Family Bucket List Recommendations

[scrappydappydoo]

So DC are now fast approaching teenage years and the amount of family holiday time is running short . I want to put together a bucket list of destinations that we can do all together.
We've done Florida, quite a lot of France and Italy and lots of the UK. We're a 'doing' family so lots of sightseeing with a couple of down days rather than two weeks on the beach. I'm looking for a mix of cheap and 'special' destinations so we could do cheap one year to save up for more expensive the next.
So where should we go?

Hawaii

Croatia

Italian lakes

African safari

Look up the bucket list family if you want inspiration!

Have you done a walking holiday? We've started getting into them a few years back (the kids are 10 and 12 now), and last year we had the most amazing time on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We did this route: followthecamino.com/camino-tours/camino-frances/

But only the very last 100 kilometers, and it was like nothing before - the people, the setting, the feeling. We are hoping to go on a longer one next year. Working our way up through Scotland in the meantime :D

I would definitely do a safari holiday when they are a bit older. We did Kenya when I was 16 and it's one of my favourite family holiday memories

New Zealand is amazing for exploring and outdoor activities

Cape Cod / Boston / New York

Our 2 eldest DDs are 24 and the grim truth is that teenagers wish lists re holidays can be miles & miles away from yours & pretty horrendous (ours were pretty much regular access to wifi, pools and plenty of teenage boys!) so your bucket list may change with their hormones basically. I'd go with the following:

Trip to New York

Weekend in Paris

Multi centre train trip through Italy (you can book this all in advance on Trenitalia and the fares are much much cheaper than the UK)

Greek island hopping

Costa Rica for ziplining and wildlife and beaches

Depends what they are into - mine are a similar age and into very active things like ziplining from great height, watersports and wild animals. They aren't that bothered about cities. WIFI is regarded as a matter of life or death. AI is regarded as the preferred option so they can eat when they like and be nocturnal. Mine prefer not too hot. DD wants nothing to do with boys - hoping that lasts.

They loved Costa Rica especially the ziplining from silly heights and the wild animals, raccoons, cuddling a sloth, rainforest etc and we are doing Australia this year and the wild animals, tree kangaroos, platypus, Great Barrier Reef, koalas etc. An African safari went pre kids but sure they would love that. Cheaper ones - they hate camping, nagged me once for it then went where's the WIFI and TV then started screaming there was an insect in the bathroom. Like waterparks - the TUI all inclusive range, good fun if not culturally the best experience. Places with wildlife like Sweden / Finland, brown bears etc plus white water rafting. Quite fancy the Azores with the swimming with dolphins but not been. Trouble is once you do expensive ones they pester for that again though have told mine its a cheaper one next year and they are OK.

Interrail through Europe
Baltic cruise
California road trip
Vancouver/Rocky mountains
South Africa
A couple of weeks 'travelling' somewhere in the Far East. Thailand or Vietnam perhaps... not necessarily 'hosteling' but staying a few nights in each place before moving on somewhere new.

Great thread!

You could do a sailing holiday. You could have a skipper and go on. Family flotilla so the kids could make some friends. Greece or Croatia.

Snow holiday - we went to Levi in Finland in February with DD(10). It was fantastic, she rated it over Florida / Disney and we’ve been twice.
We did snow shoe walking at night, husky safari, reindeer safari, snowmobiling, horseback riding, cross country skiing. The town had a lovely spa so we went swimming and in the outdoor hot tubs, Dd made snow angels in her swimming costume at -10 and then jumped backed in.
We will go again at sometime in the near future, can’t rate it highly enough.

I have a family holiday list that I want to do:

Hong Kong/Singapore
European road trip
Swimming with turtles/Caribbean pirates
Mexico cenotes and jungle pyramids
alps summer adventure holiday
Family safari

my kid is only 5 tho so yours might be interested in different stuff

I don’t also like to do a holiday in Japan combining Tokyo, skiing and the spa town with the monkeys

Ones we've fine with dd over the years:

California:
Visit one - Las Vegas, Santa Monica and LA, Disneyland

Visit two - San Francisco, Six Flags, Napa, Sacramento, Santa Cruz and Monterey. Should have had Yosemite in there but it's burning.

