Planning a family vacation doesn’t have to be difficult! These days, there are many options for travel that can meet the interests and budgets of a small or large group. For stress-free family vacation planning, follow these tips.
Here are 5 basic tips to help you avoid stress and plan a family vacation:
Determine the type of family vacation
Is your family looking for a beach vacation, cruise, cottage, camping, amusement parks, road trip or a cultural adventure? Make sure everyone is aligned before you even begin looking for a destination. There are many destinations that offer various activities that will meet most traveler expectations. Consider these if you have a large group with different interests.
Define your vacation budget
Money is usually a sensitive topic. Each family member (who is forking out the money for the trip!) will need to discuss their budget before you plan a family vacation. Since travel can range from low-end to luxury, it would be a good idea to determine the type of vacation and timing along with the budget. Traveling during peak times can increase your costs so look for ways to keep it affordable for everyone.
Determine your vacation timing
When do you want to go on vacation? If anyone in your family needs to put in advanced notice for vacation time make sure you have a back-up date ready. Also consider traveling on different dates – perhaps someone in your party needs to leave a day later – this will just give everyone else time to arrive and settle in.
Have a flexible schedule
Resist the urge to over-plan your days. Feel free to plan family activities but also leave room for spontaneous activities or down time. Just because you’re traveling as a family doesn’t mean you need to do everything as a family. Maybe someone in your group is an early bird or likes to sleep in. Keep your days flexible so that everyone can enjoy their vacation stress-free!
Encourage different group activities
When you plan a family vacation you don’t need to spend 100% of your time together. In fact, you can spend quality time with family members in smaller settings or doing activities in smaller groups. Try out different activities that you can all do together and also some that break the family into smaller groups.
Family Vacation Planning Summary
Well, there you have 5 basic tips to help plan a family vacation! These are by no means the only tips out there – they are simply what worked for my family when we planned our recent family trip to the Ocean Riviera Paradise resort.
If you have any other tips to plan a family vacation, please share them in the comment section below!
16 comments
Gosh, getting myself together and out the door is challenge enough, I can only imagine what it would be like with a whole crew!!
Once we agreed on the vacation and got there – it was much easier 😉
Good tips, Sara. I no longer plan family vacations for multiple people – it’s just my wife and me now – but your tips are good for everyone, Good job!
Thanks! Usually it’s just my husband and I so this was a big change.
It’s not easy to plan a family vacation and make everyone happy but your tips are great! Especially when you say to have a flexible schedule. I usually plan everything in details but I have to learn to be more flexible and leave some days to go with the flow 😉
Yeah, I’m similar – I like to have all the details planned out. This vacation was much less work once we all agreed on where we wanted to go!
I do a lot of family travel and plan a lot of family travel. I have four kids who are now between ages of 14-21 years old. They have been to between 40-50 countries. I agree that it is important to be flexible and if you can, divide up into different activities. However, it really depends on the type of holiday you are taking. A beach holiday – no problem. But, on an adventure holiday, this becomes more difficult. I tend to plan a lot on our adventure holidays which allows us to maximize our time in a place. If I don’t, my teenage kids would sit in the room and play on their phones! LOL
Great point! It was much easier for us to plan a relaxing beach vacation – something we could all agree on. An adventure vacation probably wouldn’t have happened for my family – we all have very different interests! A beach vacation was the top thing we could agree on.
I didn’t realize what you have to think about planning for a family trip. I’m just planning for two which makes it way easier. Great tips though – I’ll pass it on to my friends who will definitely find this useful!
It’s much harder planning for a group than just for me and my husband – have to keep everything top of mind!
I still haven’t done family travel but I guess it’s never too early to start learning some tips about it (no matter how much I keep telling to myself that it’s too early lol). Planning a family vacation sure seems tough and making everyone happy- even tougher but you provided some really useful tips in this article.
I have actually never planned a family vacation till date. When we were kids, parents used to do it but its been decades I guess now that I have travelled with my family. I am going to take your tips very seriously 🙂 as this year I am planning a trip with my mother-in-law and her sisters.
I’m on a family vacation right now and I really like the tip about doing different activities. You really can have a lot of quality time and still let people purpose their own interests.
Thanks! Hope you enjoy your trip 🙂
Planning a family vacation is quite fun. I still remember when we cousins used to sit together and plan for the vacation with the extended family. It used to be total chaos. I have not planned a family vacation since long because now its mostly me and my husband. I totally agree with your tips. They are the best and also the safest.
I really like family trips too! But they can be chaotic 😉