4 Ways to involve your kids in trip planning
We’ve all been there: You put in hours to plan the perfect trip for all of your family’s wants and needs only for your kids to be unhappy with the destination or activities. We used to hear it all from our kids, from “The hotel doesn’t have a good view” to “Why couldn’t we go to Disneyland?” That was until we realized the real problem: We weren’t involving our kids in the planning process.
Sure, no eight year old wants to scroll the internet for hours on end to find a good deal on flights. But, they probably do want to look for pictures on Google or videos on Youtube to compare destination options. Or they want to be with you when packing suitcases to make sure you don’t forget any of their favorites. Once we had this realization, all of our family trips changed.
Our kids went from just going on trips to actually being involved in the whole process, from selecting destinations to finalizing itineraries and unpacking at the end. So if you have kids that could use a mood-boost when it comes to family trips, keep reading for our top tips on how to change your family travels for the better!
Ask Questions Before Selecting a Destination
Most of the fun in planning a trip is comparing options, looking at photos, and exploring all the possibilities of where you could go next! Bring your kids into this step of the process, as it’s arguably the most important.
For younger kids who aren’t confident readers, this could be looking at photos of cool spots at each destination and seeing what excites them most. You could even grab some printer paper and markers and ask them to draw their dream vacation. Maybe they’ll draw your family relaxing on the beach or maybe at the top of the Eiffel Tower. You’ll never know until you let their imagination run wild!
With our elementary and middle schoolers, we like to go a step beyond just looking at images and have them actually explore Google themselves. Whether that’s reading blog posts from other families or finding travel websites that list fun activities. If your kid tries this, we recommend having a sheet of paper on hand (or a digital doc open) so they can take note of their favorite finds.
As a family, we usually try to find ways of incorporating these questions and conversations into our everyday routines. That’s why we made these Family Trip Discovery Questions, meant to help your family pick your next destination. Whether your having a family dinner or lounging on the couch, these printable cards are perfect to get your kids involved in the planning conversation, all while making it fun and digestible for them.
SHARE THE INFO AHEAD OF TIME
One main issue we used to notice was that our kids had too many questions in the middle of a busy day. No one wants to answer “how long is the next flight” when they’re rushing through security at a connecting airport.
To manage this, we pull together some basic info about our upcoming trip and share it with the kids - our flights, our destination, etc. Our Vision Board is a perfect way to do this. We like to print out photos of our destination, a map, food we will see and photos showing the climate. After sharing basic info with the kids, we build the board together, assigning an elementary or middle schooler to a category. Our toddler adds in stickers and doodles. Then we review and keep updating and adding.
Did our itinerary include all of the must-haves? If not, let’s add now! We review this info 2 or even 3 times before our trip to make sure the kids are prepared as much as possible. Making sure everyone’s perspective is included is a great way to avoid post-trip disappointment and whining.
HELP KIDS practice FLEXIBILITY
Traveling with kids demands flexibility. Things aren’t always going to go to plan and more often than not, you won’t be able to do everything on your list. That’s why we need to help the kids embrace flexibility by modeling it ourselves. This is really a challenge for a Type A mom like myself! We do this by understanding our “must haves” and our “nice to haves” and the difference. To break this down, here’s some prompts:
Must-have: “what is an activity or experience you really need to include on this trip?”
Nice-to-have: “What is one that we could do, if we have time or energy, but if we don’t, we will be OK?”
No-thank you: “What is something we should avoid? Maybe we have done it on a prior trip and you didn’t enjoy it.”
Everyone’s “must haves” should be on our itinerary, a couple “nice to haves” that we can drop if needed and absolutely no “no thank you” activities. We like to use this itinerary template to hone in on the difference and build our plan.
On our trip to Puerto Vallarta, a cooking class was a “must have” and a turtle release experience was a “nice to have.” The turtle nests were far from our accommodations and subject to the demands of nature. Because we identified that difference ahead of our trip and set a concrete vision for our trip, no one was disappointed when turtles didn’t work out. Instead of harping on it as parents, we need to say “that’s a bummer about the turtles but I’m so glad we are sticking to our trip vision. Maybe we can come back or experience that on another trip!”
embracing the joy of missing out (jomo)
I love to say that traveling with kids is the ultimate lesson in JOMO. We aren’t going to get to every tourist “must do” and maybe that “must do” isn’t a “must do” for us! We aren’t going to travel with packed days and packed nights (or if we are, we will be exhausted when we get home). Our focus is peace, balance and experience and sometimes that requires opting out of really cool things and staying true to that trip vision. Ultimately, if it gets us an excuse to return, I’m all about it.