East Coast US:
Washington, New York and Antigua

New York, Cape Cod and Boston

Canada/US
Montreal, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Tampa, Fort Myers Beach and Miami

Portugal:
Porto, Lisbon and Algarve

France:
Disneyland, Loire Valley and Biarittz

Not done so much touring round Europe as have done more US in recent years and been to Europe more for one week.

For next year we have planned or booked:

Spain: Valencia and Madrid
Abu Dhabi and Singapore
Japan (probably with Dubai stop over)

Dd is 16y and loves holidays - we keep thinking we might be coming towards the end of family holidays but Dd suggests that won't be happening for a long time 😂 we aren't beach and sitting around types bar maybe a winter sun week once a year. Dd has never been. Although she likes to use the internet and social media she isn't the type to be surgically attached to it and regularly just doesn't take her phone out on holiday unless she's wanting to take photos. When long haul often time differences restrict social media chats anyway, though she claims not to be bothered.

We do like decent WiFi though as it makes planning in the go easier. Like last fortnight when Yosemite was cancelled due to fires at the last minute and we needed to find a location and hotel with a day to go. WiFi was essential!

Our main holiday(s) we like to be doing things. We just like to restrict the travelling time down a bit and prefer to spend more than one night at a location, with a slightly longer stay of 4-5 nights in a slightly more relaxing location at the end.

Nearly how much did all those Levi activities cost,are they really expensive?

P3onyPenny the whole holiday for 3 of us cost approx £3800 including the activities and hire of thermal suits and boots. The activities from memory accounted for approx £500 of that.
We went with Inghams who were brilliant, half board at K5 hotel in Levi. We didn’t really do lunch most days as perhaps had a waffle and coffee late morning. We had a couple of drinks at the bar each night ( happy hour 5.30- 9.30!!) and spent about £210 on top of the holiday cost.

On my bucket list for when kids are teens:

California/Western US/National Parks (prob. 2 trips)
Costa Rica
Japan
Namibia
Iceland
Greek Island hopping
Western Australia

My DC are now late teens and we enjoyed our first child free holiday for 18 years this year.

When DC hit 10, we did more adventurous holidays with them rather than British bucket and spade type:

Thailand (family adventure holiday with Exodus - Bangkok, River Kwai, Errawan waterfalls, Chaing Mai hill tribe stay, Koa Samet beach stay)

Egypt (family adventure holiday with Explore- Cairo pyramids, Aswan, Sailing up the River Nile on a Felucca for 2 days, Luxor Valley of the Kings etc, Snorkelling in the Red Sea Hurghuda 3 days)

New York and Washington DC

Italy (Venice, Verona, Rome and Pompeii)

Real Family Holidays - Pembrokeshire, Wales

Istanbul (4 days stop over) and Cape Town (10 days- Climbing Table Mountain, Robben Island, Cape Point, Boulders Beach, Safari for 2 days etc)

City breaks- Berlin, Amsterdam, Krakow

Great thread.

Our children are 10, 11 and 12. They've been on lots of different types of holidays. When to Lapland when they were a bit younger, saw FC and did all the activities, that was great. Done road trips in Europe, luxury in the Caribbean, touring and activities in Iceland, city breaks in New York and Dublin and bog standard sun and pool in the med. Lots of camping and YHA in the UK as well, they've loved them all and actually have said one of their best times are just camping with a group of our friends.

Really want to take them to Africa on safari, it's massively expensive though so hope we will be able to take them. I had three trips in mind I wanted to take them on during their childhood. FC in Lapland, Disney in Florida, and safari in Africa. They didn't want to go to Disneyland (thank God, my idea of hell) so just africa to do. We're so lucky to be able to do all this and remind them of this. We've taken them to the developing world, thinking we could show them that just pure luck and nothing else is the difference. It rather backfired with one of them who just hated it and now wants to avoid all poor countries.

As an aside, I once read that its better for your children's physiological welfare to take them on holiday to the same place every year. I chose to ignore that.

Canadian Rockies
Interrailing around Europe
Tran-siberian with a stay in Mongolia with nomads
(Can you tell I married a train geek?)

its better for your children's physiological welfare to take them on holiday to the same place every year

Really? Thank goodness I've never read that, or it would be something else to feel guilty about! We very rarely go back to the same place - the world is too big and there just aren't enough holidays to see it all.

juneau

I wouldn't take it as fact if I we're you. It's just something I read once.