How to Plan the Perfect Family Vacation – Tips for Stress Free Travel
A successful and stress-free family vacation requires careful planning and preparation. By booking tickets for attractions in advance, choosing family-friendly accommodations, creating a flexible itinerary, packing smart, and investing in travel insurance, you can make your next getaway a relaxing and enjoyable experience.
Keep the kids involved in the planning process to increase excitement and engagement. This will also help to delegate responsibilities so that everyone has a chance to relax and enjoy the experience.
1. Plan Your Itinerary in Advance
Whether you’re jetting off to Hawaii or road-tripping around the state, it helps to have an itinerary in mind. It establishes expectations for the trip, helps ensure necessary large group reservations are made, and allows parents to go to bed each night knowing that their children’s needs will be taken care of.
It also gives families a goal to work towards, like collecting items from their travels (ticket stubs, foreign candy wrappers, seashells, and more). This keeps kids entertained during wait times on the road and when they’re settling in at the hotel.
2. Book Tickets for Attractions
When planning family vacations, it’s important to choose destinations that offer something for everyone. Consider excursions, such as tours and theater performances, as well as local attractions like museums and zoos.
Encourage your kids to capture memories of their trip by creating a memento package, which can be as simple as a scrapbook. This is a great place to keep ticket stubs, foreign candy wrappers, seashells, and more.
It’s also important to schedule some alone time with your partner or spouse during your vacation. This is especially important if you have young children.
3. Choose Family-Friendly Accommodations
If you’re traveling with kids, it’s essential to choose family-friendly accommodations. Look for hotels that offer child-friendly amenities like cribs, high chairs, and interconnected rooms.
Family friendly perks can make your vacation more relaxing and enjoyable. For example, look for hotel restaurants that serve a variety of food options, including those that cater to different dietary needs.
It’s also important to choose accommodations that are close to attractions and activities that interest your family. This will save you time and money on transportation.
4. Create a Flexible Itinerary
Take into account what interests each member of your family to create an itinerary that ticks at least some boxes for everyone. This will help prevent crankiness from arising during the trip.
Consider limiting the number of activities scheduled in one day to two or three, and make sure you factor in travel time and wait times in between. It’s also useful to include some ‘vacation tasks’ for the kids, so they can entertain themselves during boring moments in museums or at attractions with long queues.
5. Pack Smart
Even the most seasoned travelers often forget something important on vacation. This is especially true when traveling with babies and kids.
To help avoid this, make packing a family affair for those old enough to participate. This will not only save you time, but it can also teach your children responsibility and organizational skills.
Packing cubes are great for families as they can be colour coded to identify whose belongings are in which suitcase. This can also save space and make unpacking easier.
6. Invest in Travel Insurance
Traveling as a family can be expensive, especially with the recent price hikes on flights and hotel accommodations. One way to make your vacation more affordable is by investing in travel insurance.
Having a clear and agreed-upon budget can help reduce the stress of your trip. Whether you want to use an app that splits costs or create a savings account dedicated solely to your vacation, it is essential to establish the costs upfront. This will ensure that you are not surprised by unexpected expenses on your return home.
7. Explore Local Cuisine
A great way to bond with your family is by exploring local cuisine. It’s also an excellent way to support the local economy and gain insight into the culture of your destination.
Remember to pace yourself throughout your trip. Overdoing it can result in grumpy kids and parents, so be sure to include downtime days for lounging at the hotel pool or relaxing on the beach. Some families also enjoy collecting mementos from their vacations, such as ticket stubs, coins and foreign candy wrappers.
8. Take Regular Breaks
Taking regular breaks throughout your vacation can help prevent everyone from becoming too worn out. Whether it’s for a quick bite to eat or an hour spent exploring a nearby park, these breaks can make a big difference in how well your family enjoys their trip!
Vacations are meant to be a relaxing escape from everyday life. But if you overbook your schedule, it can cause everyone to feel exhausted and cranky. Try to balance excitement with downtime, by including leisure days such as beach walks and national park tours.
