Teens growing up. Where (if you could) would you absolutely want to travel with them before they fly the nest?

[LaSourciereEfrontee]

My DC are 15 and 13 now. Hopefully, we have a few years left of family holidays and we’ve been to some great places already. But I’m aware that before we know it, they’ll be wanting to travel with friends and boyfriends and might not always join us.

Where would you absolutely want to take your teens while you still have the chance? Either places you’ve already visited and would love to show them if places on your own bucket list?

Mine are:

Botswana (I did VSO there, hope to visit with DC next year.)
California ( went when they were babies but it would be a very different holiday now.)
To visit my best friend in Western Australia (although they’ve both got a spell in her granny annexe planned.)
Cota Rica, Korea and Japan as they are all on my ‘to do’ list. DC both really want to go to Japan and Korea.
The Caribbean. I’ve never been. Would love to hire a car and explore.

DD and I are planning island hopping in Greece next year to celebrate the end of her exams. Can’t wait for that.

Im not sure we have time or money for all of those trips but it’s nice to dream!

Costa Rica was really great with teens

Peru was also amazing, loads of teen activities and the Inca trail was worth it even for just the full day hike.

A safari, we went to Tanzania, but Botswana would be amazing. My kids loved it.

Ive been to Japan, and China and feel they are culturally the most different and so Japan has to be up there.

Oh it’s a big world!!

My next big trip that I’m going to book is Brazil.

My home
Australia
Pacific Islands
Iceland
Switzerland
France
Japan

we've had a shit 10years of hardly any travel, not the life we planned. Have a lot of catching up to do and running out of time. Oldest will be off to uni next year but I’ve said they’re obviously included in holidays for as long as they want.

Definitely a Safari.

The Kruger is my heart home.

Canada. We have been but want to do more. Would also like to get them to some cities as not really done that yet, Rome, Paris etc.

Peru & Galapagos
Borneo
Botswana
Malaysia

Great idea for a thread. We’ve done California with teen OP, it was amazing. On my list (though with exams every year for the next few years were limited to the summer holidays and for some of these it wouldn’t be the best time to go) but

• interrailing round Europe
• Japan
• a south east Asia multi stop trip
• Canada
• New Zealand
• Costa Rica

Only got a couple of years till Uni though so we don’t have the time or funds to do all of those!

We took ours to Ecuador and Galápagos Islands. Wonderful. They also really enjoyed Peru. @LaSourciereEfrontee Regardjmg the Caribbean, ours loved being on the yacht we hired in the BVIs . You cannot drive around the BVIs. They are sailing paradise and nowhere is very far. Afterwards we stayed in a villa on Virgin Gorda. DDs also liked cities, eg Berlin. We tended to link in school history or geography. We also went to Ecuadorian rainforest. Great lodges there. We took them on safari to Kenya and Tanzania plus a great trip to South Africa. I’d recommend all of these.

There are some amazing ideas on here!

Twi trips mentioned that we have recently done are Canada and Inter-railing.

DS and I inter railed for two weeks in Central Europe and loved it. He was only 12 but we had so much fun. Very easy and a real adventure for him. We visited Berlin this year which he also loved.

Our family holiday was to western Canada this year. Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Rockies. It was amazing. Perfect for their age with so much to see and do.

We did the US this year for this reason. Nightmare holiday. Holidays of a lifetime honestly put so much pressure on!

If we’re pretending money is no object, my two are the same age and I’d love to do:

greek island hopping
the west highland way hiking (with a service that takes your luggage ahead)
Rwanda
Japan again but also incorporate South Korea and Taiwan
Christmas in Thailand
Costa Rica
Christmas market in Strasbourg
Malawai
More of Italy

My two eldest are 21 and 24 now. I so wish we had discovered Thailand as a family together. We visited with DD ( age 10) for the first time this year and loved it. I would have loved to experience it with my two eldest

This summer I made a spreadsheet mapping out all the holidays from now until dd is 17, to work out how many “slots” we have to take fabulous holidays! I have to factor in a younger sibling and try and work out which trips they will be old enough for.

My “definitely” list contains:

• Florida
• hiking in the Peak District or Pembrokeshire
• Ireland - to capture the best of the coastal landscapes and the Galway arts festival
• Japan
• Costa Rica
• New York girls trip
• A summer mountains activity trip - probably Alps rather than Rockies

And my “maybe” list includes:

• Lubljana and Lake Bled
• multi-centre holiday in Scandinavia, but can’t decide exactly what
• Edinburgh fringe festival
• long weekend in York (probably to coincide with visiting the university)
• Cornish coast, for surfing

We have taken our teens ( my eldest is an adult but still comes with us )

California, South West National parks
Yosemite National park
Florida, New York, Chicago

Canada - Banff , Rockies and Vancouver Island

South India - family there so we go every year, much nicer and safer than the North. You can combine this with Goa / Sri Lanka but we haven't been to these places.

