Guest Blogger: Enjoying Life Moments when Traveling with Children

Guest Blogger #20, Entry #268, September 7, 2010

Family travel has always been one of life’s treasures that I haven’t fully taken advantage of to the fullest. Whether it is work, time, or finances there never seems to be enough of all of them at the same time! Today my guest blogger Dora Theiss from Well Designed Journeys explains how traveling can bring your family closer together and how traveling forms life long memories.

Dora Theiss

It is no secret that children and life moments coexist together when you travel. The best way to teach your kids about travel is to immerse them in it. In the past when you traveled on a family vacation, it was to a relative’s home in another state, or another town of the same state you lived in, but not to a far away land or cruise of the Caribbean. If you were one of the lucky ones, you had a grandmother that lived in Florida near the beach.

Today family travel usually means working around the sea of after-school activities and flying rather than driving to your vacation. You can eliminate a lot of the negative “life moments” by what you do before you ever pack your bags by making sure you include the family in the planning.

Experience the world with your family

Reflect and discuss with your family on where you have had your best family moments together. Was it when you were trying something new or something familiar? What activities or sports did you enjoy the best on a previous vacation or time together? Then go one step further and ask if given the chance to travel anywhere, where would they go and why? There may be a lifetime learning aspect in asking this.

Vacations are an ideal time to introduce your children to something new or to instill lifetime values. Ideas like taking them to art galleries and the theater while in London; bicycling journey through France; learning to surf in Hawaii; volunteering in a foreign country; attending an Italian cooking school; or a photography course while on vacation are just a few of the many choices. Cruising and all-inclusive resorts are an excellent way to strike a balance of activities for your family and keep the budget in tact.

Traveling with family can be a once in a lifetime chance…

Once you decide on where you are going for vacation, you can ask your teens or the family member that love to play detective online, to help with the details of the trip, such as, the what to see and do. Having their involvement allows everyone to feel apart of the process and should help with any compromising you may need during the planning stage along with reducing the “life moments” while you travel.

Plan today for your vacation tomorrow

Live. Travel. Connect.

Dora Theiss, CTC is co-owner of Well Designed Journeys, a company that specializes in planning small group luxury vacations for the 40 plus discerning traveler.

For more travel ideas on Stagetecture, click here.