Activities

How Children Are Influencing Family Travel Choices

Published

7 months ago

June 5, 2024

Original Travel – the go-to operator for family travel – is finding that children have more of a say than ever in family holidays, whether that’s because they have their own strong ideas about where they want to go and what they want to do, or because the parents are keener to involve them in the planning process; that way, they are more engaged in the experience while away and far less likely to complain!

It’s a step in the right direction, according to Original Travel’s Co-founder, Conde Nast Traveler’s Family Specialist and father of four, Tom Barber who says: ‘No-one knows what makes a family holiday work better than the children themselves, so it makes sense to involve them from the off and really incorporate their ideas. Within reason!’

What are the benefits of children influencing family travel choices?

For parents, it gives a valuable insight into what’s important to their children (more vital than ever when they become teenagers and start to clam up) and once away, it feels much more of a shared experience, which in turn is much more conducive to quality, bonding time. Holidays are also simply more enjoyable when the children are having fun. Happy kids, happy life.

Offer to take your children somewhere they have been studying at school and you can really encourage a love of learning – studying the Egyptians or Romans seems a lot more fascinating when you’ve visited the Pyramids or stood in the Colosseum in real life.

For children, the benefit of letting them lead is that they are far more engaged and enthused about the trip. As they get older, they start to really relish the responsibility, plus it offers an opportunity to assert their opinions and beliefs, have some autonomy and to be taken seriously.

Top tips on planning a holiday with your children

To start with, give them ownership of one particular day on a holiday itinerary and say they can decide what to do with it. It works kind of like a ‘Yes Day’ (just be prepared to eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner) and means the parents don’t have to hand over total control.

If they’re not forthcoming with ideas, just plan a little something that you know they will love – tickets to a football match, dinner at the hottest restaurant on TikTok or something daring like ziplining – to give them a flavour of how they can start to have more of a say in what happens.

Seed the idea by exposing them to particular films or books that will inspire their wanderlust. If you fancy a family trip to Japan or Norway, pop on a Studio Ghibli film or buy the Phillip Pullman trilogy and soon the whole family will be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Agree one new activity for you all to try. If it’s new to all, that can be a great leveller and an opportunity to rid the dynamic of any pre-existing hierarchy.

Whether you’re already part of the family travel revolution or would like to be, we want to hear from you. Please take five minutes to answer the following survey: