Help choosing a holiday please for 2 adults and a grumpy 13 year old

[Jopo12]

The world is offering me too much choice for a holiday and I have no idea where to start!
There are 3 of us: Me, DH and DS, who is an extremely grumpy 13 year old who hates everything.

I prefer to go in the summer, but last couple of weeks of October also ok.

I would like there to be plenty to do beyond sun/sea/sand/pool, in fact a beach isn't important. If it's somewhere hot though I do like a pool.

I wouldn't mind somewhere with a guided tour - Safari or other place interesting to teens. (He likes animals and computer games, and vaguely interested in history, and that's it)

Thanks for any ideas!

Italy was my first thought - Rome?

I would love to. DH says no to Italy. He can't tell me why. He has been before, before he met me, I have no idea why he is so averse to it.

Japan has a huge amount to interest teens and the last two weeks of October is a good time to visit.

You won’t run out of things to do. The main challenge in two weeks is trying to narrow it down and accept that you won’t see all the cool and interesting things that you’d like to.

Honestly, I'd advise putting it off for five years or so - you'll have a much better time

Sorry, put what off? Japan? Safari?

Are you active? Do you like culture? What’s your budget? My teens have loved mountain holidays, summer as well as winter, city breaks (Berlin top choice), sailing in the Med - best holiday was when we went with another family. Any chance you could do that? Go away with friends that is, not necessarily sailing.

I'm looking at some Trailfinders family tours - Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan....
Not sure how DS would handle the long journey - any tips or experience?

Our 14 yo enjoyed Hamburg and Berlin in October.

Could you go with other people (family or friends) so your teen has a companion.
I used to find it really boring just going with my folks, as I had no siblings. It was very intense. Basically me and a married couple.

I think @MeganM3 has nailed it. I think your DS probably needs a companion of similar age. At that age, we always borrowed DS's close friend to come along. They shared a room, and we were on a ferry so no extra cost involved. It made everything go better. The extra cost of food and admissions was well worth it.

What about a cruise?

Normally I would suggest California road trip but depends on how you feel going to US at the moment

The whole holiday. One grumpy teen can render the whole thing very un-fun, and make you wish you'd saved your money

Get him to come up with ideas. We did it after a fairly disasterous Greek holiday.

Now DD looks at things she likes to do and comes up with a destination. We then compromise if it is not something DH and I really want to do but in general we have a lot more fun and a relaxing holiday.

A friend wouldn't work for us, DD is ND and too set in her ways, it works having a friend over for a day or two but not a week or two.

Maybe think of short distance or a city break first before blowing a small fortune on a long haul trip.

Ask DS where he would like to go for a holiday. Part of grumpiness is having zero control over it. I like the idea of bringing a friend. If you can that would be great. If you do, be sure that the friend’s parents have gotten the right paperwork done to authorise you to take their child out of the country. Otherwise, you may be stopped while they verify you’re not kidnapping/human traffickers.

I did a sheet of ideas, like mountains/sea/city/lake and asked ds to pick two. That helped to narrow the choices down. But I agree ++ about borrowing a friend.

I’m not sure I’d risk a long haul / expensive destination right now if he is generally quite grumpy - you’ll feel pretty fed up if you’re trying to please him by going to an amazing destination and he doesn’t appear to enjoy it much, or appreciate it. Maybe a safer bet is to do a couple of European cities and Centerparcs in France or the Netherlands where there are lots of activities plus some great theme parks and water parks in Germany and France if he likes that sort of thing.

Maybe Canada? Fly to Vancouver, a few days in the city, go to the rockies, white water rafting etc. Get the ferry for a few nights on Vancouver island and whale watching.

Or perhaps Uganda? Chimp trekking, mountain gorilla trekking, Safaris, see murchison falls etc.

Or closer to home go to Southern Spain, Seville, Granada and the Alhambra, Cordoba, go to Donna national park and see if you can spot an Iberian lynx

100% yes. We’ve done them with teens. Absolutely brilliant. Perfect holiday as the kids have company and so do the adults. Couldn’t recommend them more. They tend to be far less grumpy and very little time to complain of boredom

Thailand.

Another one who took a teen to Berlin, plus Prague and Vienna.

Took her to a great adventure park in Berlin plus zoo, same in Vienna and persuaded her just to look around in Prague.

In my experience of teens wherever you go, they often sulk all the way through the experience (because they are not able to communicate they are actually lonely/worried/whatever else) and you feel you have wasted your precious time off and money. Then they tell their friends how amazing it was and years later they tell you it was their best experience ever. Probably because you had a foreign McDonald’s or they liked the crisps or something.

This is no help with choosing a destination but good luck whatever you do. My adult son is now working his way through taking his girlfriend to everywhere he went as a teen and showed almost no sign of enjoying 😂

I think your Trailfinders ideas are perfect. My kids (now older) would have loved all of those. Just one thought… we booked (adult) holiday to Canada with them recently. All great but do check the added on trips/experiences. I didn’t look too closely and while one was good the other 2 weren’t really our thing.

I’d also recommend looking at Exodus for family trips - they have some great destinations.

When we lived in Copenhagen we used to in the summer get a lot of parents of teens doing the Denmark/sweden combo -usually using fantastic apartments it summer cabins ( of which they have a lot) - it wasa good mix of water based fun , plus cities , plus beaches too - it’s expensive to eat out and drink though if you want formal sit down meals and drinks in bars ( although in Copenhagen you can drink by harbours, parks, beach etc) hence why many had lovely apartments/chalets with cooking or BBQ facilities