Does anyone else feel bored with travel activities with your kids?

[Anonymous]

I agree this is likely a troll. If not— OP, an interested, curious person can find things to enjoy almost anywhere. The locations you describe are quite different (Grand Canyon is the same as NYC? What??). And I didn’t even see museums, theatre, or camping on your list of activities. Each museum, each hike, each historical site is different.

And of course, most people don’t have the time and money for this amount of travel, but if you’re all too jaded to enjoy anything, I guess take a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Traveling international aside from quick trips to Mexico, Costa Rica and right now isn't really an option next few years with work.
I feel like the kids have done a lot and every place seems to have the same activities: swim, eat out, horseback ride, kayak, paddleboard, hike, some cultural craft, whale watch, jet ski, canoe, rinse and repeat.
Destinations: Maine, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, Oregon, WA State (San Juan Islands + Seattle), Vancouver, NYC, DC, Miami, FL Keys, San Diego, LA, Carmel, SF, Dallas, Bahamas, Austin, Houston (Space center), New Orleans, Carolinas Coast, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Grand Canyon, Costa Rica, West Texas, alaska, mexico City, big island, maui, Boston, Philly, Rhode Island, Idaho.. it all just feels the same. Would you stop travel for a while? any suggestions? kids 9 and 11.

The secret is to spend more time on the yuppie playgrounds of the world. Get the lovely takeout or eat-by-the-park meals affluent parents there get and chill the way parents there would chill. If you’re in an urban park, chances are you can sneak in a little time at an art gallery, church, etc. Maybe the playground itself is a sculpture garden or part of an interest cultural institution.

[Anonymous]

Well, you wasted your time and money. Your 4th grader is finally at the age to really remember and begin to appreciate vacations. You were doing teen activities with a youngster. You should have saved those activities for now. With kids younger, you should have done the specialty kid parks and child activities. LEGOLAND in a themed Lego hotel room with kid activities galore, Sesame Street characters and water slides and carousels, amazing discovery places like Interactive science museums, children activities at adult museums, botanical gardens, Crayola Factory, etc., kids beach camp activities, crafts, animals, zoo moments, water parks for young kids, then age up to larger slides, etc. and, then do the kayaking and horseback stuff later with your teens.

[Anonymous]

Life is what you make it.

Anyway, if you have time to do all of these things, "work" shouldn't be keeping you from logging a few more hours on planes so you can be bored on another continent.

[Anonymous]

You now have kids who have a lot of the skills needed to do more interesting travel. You could go and kayak to circumnavigate a Greek isle for a week long trip because your kids have kayaking skills and travel skills. We've spent years building up to this point with our kids and it's fantastic.

It's also really time to go deeper with your travel. You need to be reading about the history, culture and language of the places you're visiting. You need to learn about the ecology and animals. If you just go and look and thing "how pretty" then you only get so much out of the experience. You need to dig in to understand and appreciate the things you're seeing.