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My husband and I have taken our kids on vacation to a variety of destinations: Disney parks, cruises, countries down under, beaches, resorts, road trips, etc. I don’t feel that there are many (if any) places that kids do not belong or should not get to experience.
But, as a family of five, there are some trips that just are not that practical for our entire bunch. Whether it’s due to the cost or the complexity of school schedules, we are saving some vacations to take as a couple without our kids once they are grown and flown.
European River Cruise
My parents sailed on two European river cruises, and this type of cruise has been on my bucket list for a while. These cruises are scenic and port intensive and seem like a great way to see parts of Europe.
Unfortunately, these river cruises are much more expensive than Caribbean cruises on large cruise ships. Also, each cabin only sleeps two people, so my family would need three cabins. Aside from the price, I don’t think my kids would really appreciate this type of cruise until they are older anyway.
Panama Canal Cruise
I’ve always wanted to sail through the Panama Canal. Of course our kids would love it too, but the timing doesn’t work with school schedules. The big cruise lines usually sail in the spring and fall, and the cruises are 2 weeks long.
We may go on a land trip to Panama and sail partway through the canal on a smaller boat. But, I’d still like to cruise through the entire canal someday.
Greece
My husband and I had plans to visit Greece early in our marriage before we had kids. Then, our busy work schedules got in the way, plus we added relatives to the trip and our plans changed entirely. Greece is the biggest trip I regret not taking. In retrospect, we should have pushed harder to make this trip happen before kids.
We both still really want to go to Greece. Why are we waiting until our kids are grown and flown to go? The main reason is that we just don’t think we will have time to squeeze it in before my oldest goes off to college. Plus, the islands look like a romantic getaway, and I’d love to slow down to a pace that just might not be possible with our kids.
Are there trips you are saving until after your kids are grown and flown?
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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.
Don’t worry about school schedules. It’s more important that kids enjoy their time with parents when young and have nice experiences. Given the leftist curriculum in many schools today, you might be doing your children a favor by pulling them out of school for 10 days or permanently
@Jackson We’ve pulled out kids out of school many times for trips when they were younger. But now that my oldest is in high school, we’ve chosen not to.
Nice article. We waited until our kids were old enough to enjoy and remember a trip to take them to Hawaii. Now, we are waiting for our 4 year old granddaughters (cousins) to be old enough to go on Safari in South Africa.
River Cruise – First, I am not a cruise person. If you are looking for a way to see the sights without the costs of the expensive River Cruises, rivers, like the middle Rhine, typically have local boats that allow hop-on/hop-off or are simply relatively cheap between the scenic, historic, fairytale towns and castles. On the middle Rhine, we used a 13 hour layover in Frankfort and the KD line (https://www.kdrhine.com/kdrhineMainz.htm) to go from Mainz to St. Goar for under $50USD where we had a lovely afternoon, before taking a train back to the airport. We saw like 30 castles and other features of the area. We passed several river cruise ships. There were many many possible stops and the line went to Koblenz. I could see us going back and booking local hotels in several of those towns to explore further. That would be my choice over a river cruise – and it would likely be significantly less expensive and perhaps more accessible to kids.
@Mary That is a great idea about the hop-on/hop-off river cruise! A safari in Africa also sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to travel again!