Last week, when Southwest came out with $49 one-way fares to Hawaii, I felt frantic, excited and hopeful. The lowest fares sold out within hours.
Admittedly, I felt a little envious of the people who could take advantage of these last-minute fares. I had to face the reality that my family just isn’t in the right travel season of our lives to jump on these types of spontaneous travel deals.
The First Season of Family Travel
For my family, our first season of family travel was stressful. We became a family in an unconventional way by adding three kids to our family in 3 ½ years. I became pregnant less than a year after adopting our second son.
Honestly, we were overwhelmed. We didn’t have any family members who lived close by to help us. We wanted to travel just for a change of scenery.
Our first trip as a family of five was to San Diego during January when my youngest was just three months old. We were bogged down with diapers, a double stroller, bottles and car seats.
We went on three Disney cruises during those early years just for the childcare. What a relief to put our kids in capable hands on the ship while we had a quiet 2-hour meal to ourselves!
The Second Season of Family Travel
When our youngest was about four years old, we entered our next season of travel. No more diapers, bottles or strollers! It seemed like that day would never come.
We took advantage of our newfound travel freedom. We conquered New York City, the Mall of America, Puerto Vallarta and Hawaii.
Our kids were tall enough to go on some roller coasters and zip lines. They could walk longer distances and make it through long dinners without meltdowns (some of the time). Hallelujah!
Our Current Season of Family Travel
Within the past year, we’ve gradually moved to a new season of family travel. And I have to admit, this season is hard, but in different ways.
Now that our kids are getting older, vacation time is one of the few times we have their undivided attention. Actually, even on vacation, their attention is not undivided. Friends and peers have become a much bigger part of their lives.
On our last Disney cruise, our 14-year-old and our 11-year-old spent the majority of their time in the tween and teen clubs. They had a total blast. But, we no longer felt the need to have an adults-only dinner since we didn’t see our kids that much on the cruise. Quite the opposite, actually. Dinner was the only time we saw them, and we had to protect that time. They wanted to eat in the clubs or on deck, but we had to beg them to come to the long family dinner in the main dining room.
When I told my oldest son about our summer travel plans, his first thought was, “How long are we going to be gone? When am I going to see my friends?” He thinks he will be missing out on important social events while we’re gone.
Our schedule has also become much more rigid now that our kids are older. We’ve pulled my oldest out of school for the last time (for our cruise this past January). We are officially tied to the school calendar with a high schooler and a competitive sport schedule. Our new window for traveling as a family of five is now narrowed down to Thanksgiving week, Christmas, spring break, and a sliver of summer that doesn’t conflict with school sport practice. We have almost zero travel flexibility.
Making Peace with our Current Travel Season
Because of where we are right now, we just don’t have the flexibility to jump on those $49 fare deals and make room in our schedule for a quick trip to Hawaii. My husband and I still can’t zoom away to the Caribbean by ourselves because we still don’t have family willing to watch our kids and they’re not old enough to stay home by themselves. And even though I constantly see photos of these spontaneous jet setters on social media, I know that’s not the norm for many families.
But, we are making adjustments to accommodate our season to still fit in enjoyable travel when we can. It means that if we want to cruise, we have to go during a peak week and try less expensive cruise lines. I need to rely on hotel points now more than ever to afford hotel stays during peak summer weeks. We might have more partial family vacations as schedule conflicts arise.
And it’s ok, because I know that this is just our current season and things will change. Down the road, our trips will evolve into college interview trips. Our kids will have the opportunity to travel with their high school or college classes. They will eventually move out, start their own families, and hopefully reunite to travel with us again. And yes, my husband and I will again have the flexibility to travel by ourselves.
So for now, I will just enjoy the current season. We are very lucky to be able to travel as much as we do, and we have a lot of good things in store.
How has your travel evolved as a family? Are you enjoying your current season of travel?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I am leaving the pre-school stage and currently in my first year of having to follow a school schedule. I had sticker price shock when I tried to book travel during Thanksgiving week. Wowza!!
Now I know what to expect and try to do my best in dealing with peak season prices…I plan ahead and make speculative booking. I already have 2020 school schedule so I’m now 365 days out from Spring Break 2020, and I booked hotels that far out. Whatever it takes to keep our travels under budget and such.
Everything is just a phase (even it’s a loooong one). I have 18 years of school schedule ahead of me.
@lea It’s good to plan ahead! I’ve got a tentative hotel booking for spring break 2020 already as well.
We do our big trips during Spring Break and Summer. My kids asked me if I could plan our trips around the concerts they want to go to….I laughed. Sorry, but if they don’t release the dates by the time I need to start booking travel, then too bad. They know it was a ridiculous request, but they had to try. We only have a few more years left where their schedules align so we need to take advantage of it. I try to avoid Thanksgiving & Christmas break for flights because I don’t want to deal with LAX.
I have hotels already booked for Spring 2020 but am waiting on flights. No one appears too excited about the itinerary, but I want to expose them to different parts of the country.
@Stephanie I’m with you, I also don’t like flying around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just too crazy at the airports everywhere. Where are you heading for spring break 2020? Maybe your kids will be more excited about it once they are there.
“Our new window for traveling as a family of five is now narrowed down to Thanksgiving week, Christmas, spring break, and a sliver of summer”
I feel your pain. Having a family of 5 makes it even harder. My wife is a teacher so we’re also tied to that schedule, plus in our area Thanksgiving break is just Wed-Sun. To make matters worse, this year and next her spring break and our kids’ don’t line up (different districts)!
I hate hearing about shoulder season deals… we’re locked into peak pricing no matter what! There are still reasonable options to be found though. Last spring break we sailed with RCL on a 6-night Caribbean cruise. Two interior staterooms for $3,100, including all taxes and fees. Not cheap, but given the peak travel season it was a good deal. This past Christmas we booked a last minute trip to Orlando, CLE-MCO tickets were $240 RT (used a combination of UR and WN miles to take care of that). Ended up staying at an Embassy Suites for 40k Hilton points a night, getting a value of 0.9 cents per point!
@projectx That stinks about the spring break weeks not lining up. But it sounds like you got a great deal on a cruise last year! It is hard to hear about all of those great shoulder season deals that we can’t jump on.
HI, We are trapped between two seasons right now – college and high school. Of course, spring break does not line up with high school break. It’s tough finding the time to get away with the kids now that they are older but so rewarding when you do get to vacation together. Eventually, your kids will decide that they prefer to leave their friends for a trip with you if they don’t have to pay for it. ROFL! Happy travels!
@Michelle I’m not looking forward to the day when my kids’ spring breaks don’t line up! That must be tough.