Family Vacation Planning Made Easy: How To Choose a Destination?
Kristyn Meyer is on a journey to make herself the best human she can be. These posts are a reflection of that. She welcomes your support via reading and through commissioned affiliate links within her posts! Please subscribe to her email list to stay up to date on all of her shenanigans! (psst… there’s a free gift involved)
Here’s the thing.
One of my favorite hobbies is family vacation planning. I’ve almost got it down to a science at this point, honestly. Give me a destination and a couple hours and I’ll have a solid plan, air travel and hotel, and even the best modes of transportation for when we get there.
It’s a gift.
However, one of the things that I struggle with is picking which destination is the best one for that particular time. While myself and/or my family may want to go to a specific location, the timing may not work out or it may be too costly to go during the dates we are looking to travel.
I’ve gone a couple different routes to try to figure out where to go and when, and none of them are the perfect strategy. However, I can’t really complain since we have yet to have a bad trip as a family. I’ll outline the various ways I have gone about making plans and at the end you all let me know if there’s a way that I haven’t tried.
Shooting for the Stars Family Vacation Planning
You may recall that I declared the year 2023 was going to be our family’s travel year. For so long we pushed off the dream trips and adventures because of a million different reasons. I was done with the excuses, we were going to make it happen. And it was going to happen in 2023.
And, of course, we had to start the year of travel off with a bang. The bang was a trip that my husband had always talked about wanting to go on – a road trip through Italy. This was the first time we took our kids on an international trip and outside of knowing what we wanted to see, that was all we had. In a true “shooting for the stars” moment, I threw everything we wanted into one of my trusty Google docs and sorted out how many days we would then need in each city. The details came out in the days and weeks that followed.
We knew we wanted to go earlier in the year rather than later, so we weren’t able to fully take advantage of off season discounts, but being that we went in February we still got pretty good prices. Additionally, I wasn’t that far along in my travel hacking journey yet, so we didn’t have a lot of points and miles to redeem to help alleviate the hefty price tag.
Verdict: Excellent trip, amazing experience. Very expensive.
Acting on Impulse Family Vacation Planning
There is not a lot that my husband and I do without the others input. Whether it’s a new addition to the yard, making a bigger financial purchase, or rearranging the living room – we tend to gravitate towards getting the others approval so that we are on the same page. We are definitely not a couple where one more definitively wears the pants. Instead, we share the pants.
Not really, that would be weird. We each have our own wardrobes and do not share. I just want to make that clear.
However, I did go rogue once and booked plane tickets to Paris without my husband knowing. In my defense, I did try to contact him but he didn’t answer my call.
Was he in a work meeting? Probably. However, time was of the essence and I needed to act fast.
You see, there was an incredible sale on plane tickets to Paris. I had miles that covered the cost outside of taxes. Paris was a destination on our list, we just didn’t have an exact timeframe for when we would make the trip. But the opportunity presented itself and I went for it. And the husband didn’t even complain. Instead, he laughed.
Now, Paris is an incredible place to visit. I will definitely be back and I would encourage almost everyone to travel there at some point in their lives. However, do yourself a favor and only go if you are well outside any month in which the temperature could even possibly get warm. We went at the beginning of September, and of course we managed to take part in a rare heat wave that took over the city.
And guess what? Air conditioning isn’t really a thing there.
And guess what else? Fans are not easy to come by.
Verdict: Will definitely be back, the price was right (points/miles), will plan dates better.
Family Vacation Planning Based on Award Availability
We went to Poland in April 2024. Why did we go to Poland? Because our cruise to the Middle East got cancelled due to war and we suddenly had an onslaught of credits and points that we could use. What destination fit within those point and credit confines with very little left to pay out of pocket? Poland.
Now, to be fair, Poland was on *my* list. The pictures have always intrigued me, and I was also excited about the favorable exchange rate. A surefire way to my heart is through a favorable exchange rate, let me tell you.
So, we booked it. I had a very “why not?” attitude about the whole thing. Did it work out? It did. Would I do things different in the future? Yup. I learned that I am no spring chicken and long haul flights in economy are not for me.
Verdict: The price was right, the experience was grand. The planning could have been better.
Family Vacation Planning With a Purpose
My husband is a Detroit Lions fan, and he was one before it was cool. He’s held season tickets since before our daughter was born. So, naturally, when it looked promising that his team may make it to the Super Bowl, plans needed to be made to be there.
Let me be clear, it would only be my husband that would have attended the game if the Lions had made it. The kids and I didn’t pass his list of requirements for attendance (don’t ever fall asleep during a NFL game, you’ll never live it down..) and his season tickets would have only allowed for so many seats.
However, you give me a destination and I will make a full blown vacation out of very little. We opted to take a road trip from Michigan to New Orleans and I made a lengthy itinerary that included stops at unique locations every 2-3 hours. We saw Abraham Lincoln’s tomb, the St. Louis Arch, Uranus Fudge, the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, the Houston Space Center, and more.
This trip was done with an end goal in mind, extras were added in to make it more full.
Verdict: Saw a ton of attractions but suffered burn out at the end. Also ended up as one of the most expensive trips we have taken.
Moving Forward
My family and I have several different vacation ideas that we are floating around, but are struggling with timing. Obviously a trip to Japan will be significantly more expensive than a few days in New York City. But then there’s also the dream of taking a road trip through England and Scotland and maybe seeing what Germany has to offer. And then there’s the new Universal Park to check out, and we still need to make it to Hawaii someday.
How do you plan out your trips? Do you choose based on price or do you just plan out what your dream trip is and go with it, no matter the cost? Clearly, I have yet to figure out the proper way to do so, so I need your help!
