We rent either AirBnB 2 bedrooms or an extended stay type place - we take the master bedroom, AP gets the other adult room, and kids sleep on the pull out couch in the living area. I find it's actually not that much more expensive. Flights obviously get pricey, but we tend to book with points, or use Hooper to find a great deal.

We don't promise to take AP on vacations, and only offer once we've confirmed it doesn't cost an arm & a leg to do so, but so far, we've found that if we just travel a bit differently, it's not that much more expensive.

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating to me. I assumed everyone took their APs on vacation. WE are a first time host family, just finishing up a host year, and we took our AP on pretty much every vacation this year. That said, (1) all except for one vacation involved driving, not flying and (2) we have an infant plus two other kids. So, frankly, having the AP along was really what made the vacation much more stress-free and enjoyable. Most of them were simply long weekend trips. For our weeklong vacation she was with us part of the week and she did a side-trip on her own which she paid for.

It has everything to do with age of kids. Our kids were 8, 5, 5 when we stared the AP program and 15, 12, 12 by the time we left. We could always handle our own kids solo while on vacation therefore bringing AP was always purely for her own benefit. Sometimes we simply chose not to bring APs because it was too expensive or because our relationship was such that we were not well suited to be in each other's company in close quarters for an intense amount of time.

This is fascinating to me. I assumed everyone took their APs on vacation. WE are a first time host family, just finishing up a host year, and we took our AP on pretty much every vacation this year. That said, (1) all except for one vacation involved driving, not flying and (2) we have an infant plus two other kids. So, frankly, having the AP along was really what made the vacation much more stress-free and enjoyable. Most of them were simply long weekend trips. For our weeklong vacation she was with us part of the week and she did a side-trip on her own which she paid for.

We've had bad experiences with taking "meh" APs on vacation. It's fun when the AP is truly like family, but when she's not, it ruins the vacation.

We do this totally ad hoc, and disclose this up front. There are so many factors at play such as if the au pair wants to come or would rather have time off at home or on her own trip, incremental cost, etc. Really hasn't been an issue.

We don't do it unless we are doing a beach house rental, so the incremental cost is really just the food she eats (which we'd pay for at home anyway) and we get a little bit of child care (helping the kids get ready for the beach - nice but not necessary). Otherwise, the cost isn't worth it for us, b/c we don't need/want much help. It seems to work out well, the au pair gets some time off (paid) and we save some money. It's not been an issue for us. I think if we had a situation where we needed to take the kids But also needed a lot of care, it may be helpful and worth the cost.

I should note that if we go away without her we DO NOT count it as her vacation.

Anonymous wrote:We initially thought it would be terrific to go on vacation with our AP, but soon realized that our children wanted time with just their parents, who have long work hours. Once we realized that AP loved the extra time off to hang out with their friends, travel, etc, we no longer felt guilty.

While I responded above and I agree with you, this poster will have just welcomed her 18yr old au pair a few weeks before. She is very young and brand new to the country and won't really have time to plan a dream vacation with the few quasi friends she will have made during training.

A 24yr old who has been here for 6 months already, sure. An 18yr old who just arrived in the country? Lame not to include her. And lame to not have thought about this before extending her an offer.