Bucket List Family Travel for Familes with teens
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Anonymous
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I’m in the process of finalizing a bucket list vacation (Middle East and Africa: safari , sand & beach) for our family which includes HS senior and other teenaged kids.
Safari / Serengeti is bucket list for our family. But we have a long list! Curious if others with older teens have bucket list trips that they are planning - either before kids go away to college or while they are in college and what those trips might be? Also, curious about budget. We are spending a lot, but anticipating that this is a once in a lifetime thing for all of us and something we will always remember. Would love to keep a list of ideas! |
Anonymous
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Yes. We have a long bucket list.
One in college and 1 soon to be (junior now). Trying to book a condo in USVI for winter break, one week July 4th beach vacation for us and any child that wants to join, and also hoping we can continue to entice them to travel with us for one other week a year, but it’s becoming harder to execute with different schedules. Do whatever you can while they are still under your roof. It’s way too hard to coordinate with different college schedules, internships once in college. You will regret not doing it if you can afford to do so. I have a lot of regrets now about waiting to do certain things. Spend every high school break that you can doing something - it doesn’t have to be bucket list travel every time. Make it different and memorable. |
Anonymous
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We have college and HS teens. Yes do big travel now. So much more important than when they are babies!!
Here’s our list. Hitting Morocco this winter break and Greece next summer. Australia New Zealand Africa safari (Botswana /SA) India Japan Morocco Greek island hopping Corsica Colombia Chile Argentina Galapagos |
Anonymous
| I wanted the teens to see Alaska (before the glaciers were all melted), Galapagos before they were destroyed by tourism, and Asia, Africa and Europe, plus Costa Rica, and Iceland just because. Some weve been to, some we haven't. Working on the ones we havent. |
Anonymous
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My advice for those with younger kids is to try to do those trips between ages 11 and 16. My older one has a summer job that does NOT allow her to take time off mid-summer, and it doesn't match up well with when the younger siblings school ends (much later than college ending) plus when the practices for fall sports starts for HS. Plus once they start college, their spring breaks don't line up. And spring sports for HS typically have a game that first Saturday in spring break. It just is really hard to arrange teen's schedules, because they have so little leverage to say "no" to the adults that dictate their schedules.
Would have been so much easier to do a few years ago....but we lost a couple years of travel due to COVID. |
Anonymous
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We'd like to do the Galápagos Islands but not sure yet what our college bills will be so holding off. I'd like to do it right. we have rising junior twins and a third a year later.
We hiked Patagonia with them when they were younger and that was the most "bucket list" vacation we've taken. it was the most gorgeous place I've ever seen. |
Anonymous
Not flaming, but you want to see all this before it’s destroyed by environmental change and overtourism, but don’t see the irony in this ambitious travel schedule? |
Anonymous
| No bucket list trips with kids. As they get older, busier and more independent, i just look forward to spending time with them. I get that shared experiences on big trips are special, but last week I took my daughter on a fishing trip on the Chesapeake Bay. Not a bucket list trip, but a special time. |
Anonymous
I thought the same thing. Virtue signaling backfire. |
Anonymous
| My son says Egypt was hands down his favorite trip we took |
Anonymous
| We did Tanzania as part of the bucket list. The next on the list are Japan, Patagonia. Scandinavia, and New Zealand. My experience is that for a family of four, the cost of a week to 10 day trip is about 15-25k depending on the flight cost. |
Anonymous
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I’ve never considered our trips bucket list items but we’ve taken many amazing trips. Like, we went to see the eclipse in 2017. We did the Utah fabulous five national parks, Havasupai, Alaska, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, fireworks on a boat in the Hudson River, classes at the Corning Glass Museum, Caribbean trips, London, Spain (Alhambra), and so many others. The last two we’re planning before the last child graduates from HS are Paris and Vietnam. But those two will only be three of us - older kids won’t be going.
A safari sounds fabulous but I don’t see it as a trip we do with our kids - clearly we’re running out of time for that. As for budget, our recent Caribbean trip was $2500 pp for eight days and included all of our spending - I am compulsive about adding up the costs. That was our most expensive. Havasupai was also expensive ($300 pp plus we had to buy gear we didn’t have) but that was only three days of a larger trip. And I am still debating about whether the hiking shoes, which we use a lot, have to be included as a trip expense 😂). I am the master of budget travel. |
Anonymous
| One of my teenagers has a tie for first place: between West Virginia and New Zealand. Ha |
Anonymous
That’s funny, but believable…parts of WV are great. Lots of great memories there camping with family in Dolly Sods and Seneca Rocks area along with many ski trips to Canaan, Timberline and White Grass. I’m sure New Zealand has a lot to offer, but keeping it simple is sometimes a good thing. |
Anonymous
Never been to Nee Zealand but WV is amazing. We love to go jeeping - which means that we pick a spot to travel to and try not to use any roads to get there. WV is great for this. Plus the hiking and swimming and camping. |