We treat it as an adventure we’re on together. Is it 100% relaxing? Not really, but it’s about spending moments with your kids without the distractions of work, which does make it less stressful to me.

Honestly, beach vacations are a pain for me (my kids don’t play well independently) and I’d much rather hiking, visiting a lake, or exploring a new town. We haven’t done a ton of plane travel (#covidkids) but honestly my kids are just so excited about staying in a hotel and hotel breakfast that spending a day getting over jet lag wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bring a nanny. World of difference.

Gross. I could never do this.

Why is it gross? I was a (wealthy) single mom, and you better believe I brought the nanny (and her husband and kids) on our big vacations. The more the merrier.

We waited until our kids were in late ES/early MS to do these trips. And we pick the trips WE want not the trips that are popular on social media. Prior to that, we did lots of beach trips and theme parks (which my family loves and still does too) and city visits on the east coast and had a ball. My kids have done Busch Gardens, Hershey, Disney, and Universal several times and all were really fun. If you want to enjoy the vacation, you need to meet your family where they are at. Don’t imagine you can handle some overly adventurous trip if you can’t.

Also my friends who took crazy trips with little kids had terrible sleepers. So they didn’t care if they kids slept poorly on the trip because it was the same as home. We had great sleepers and wanted them to do that on trips and accommodated that.

During this first 5-7 years, most vacations were with grandparents. It was a win-win, similar to having a nannie in many ways, fosters the grandchild-grandparent relationship.

1. I don’t think it is worth doing trips with kids under 6.

2. Don’t make the itineraries too busy. We normally do a lot in the mornings, but will always have a couple of hours downtime in the afternoon to nap or relax. It isn’t about fitting as much as possible into a day.

Travel energizes me and I love exploring new cities with the kids. If you feel like it would be too tiring, don’t travel that way! Do what you would enjoy!

Anonymous wrote:My tip is that we do really busy itineraries but only stay at hotels and get room service breakfast or hotel buffet breakfast 75% of the time. That way I start the day having had to do zero unappreciated chores for my family.

Packing, unpacking, packing again, packing the daily backpack, planning the itinerary each day? Definitely tiring, but I feel energized to do them because I don’t do any of my other usual chores while I’m on vacation except for making the bed- I have a hangup about leaving a messy bed for housekeeping.

I see people renting beach houses and doing air bnb stays in cities or exotic places and I’m envious of them because I would never have the mental or physical energy to cook and food shop and meal plan on a vacation.

This almost exactly! We have super packed days in cities on our vacations, but a nice hotel with a great breakfast makes a big difference. Yes, we are tired, but jet lag isn’t a big deal when you have amazing pastries and great coffee (we let our kids have a little too!) and lots of fun activities to look forward to. I don’t really like the beach and my kids get bored after a couple of hours, so that’s not so fun. On our trips, we build in extra time between activities, so like two hours at a museum and then an hour to relax in a park with snacks. But that’s about as much down time as we need.

I have a lot of energy for planning and executing big trips, but not much energy for organizing my own house! On vacations, I don’t have to cook or clean or do tons of laundry, so even if I’m spending my days going from one attraction to another, it is still a break for me!

Adderall. I’m serious.

My tip is that we do really busy itineraries but only stay at hotels and get room service breakfast or hotel buffet breakfast 75% of the time. That way I start the day having had to do zero unappreciated chores for my family.

Packing, unpacking, packing again, packing the daily backpack, planning the itinerary each day? Definitely tiring, but I feel energized to do them because I don’t do any of my other usual chores while I’m on vacation except for making the bed- I have a hangup about leaving a messy bed for housekeeping.

I see people renting beach houses and doing air bnb stays in cities or exotic places and I’m envious of them because I would never have the mental or physical energy to cook and food shop and meal plan on a vacation.

Anonymous wrote:I’m so amazed by the fancy itineraries on this board. Costa Rica, Hawaii and Europe, packed with fun activities all day every day.

How is everyone finding the energy to do all this during a week off? Don’t you get jet lagged? Are you not tired the first 2-3 days of the trip, decompressing from the grind of work and parenthood?

I feel like I’m alone in wanting to do more adventurous vacations but just not having the energy capacity for more than a relaxing beach trip with the kids.

I envy and applaud those who do more! Please tell me your secret.

I don't find a beach vacation more relaxing than anything else. I have two young kids and they don't care if I am "decompressing" so they are go-go and needing to be occupied all day from the start. So regardless, we are out and about. Hence the full day of activities etc.

I think a short (like 4hr) flight is manageable for a week long trip. That will get you to most of the US, Mexico, Caribbean, etc. without a ton of time change or jet lag.

Anonymous wrote:I’m so amazed by the fancy itineraries on this board. Costa Rica, Hawaii and Europe, packed with fun activities all day every day.

How is everyone finding the energy to do all this during a week off? Don’t you get jet lagged? Are you not tired the first 2-3 days of the trip, decompressing from the grind of work and parenthood?

I feel like I’m alone in wanting to do more adventurous vacations but just not having the energy capacity for more than a relaxing beach trip with the kids.

I envy and applaud those who do more! Please tell me your secret.

Not being snarky ...

We typically go for two weeks. Ideally Friday night departure and return 16 days later. Yes, we're tired and jet lagged. It gets easier as the kids get older, but so do we, so there's that! We try to build a cadence to the trip and each day that allows relaxation. For instance, week one is go go go / educational / see a lot. Week two is more chill. Alternatively, structured/scheduled stuff in the morning and more relaxed in the afternoon. My kids are 14 and 16 and we've traveled all over Europe and Central America like this since they were in elementary school.

We've been lucky to take some amazing trips, but my favorite part is always spending time with them not multitasking. So if you stick with a relaxing beach trip but can focus on family time, don't get down on yourself - those are great trips too!

Age of kids matter, but we have traveled and taken some pretty cool vacations, I know some on here will only call them trips, with our kids since they were little. Nothing with young kids it truly relaxing as even the beach requires entertaining them, so we figure we may as well go somewhere we really want to visit. We also tend to be active vacationers and find things like hiking and visiting new places to be relaxing. We love national parks. Favorites when they were little were Arches/Canyonlands, Olympic and Banff (Banff was elementary age).

Kids are usually fine with jetlag and adjust quickly, within a day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bring a nanny. World of difference.

Gross. I could never do this.

How sad for you. We love leaving the kids napping in the hotel with the nanny in the afternoon while we go off and do something. We love sitting with them for dinner and putting them to bed and then going out for a date while the nanny stays with them. How sad for you that you don’t get those experiences.

Ok, I thought the "gross" poster was obnoxious but this one is even more so.

Anonymous wrote:We bring a nanny. World of difference.

Does the nanny have a work permit for all these countries?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bring a nanny. World of difference.

Gross. I could never do this.

How sad for you. We love leaving the kids napping in the hotel with the nanny in the afternoon while we go off and do something. We love sitting with them for dinner and putting them to bed and then going out for a date while the nanny stays with them. How sad for you that you don’t get those experiences.