As summer approaches each year, and this is part of the problem for more than one reason, we start scrambling to assemble some kind of family vacation for the four of us. Often, it feels like we’re the only family that doesn’t bother to plan their vacation until a couple of months before we want to go, always “last minute”. For a few years now, we’ve failed to put anything together based on where wa want to go rather than what is left available.
For example, the past couple of years, we’ve gone to Williamsburg, Virginia. Strangely enough, I like Williamsburg. It has just enough of everything that it seems like a vacation destination. Virginia Beach is only an hour drive away, the historical stuff is pretty cool, and Busch Gardens is right there, with the water park that is even better. Plus, it’s only a few hours drive from home, so the travel costs aren’t crazy. Actually, this was the selling point for this vacation - cheap travel, many activities. But everyone else is getting tired of it, and we’d like to try somewhere else.
One year a while back, with no other options left, we went to Palm Desert. Palm Desert is right next to Palm Springs, so it’s a very pretty desert area with mountains in the background. It was a fun trip, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do but sit around the resort, and since we took the trip in the summer (who goes to a desert in the summer??) the average noon temperature outside was 105. While we’re asking questions about the sanity of visiting deserts in the summer, let me review some of the restrictions we’ve put on ourselves for vacationing.
The main one so far has been “can’t be when the kids have school”. I think we’re going to have to ditch this rule. I very much don’t see the point of having to take every vacation in the summer, when everyplace we might like to go will be sweltering during the 3 month window we have for travel. Plus, for whatever reason, travel prices are higher in the summer. And since all of the kids are out of school, any attraction we might visit will be ovverrun with kids and other vacationers.
One of our other restrictions is the timeshare, which both Berta and I are about ready to chuck out the window. When it works, it’s the best thing ever. The resort accommodations really make the hotels look like what they are - a couple of beds inside a concrete cell. But arranging for use of the timeshare week is a pain. Not only do you have to trade your week in (which we always forget to do), but you have to request a trade for someone else’s week to get something where you want to go. Inevitably, nothing is available where you want to go, either because they’re all reserved already or there simply aren’t any resorts at that location.
This year actually should be our Disney year. Our timeshare is in Orlando, about a mile away from the gate to Disney World. You’d think you would need to like Disney a lot to do something like this, and it’s true, we’re fans of Disney World (and this is the topic of a separate post - how you can continue to like Disney World when you’re not 10 anymore) but there are advantages to being able to trade your timeshare week very easily, since the weeks in Orlando are in high demand. But we made a kind of family agreement to go to Disney only once every three years, and this year, with the ages of the kids, would be a great year to go. Potentially the best year.
But I don’t want to be in Florida in the middle of the summer heat.
We did the cruise thing a couple of years ago. That was ok. I can’t rave about it like so many people I’ve heard. If you go to the Carribbean, you’re basically stuck on a boat for four full days, which can vary in comfort level depending on the complicity of the seas. And then of all of the cool places you visit, you get to spend maybe four hours there before you have to load back onto your ride to go somewhere else. It would be better if you could just stay on one island for a few days. I’ve said that if we ever go to those islands again, we’re going to fly.
It would be fun to do some international travel. I’ve been wanting to go back to Paris for a while, this time with the family. But we could go to London or somewhere in Germany. The problem is that a lot of those destinations are more interesting for kids that are older than ours. Right now, our kids are satisfied with a day at the beach or some fun park. Even if looking at historical sights is not top on a teenager’s list, at least they’d understand what they were looking at when they’re that old, as opposed to their ages now. Still, they might find it interesting.
We’ve been talking about going to Vermont. What’s in Vermont? When I think of Vermont, I think of mountains and trees. Is there much else there? I’m sure there is, but as a vacation destination, it seems… wanting. But that’s the direction we’d need to go - North - to escape the summer heat. That’s the rationale, anyway.
Perhaps the solution is visiting somewhere in Canada. It’ll have all of the inconvenience of leaving the country, but without leaving the continent. It’ll allow us to escape our culture, but not completely leave our comfort zone like a trip to Paris would. It’ll be cooler there than here, like in Vermont. Resort availability in Canada in the summer has to be pretty open, since the high demand is usually for the ski resorts in the winter. And the kids will have the experience of strange street signs and language, depending on where we go, like they would in Paris. The only things lacking then are Mickey Mouse and a nice Carribbean beach.
My thought, let’s just wait until November or December, take the kids out of school, and use our timeshare in Florida. Sure, it’s not really convenient for the kids, and it’s a pretty cliche move, but it’s a solid family vacation while the kids are still young.
