Tips for Planning a Family Vacation

Planning a family vacation can be overwhelming, scary, and expensive without proper planning. We’ve planned our fair share of vacations, so we thought it would help if we shared some tips for planning a family vacation that we follow! Don’t forget to grab the FREE downloadable guide at the end to help you in your planning!

1. Pick the Destination

Picking a destination can be the hardest part of a vacation.  For us, family vacation is about showing the boys different parts of the country, while not spending 2 days in the car!  We also look for areas that have something for everyone. 

To pick a destination start by determining if you’re going to fly or drive. Then, list places that sound interesting and do some online research. We also recommend requesting tourism guides to look through.  This should help you narrow it down!

2. Plan Tours, Excursions, & Activities

We have 4 very different personalities when it comes to the idea of “vacation” in our family and we try to accommodate everyone.  Start by sitting down with the tourism guide and circle practically anything that looks good. We have everyone in the family do this with a different color marker!  Then, narrow it down based on time, money, and the number of people interested!  Make sure that everyone in the group has at least one specific thing that they want to do and fill in with things around the sides.  Combine small tours or exploring of shops along with big events like 4-wheeling, zip-lining, cave tours, etc.

Plan A Family Vacation with these Ideas!

3. Plan Downtime

Remember, you’re on vacation. No matter how many things you want to see, I believe it is important to schedule downtime.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed and run-down by sightseeing so it’s a good idea to plan the downtime (especially when vacationing with younger kids).

We typically plan downtime to include pool time at the hotel or campground, riding bikes, playing games, or just relaxing in lawn chairs, taking naps, etc. Another tip: If you’re headed somewhere really warm, plan downtime and pool time during the hottest point of the day, leaving outdoor activities for the cooler mornings or evenings!

4. Loosely Schedule Days

We depend on mother nature cooperating, so it’s important to not schedule days down to the hour & minute.  I hate being outside when it’s raining, so I want to know that we have inside activities to fill our time if we need them.

How do we plan?  We group things together based on location, time needed, etc and plan that “day”.  Then, we label those “days” as such (ie Day 1, Day 2, etc).  We move those days around based on weather or how we are feeling as a group! The only downfall of this strategy is if you need to make reservations, you must plan a little more in advance. Thankfully in most tourist areas, you can manage that within a day or two so you can still have a good handle on weather.

5. Know Your Destination

There is no way to truly know your destination when you’ve never been there before, but doing some preliminary work can be helpful. Contact the campground or hotel to get answers to any lingering questions you may have. Don’t hesitate to contact wherever you’re going either via social media or by phone so there are no surprises! Not only do we do our research ahead of time, we also take several books and pamphlets with us, just in case!

6. Figure Your Finances

No one wants to be mid-vacation and find out they are out of money. Emergencies (flat tires) happen are bound to happen. Avoiding these types of things is impossible, but I encourage you to find out admission fees, rentals, etc so that you can plan!  We always do this and have eliminated activities from our agenda because it just wasn’t financially feasible or smart for our family!  We even work out an estimate for fuel if driving. Don’t forget to add in hotel or campground stays, food, and make a budget for how much you will spend on souvenirs.

7. Take Care of Home

The last tip for planning a family vacation isn’t the least of them! It’s easy to get caught up in the planning for the trip itself that you forget about home!  For us, it’s things like arranging dog care, someone to get the mail, and someone watering gardens while we’re gone.  At the advice of Tony at Faith, Family, & Technology, I’ll also be changing the sheets on all our beds the morning that we leave.  (As well as following the rest of his 6 Tips For A Successful Return From Vacation!) 

I also make a list of things that need to be done (even if they are routine chores for us). When you’re excited to leave on a vacation, it’s easy to overlook the “norm”! I promise that prepping your home for you to be gone will make things easier when you return!

Tips for Planning a Family Vacation

Planning a successful family vacation can be stressful. Hopefully with these tips hopefully you and your family will have a great time! Remember…this is your family vacation and you want everyone in the family to enjoy it!  Hopefully these tips you all will!! Where are you and your family headed?

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