When you have kids, you may not have the time, money or desire to take them away to foreign climes for the first few years. Toddlers in particular can be hard work to take on holiday, and it can seem like you’re paying an awful lot of cash for a little person who doesn’t really appreciate the fact they’re seeing the Coliseum in Rome, or standing at the foot of Mount Fuji. As they get older, they will start to be more conscious of where you’re going, and it can be both enjoyable, educational and memorable for you all.
The world is your oyster
Most importantly, where do you all want to go? The world may sometimes seem as if it has shrunk, with communication technologies enabling you to see and speak to anyone wherever they are across the globe, and flights that only take a matter of hours from take-off in the US to landing in Europe. In reality, the world is still a vast place with a mind-boggling number of potential destinations, so it could be hard settling on just one location for your vacation.
Make a democratic decision
In other words, get everyone who is going on the trip together to discuss where they would all like to go. If you’re very lucky, everyone will say they want to spend a week in one of the luxury hoteles en Veracruz in Mexico, enjoying the sunny beaches but being close to some extraordinary historical sites as well. If you’re not so lucky, you’ll have someone wanting to tour the spectacular landscape of Iceland, while others are clamoring for an African safari. You need to make a choice that will keep everyone happy, so compare the ideas on the table, looking at prices first to see if any are beyond your budget. This could reduce the choices, and then you need to find a consensus as to which is the best option of those remaining.
Crunch time
If you have similar ideas about what sort of vacation it should be but disagree on the resort, draw up a comparison between the two locations and see which comes out best for weather, facilities, distance, cuisine, population density, cost of living, access to transport, and any other factors that are important to you. If you have some very different ideas to try and reconcile, you could try to persuade one family member to change their mind and go with the other choice, maybe with a promise to go to their first choice next time. If that doesn’t work, then see if you could find a location where the two different interests could both be accommodated. For example, one child may want to go fishing, hiking and exploring the wilderness, the other may dream of spending their time browsing art galleries, or exploring museums and libraries. See if you can find a place where you can do both – in this example, you could satisfy both the kids by visiting Helsinki, capital of Finland.
Wherever you end up going, it will be an exciting adventure and a trip you can look back on with great pleasure for years to come.