What is the most important consideration when you are sitting down to plan a new trip? To a lot of people, the destination is first and foremost. That makes sense. The whole point of traveling is to see new places, try new things, and meet new people. You would expect the destination to be important. But what would you say if someone told you that there are times when travel isn’t about the destination? More than not, travelers want to make their family vacation memorable. Here are some tips for your next family adventure.
Make Family Vacation Memorable
There are times when the destination is secondary. There are other times when it doesn’t matter at all. A good example illustrating both scenarios is found in family holidays. For the purposes of this post, a family holiday is defined as one involving at least parents and children. It might also include grandparents and other extended family members.
Making Lifelong Memories
We get so caught up in foreign travel destinations that it is easy to forget what actually occurs on family holidays. Think about your own childhood. What are some of your fondest family holiday memories? Chances are you remember less about the places you visited and more about the experiences you had with siblings and parents.
Maybe you remember sitting on the beach building sandcastles with your brother or sister. Perhaps you remember laughing over funny stories told around the campfire. The point is that you probably remember family experiences more than the actual locations where those experiences took place.
Family holidays are uniquely qualified to build lifelong memories. Whether you call your time away a holiday or a vacation, the time spent together is quality time away from the daily routine. It is time parents do not have to worry about going to work or paying the bills. It is time kids can spend having fun rather than worrying about schoolwork and chores. Knowing that, isn’t it more important to choose a destination that is conducive to family activity? Absolutely. Choosing a destination that allows everyone to do things together will be more memorable than a destination that has everyone going their separate ways in order to do what they want.
Traveling with a New Baby
Let us shift gears a bit and talk more specifically about traveling with a new baby. It is hard sometimes to try to make a family vacation memorable with a new little one. You might be so focused on how it is going to go that you have little time to think about what you are actually going to do on holiday. This is normal for new parents. That first trip with a new baby is a completely different experience. Throughout the planning process, you are assessed by two things: ensuring that your baby stays safe and doing whatever you can to make the child comfortable away from home. Both concerns are completely reasonable.
On the safety front, you might be thinking about things like the best family first aid kits – click here for more on that – and travel insurance to cover the cost of any medical issues that might arise. On the personal comfort front, you are thinking about everything from feeding to bedding and changing nappies.
Here is another case in which the destination is not so important anymore. It is more important that you leave your home fully confident that your baby will be both safe and comfortable. Your other option is to spend the entire time being a nervous wreck. That doesn’t make for a very happy holiday regardless of your chosen destination. The thing to remember is that your new baby will have no memories of this first holiday. It won’t matter whether you go to Asia for a 7-day whirlwind tour or spend a week roughing it up in the mountains. You will remember, though. Your memories will be a lot more pleasant if your baby has a good experience.
Traveling with Older Children
The destination can be tricky when you’re traveling with older children. As just one example, your teenagers may not be so keen on the place you visited last year. There was nothing for them to do. So choosing this year’s destination needs to account for that. Still, the destination itself is secondary to the kids’ attitudes.
It is one thing to travel to a destination you are not really excited about and still make the best of things. It is an entirely different matter to spend the entire trip arguing and complaining because mum and dad didn’t let you pick the destination. Sometimes it is best to go where the older kids want to go just so they don’t have an excuse to argue and complain. Other times it’s more important to choose a destination you prefer so as to make it clear to your kids that they don’t always get what they want.
In the end, the most important thing to remember is that family vacations are about spending quality time together more than anything else. So trying to make their family vacation memorable will be easy! A willing family that truly enjoys one another can make any destination a fairy-tale destination.
