Choosing the "there" in 'are we there yet?'

With schools letting out and temperatures heating up summer vacation season is upon us. We haven’t traveled much as a family and while we do get to take some time off in the summer, our vacations have always been in-state.

We’ve had at least one young toddler or baby in the family for virtually every summer since we were married, so our lack of range has been equal parts cost prohibitive as it has been logistically problematic.

This has likely been the case for most families in history, and certainly large families have additional reasons for limiting their travel. Can you imagine flying with seven kids 13 and younger?

If you said to yourself that you can, you should probably try riding with them in the van to the store for 15 minutes first.

Anyway, when thinking of family vacations I sometimes find myself comparing the various options (even if they aren’t necessarily all options for us right now). Let’s take a look at the different family vacation options.

New destination vacations – This is probably the most common type of family vacation. The family is going to a place they haven’t been before. You hear of “destination vacations” which typically suggest the destination has some sort of specific attraction, but new destinations vacations don’t have to have that. It could be anything from camping at a new location to visiting Rome. The pros of this type of vacation is that the experience will always be new and it can make a huge impression. The downside is it’s a bit of a gamble as not all new places turn out as fun as they seem.

Repeat destination vacations – Basically, this is like the above except it’s somewhere you go back to time and again. This is the type of family vacation I’m most familiar with. I may be biased but I like the idea of looking forward to going to a place I know we enjoy. Also, kind of like marking notches on the door frame as the kids get older, I like seeing the change in the kids by contrasting their growth with the static setting.

Prepackaged vacations – Think cruises and Disney vacations here. I’ve never been on either and frankly these sorts of vacations don’t appeal to me. Before you Disney fans go off on me, I will say I’ve heard very good reviews from the people who have done these trips. And if you like structure (or more accurately, if you like structured “free” time) then I think prepackaged vacations would be a great option for families looking for a cookie cutter, turnkey option.

Road trip vacations - The quintessential American road trip vacation is a well-known family vacation tradition. I’ve never been on this kind of vacation but at times think I’d like to do it – when the kids are older. It’s interesting that this vacation type has several other types of vacation represented in it.

You’ll be driving through and likely stopping at and/or staying in lots of new places. The destination may be somewhere you’ve been before but if not the experience of doing the road trip the next year will have elements of the repeat vacation type. You could even be headed to a prepackaged vacation via a road trip. The road trip vacation is definitely the most flexible of the vacation types.

The staycation – The biggest argument here is whether you can actually take a vacation at home. I think that depends a lot on personality and probably where you live too.  We’ve done our fair share of staycationing and trying to bring the vacation mindset to us with varying results. Even though I’m somewhat of a homebody, for me, being at home prevents some of the vacation mindset because I can’t help but see things that need to get done. That’s certainly not a problem with any of the other vacation types.

Which type of family vacation is best? The good news is there’s no right answer. In the end it’s more about your family and what you want to get out of the vacation. And how well you’re able to handle the unpredictable nature of traveling with kids.