When it comes to family holidays, preparation is key; a lot more things can go wrong when you’re traveling with younger children, but you also want to avoid their disappointment or boredom at all costs. While you can’t prepare for every eventuality, you can certainly prepare for most of them – so here are six great vacation-prep tips to ready your family for its next journey.
1.Book Early
Most family holidays have to take place during school holidays – which means peak travel time. That’s why it’s always essential to think ahead and book ahead of time to make sure that all the deals you’re looking for don’t get taken early by other families looking to travel at the same time – which can easily happen during the summer.
2. Look for Deals Ahead of Time
You can find some great deals in advance for a lot of family-oriented experiences which you should book in advance to get some great discounts (and to not have to worry about anything surging in price or – worse – becoming booked up altogether). Especially for the popular family holiday destinations like America, you might want to look into booking Universal Studios tickets ahead of time if you’re hitting the theme parks, to make sure your family is sorted.
3. Pack an Emergency Kit
It’s a lot easier to plan for sickness and injury when you are traveling alone or as a couple, but when you have to take into account the whole family – and especially younger children – you must think ahead to any emergency items you will need and make sure you have them for when you first set off on your holiday.
This should include a standard first aid kit and any medication your family might need.
4. Plan a Detailed Itinerary
Spontaneous decisions aren’t the easiest when you have children in tow, especially when they want to know everything you have planned. Planning as much as you can ahead of time will help to ease some of the pressure and also help to build the excitement by being able to discuss everything you have planned with your children and have them make contributions during the planning stages so that they always feel involved.
5. Also, Have a Backup Plan!
No matter your best preparation, plans can change. The weather may see certain experiences being canceled or vehicles may break down, to name a few. It’s also good to have a secure backup plan that you can fall back on so that you don’t risk the whole family being severely disappointed and at a loss regarding what to do.
6. Start Packing Early
There will be a lot to make sure clothes are clean, dry, and packed for your family, and you don’t want to risk your children wearing all their holiday clothes to play outside in the mud the day before you realize you need to pack them.
Be sure to put aside all items you know you will need for everyone and try to avoid using them in the lead up to your holiday so you can ensure that they stay clean, dry and usable.
