Gone are the days when your beloved children did not have a say or simply could not have a say  when booking a family trip.  Ah, yes.  Now your once easily excited, hand-holding, foot-stomping, jumping up and down, absolutely can not wait to head out with Mum and Dad, child, has other plans.  Unfortunately, those plans do not include hanging out with you.  Hold on, this does not have to be the case; we have come up with a few ways to convince your teenager to not only agree but also, dare we say, look forward to your next family trip.

•        Fun Analysis:  This can happen in the early stages of trip planning, the preliminary work required to nail down a concrete plan of where your family will escape to next.  It is important to find out what exactly your children are interested in.  What is their idea of fun? Keeping in mind that you’re looking to stay active this trip, figure out what it is they would be keen to do.  Perhaps they often cycle to school with their friends or are on the adventurous side and enjoy mountain biking or climbing.  Alternatively, they may not be so excited about the idea of walking or cycling for a few days.  However, they may really appreciate animals or music.  Let every family member add one or two “must see or do” items to the fun list.  Now that you know what would make a trip exciting for them, you can start narrowing choices down.

 

• Compromise: By identifying what the children are interested in, you can choose a destination that features their interests to compliment your daily walk or cycle. This way, Mum and Dad get to walk or cycle passed the beautiful landscapes and majestic castles they are dying to see; the kids can stay active, view exotic animals or experience the authenticity of a new place as they listen to live music at a festival.  These well-planned days will definitely be a nice break from school and much more entertaining than scrolling the news feed of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  Although there will be plenty of great photos and videos to share with their friends when they get home!

 

• Decision Makers:  To help encourage the young ones to look forward to your trip, we suggest you include them in the decision making process.  This will actually be fun for the whole family as you can all research various destinations and everyone can come up with a few choices (within budget of course).  You have already narrowed down a list of things you want to see or do on your trip, now you can all vote and choose a destination that will be fun and suitable for the whole family.  As the kids are involved in the research and planning, this will definitely make them more open minded and excited to spend a week or two in the wilderness with Ma and Pa!

 

• Share Stories: To inspire an interest in travel at a young age, why not share stories of some of your memorable moments of travelling the world? It may be an interesting person you met in Scotland, that steep hill you never thought you would finish climbing with your Dad, or simply missing a connection that lead to an unexpected afternoon exploring the narrow cobblestone streets of Italy.  Share photos! By visually displaying the places and faces you have discovered, your children can see the value in travelling.  As you share these memories, they will see these experiences have not only taught you so much, but have brought you a lifetime of happiness that you can always reflect on.

• Travel Buddies:  Maybe Mum or Dad will not be joining this trip and one is flying solo with the kids.  Why not find a friend, also with teenagers, and plan to go away together?  This is ideal as the adults can enjoy the company and your children will have a mate to look forward to travelling and hanging out with.  Travelling with another family can be a great way to enhance the experience.  The more the merrier!  People that you have travelled with become the best of friends as you experience things together that you can always think about and laugh, cry or just feel happy you had that time together.

We hope this has given you a few ideas and a little inspiration on how to propose an active holiday to your teenagers.  If not, you can always tell them the alternative is a full list of household chores! All joking aside, we believe family trips make the best memories.  If you are looking for some photos, stories or videos, you can visit the Adventure Inspiration section of our website.