Great Ways to Spend a Family Vacation
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There are few experiences as positive as a good family vacation. It’s a time for bonding, a time for exploration, discovery, adventure, and fun — the sorts of memories which we remember and cherish well into our old age.
But not all family holidays are created equal, and some just have more “wow” potential than others.
Here’s a list of suggestions for how you can turn your next family holiday into a truly fantastic event.
Getting out in nature
Studies have shown that human beings are just happier when out in nature, with people who live in rural areas being happier and more upbeat than their city-bound counterparts.
Some research has even shown that hospital patients recovering from surgery had faster recovery times when they were placed in rooms which had a view of trees from the window.
Nature is essential to our well-being in an ancient, primal way, and most of us just don’t spend nearly enough time engaging with it.
Give yourself and your family a mental and spiritual break by going camping in a beautiful natural environment. Not only will everyone’s mood lift, but you’ll also get to teach the kids about the different plants, animals, and geographical features of the area.
Doing a long road trip
”The journey’s half the fun”, goes the old saying, and sometimes the journey is the entire point.
Since the days of our mobile hunter gatherer ancestors, people have been fascinated by travel and experiencing new things.
A road trip is the perfect way of exposing your kids to the sense of adventure and fun that comes with a journey — allowing them to see the different textures of life as they change from place to place, and experience the sense of intrigue that comes with going to bed in a different location each night.
Of course, you’ll need to plan your trip so that you don’t make the journey itself too stressful. Regular stops en route, attractions to see on the way, and a comfortable place to sleep at night are important for keeping the experience as magical as it should be.
Trying an adventurous new activity
Normal life sometimes gets a bit mundane for both parents and kids, and routine can easily make us forget about all the interesting things we could be doing at any given moment.
One great use of your vacation is to recapture that sense of adventure by trying out a new activity that you wouldn’t normally participate in. Trying your hand at SCUBA diving could be a great example.
Complete change of scenery
There’s a lot to be said for taking a trip to a completely different place to the one where we live and come from.
It’s a big world out there, and seeing some of those differences head-on is a great way of learning to appreciate the varieties of different cultures in existence, not to mention our own.
By getting away to an exotic location, we open our eyes to ways of life we hadn’t necessarily reflected on before, and are also reminded of what we love about our own homes and experiences — perhaps something as simple as the ability to always be able to pay for your groceries with a credit card from best.creditcard, or the style of food you grew up with.