We Don’t ‘Vacation’, we ‘Travel!’
When we look to book a ‘vacation’, it may not be everyone’s ideal time off. While we enjoy some relaxation, we love exploring new cultures, activities and adventures. I’ll share our approach to travel.
What does ‘vacation’ look like to us?
There are usually two types of people out there: those who like to relax on vacation and those that want to take in all the sights and see it all! We are the latter of those two. While we’ve done our share of relaxing beach trips, the more we’ve seen of the world – the more we know that we want to explore it! This travel style definitely doesn’t appeal to everyone 🙂
What does that mean, in practice? It means that instead of a beach house, or an all inclusive, we would pick a road trip through South Dakota or visiting the wonderful country of Turkey. It means that when we plan our next trip it usually involves us saying ‘what haven’t we experienced yet?’ It’s given us some really amazing experiences, like seeing the Blue Mosque in Turkey, or some weird ones, like checking out the famous WallDrug. We almost never are looking to stay in just one location the entire trip, and are looking to combine various types of adventures and activities into the trip. Since we don’t have unlimited time off work and school (bummer!), we have to prioritize, and our priorities are seeing as much of the world as possible.
Our Travel Philosophy
Generally, we feel like we only get so much time on this earth, and there is so much to see and learn and explore… that every time we get a chance to travel, we want it to be somewhere we’ve never seen before, and somewhere that offers us new cultures and experiences. We do have a special place in our hearts for a few locations, but almost always – we are looking for a new adventure.
When we are lucky enough to explore somewhere totally new – we really want to take it all in. We assume, with most places, we may never return to them, so while we are there, we want to see it all. We are often searching and planning to travel to unique places that give us something different to see.
Perks of Exploring
One of the best parts about this type of exploring and traveling is to give our kids (and us!) a whole new view of the world. It creates wonderful family memories (e.g. ‘remember that time we were driving through Liechtenstein and the border crossing was in someone’s backyard!?’) and encourages resiliency and flexibility (e.g. ‘remember that time we had to sprint through the airport in Belgium because we were going to miss our flight!?’)
It also helps build better connections with our world and the places we travel. By exploring each of these locations and really learning about the area vs just relaxing – we are helping our kids grow in their knowledge of the world. Now when they learn about WWII in school, they can directly relate it to when we visited Poland and the former concentration camps of Auschwitz. Or when they learn about the architectural marvel of the Panama Canal – they can remember taking a our cruise ship through the locks.
How We Choose Adventures
When picking where we want to travel next, we often do a few things:
- Check out our USA or world map – what regions haven’t we explored?
- Have our kids share memories that they loved the most – things like animal encounters, small & walkable towns, mountains and hiking
- Watch thousands of YouTube videos, Instagram reels and more to find places that look interesting
- Write down priorities for our next trip
Once we pick a place, or an area to visit:
- Research the best things to do in that area
- Look for a variety of activities throughout the trip – maybe, one day of hiking and one day of exploring a city
- Balance tourist attractions with hidden gems
- Build out an itinerary that gives us amazing things to do each day
Example: This trip to Nice, France had a break for a morning at the spa (while it was raining), hiking, exploring some great small towns, and long breaks in the evening for dinner or just wandering around
Why Relaxation Still Has a Place (sometimes)
We’ve certainly had times when we overdid it…looking at you, Pacific Northwest Road Trip!
Sometimes it’s really hard to take a break when you’re in a new place and want to see it all. Over the years though, we’ve learned to balance a little bit better. We still don’t want a trip that is completely unscheduled and boring (our term, maybe not yours!), but there is a place for relaxation.
What we do to achieve this is try to schedule a little looser now. We leave hours during the day open for impromptu activities, or schedule each activity with a large buffer so we don’t have to rush.
We’ve also worked in ‘rest days’ when we are gone for longer (2 weeks or so), where the only goal for a certain day is one small activity. This allows us a day to decompress in the middle of the trip.
Relaxing in our amazing Tiny Home in Switzerland
Tips for Planning Active Family Trips
Planning a trip like this can be hard, and involves a ton of research ahead of time. Planning multiple hotel/airbnb stops, daily activities, booking adventures/tours and more is not simple, but it can be really worth it.
- Involve your family in the planning – if everyone is involved in picking things that matter to them, it will make the trip exciting!
- Find a variety of activities – balance nature, culture, and fun! Having a well thought out itinerary that gives a variety of activities is usually the most engaging
- Figure out when during the trip you will need a break – try not to overschedule, and leave time for impromptu decisions
Add Some Adventure to Your Trip!
We wouldn’t change how we travel, because we LOVE experiencing new things. Hopefully next time you’re looking at your vacation options, you add in a little bit of exploration to your itinerary!
