How to Plan a Family Vacation With Your Older Kids
Just because your kids have grown up doesn’t mean that you have to forego any future family vacations. In fact, family vacations can be much more fun when everybody’s older, and there’s no need to take along loads of supplies for kids and young babies. An increasing number of families with older teens, college kids, and kids in their twenties and even thirties are continuing to vacation together, often bringing along partners too as their family grows. Planning an adult family holiday is a lot different to planning a family holiday with young children, so if you’re arranging your first family holiday together as adults we have some top tips for you.
Why Take a Family Vacation with Your Adult Kids?
These days, many parents are closer than ever with their adult children, but many young adults are discovering that working lives, careers and further education is interfering with precious family time. For example, many young working people aren’t able to get home on occasions such as Thanksgiving or even Christmas, meaning that a family vacation is the perfect time to both unwind and relax as well as spend some much-needed time together as a family and catch up.
Choosing a Location
Picking a location for a vacation with your adult children is a lot different than picking a location the way that you would when they were small. When you’re planning a vacation with young children it tends to revolve around amusement parks and children’s activities, but once they’re older it can be a lot easier to pick locations. Going for locations with plenty of adventure, culture, nightlife and activities such as ziplining, surfing and kayaking is the best idea when planning a vacation with adult kids. Many activities common in popular vacation destinations are suitable for both young adults and older parents, making them ideal for bonding and having fun together. Now that your kids are older they’ll also be able to enjoy a drink with you, which can make visiting locations such as Niagara Falls a lot more interesting as you’ll get to visit places such as the Niagara Falls Brewery.
Choosing Accommodations
When your children were small, it was easy to just all stay in one hotel room. However, adult kids might not appreciate spending every night on vacation in the same room as their adult siblings and parents, so don’t think that putting everyone in the same room to save money is a good idea! When you are looking for suitable accommodation hotels can be great, but bear in mind that you can end up spending loads by booking enough rooms for everybody. This is why many parents arranging adult family vacations tend to go for accommodation options such as apartments and villas, as they’re often cheaper to hire than multiple hotel rooms and allow everyone to have their own room with a more home-from-home experience.
Scheduling
When it comes to scheduling your vacation, you should do so in plenty of time. Before you book flights and accommodation, you should make sure that each of your adult children – and any of their partners who are coming along – have been able to book the time off work and clear their own schedules.
Along with scheduling the holiday, you should also be sure not to overschedule your time there to make sure that everybody can enjoy the different activities that are on offer. It may have been easy to stick to a strict plan when you were on a family holiday with them as kids, but now that they’re adults it’s important to understand that they will also want to do their own thing. This is why it’s good to keep in mind that whilst family time on vacation is great, it’s also important to make sure that each of your children have the opportunity to go off and do their own thing if they find something that they’d like to try. Don’t forget about spontaneity – it might not have been brilliant when your children were younger, but when you’re travelling with adults it can be even more fun to take advantage of new and exciting opportunities which present themselves.
Planning a vacation with adult children is definitely not as difficult as it is to plan one with young kids! Although it may take a while to agree on a perfect destination for everybody, an adult family holiday can be the perfect opportunity to catch up, spend quality time together and strengthen your family bond. Have fun!
Travel Essentials
Here are a few essentials you need before you head over to the beach…
Sandals & Slipons
Swimsuits
Accessories
You can easily get everything you need for your fun filled family vacation at Shopbop.com. Check out the Shopbop’s Friends & Family Sale and use coupon code INTHEFAM to get 25% off full and sale priced items. Be sure to shop asap because this coupon code expires April 7th!