Learn How to Plan Great Family Summer Vacations

Families can get on board for fun with awesome family summer vacations to plan this year. Take your time and pick a spot that’s affordable and rewarding for your holiday.

Fun family summer vacations are part and parcel of the American experience. You make reservations somewhere, load up the car with the wife, kids and maybe even the family pet, and hit the road for fun and adventure. It’s the American Dream made flesh, the ability to get away from work and stress for a week or so with the people you love the most. It’s the promise of American freedom combined with the relaxation we all crave.

What type of trip?

Of course, not all family summer vacations are the same. An adventure vacation is different from a lay-about, kick it in the sun vacation. A “let’s go see our favorite baseball team” vacation is far different from “Let’s go to Disney World!” vacation. So it’s important then to identify what your favorite family summer vacations of choice are before embarking upon one.

Games and entertainment

For me personally, a lot of my free time is spent enjoying the game of soccer. Whether I’m watching on TV, playing in pick-up games in the neighborhood, or reading online, I’ve always got soccer on the brain. I’m lucky enough that my girlfriend feels the same way about the game, so in large part our family summer vacations are pre-determined.

How to plan your family holiday

Remember when you were a kid, when your friends complained of the family summer vacation their parents had planned and which the kids were dreading?

Usually a result of poor planning. Parents might decide that a camping trip is at the top of everyone’s family summer vacation desires, when it isn’t.

Cost and budget

Naturally, it is the two parents who work out the budget and foot the bill. It’s a given that a finite amount of money is going to place certain restrictions on your destination and activities. That doesn’t mean that the entire family shouldn’t participate in deciding where to go and what to do.

Tips and ideas for the trip

Invite everyone to throw their ideas in the family summer vacation idea hat. Let everyone have their say. Sit down around the kitchen table and make a list of all of the ideas suggested. Some will have to be scratched off due to budget constraints, but you might be able to find a similar, but doable alternative.

For example, if you live in California and one of the kids comes up with the idea of spending the family summer vacation in Yellowstone National Park. Yosemite, or the Grand Canyon are much closer and are equally spectacular.

Families CAN agree

Let’s say three of the five family members are up for the camping trip idea, Mom, Dad and the oldest boy. The dissenters are the two teenage girls. Here again, the destination is key. A camping trip to Lake Tahoe should completely dispel all of the objections from the girls. Lake Tahoe is a world destination, with activities so varied, everyone will be raving about this family summer vacation trip for years to come.

The travel itinerary

While Dad and son are off fishing, the ladies can take a horseback riding tour, from which there are spectacular views of the lake. In the evening, everyone can head out for one of the famous and sumptuous buffets at the casinos. These all-you-can-eat affairs provide a variety of dishes, to please every taste, at a reasonable cost. Cook the fish around the campfire in the morning.

Where to go

If you live on the East Coast, a vacation in the Florida Keys or Myrtle Beach, SC may well meet with the approval of the entire family. Those beach paradise vacations provide parents with an opportunity to kick back at an umbrella covered table for some relaxing conversation and a cool drink, while the kids play volleyball, build sandcastles, swim and meet other kids. What’s not to like about this family summer vacation?

Find a common ground

When planning and discovering  family vacation ideas that everyone will enjoy, consensus and some compromise is required. If one of the kids is stuck on his or her idea, despite everyone else being in agreement, don’t try to force the majority idea down that child’s throat! Instead, ask that child what element that’s important to his family vacation is missing in the majority choice.

Some kids are born contraries and may just be sticking to his guns out of stubbornness or a desire to have been the one to come up with the idea first! Maybe he wanted to go on a fishing trip instead. Ask him to get online and look up the destination with the most votes.

Finding your favorite vacation spot

If you’re going to visit Washington D.C., Google ‘fishing lakes rivers Washington DC area’. Virginia has many fishing spots! If you promise to spend a day fishing, he might well change his mind. He’ll undoubtedly also enjoy visiting the Smithsonian, the D.C. Zoo and taking the White House tour.

If you take a bit of time to really brainstorm ideas, your family summer vacation can become the trip of a lifetime. Other families are enjoying their travel this season – why shouldn’t you?