Vacations are planned to give the vacationers time to relax and rejuvenate themselves. But with the added pressure to make it a memorable trip, the whole process of deciding where to go and organizing one’s trip can become a daunting task. To make planning your next vacation easier especially when traveling with extended family, here are some tips that might just help make that holiday a lot less stressful!

I’m sure we’ve all been in the position where an extended family member has asked us to plan a vacation. After the first couple of times it happens we stop being so accommodating but now and again someone pulls the old soap box out from under the stairs and starts his or her spiel about family vacations. Although it might not be your idea at first glance, there are some benefits to traveling with your extended family. This doesn’t mean you have to book a cruise or extended stay in Ocala, Florida, but there are some things you can do to make both parties happy.

When you are an introvert, it is challenging to leave the house and spend time with extended family. There is no shortage of well-meaning family members who have a different agenda for your vacation. It is hard enough to be an introvert when you are spending time with friends or people who are used to your quirks and habits. For some of the issues you will encounter during your vacation, join my newsletter at the bottom of this article. If you want professional help while planning a vacation, contact me through my contact page .

How To Plan A Vacation With Extended Family

Sharing a beach house with your cousins. Getting the whole family together for a week at a Wyoming ranch. Going to Disney World with the grandparents. It sounds like an ideal family vacation – until the beach house is trashed, no one wants to cook dinner and the kids are Mickeyed out. If you’re planning a multigenerational vacation, consider these travel tips when vacationing with extended family.

1. Discuss ahead of time who’s paying for what

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a grandmother with a beach house, big family vacations are expensive. Make sure early on that everyone’s clear on how the expenses will be divided. If the parents or grandparents are paying for the trip, show your appreciation by taking them out to eat or buying them a special gift. If you’re the one generously footing the bill, you must spell out exactly what you’re willing to pay for: the airfare, for instance, but not the admission to a theme park.

2. Assign chores

Often on a multigenerational vacation, people fall into their traditional roles: Grandma sweeps the porch, Uncle Bill mans the grill, and the kids (who are old enough to know better) leave the dishes for Mom to wash up. Just because it’s a vacation, that doesn’t mean there’s no work to do. Make a list of what needs to be done each day and divide the responsibilities equally.

3. Let teenagers have a say

This great tip comes from an expert on family vacations: Dennis Dinsberger, whose family has traveled 7 million miles together. If you want to avoid having tuned-out, surly teenage travel companions, let them be in charge of decisions like what to see on a particular day or what to have for dinner. Don’t insist they participate in every family activity, either, but let them have alone time.

4. Build in plenty of “me time”

This tip from the United States Tour Operators Association is key. No matter how close a family may be, it’s a sure bet that everyone doesn’t want to spend every minute together. Some people may want to relax on the deck with a book while others want to go hang-gliding, and that’s OK. Set a time each day when everyone can rejoin the group and enjoy family time.

5. Don’t make the extended-family vacation an ironclad ritual

Multigenerational vacations create priceless memories. But gratitude for a fun trip can turn to resentment when the organizers expect everyone to repeat the experience every year. If the big family vacation becomes a tradition, great – but it may make more sense to do it every other year, or to change the destination to be convenient for different members of the family.

TIPS FOR PLANNING A VACATION GETAWAY WITH EXTENDED FAMILY

The summers seem to pass too quickly these days and here we are at the end of another summer. Where did you plan a get away with your family this summer?

With only 18 summers in a child’s life, it’s very important that you make an effort to plan for something special to capture those childhood memories with your kids and if possible extended family.

Have you ever considered a vacation with your extended family?

I personally recommend planning for a summer vacation getaway with your children and children’s grandparents. Planning it at the end of the summer somehow seems to make summer feel longer. It’s also a special way to end the summer making memories before the business of the school year starts.

For our family it’s our way of pressing pause and really enjoying moments with our children and with our parents.

Disclosure: Wyndham provided us with a complimentary vacation condo during our stay. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. All opinion expressed are my own and my family’s.

PLANNING A TRIP WITH EXTENDED FAMILY

We planned a multi-generation stay in Orlando with grandparents who are visiting us from India.
This summer trip we were invited as guests at the WyndhamBonnet Creek Resort in Orlando. Here’s a sneak peek of our stay at this gorgeous resort along with some tips we’ve learned after traveling with our whole family for many years.

These tips can help you plan your next adventure with your extended family to your favorite destination.

As you begin to plan for your family vacation getaway it’s always best to get together and find a system that works for everyone. Here are a few online tools that we use as a family with my parents, my husband’s parents, our siblings and their families and even close friends when we plan vacations with a large group.
We’ve planed quite a few trips with kids that include family members and I’d like to share some tips that work best while planning.