Vacations are for relaxing, escaping the boredom of everyday life and spending time with family and friends. They can also be a chance to see new places, make new friends, and create memories that get us through the rest of the year. Ironically enough, that applies to the whole family, children as well as parents! Check out these family travel tips below for travelling with the family including travelling around the world!
How to survive a family vacation? For a family vacation to be successful, everybody needs to get involved, and involved as soon as possible. The parents may need to set limits on time and money, but the kids can come up with ideas and try to locate places to go. Done properly, it becomes an adventure or quest, a game in real life, and with the Internet it has never been easier to do.
After enjoying a memorable family vacation, it’s not uncommon to experience the post-vacation blues upon returning to daily routines. The contrast between the excitement of travel and the regularity of life at home can be challenging to navigate. For insightful tips on how to manage these feelings and smoothly transition back into your job life, especially when balancing work and family responsibilities, take a look at this helpful article on Post-Vacation Blues. It offers effective strategies for workload upon return.
Set The Travelling Limits
The parent can start with “lets go somewhere, but it needs to be limited to within 500 miles (a one day drive) and we can be gone 8 days”. This allows 5 week days and then two weekends, with one day to rest after returning. The kids can then go onto Google Maps and look at everything within that radius.
How To Decide On A Family Travel Destination
Where to travel with family? Travelling with the family can be challenging especially choosing a family destination all members will agree on. Pick out places that are of interest to everyone. It may be a mountain retreat, a city with museums and restaurants, or a beach! Any where within 500 miles is fair game. Now each child has to find out about the place they think sounds most exciting, and things to do at that spot. Tell them that it needs something for each family member; shopping may be great for mom, and a museum day for the kids!
Now have a family meeting and each child presents their idea for vacation! Look all the ideas over and then vote on where to go! Usually each kid will vote for their own place, but then they may all either choose the same place or decide the other place sounds better. This is just choosing the place.
Vacation Day
Once the place is chosen, assign each child a day of the vacation as their day. It is the day when the family does what they want. You may need to put a monetary limit on it, but that should be okay. It could just be a day at the beach with a seafood dinner that evening. It might be a day at the park. Of course, Mom and Dad should have their day as well!
How To Decide When To Travel
Thanksgiving, summer vacation, spring break, or Mardi Gras? What if you don’t have a specific event to attend when travelling with ? How then do you decide when to travel with the family?
Selecting your vacation time is almost as important as selecting your vacation destination. Here are some tips to help you decide on the vacation location:
Recurring Location?
Barring any restrictions on work schedules and school calendars, your travel adventure can vary greatly on what season you travel in. Depending on your destination, the time of year you travel influences the experiences you have. For instance, if you visit Greece at the end of the summer travel season, you will notice uncrowded streets, lower hotel rates, and more intimate experience. But, what you will miss, warm days at the beach, seasonal activities (including frequent ferry crossings) and festivals abound.
Have you visited this location before, if so, would you benefit from a new experience at a different time of year? I hear that Vienna, one of my favourite cities, is breathtaking during the holiday season. I might consider my next trip in the winter and come away with a richer love of the city.
Cultural Experiences
Are you travelling with the family for an adventure by immersing yourself in the culture, learning the language, and spending time visiting with locals? Or, do you want a vacation with beautiful beaches, never-ending cocktails, and guided tours? In some cases, you can have both! But usually, traveling outside of high season gives you a richer sense of the country and its culture. This can be attributed to the locals simply having more time to visit with you and “show you around.”
Family Vacation Activities
What specific activities do you want available? For example, are there special attractions or museums that are a must? Some may be closed during certain months because of weather (this is especially important for the adventure junkies). Also consider renovations, restorations, and various other construction projects that may have one of your destinations limited or closed.
Family Vacation Budget
What’s your budget? Would traveling outside high season save you money on airfare and accommodations, possibly enhancing your family trip in other ways, such as added excursions? Traditionally, my family has traveled mid-season and think our experiences overall have been better.
Family Travelling The World
Traveling is the best option to unwind and catch up with your family and friends. Throughout the year, you were burying yourself into piles of work and now has come the perfect time to go on a vacation and travel the world. The world holds vast doors of opportunity for adventure-seekers as well as those who want something new and refreshing to do. When traveling with the family, you should be able to device a perfect plan from going to coming back home.
Smart traveling, when visiting far away, is not just about being wise about money, although this is one of the most important aspects, it must also include being able to minimize the hassle that comes along with traveling. With the use of modern technology as well as common sense, you can be a smart traveller and go around the world in a breeze.
Here are some tips for families travelling full-time around the world:
Plan your travel
Get the best deals online. Ask around for recommendations and search online for promotions and discounts that you and your group can avail of. Look for bundles in flight and hotel packages to be able to save more than if you would purchase just for yourself. Plot your itinerary and use a family travel planner with checklist to help you. This is the best way to fully enjoy your vacation and lessen the blunders. Make copies of all your travel documents and other important papers. You can also make use of public transportation vehicles as these are the most practical means to get you to your destinations.
Pack light
When travelling with the family, you need to have a packing checklist and get organized to make use of fewer bags as possible for the whole family. It will save you from paying for excess baggage. Most flights require you to pay, but others will let you leave your stuff in the airport. Depending on the duration of your stay, you should plan on packing just the right number of outfits. Use zip-lock bags for your toiletries and roll your clothes to save extra space for more items.
Be safe
Upon arrival, be sure to save all the necessary emergency or police hotlines as well as embassy local numbers that you can immediately call in case something comes up. Use a buddy system, consisting of 1 adult with children, or 1 teenager with a younger sibling at all times, whenever going out of the hotel to prevent any mishap. Always stay in contact with your family back home through the internet and update them of anything that is happening on your travel.
Travelling with the family may take weeks to plan, but it is weeks of anticipation and excitement that should add to the vacation rather than detract from it. Getting the kids involved will truly make it a family vacation.
These are only some handy and easy tips for travelling with the family. Now is the time to go on leave from your work and get ready for the best vacation that your family will ever experience!
