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Top Travel Mistakes Families Should Avoid for a Fun Trip

Simple tricks to make family travel easy breezy.

Each year thousands of families book, and take vacations together. However, sometimes these can lead to stressful or unfun scenarios. This is often down to the fact that holidays and trips away are not a regular occurrence for many. If you are planning one soon, then make sure to take into account these top travel mistakes to avoid, so as to have a fun trip with your family.

Disclaimer: Links in this page are meant to help you find relevant information and book attractions easier by linking directly to specific pages on partner websites (i.e. TripAdvisor, Vegas.com). If you click a link, we may earn a small commission on transactions. This helps support the cost of running our website, and it adds absolutely no extra cost to you as the consumer. Thank you, we appreciate your support! You can read more on our disclosure policy.

Traveling at the wrong time of year

Several things can ruin the fun of a vacation with your family. Whether it is due to poor weather conditions, or because the location you have decided to visit is full of other families, school trips, or simply being fully booked, and too busy. As such, a mistake to avoid when you are looking to have a fun trip with your family is going at the wrong time of year.

For many families, getting away from their day-to-day life, and the hustle and bustle of their local environment is something that is looked forward to all year, with the addition of fair, and relaxing weather to enjoy. So, depending on your preference of how busy your holiday destination is, and the quality of the weather, you should make sure that you research your destination thoroughly, and adequately plan the optimal time to visit for your family holiday. This will help maximize the chances of a fun trip away.

Not thinking about the beginning and end of your trip

A mistake that can often ruin a large portion of your family holiday time, is when you do not account for the beginning, or end of your travel. It is the boring logistics portion of trip planning, but necessary. For example, if you are flying to your holiday destination with your family, then you will need to figure out how you will get to the airport and back.

A simple solution to this would be to look into airport parking options as this will allow you the flexibility and freedom of getting your family to the airport using your own transport, and knowing that it is located close by, and in a safe location for when you return. Forward thinking, and planning the beginning and end of your trip can help reduce stress levels for you and your family, leaving only good times to be had. So, make sure that you take into consideration the beginning and end of your trip.

Not making sure that everyone knows the dates you plan to travel

If you are traveling with children, then there is less pressure on ensuring that everyone knows the dates of when you plan on having your holiday as often you will simply be in charge of their day-to-day lives. However, if you have a selection of adults, young adults, or teenagers that are joining the family trip, then it could become a problem if not everyone is kept in the loop for when you plan on taking this vacation. An easy way of making sure that you are all ready, packed, and have things like your travel visas, or passports up to date, is by ensuring everyone has it written down in a diary or calendar of some kind.

Giving yourself enough time to plan properly

A good rule of thumb is to start planning your trip about six months to a year out. There are a number of reasons why this is important. For one, you may need time to get everyone’s passports ready or to apply of visas. Planning ahead of time, not only ensures that accommodations and excursions are sold-out, but can also save you money by getting better rates for plane tickets, hotels, cruises, and more. You will have time to shop around and find the best the deals, before they are gone. This also gives you time to budget properly and save up for the trip.

You need time to plan the logistics, like airport transfers and other forms of transportation. You’ll be more relaxed to better plan out your itinerary, which is super important when traveling with little kids. Family travel in many ways is unpredictable, so it is best to control what you can for smoother travels.

With more time to plan your travel, you will also be able to do better research on the best time of year to visit your chosen destination. If the best time of year to travel falls during your child’s school year, you will be able to notify the teachers or apply for independent study.

That’s A Wrap!

So, if you are planning a trip with your family in the near future, make sure to give yourself plenty of time to properly plan, research weather and crowd conditions in the desired travel destination, plan logistics of entire trip, and give everyone in your travel party travel expected travel dates. Avoid these common mistakes and you are sure to have amazing family adventures.

Disclaimer: Links in this page are meant to help you find relevant information and book attractions easier by linking directly to specific pages on partner websites (i.e. TripAdvisor, Vegas.com). If you click a link, we may earn a small commission on transactions. This helps support the cost of running our website, and it adds absolutely no extra cost to you as the consumer. Thank you, we appreciate your support! You can read more on our disclosure policy.

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Author

I am a busy mama with 3 delicious babies and a serious itch for travel and writing (when I am not bartending, that is)! After graduating from Cal State San Marcos with a B.A. in Communications, I decided to start a family and pursue a career in freelance writing. I created HotMamaTravel as an outlet to do what I love while sharing useful travel tips and inspiration with others. Our mission is to show parents how to master travel with kids, while keeping your Saturday-night selves. We call it "Family travel...with a twist".

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