So, we all have dreams. When we are in a family the dreams can be difficult to manage. It feels like you have to pick one, your dream life or your family.
I want to encourage you that you can still travel as a family and you should.
You want to give your children those travel memories and you want to enjoy your vacations. You want your children to see other parts of the world, to enjoy spending time together, and to do new exciting things.
It can be easy to look at full time traveling families and just get jealous and shut down.
I know, I do it all the time.
I know family travel is worth it. We do not have much extra money, we do not even all have passports. We have found a way to make intentional travel part of our family’s culture.
Family travel builds shared memories, shared experiences, problem solving, and opportunity for connection.
It is difficult, kids like routines, they may not sleep well in an unfamiliar place, they may miss home snacks. It is still worth it.
What Is Family Culture
Family culture is what your family does. It is the shared memories, the favorite dinners, the inside jokes, the holiday traditions. Family culture can also be called family traditions.
You can intentionally build family culture or change the current family culture.
Making a simple plan and spending time together is a great way to establish new patterns.
What is your family culture like now?
- Do you share meals regularly?
- Do you spend time playing games and laughing together?
- Do you have meaningful holiday traditions?
- Do you all enjoy being together?
- What stories do you tell around the table?
Now, maybe I am the weird one, but I think about this a lot. I often think about how my kids will remember their childhood.
I am constantly trying to make traditions and plan trips that will bring my family closer together.
Obstacles to Family Travel
When it comes to planning family travel there are two really common things that keep families from traveling:
Money
Time
How Do You Afford To Travel With A Family?
Most of us do not have a lot of extra money to take unpaid time off or quit our jobs to travel. We sure don’t!
When my 4th was born we made the decision to change our work schedule to make more time for family. (At the time, he was working 60+ hours a week and had an opposite sleep schedule from our family, it was just not sustainable for me.)
First, my husband asked for 4 day weeks at work. The company allowed this, while he used his FMLA leave to cover that 5th day.
When the company was no longer willing to do 4 day weeks my husband quit his job and I took a teaching job so we could have summers together and a more family friendly schedule.
This worked in our first transition year, next I quit my job and took on some freelance work and my husband went back to his old job on a very part time basis.
This paid our bills until I found a full time work from home job.
So, there are many options. Start asking questions and see what you can come up with.
Here are a few more ideas I have seen friends and family use to create more time for travel:
- Remote Work
- Save Up
- Great Vacation Policy
- Summer Travel
- Travel With Work
Remote Work
Remote work and work from home jobs can allow families to travel while maintaining their regular income.
Since 2020 many companies have started to hire more and more employees for work from home positions. You may even speak to your employer about transitioning to remote work in your current location.
Save Up
You can choose to budget for your vacations the old fashioned way. Save up each month until you can pay for your vacations.
I have a great worksheet for you to plan an entire year of vacations. This walks you through how to save up for a great year of meaningful vacations.
Great Vacation Policy
When you are doing a job search, read that vacation policy carefully.
While many jobs only offer a week of vacation each year, some have much better offerings.
Paid vacation is an easy yes, just be sure to use it!
Get the school calendars, work schedule and any scheduled appointments on the calendar and plan to use all your vacation time each year.
Summer Travel
The summer road trip is an American tradition for a reason. It is a great time to vacation without having to pull the kids from school.
Plan to take a trip each summer.
I know many families use this time to visit family out of state. This is a great way to have an affordable vacation, but be sure to do some typical vacation things too!
Visit the lake, the beach, the museum, the theme park or the local tourist attractions.
You can make these trips more special by documenting the memories and displaying photos in your home when you come back or use one of these eleven ideas for documenting memories.
The shared memories are the most important part of this kind of trip.
I grew up driving 12 hours each summer to see our family. Each year we passed New York City and I have still never been.
Be sure to do the fun stuff too. Don’t be in too much of a hurry.
Travel With Work
Ask at work if there are any travel opportunities or let them know you are interested in traveling if the need arises.
We were once surprised by free hotel rooms when we had to travel for a week to cover a labor shortage at a neighboring branch of our company. A great fun trip with a pool!
Work travel may not be glamorous, but it can be a great way to take a low cost trip.
How Often Should We Travel As a Family?
Families should take annual vacations, 4 trips a year is a great goal if travel is a core value in your family.
Use a planner or print out a calendar and have a meeting to put these trips on the calendar.
Plan a summer trip, a winter trip, and 2 3-day weekend trips.
If you will be doing an international trip, start with that one, this will be the most expensive and longest trip.
Consider planning an international trip every 4 years.
Don’t worry about the cost, I PROMISE you can make it work.
These trips do not need to be expensive. We are a large family and we have found that most trips can be done for about $500.
I have a LOT of ideas and inspiration for cheap vacations. Check out this post with ideas for a $100 vacation.
You can also find tips to make any trip more affordable in the linked post.
Travel as a Tradition
Making travel a tradition in your family can be easy and it is mostly about attitude.
Spend time talking together about trips you want to take! Use my Family Bucket List Worksheet and plan to cross off some items.
Celebrate trips you have taken by recording the trip with photos, videos and journals.
There are a lot of ways to travel and there are lots of places to see. A travel tradition can be established in a RV or on an airplane.
Done is better than perfect.
Go on that trip, do not fuss about where or when or making it perfect. Go, bring your kids to your state capital, France, or National Park.
It is worth it.
I will be sharing more about how you can plan your year of adventure in my email list, so sign up in that pop up box to get in on the action.
