3 easy questions to ask to decide on your next trip
Question 1: What are the kids into?
This is probably the most important question that will narrow down your decision tree and make the trip more exciting for the kids. When Eurovision Song Context: The Story of Fire Saga (Will Farrell & Rachael McAdams) came out, Iceland became a real contender for our next trip. (Interested? Itinerary here) When the boys got into Anime, Japan made it on the shortlist. Just finished Harry Potter? Disney or London are two great options. Moana? Hawaii! Frozen? Scandinavia! Are they learning a language that you want to apply to some locals?
Hot tip: Consider you can somewhat reverse engineer this if you as the parent really want to go somewhere and want them hyped up about the place, you can start reading books and watching movies about your wish list location. Here’s more on that.
Question 2: When are school breaks?
Once in school, breaks can be quite constricting, but can also narrow things down. For example, for Spring Break we narrowed down to 2 places based on Question #1: Germany and Japan. Then we did some research on events and weather for that week in those two locations, and given Japan had beautiful springs and cherry blossoms, it won out to the typically more rainy spring in Germany.
Hot tip: I like to set flight alerts for the year ahead when the school calendar comes out based on the locations from Question #1. This will help catch the flight deals, since flying during school breaks is always more expensive. If your kids aren’t in school, fly during times school kids are in school- it can be considerably cheaper during those weeks.
Question 3: Time | Cost | Quality (Pick only 2)
Lastly, we work within the constraints of what is most important for this trip. What is the budget? What type of experience are you looking for? For example if you want a luxury experience, but are more budget conscious you can consider locations that are overall more affordable- Croatia or Portugal instead of Italy, Thailand instead of Bora Bora.
You might have to trade off layovers or longer flights for a cheaper location. Or you might only have 5 precious days, so you will splurge on the shorter flight to maximize your time there. You might be lucky enough to take some friends or grandparents with you, getting extra built in childcare, but you’ll need a bigger airbnb.
Hot tip- if you find family or friends to travel with, it will overall make the experience richer and less stressful (well I guess that depends on the family!) with kids. More hands and more people mean more eyes on the kids and more fun for the parents.
There you have it, 3 questions to ask next time you’re itching for a family trip. How do you decide on your next family trip location? Comment below!
