Traveling With Tweens – Making It Fun for Them and You Č Two years ago, I was lucky enough to be able to take a European vacation with my tween sons. For 19 glorious days, we explored the sights, enjoyed our time together, and made lasting memories. To this day, we still find ourselves talking about something we did, saw, or ate. We had a few meltdowns along the way. But we made it through all of the madness, and have now returned to the “basics” – back in our houses, TV, home, or restaurants – to re-enjoy our days with family and friends.
Being single, we have been open to the various dating and travel sites available. We have also gone on couples’ vacations and have swum the white waters of the Caribbean, French Polynesia, Hawaii, and Italy! We have explored the many different cultures of the places we have visited. We have dated and stayed with couples who would have turned 50 years old in another place. We have watched their kids grow from a teen into a twenty-year-old who can now hardly keep a date alive. We have celebrated their birthdays, their anniversaries, their honeymoons, and now their graduation ceremonies and sent them off to college, or out with their parents for a vacation. How many of our families have done all of the above? None!?!
There is nothing ‘standard’ about our vacations. They are what sets us apart from the categorized vacation options. We are a product of our families, our society, and our memories.
Family comes first. What family do you want to create? There are thousands of families who look similar to you and me. The holidays are a time to strengthen families by avenues of shared history, culture, and experiences. It is a time to create a legacy. create a storybook.
When did you create your first legacy? What happened to the first family you stayed with? Where did your first family vacation place come from? Where did your first family vacation place come from? Maybe it was a lake house you stayed in your childhood years?
What is the first family vacation spot you would like to return to?
The first family vacation place is a destination or a hotel. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it doesn’t have to be a theme park. It can be a country house, a big hotel Federal way, a campground your state has never seen, or a camping ground.
Any hotel is a great place to go for a family vacation. Hotels are more family-oriented and are where the kids ‘really’ stay. Everyone is included in the home-like feeling of staying in a hotel. Kitchen facilities are easily available too.
Do some research and find the perfect family hotel. Start shopping around for hotel treats starting at a wide variety of places. Then tell all the Travel agents in your life that you are looking for a family vacation. See what they suggest.
Most parents pull the credit card right away. However, a word of praise may be reserved for those who still go into debt to purchase a vacation. It may be tempting to purchase the first, luxury hotel that the family clamors for, but it is better to take the vacation you come across that has a kitchen and refrigerator, or the one that is described as ‘kind of fun’ in the travel brochures.
Lodging is a great place to go for a family vacation, provided the family is experienced in dealing with the various seasons of lodging and hotel accommodations and accommodations.
Family vacations are a way to create time for fun, quality time with the family, relatives, or friends. Many families vacation in the summer, others in the winter, some in the spring, and some in the fall. Fall is usually the most spectacular as the leaves are changing, and everyone is excited to hit the trails for their winter breath.
During the winter months, many young couples and single adults try to spend their summertime vacation away from home. By remaining at a hotel or resort, rather than at their house or condo. Summer is the busiest time for these establishments, and as such, they tend to overeat and drink, rather than take in the scenery.
A family vacation to remain in shape, and not experience the obesity and temptation of heavy meals, is a way to ‘get away from it all,’ and to remember who we are, and what we are capable of doing on this terrain.
It is amazing what can be found when you take a more liberal outlook on vacation. Marriage is no longer the exception that no one, not even couples, can enjoy. Indeed, in today’s world of hook-up websites and numerous nightlife offers, including those in exotic locations, there are more opportunities for singles vacation, than ever before.