Our Amazeballs Guide To Better Family Travel
- Updated: 07/11/2024
Admittedly, I am a crazy person with how I research and plan trips for two reasons – one high and one low.
One is due to an irrepressible desire to learn. And not just to learn fancy adjectives – which I do appreciate – but to gain a greater understanding of the world and its people.
I know there is more out there beyond my quiet corner. I am hungry to understand it and embrace the shifts in perspective, the humbling of assumptions, and ultimately the growth in wisdom – that comes with better understanding.
Ten Essential Topics For Planning Better Family Travel
- Why I Love Trip Wishlists for Travel Planning
- How to Organize All of Your Travel Research
- For the Love of Guidebooks
- The Highest Form of Flattery: Borrow an Itinerary
- Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Travel Tips for Smoother Transit
- How to Find Just-Right Accommodation in Five Steps.
- What To Do Once You Are There: Finding the Best Activities (Coming Soon)
- Why Crowdsourcing Travel Recommendations is a Great Idea (Coming Soon)
- Hiking, Biking, and Bringing the Dog: Top Resources (Coming Soon)
- Why Travel Learning Rules: Before, During, and After the Trip (Coming Soon)
Travel – which I have loved since the age of 9 when my family took our first trip to mountains, and I had my flat-land midwestern kid mind blown – is my preferred way to learn.
When I leave home and get out of my comfort zone by immersing myself - and my obliging family - in a place, the learning begins, and we all benefit.
Whether it is a driving trip to a national park with an opportunity to explore natural science and native history, or a multi-country hop requiring a passport and language prep, few things provide more fertile territory for knowledge to take root and grow than travel.
When I leave home and get out of my comfort zone by immersing myself – and my obliging family – in a place, the learning begins, and we all benefit.
The second reason why the way I research and plan trips is not typical – is due to my overly-developed sense of FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. It comes from a desire to know I’m not wasting precious travel moments on a mediocre tour or an underwhelming museum.
To know with absolute and undeniable certainty that sitting and sipping espresso in a chic Parisian cafe is unquestionably THE perfect way to spend my time and soak up the culture.
To have an ‘A’ trip, be an ‘A’ student.
Not long ago, I came across this quote from travel industry icon and guidebook author Rick Steves, in his Ireland guidebook, and felt justified in my trip research nerdiness, “To have an ‘A’ trip, be an ‘A’ student.”
It was a perfect reminder and professional stamp of approval that all the pre-trip planning I like to do makes sense. Because like Rick, I believe research and travel preparation key to making a good trip an extraordinary one.
Like Rick, I believe research and travel preparation key to making a good trip an extraordinary one.
So, join me as I dip into my years of experience traveling the world as I’ve roughed it pre-kids, and gone softer after the kids came, and put my dogged type-A research skills to work.
I’ve broken down my most useful tips, tricks, and resources into ten essential topics, listed above, designed to help you cut through the clutter and noise and plan better and more transformative travel experiences for yourself and your family.
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Welcome to Gather and Go Travel, a blog inspiring families, adult friends, and couples to explore US and international destinations and to get outdoors. I am Janice, a world traveler to 50+ countries, a travel writer/blogger, and a book lover. Learn more about me, read our story, and how to work with me. Get my latest updates, how-tos, and trip ideas in my monthly Discovery Newsletter.
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