Planning a family vacation can be a lot of work, a lot of hassle, and let’s face it— a lot of stress. Family vacations are a tremendous amount of fun and deciding where to go and what to do with that vacation should be fun too. One of the things that we’ve found is a great exercise and can get kids excited about vacation and take a little bit of stress off of you is to let your kids have an active role in planning the next family vacation.
Responsibility
The best way to teach kids about responsibility is to give them a specific task to be responsible for. Giving kids the reigns over the family vacation is one way to do this. First, it won’t be the same kind of responsibility that their friends have and it also is not an everyday responsibility. These two factors alone make it an exciting and different kind of challenge for them. Playing only an advisory role and lending a helping hand when needed will free up time for you to focus on other things, like who is driving the kids to practice later?
Communication
Planning a vacation for the whole family is a good practice in communication. Your kids will have to talk with parents, grandparents, siblings, maybe even cousins, aunts, and uncles. If there are differences in opinion, it’ll be their job to come up with a compromise. You can even let them speak with one of our family travel advisers to communicate to us what your family needs. Who has dietary restrictions? How many people are interested in kayaking versus hiking? Communication is key when planning a multi-generational vacation or family reunion vacation because everyone will have different interests. Learning how to effectively communicate and make the best decisions for the group is a trait and skill that will always be helpful!
Financial Planning
It is never too early for kids to start learning about financial responsibility and understanding a budget. Funny enough, planning a family vacation requires those skills! Let the kids know exactly what the budget is. They’ll have to start deciding if they want to spend a little extra money on plane tickets at the sacrifice of an extra activity while on vacation. Budget could also affect what time of year you choose to travel. When real money is involved and certain concessions need to be made because of it, kids will start to understand how real their role is and gain a new sense of importance and confidence.
Real Interest
The one way to ensure that your kids, whether teens, pre-teens, or kids in their 20s, giving them control over the outcome of the family vacation will be the best way to ensure they’re interested in the place you go! If they weren’t interested they wouldn’t have chosen the place to begin with. After choosing a place, your kids will be much more likely to research that place and learn about it on their own.
This is a great exercise for family teen travel and travel with younger kids. Have your kids look into our different group tour options or take it a step further and let them plan a custom or private trip. Have one of your kids give us a call and let the planning begin!
