Family Vacation Tips

Family Road Trip 2021

[fa icon="calendar"] Apr 20, 2021 6:30:00 AM / by Sally Black

Sally Black

family Road Trip 2021Family road trips are probably the most iconic of all family vacations. Regardless of how old we are, a car trip with our family or to visit family is no doubt one of our earliest memories.

Family road trip vacations are making a huge “come back” in 2021 for a long list of reasons. After months of quarantine, as adults become vaccinated, there is this strong desire for family life to return to “normal”. Many people want to travel but are still not comfortable with air travel. Taking a family vacation in your own car allows you to better control your environment and keep everyone healthy and safe.

The most important tip to remember for 2021 is to plan your trip as early as possible. As you are excitedly making your summer 2021 travel plans and beyond, bear in mind, so are millions of other families just like yours. At the time of this article, many popular summer vacation beach, resort, and National park accommodations are already sold out. With the borders of many countries still closed to Americans, everyone who would be traveling overseas is now planning domestic trips within the United States. In addition, many people had summer vacation plans from last year postponed making availability an issue when it comes to planning family trips for 2021.

While there are many people who do feel safe flying, we would highly suggest planning a complete self-drive vacation using your own vehicle this year. Why?... because during the pandemic, many car rental companies sold unused vehicles. Now that travel has started to rebound, there is not only a shortage of vehicles but due to supply and demand, car rental prices are high. Since the pandemic, camping and RV rentals are at an all time high so again, finding space and availability can be very challenging.

 

Many people often do not think to reach out to a travel agent to help plan a family road trip. In fact, we plan many of these type of family vacations all over the world. Planning a road trip in the United States is probably one of the easiest and most enjoyable trip itineraries we do.

 

That said, creating a fun, balanced itinerary is not as easy as it looks!

 

Recently I was on a consultation zoom with a lovely mom who was sharing her vision of a New England road trip with her children ages four and six. She outlined an epic amount of driving and all the historic sights and museums they wanted to visit. When I asked if she had ever done a trip like this before she said, “my husband and I used to do trips like this all the time when we were in college – we loved it”. I reminded her that 20 somethings would indeed find a trip like that fascinating. Young children would most likely be irritated and bored out of their minds. Together we crafted a fun adventure that was uniquely tailored to the individual interests of everyone. The right guide can make a museum interesting for kids. A “must have” for mom and dad was a lobster dinner. Taking a lobster fishing boat tour let the family enjoy a lobster picnic while their young pirate could watch for whales and seals learning from a real captain. Their young baseball fanatic got a tour of Fenway park as incentive after a morning walk along the Freedom Trail. We included a visit to a European castle (yes, here in the U.S.) and some relaxing beach time.

 

After we had everything confirmed, she confessed that she had spent weeks angsting over vacation planning. Every time she sat down to work on their reservations, she felt “uninspired by this trip” and now “the whole family is excited and cannot wait to go”. At Vacationkids, this is what we do! We make vacation planning fun.

Family road trips should be inspiring adventures, not a consolation prize. They should be the type of journey that 50 years from now your children will remember with a smile. Road trips are the “stuff” that make up family stories and legends. They are the glue that bonds family members together. Make them epic adventures!

Topics: family vacations, Affordable Family Vacations, Family Vacation Health, Family of 5 Vacations, Family Vacation, family vacation ideas, travel tips

Sally Black

Written by Sally Black

Sally is the Founder of Vacationkids.com Travel Agency and author of the book "Fearless Family Vacations". She is also the Director of Travel Agent Initiatives and Training at The Family Travel Association.

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