Family Holidays With Teenagers can be FUN!
The recipe to a successful family holiday with teenagers.
If the prospect of your teenager slamming doors, getting bored and skulking away with friends every weekend looms on your horizon, rather than spending quality time with the very people who brought them into the world, take heart!
Camel riding with your kids
Amongst the recent trends to emerge in travel, trips for parents to spend more one-on-one time with their teenage children during their fraught high school years have becoming increasingly popular.
There is an increasing demand for packages which cater to the specific needs of parents wanting time alone with their teenage children, often away from the pressure of school, peer groups and even the competition for attention from other siblings.
Once children become young teenagers and enter their high school years, it becomes harder to find a window of opportunity to incorporate meaningful, one-on-one time with their parents to strengthen their relationship, away from the distraction of homework, domestic routines, sports training and the considerable influence of their peers.
Paris with the kids is amazing and a lifetime expetiene
Mother/daughter shopping and spa trips and father/son adventure trips are currently becoming more and more popular with families with teenagers. What teenage girl would knock back a shopping trip to Hong Kong or Melbourne or a week at a spa retreat in Byron Bay? The boys love to be active and a fishing trip up in Kakadu or watching your favourite tennis, golf or rugby stars live are great options for father/son breaks.
When it comes to a family holiday with teenagers planning is the key ingredient to success. Parents need to involve the children from the early planning stage.
The recipe to a successful teenage holiday:
1) Plan the trip at least 6-12 months
2) As a family decide on where you would like to holiday. Are you an active family, enjoy history, appreciate wildlife, beach lover, shopaholic or a theme park junkie?
3) Decide on the family budget. Have your kids financially contribute to the holiday by giving up that new pair of jeans or have them do a part time job. They have will have a far greater appreciation of the holiday.
4) Apartments are a great option with teenagers. They offer separate sleeping areas, lounge room and kitchen facilities and often 2 bathrooms. Who wants to share a bathroom with a teenager! Teenagers love to talk and be social so choose accommodation that offers a pool, games rooms and a gym.
5) The one day on and one day off rule. Every second day is an adult day and the other a teenagers/child day.
6) What did we do before WIFI? Ensure your teenager is on mobile phone prepaid and research prior where free WIFI is available allowing them to catch up with friends back home.
7) Prepay and prebook! The more you prepay in A$ the more you will eliminate arguments on the trip. Meals, transport, accommodation and tours are able to be prepaid for most destinations.
8) Involve the children in setting a daily budget.
9) Each family member has their own back pack with a bottle of water, a good book and IPOD.
10) A relaxed and positive attitude. The most important ingredient to a successful family holiday with teenagers which will grow organically if you follow the recipe.
Our feedback from parents and their children is that these holidays are some of the most enjoyable and fun filled of their lives and brings them closer to their teenagers through shared interests and experiences. Whether that is a week in Bali surfing, shopping and lazing by the pool or hiking up Mt Blanc in France you will create a lifetime of memories for the whole family.
Travel With Kidz specialises in family holidays worldwide catering for families with children 0-18 years. Visit www.travelwithkidz.com.au/agent-finder to find your nearest licensed office.
Are You Surviving the School Holidays?
Christmas is now over for another year and the worlds icon buildings including our own Sydney Harbour Bridge have been lit up to celebrate the beginning of another year so now is the time to tell the world about your best/worst/funniest family holiday experience. Having just spent 2 weeks with our 2 year old granddaughter Emily at Nanna and Poppy’s house we now appreciate how hard it is to keep children busy over the long holiday period.
Travelling with children can be fun with research and speaking to an expert. Travel With Kidz has been specialising in family travel for the past 16 years.
Here is our list of top ten things to do with the kids before they grow up:
1) Climb the steps of Angkor Wat Cambodia and view history engraved on the walls.
2) Sit with indigenous Australians at Ayers Rock and learn the art of dot painting.
3) Learn to ski and make snowmen at Thredbo Village.
4) Play volleyball with Fijians on white sand beaches.
5) Swim with dolphins at Dolphin Quest, Hawaii.
6) Walk down Broadway in New York and ride the lift to the top of the Empire State Building.
7) Visit the Pope’s home in Vatican City Rome. Climb the steps of St. Peters and view Rome from its peak.
8) Experience a magical Christmas under the Northern Lights with an unforgettable visit to Santa’s home town in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland.
9) Introduce the kids to Mickey Mouse at Disneyland– it never fails to capture their imaginations.
10) Dance with the Masai in the Masi Mara National Park Kenya and watch lions under a tree on the great plains of the Mara.
As today’s children grow up faster and spend less time with their parents than ever before, many families are structuring holidays which offer not only a break from the routine but a learning experience for everyone.
After 34 years’ experience in the travel business – more than a third of that catering to the holiday needs of families – Wendy Buckley, Managing Director of Travel With Kidz, is well placed to comment on how family holidays are changing.
“Many time-poor families are no longer content with the traditional two-week annual holiday to the coast,” she said. “They are beginning to think ‘quality not quantity’ and are demanding more active and interesting breaks.”
“Young children’s brains are more open to learning and far more impressionable than adults,” she said. “Now is the time to spend quality time with your kids before they grow up.”
What is your favourite experience with your kids? Email wendy@travelwithkidz.com.au to post your blogs and experiences.
Happy 2012 from the Travel With Kidz family
Where’s TK? Win a Family Holiday in Phuket
Take TK on your Christmas holidays and be in with a chance to WIN 5 nights in Phuket for your family. TK has travelled the world and wants to come on your holiday. It’s so easy, take a picture with your kids holding TK over these holidays and share click here to enter and read the rules Good luck!
Take TK on your Christmas holiday and be in with a chance a family holiday to Phuket
It’s so easy! Here’s what you need to do:
- CLICK HERE to print the PDF image of Where’s TK?
- Take it on your holiday over December and January.
- Have the kids hold the picture of “where’s TK” in front of where you are ‘holidaying’, for example your local beach, the Gold Coast, Fiji, Vietnam or skiing in Whistler.
- Post on the Travel With Kidz Facebook wall. Go to the Photo Contest on our Facebook Page and upload your entry there.
- Have your friends and family vote for your photo on the Photo Competition tab.
Need help to enter? email wendy@travelwithkidz.com.au
THE PRIZE:
- Peoples’ Choice Winner - The photo with the most votes will WIN 5 nights in Phuket at the Evason Phuket & Bon Island for two adults and two kids.
- Judges’ Choice Winner – Travel With Kidz hamper filled with goodies
Who’s TK?
Travel With Kidz is delighted to introduce TK, the ‘ face ‘ behind fun and safe family travel.
Since 1995 when he was born, TK has been travelling, testing and reporting back on the best, safest and most fun ways to ’travel with kidz’.
TK’s experiences give families invaluable first-hand information on what to expect when they travel worldwide. From a simple beachside holiday through to an adventure in Africa, TK has done it all!
TK is also the voice and representative of the entire Travel With Kidz family, which has built relationships globally over many years with family-friendly hotels, tour operators, airlines, suppliers and companies. These relationships continue to grow and your family now has access to our years of experience through TK.