It’s summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, which means it’s vacation time. I thought I would compile some of my best vacation posts for you to enjoy. We all have different ideas on what makes a great vacation, where to go, and how to get there. Whatever your vacation style, you will be able to have an awesome vacation with these 5 tips. Maybe not all apply to your situation, but you should be able to find something here that works for you.
Taking the Right Vacation
We don’t all like to vacation the same way. Some like to camp, others want to be pampered in a 5-star hotel. When it comes to your vacation time, it’s best to know what you like so you’ll actually enjoy your vacation. It’s not just about pleasing everyone else in your family, you deserve to enjoy your vacation too. Use these tips from Time to Take Your Vacation in order to make this a better experience for you.
Vacation the Right Way
Here’s another important tip about vacations, disconnecting. Oh, yeah, it’s the hardest thing to do in this age of always on. But an interesting thing happened this year when we took a cruise. We didn’t want to pay the higher fees to have data on the ship, so we ended up only using our phones as cameras. Even better? The world didn’t end because I wasn’t online trying to manage everyone into place. Check out How To Take A Vacation The Right Way for more tips on leaving work at the office.
Keep Everyone Entertained
Now, it’s easy just to pop in a movie or hand over a smartphone or a tablet and let the kids entertain themselves. But why? They probably already do that kind of thing at home. Why bring it on the road with you when you can play some simple car games that even young children can participate in. Even my husband and I enjoy playing car games to keep us entertained. In (Car) Games To Get You On The Road Again, I share 4 different games and variations that can be played by anyone aged 8 and up or can even be modified for younger children.
Save Money on Meals
Chris and I like to vacation in places that have kitchens. We use timeshares or hotel suites with kitchens. By having a kitchen, we’re able to save a lot of money on food. How To Save On Your Meals During Vacation details the kitchen boxes we create so we’re not wasting time or money buying kitchen staples. This really relieves post vacation stress when the credit card bills come in. Since we no longer eat out as much, they are much smaller.
For the Women
This one is for the women out there. 3 Solo Vacation Options for Women is a post that discusses travel options for women. This includes solo options or ideas of things to do with your girlfriends or your partner. These include getaways for skiing or hiking. There is also a link to one of my favorite women’s on-line travel magazines.
I hope that you’re able to find value in these vacation options. Now go and have a fun and safe vacation
Useful tips in here…I like the idea of having the option of cooking my meals when I’m away from home
It’s saved us a lot of money and lot of running around time.
Hi Jennifer! Hubby and I prefer to stay where we have a kitchen. It gives us the option of saving money if we want to stay in and fortunately both of us enjoy cooking. I also agree about disconnecting. It is so hard to these days especially if life me, you use your smartphone as your camera. I recently went on a cruise though and had 7 days internet free it was so wonderful and I felt free. Loved all of your tips and also the last one for the Women. Have a great week!
It was a cruise that did it for me too!
Great suggestions – especially about unplugging!
It’s always nice to click around your links and see the depth of your tips. Thank you!
Thanks Carol.
What a great collection of travel posts. Especially the post about women travelling solo with the link to Journeywoman. Thank you for sharing!
I often holiday in places where the wifi isn’t the best – and I don’t worry about it as wifi is not important to me on holiday – I always use my phone as a camera – nowadays the cameras in the phones are just as good, if not better, than some cameras. Great tips!
And the cameras in the phone are so much lighter than a real camera.
I remember playing games in the car—I think they are good for the imagination! And it’s good not to be stimulated every second of every day, right??
🙂
Great tips Jennifer, and I like how you linked back to earlier posts, which I clicked on and read. Nice!
I was polishing up the post about the vacation meals to reshape on social media when I realized that I had several vacation posts that I could tie together. Thanks for poking around the links.
Wonderful tips! As a family of five, planning to bring most of our meals saves so much money!
Some of my best memories from childhood are taking day trips to a nearby game farm and my father would make fried chicken for our picnic basket. While other kids were eating baloney sandwiches, we were feasting on fried chicken that my father got up at 5am to make. It was the best.
Good tips! We always travel with some food, and actually way more than we can eat or use! It was tough when I went to Mexico for two weeks with only one bag weighing 22 lbs! Maybe I’ll start collecting more tips on travel ease but lighter!
The kitchen option is really the best thing going. I know you are on vacation and taking in the local cuisine is nice, but having a kitchen helps so much with lunch and breakfast.
So true, but I don’t want to waste too much money on local cuisine either. We save it for a couple of restaurants and then eat in the rest of the time.
We buy food to take or when we get there, too Jennifer, whether we have a kitchen or not. Then, we just splurge on a few meals out. Saves SO much money! And I agree, the whole idea is to unplug. We didn’t pay for data on our cruise either!
It’s amazing that a cruise ship is what cuts off the data. Even while hiking in the White mountains I could usually find a signal.
These are all great – we visit the in-laws a few times a year and we basically just relax. Our kids are 4 and 3, so a long vacation is a bit out of the way just yet, but I have pinned this post for when the time comes! 🙂
Visiting relatives. That’s all I did when my son was young. My SIL has a cabin on a lake in Maine and my ex FIL had a home in Florida.