When you are trying to decide where to take your family on vacation, it can take awhile to find a good balance between your budget, your timeframe, what you want to do, and what you think your kids can do. I have often looked through guidebooks and searched the internet for family travel ideas, only to find that a certain location that I was hoping to visit is not recommended for children. Most recently, my family traveled to Rome, Italy against the advice of a number of travel writers. Obviously, the trip was not without its challenges, but overall we had a great time and the kids were wonderful.
Two of the most important pieces of the puzzle for successful family travel are going with the flow and lowering your travel expectations slightly to allow for kid-style tourism. Going with the flow means giving up the rigid schedule of your days at home. Help the kids nap when they are tired (even on the go), eat when they are hungry, and be kids when they need to stop being tourists for a moment. This can be a hard mind-set to adopt, but it is vital for creating a successful family vacation. Lowering your travel expectations will also help reduce your stress levels on a trip. Where you might be able to hit a tourist destination and see every suggested site in the guidebooks when you travel with other adults, bringing along your children will change that to a degree. You should still plan to visit the sites you most want to see, but over a longer time frame, say six days instead of three, and for a shorter duration, a two hour museum visit versus a six hour visit.
For some ideas on places to visit with your family, check out my recent articles on the Suite 101 website: Traveling to Maui With Kids and Touring Rome With Kids.
Two of the most important pieces of the puzzle for successful family travel are going with the flow and lowering your travel expectations slightly to allow for kid-style tourism. Going with the flow means giving up the rigid schedule of your days at home. Help the kids nap when they are tired (even on the go), eat when they are hungry, and be kids when they need to stop being tourists for a moment. This can be a hard mind-set to adopt, but it is vital for creating a successful family vacation. Lowering your travel expectations will also help reduce your stress levels on a trip. Where you might be able to hit a tourist destination and see every suggested site in the guidebooks when you travel with other adults, bringing along your children will change that to a degree. You should still plan to visit the sites you most want to see, but over a longer time frame, say six days instead of three, and for a shorter duration, a two hour museum visit versus a six hour visit.
For some ideas on places to visit with your family, check out my recent articles on the Suite 101 website: Traveling to Maui With Kids and Touring Rome With Kids.
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