I Hate Family Vacations – 10 Tips to Enjoy Family Trips
Family vacations are a wonderful way to create memories that last a lifetime—well, at least for some people. If you, or someone you love, has ever been heard saying I hate family vacations, then I’m here to help. In this article, you’ll discover some really helpful tips to make those long, unhappy road trips a lot more pleasant and fun!
I Hate Family Vacations – 10 Tips to Enjoy Your Trip
- Choose Your Vacation Dates Early
- Choose Your Destination Wisely
- Plan for Transportation
- Consider a Travel Agent
- Enjoy Family Togetherness
- Split Up into Smaller Groups
- Meal Planning Flexibility
- Enjoy Time Alone on Vacation
- Walk Away from Family Arguments
- Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Without further delay, let’s dig into all ten tips and why I believe they can significantly increase your happiness while on vacation with your family.
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Choose Your Vacation Dates Early
Depending on the group, you’ve got to coordinate everyone being able to take the same dates away from their jobs, and some employers require that you give a lot of notice for your vacation dates. Consider also that planning a year or so in advance gives people time to budget and save for the trip.
If you’re going to stay in a vacation rental home, choosing the time and making reservations as early as possible is almost required. Many vacation rentals, especially homes or condos located on beaches, near theme parks, or close to ski resorts, book up far in advance.
Choosing A Vacation Destination
It might sound like a no-brainer to say pick your destination early, but this can get surprisingly complicated when you’re trying to please a large group! It’s hard to believe, but not everyone’s idea of a dream vacation is a trip to Walt Disney World or another theme park!
While a Caribbean cruise might sound like a dream vacation to some, others might not love the idea of being on a ship for several nights. Some people want to spend their vacation relaxing, while others enjoy more adventurous activities.
Try to find a destination that offers a variety of experiences, and that will appeal to a variety of age groups; something that is fun for adults is probably going to be boring for teenagers and younger children.
Older family members might not be up for going out late at night. Be flexible and let everyone in your vacation group have some input into where they’d like to go and what their vacation priorities might be.
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Transportation
Another big consideration when choosing where to go on vacation is how you’ll get there, and how you’ll get around during your trip. Air travel is convenient (usually), but it’s becoming increasingly expensive and a little less reliable. Road trips can be fun for some, but stressful and uncomfortable for others. Try to find a vacation spot that won’t be too difficult for most family members to get to, either by plane or car.
Think about how you’ll get around during your vacation, too. Will you need to rent vehicles? Will there be enough parking for everyone’s vehicles?
Some vacation rental houses and condos only allow parking for one or two vehicles, so if three or four households are vacationing together, and each household will have a vehicle, you might need to find alternative parking arrangements. One solution is to rent just one or two vehicles for the entire group and share the costs of the rental and gas.
If you plan to use a ride-share service or taxi to get around, check ahead of time to make sure the service is available for the area. Public transportation can be a great option in larger cities and places that are known for tourism. If you’re staying in a hotel near any major tourist attractions, check to see if your hotel has shuttle services to and from local attractions. This service is becoming more common in tourist destinations.
Consider Using A Travel Agent
Some people love planning a vacation, and other people don’t. When you’re trying to plan for a large group, possibly with people from different households, planning can quickly become tedious and even stressful. It might start to feel like a full-time job. This is where a qualified travel agent can be helpful!
Once your family has decided when you’re going on vacation and where, talk to a travel agent. Tell the agent your plans, how big the group is, and how many children and adults.
A travel agent can help you find suitable accommodations for your trip, as well as offer suggestions on activities that will appeal to your group. He or she might even have access to group rates on certain tourist attractions, or be able to help with hard-to-get entertainment tickets or restaurant reservations.
Choosing a good travel agent is important. If you have friends or family who have worked with an agent they’re happy with, by all means, use that agent again! Take a look at tourism websites for the area you’ll be visiting, and see if they recommend any particular travel agencies. This is a good sign that those agents are experienced and familiar with that locale. Always take a quick look at online reviews, too!
Finally, if you’re considering a Walt Disney World family vacation, be sure to use an authorized Disney travel agent. These agents are familiar with all aspects of the Walt Disney World resorts and cruise lines.
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Have Relaxed Fun Together to Begin
Your family can be together, without having to do every single thing together. For example, if you’re staying at or near a beach, just allow everyone to enjoy time by the water.
Some people might want to just relax on the shore with a good book, while others might want to rent jet skis and play in the waves. It’s all good! The point is that you’re enjoying a vacation together, while still doing the things you love to do.
Split Up Later
It’s important to allow time for people to break away from the group once in a while to have their own fun. If you love souvenir shopping or museums but not everyone in your family is into it, go ahead and do it by yourself!
Or ask if anyone wants to join you. Maybe it will be just you and your favorite cousin exploring the local history museum for an afternoon. You’ll get to bond with your cousin, enjoy a favorite activity, and you can tell the rest of the family all about your adventures later.
If your big family vacation involves going to Walt Disney World or Universal Studios Park (or any destination, really), allow time for the group to split up and have their own fun.
Your family can go to the same park together, (and you should absolutely get that group family photo in front of Cinderella’s castle or in Diagon Alley) but then split up for a few hours so everyone can go to their favorite attractions. Pick a time and place to meet up later, and you can tell each other what you did with your time.