Crete, Morocco - perfect for October half term.

Egypt/ Jordan - not sure about the situation in Jordan now though.

One of our favourite is USA, the national parks are amazing, I am not a fan of US cities but the national parks are superb.

Iceland is incredible, it's like another planet!

DH and I have had the same thoughts - and decided after an amazing trip to New Zealand with our 3 DC that we really wanted to do more extended travel with them.

Then Covid happened and job changes so we've been a bit limited, and we now have GCSEs etc coming up to work around, but top of our list currently are:

• Vietnam (and Cambodia)
• Thailand and Malaysia
• Japan
• Safari
• West Coast USA

Our best holidays so far have been the Bahamas and the west coast of the US and Canada , also Montana is amazing if they like outdoor activities.

We only have about 6 or 7 years left of family holidays and I’ve thought a bit about what I’d love to do if possible:

Thailand (I’ve been twice and love it there), also possibly Cambodia / Laos)
Japan
Croatia
Costa Rica (though I think that may be wishful thinking)
The Bahamas (again!)
Florida
Greece / Greek Islands
New Zealand ( that’s where DH wants to go but I’m not totally sold on it)

We went to Mexico last October (DD off to Uni this year and DS turning 16).
We DID do AI which I know is not how a lot of people would do Mexico but we did quite a few trips organised independently with a guide so visited Tuluum, an exotic animal sanctuary, swam with turtles, did a gold cart trip round a tropical island, swam in a cenote rather than the Xcaret type stuff thats not really our thing. It was a good mix of adventure and chilling out which was needed after a stressful few months.
Kids absolutely loved it, DD is studying Zoology so we tried to do as much animal related stuff without going too off piste

My budget is clearly less than OP's. Covid got in the way and my DS (16) hasn't travelled as much as I would have liked but he has been with the school to:

Dusseldorf
France - Dunkirk beaches etc
Italy skiing
Slapton Sands

I've taken him skiing and to Portugal and the Channel Islands. I've got two years before he goes to Uni so planning city breaks to Copenhagen and Milan. And hopefully a holiday in Guadalupe.

We have family in Montreal so maybe there too.

Do you mind saying where you stayed? Hoping to do this trip next year

I took my two DS's (11&9) to Thailand, did all the excursions, Phi Phi, James Bond Island, Similian Islands, snorkelling island hopping etc) they absolutely loved it.
DH and I went safari in Kenya before we had the DCs but would absolutely put this as a priority before they fly the nest. Would also love to visit the USA national parks with them, Grand Canyon one of them.

@gaininginsight what time of year did you do Thailand? I was considering it for Easter but my friend who lives there says April is pretty unbearable these days so now thinking it may be better to chance the rains and go in summer.

Long haul we've done and loved with my tweens/teens
Costa Rica - just so much to see & do
Vietnam - the best food ever and not too hot at Easter
India - Goa and Central India for wildlife - so amazing seeing tigers in the wild

Considering more of central America, maybe Guatemala
Kenya
Thailand
Sri Lanka (I've been several times but kids haven't)
Laos/Cambodia
Peru

In Europe, love Greece, Croatia, Montenegro. Went to Austria & Germany this year - near Munich and Innsbruck - which was stunning.

Japan, Australia, Iceland

There are some amazing ideas on here and my list has become much longer.

Since Covid lockdowns ended, I’ve taken a short holiday with just me and each of the DC. They help to choose and plan where we go. This summer, DD15 and I went to Paris and DS13 and I visited Berlin.

We’ve already got next summer planned. Greek island hopping with DD and Iceland with DS. The Lonely Planets arrive today and I can wait to get planning.

I think far too much about holidays!

My dc loved Iceland ( though they went with the school )
We had a great road trip across the USA this summer.
I would also recommend Costa Rica.

But ironically what my teens most want to do is revisit resorts that they have been to before and visit family in other countries (we live in the USA).

So they are taking trips to see grandparents and we are going for Christmas to the same resort in Mexico we have been a few times before.

I would love to give our teens grand adventures before they leave home but they are actually seeking out familiarity and comfort.

Our kids are teens too and having had lots of quite simple holidays when they were younger, we're now in the process of visiting our family bucket list places, which is a lot of fun. We've been to Florida, California and Costa Rica so far. We're going to Japan next year and after that we'd like to go to Thailand and maybe South Africa. We try to do one big trip per year, but we're running out years, unless they still want to come with us once older one is at uni.