Taking the Kids™
Escaping the Holidays on Vacation
Forget about cooking for the family and washing their dishes. Skip sleeping on the lumpy sofa-bed in your sister-in-law's family room. Give up trying to entertain a bunch of squabbling, impossible-to-please kids.
But then they wouldn't be the holidays, you think. Sure they would—the best holidays ever—if you opt to make the gathering a bona fide vacation, even if only a long weekend at a nearby hotel.
Adults will be less stressed and better able to enjoy one another—especially if they've got their own rooms and on-the-spot playmates for their children.
These aren't huge reunions, but rather an average of seven people who want to spend time together and don't want to be responsible for housing, feeding and entertaining the bunch—especially when it comes to holidays.
Cruise lines, resorts, and even adventure outfitters report with friends and families so scattered and so stressed, the idea of a holiday getaway makes sense: Everyone has the same time off and expected to travel to be together. Here’s how to plan smart:
- Avoid the peak travel days like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years day. Even if the kids have to miss a day of school and you go back to work a day late, you’ll save money and won’t nearly be as stressed traveling.
- Book enough rooms (or condos) so that everyone has enough space (and bathrooms) to spread out and get away from one another when necessary. Have cousins bunk together if they’re close in age. (Book them an inside cabin across from yours on a cruiseship, for example, or see if the hotel is offering a deal for bookings on second rooms for the kids.)
- Have “the trip” be this year’s present: Suggest siblings refrain from gift-giving this year and give the kids’ smaller gifts, souvenirs purchased wherever you’re going.
- Plan a long weekend rather than an entire week. Stay at a city hotel and check out the city lights, after-holiday sales and local holiday performances. (Many hotels offer mid-week holiday packages; Check with the city convention and visitors bureau website) Book a four-day cruise.
- Don’t spring for expensive tickets to the Nutcracker or plan on Midnight Mass until you’ve gotten the gang’s OK. Maybe only some will opt to go. It’s not necessary for everyone to be in lockstep the entire trip.
- Get everyone’s take before you book on what they’d like to do—snorkel or snooze on the beach, snowboard or hit the spa, cruise or shop till they drop. Opt for a place where there will be plenty of activities for everybody, whether they’re two or 82—and some organized activities or babysitting so the adults get a break.
- Be upfront about costs, and who is paying for what long before you leave.
The best part: Nobody will argue over who's going to do the holiday dishes.
By: Eileen Ogintz