This is an especially good idea for tweens and teenagers. Theme parks and vacation resorts are safe enough that they can have a little independence on their vacation, and they won’t be bored hanging out with older or younger relatives all the time. Just be sure they set an alarm on their phone to remind them where and when to meet up with the rest of the family.
Be Flexible With Meal Planning
Sharing a meal with the entire family can be wonderful. It’s a great way to have conversations with the whole group and make some great memories. However, depending on the size of the group and everyone’s food preferences, enjoying that “perfect” family meal might prove to be challenging!
Don’t try to have every meal together. It might not even work out to have a big family meal together each and every day. That’s okay, though! In the interest of keeping plans as simple as possible, maybe only plan to have breakfast and coffee together each day.
If a nice dinner with the whole group sounds like fun, make that plan for only one or two nights of your vacation. If you do decide to all have dinner together every night, that’s wonderful! But if some of the group are used to eating at different times, or if it’s challenging to find restaurants that appeal to everyone’s tastes, it’ll be easier to plan for a family dinner just once or twice.
If you’re planning to go out for any meal as a large group, make reservations as far ahead of time as you can. The more people in a group, the more challenging it is for restaurants to have seating availability. This is especially true at restaurants at many tourist resorts. If you find you’re having trouble getting dinner reservations for a large group, try making your reservations for an “off” meal time such as an early dinner or late lunch.
Schedule Some “Alone Time”
If you feel like you just need a break from being around a large group of people, no matter how much you love them, go ahead and take that break! Have a “rule” in place that anyone can say they need some “alone time” and retreat to their room; no judgment and no questions asked. As long as the door to the room is closed, it’s to be considered a “do not disturb” sign.
It can be difficult to be around a large group all day, every day, especially if you’re not used to it. Even if everyone is having a great time and getting along, the possibility of feeling overwhelmed is still there. It’s okay to need a little time for yourself. Take an hour or two to watch a movie, read a book, or indulge in a mid-day nap. It’s your vacation, and you shouldn’t have to spend too much time in situations that overwhelm you.
Keeping The Peace
Not every family agrees about everything; it’s just a fact of life. Don’t let little disagreements get in the way of having a good time. For example: if your very conservative Uncle tries to start a political conversation with you about your progressive viewpoints, do what you can to distract or change the subject.
This can be tricky to do without escalating the conversation into a full-blown argument! If you feel like you’re being baited into an argument, try to deflect by saying something like “We’re on vacation! Let’s ignore politics for now and concentrate on having fun. What are you planning to do tomorrow?”
If there’s a contentious conversation happening in the group and no one is having luck with diffusing the situation, sometimes the best thing you can do is just walk away. You can even say “I’m going for a walk, does anyone want to join me?” By doing so, you’ve just offered an “out” to anyone who might be feeling uncomfortable.
If it’s not a place you can walk away from, simply state that you’re not interested in participating in the conversation. It’s not easy, but it might gradually ease the tension in the room instead of contributing to it. If you can’t end a contentious conversation yourself, at least don’t add more to it.
Another way to keep the peace is to not let anyone (including yourself) get exhausted. Exhaustion can lead to short tempers and bad moods that affect the whole group. If you notice your sister and her husband have been spending all their time entertaining their toddler, offer to babysit for a couple of hours. They get a little time to themselves, and you get to spoil your little niece or nephew!
Also, don’t let the same person or persons do all the work if you’re cooking meals at a vacation rental. Take turns cooking and cleaning up, so that no one feels like they’re spending their vacation time doing chores every day.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
The final tip to having the best possible family vacation is to be flexible! Try not to have unrealistic expectations of making this trip the absolute perfect family vacation.
Things may go wrong. Maybe your vacation rental doesn’t quite look the same as it did in the online listing. It might rain unexpectedly during your trip to the beach. You’re on a cruise and you learn that seasickness is a real thing. These are all things you can’t really plan for, but they could happen.
The best thing you can do is laugh it off as much as you can and roll with the punches. Take medicine for the seasickness, play board games or watch movies when it rains, and focus on having a good time no matter what. Don’t try to force everything into a perfect fantasy vacation trip, just appreciate having time off with your family!
There’s a saying that a “bad” day on vacation is still better than the best day at the office. Remind yourself that if things aren’t going as you expected, you will probably look back and laugh at the “imperfect” vacation memories for years to come.
After all, it could be worse. Like this video below!
Why Do People Hate Family Vacations?
When we talk about stressful “family vacations”, we usually don’t mean a trip involving just one household. The challenging, chaotic, stress-filled family vacations usually involve trying to make plans with multiple households of extended family.
This means you’ll be spending time with people you might not see very often, don’t live with, and are of all different age groups. There will probably be a huge variety of interests and ideas about what makes up a “perfect vacation”. It might seem hopeless to plan something that will appeal to everyone involved.
Another big reason some people hate family vacations is that nobody can get on one’s last nerve like family! It might not even be intentional, but little annoyances and arguments happen.
The cute nickname your Auntie gave you when you were three years old probably gets under your skin now that you’re an adult. Maybe your favorite cousin’s constant teasing is annoying enough to put you in a bad mood that lasts all day. You can love your family, but not necessarily love spending all your time with them!
So what can you do to have an enjoyable family vacation for everyone? It sounds like a challenge, but with some planning and good communication, it won’t be impossible.
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This article was written by Kimberly and edited by Michael.
