While there’s a very good chance that any parent would tell you every day is “family day” when you have a family, there are a few countries in the world that have created official “Family Day” holidays.
Places that have Family Day on their calendars:
When many of us were kids, “family travel” meant piling everyone into the van with a tent and heading to a campground for a few days, hitting a National Park or two during summer break, or maybe spending some time at the closest beach each year. The concept of “family travel” has evolved quite a bit in the last few decades to include different kinds of trips – and, therefore, different kinds of families.
One thing that’s stayed the same, however, is that taking a whole family on a trip is more expensive than when you backpacked solo around Europe or did that college road-trip with your buddies, if for no other reason than you’ve got more people to think about – which translates into more airline tickets, more hotel beds, and more meals to buy. That, in turn, means it’s even more important to hunt for travel deals when you’re booking family trips.
We’ve posted a series of articles on this site recently that we think will help you plan a family trip without breaking the bank. You can consider this the “table of contents” to those articles, as they’re all linked below so you can find them easily.
The words “adventure travel” might conjure up ideas for trips that you wouldn’t think would be very family-friendly, but there are definitely family adventure trips that are great for all ages. Of course, you know your family best, and will be the best judge of what activities your kids will be able to handle or how interested your family will be in any given activity. But the good news is that there’s a huge variety in the kinds of family adventure trips that are out there for you to choose from – and the definition of “adventure” is pretty broad, too.
For some people, a trip might not be an adventure trip if it didn’t include sleeping in a tent, peeing in the woods, or buying specialty gear for things like absailing or hang gliding. But luckily for traveling families, the definition of “adventure trip” can also include activities like day-hikes, cycling tours, guided rafting trips, and ski trips – and many more family-friendly activities besides that.
Finding family adventure travel deals can be as simple as booking a cheap family adventure vacation package trip or as complicated as doing all the research yourself and booking everything you need separately. The former is far easier and typically comes with on-the-ground support, and the latter offers a great deal more flexibility. Which option is right for you is something only you can decide – but here are some things to think about.
Family vacation planning can be a challenge – with all the components you need to factor in, the different age groups you need to keep entertained, the disparate interests inherent in any family group, and the expense that seems to go up exponentially, it’s no wonder that package trips are so popular for traveling families. For those of you who prefer the idea of visiting more than one location during your vacation – but who don’t want to pack and unpack constantly or schlep an entire family’s worth of luggage from hotel to hotel – then a family cruise is a great option to consider.
Family cruises offer many of the same perks as an all-inclusive package trip – namely the idea of paying for many of the elements of your trip up front – and they have the added bonus of being floating hotels that transport you and your family to a new destination every day. You get to explore several places in one trip and you only unpack once.
Brilliant.
Here are some of the things you’ll want to keep in mind when you’re looking for a family cruise deal to make sure that you’re getting a good deal and that a cruise vacation is the right choice for your family.
While some people consider travel planning to be half the fun of travel, if you’re planning a trip for a family group it’s often that much nicer when you can get things done more quickly and with fewer steps. It’s not a research project you’re always looking for, after all – sometimes you really just want a vacation. Which is one of the many reasons all-inclusive package trips are so popular for family travel.
But it’s important to remember that just because a package trip calls itself “all-inclusive” doesn’t mean it will be cheap, or even that everything is included! When you’re hunting for all-inclusive family package travel deals, you need to make sure you know what the details are before you get too excited or hit the “buy” button. Here are some of the things to look for when you’re considering all-inclusive family package trips.
You’ll often see articles about how to find cheap airfare – including on this site – that say it’s important to cut the cost of your airline ticket because it’s almost always the most expensive part of your travel budget. Never is that more true than when you’re planning family travel – because you’re multiplying the cost of a trip by the number of people in your family. Rather than limit yourself to destinations you can get to by driving, however, let’s look at some ways to find cheap airfare for family groups.
Some of the tips listed below are general travel tips that will help you save money on airfare, but others are tips specifically meant to help you save on airfare for family travel.
As soon as the 4 of July has come and gone, I was already busy making plans for where I should head for the next long weekend—Labor Day. Since my homestate of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains beckon me from the Northwest, I have been considering looking into deals to fly to Denver for the long weekend. Where ever you chose to go this Labor Day, there are a ton of great deals on vacation packages over Labor Day weekend to a wide variety of destinations across the U.S. With rooms booking up fast over the holiday weekend, the sooner you book your cheap hotel the better—especially with so many great deals on airfare and hotels floating around out there right now. Book Early for Labor Day: Vacations from $172! – Expires 9/5/09
The weeks are quickly ticking down until the end of the school year, which means your kids are getting excited about lemonade stands and long days out of school and you are stuck trying to plan a family vacation. While the economy may be keeping some people at home this summer, now is actually a great time to take advantage of cheaper than ever travel prices and head out on a trip this summer. Family Vacation Sale!
From beaches to theme parks, packages starting from $629pp. Book by 4/30.
Baseball season has officially kicked off, which means cold beer, hot dogs, long hot days and summer vacation are all just around the corner. With the kids out of school for a whole three months and summer travel prices lower than they have been in decades, now is a great time to take advantage of the buyer’s market and book a great family vacation. Family Vacation Sale!
From beaches to theme parks, packages starting from $629pp. Book by 4/30.