With the first day of summer quickly approaching, is vacation travel on your mind? Our tips will help make your travel a smooth experience for your entire family!
Planning
- Making the entire family part of the planning process will build anticipation for your vacation. With young kids, share information about your destination and highlight features they are likely to be excited to experience.
- Traveling with your baby? To minimize packing stress, check to see what baby equipment is available at your destination. Maybe you can rent a stroller, crib, or high chair rather than pack yours.
- There is value in speaking with a staff person at your destination if you want your questions answered quickly and thoroughly. While many travelers like to rely on online information, don’t forget that front desk staff and reservations agents can be informative resources.
- A relaxed vacation offers priceless family time as well as one on one or individual time. Have a family chat prior to vacation about what your goals are – time together as a group, or a mix with some individual or paired activities? It can be fun to enhance family connections through new activities and new pairings.
Packing
- Provide kids with a small suitcase (kids’ roller bags are great!) and a small bag that can hold favorite games or a stuffed animal that might be going along for the ride. Encourage kids to set out clothing they would like to bring.
- To entertain young kids during a long travel day, you might consider packing a secret stash of small toys or books that are brand new. You can pull those out when a fun diversion is needed.
- With young children, pack snacks that they prefer, and a sippy cup (or two!). You never know what you might find once on the road – best to be prepared.
On your way
- Whether you’re driving or flying, plan activities that will break up your travel. Airports often have special exhibits of local art or history that are interesting for all ages. If driving, find a few family-friendly spots to stop at so everyone can have a stretch or grab a bite to eat.
- Heading to a vacation condominium with the convenience of a kitchen? Stop en route to purchase your groceries – who wants to head back out right after you’ve arrived at your destination?
During your vacation
- Look for special souvenirs, like a story book with a connection to your vacation area. Or, find an art or craft session where you make something together that you can bring home as a memento of your vacation.
Have fun, and happy summer!
Smugglers’ Notch is a year round mountain resort offering acclaimed vacation experiences for families. Summer activities include enjoyment of 8 pools and 4 waterslides, hiking, children’s programs for ages 6 weeks to 17 years, and adventures such as a treetop aerial trekking course and mountain bike skills parks. In the winter, the resort’s three mountains are a breathtaking playground for enthusiasts of alpine and cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowboarding. Smugglers’ resort village is located 35 miles from Burlington, Vermont, in the Green Mountains.
You make a great point about getting a shuttle well ahead of time. I need to get a shuttle that can transport all of my luggage. I’ll have to consider scheduling it online.
It’s great that you mentioned that a relaxed vacation offers priceless family time. I think that having the right accommodations to stay in can make a vacation more relaxing. You would want to find a place to stay that has plenty of space.
These are great tips. I am going to do a vacation with my brother’s family, and I’m super excited to spend so much time with my niece and nephew. I’ll have to share some of these tips with my brother and sister-in-law, so we can prepare to have the kids ready for the trip. I also think it would be cool to find some local attractions that are kid-friendly. That way they can be excited about the vacation while we’re out there.
Vacation travel is smooth, comfortable and enjoyable to perfect planning. Your vacation travel tips are great and essential for every traveler. The especially entire family travel tips. I appreciate your travel tips. Hope could help me your great idea and trip for my next vacation trip.
Useful information for preparing an absolutely safe travel. Thanks
I agree that then you are planning for a vacation you want the whole family to help in the profess. It would probably engage your kids a lot more if they are actually involved in picking where you go and things like that. My sister is looking to go on vacation this summer so she’ll have to find somewhere that the whole family will like.
Traveling with your family can be very difficult especially if there are several different ages among the family. These are really great tips for everyone who want going on vacation travel.
I agree that it’s important to speak with a staff person at your destination so you can have some of your questions answered. I think it’s wise to look online and see what certain streets, towns, or cities offer for fun for visitors so you can plan a meaningful trip. It’s important that you put time in researching what you can do beforehand so that you are prepared to enjoy the shops and sites on your trip.
I love making sure my whole family is involved in vacation planning. It means less complaining from the kids later. It is also easier to find hotels, rental homes, and camping spots a couple of months before the peak season. It also gives you time to plan things to do with your kids all the way up to when you go on vacation helping to keep the excitement alive.
Thanks for your valuable tips. Great Post!
Hi,
I’m Stephen. My wife would like to travel in Canada. I’m happy to make it but the Issue is, We have a baby. For him, we must need to buy the best baby stroller for traveling in the air plane. I searched many times on google and got few list what’s not good for flying. can you help me to find out? Can I ask about your personal choice? What stroller are you using for your baby when you go to another country? Please, advise me.
Best Regards!
Stephen Cesaro
Investing in suitcases that have rollers is a great idea. That way it will be easier for you, and even easier for your children to pull their suitcases. That way you won’t have to worry about carrying the suitcases all over the place! That can become really tiring after awhile.
Planing small activities during the actual travelling is smart. You could be stuck in an airport for a long time, so you can take a break from the sitting around and go explore. A lot of airports have salons, bookshops, and other shops to keep your attention for awhile. Or, you could even just go buy some ice cream or some other dessert to take up the time!