels and eating out so it was more like part of the holiday and not stressful.
I like to stay in a rental that’s affordable and allows for us to cook our own meals. I do find that it helps to keep costs down and we don’t get tired of eating out all the time.
Great tip Kristi! I totally agree!
If you have kids, I would suggest planning at least a year in advance of the trip… We always planned at least a two week vacation, picked a destination and then figured out the logistics. But that year-long gap allowed us to make sure we got the best deals and minimized stress.
Great tips!
You’ve got great tips and ideas and a family vacation is great for a lifetime of wonderful memories
Thanks for the great tips. They will be coming in handy.
Those are certainly great tips !