Where would you suggest?

[Liziz]

Anyone want to dream vacation destinations with me? My ILs are trying to plan a family vacation and have asked all the adult members of the family to contribute 3 location suggestions, which they're going to use to pick a place to go. I'd love help with my list! Here's the relevant info...

• ILs are paying for the trip, and it doesn't seem like budget is a huge factor. (That being said, DH and I have never ever let someone pay for a trip (or anything more than dinner!) for us, ever, and we're struggling a bit with such generosity....so I'm not going to be suggesting $$$$$ resorts.) They've told us the only limiting factor for our suggestions is the distance we're willing to fly with our kids.
• Trip will likely take place in 2024, time of year is still up in the air
• Trip includes 2 healthy/agile grandparents, 4 adults (2 married couples) and 4 kids who will range from around 2 -12 at the time)
• ILs idea is that all the families can go off during the day to do their own things, and then we'll see each other at dinner during the day - not that we'll all do everything together. That being said - I have the older children of this group and they both ADORE their little cousins, and have always chosen family time over any type of fun activity. The resorts with "kids camps" and lots of kid-only activities where they'd be separated from their cousins (due to age) hold little appeal, b/c the thing they're most excited about for this vacation is a lot of time with their family.
• I'm avoiding suggesting cruises of any sort b/c my DH is really uncomfortable with the idea
• Timeframe would be about a week

What would be your three suggestions???

[SnuggleBuggles]

I was going to suggest a cruise my good friend’s extended family did a European Disney cruise when the kids were your kids’ ages and it was their favorite trip ever across the board.


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[marinkitty]

Do people like being active or more relaxed? Do you want warm weather? Is international travel on the table?

[AnnieW625]

I was going to suggest a cruise my good friend’s extended family did a European Disney cruise when the kids were your kids’ ages and it was their favorite trip ever across the board.


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I would suggest a cruise too. Not sure if I would recommend Disney unless your parents are Disney fanatics. My grandma (now granted she was in her mid to late 80s when she told me this and stuck her ways) said that she had friends who took their family on a Disney Cruise and it was just too much Disney and everyone but the kids didn’t care for it much. A friend of mine who is married w/o kids and her Dh (who works for a Disney owned tv station) did the European cruise in 2019 and loved it so to each their own.

I have only ever cruised on Oceania (Baltics in 2019) and will be going again to Norway/Denmark/Scotland and ending in England in 2024. I will say that for my first cruise I liked the smaller boat (800 guests or so iirc), I liked that there was no dress code or themed dinners (although no Birkenstocks in the main dining room) and you didn’t need a timed reservation for each dinner or breakfast (except some specialty ones but there was no rush once you were seated to eat). The cruise definitely leaned older but it wasn’t a huge issue and while a second pool might have been nice everything was comfortable and it was easy to get around. If you have cruised before and are okay with a larger boat then go for it but for first timers (and I hope kids next year…..they will be 18 and 14 then will be okay with it) the smaller boat worked out just fine. There were a few kids on board who were between the age of 2-10 and they seemed to be well behaved and no one got annoyed with them (that I could tell) when they were in the pool or playing mini golf. My only advice is to not chose a smaller boat cruise for trips with a lot of days at sea and little kids as they might get bored.

Both trips have been paid for by my Grandma and she picked the destinations. All we had to pay for was excursions, meals off the boat, and souvenirs.


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[hillview]

Beaches Turks and Caicos would be my top suggestion

[mom2binsd]

I would think a week at lakehouse would be so fun with the kids being able to hang out, swim, go boating etc. The grandparents could still be involved but also take little excursions on their own. Friends of ours rented a place in Kentucky in the summer that was gorgeous. Or do a place like Table Rock Lake/Branson/Michigan. A beach vacation? Summer on the East Coast Carolina's? Beach vacation along Gulf of Mexico in Florida.

I'm in the no cruise camp and Disney is too much planning and not enough time to have that great cousin bonding time (and the crowds and cost seem insane to me).

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[nfceagles]

Rent a nice cabin in Pigeon Forge. We haven’t been, but when I looked into it you could find cabins with lots of entertainment, pool tables, hot tubs, game rooms, etc… Plus plenty of things to do during the day.

A lake house in the White Mountains of NH, especially the North Conway vicinity. Story Land, the Cog Railway, the summer ski resort activities.

A beach location seems an obvious 3rd option, but I’m not much of a beach person so I don’t know good choices.


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[Liziz]

I was going to suggest a cruise my good friend’s extended family did a European Disney cruise when the kids were your kids’ ages and it was their favorite trip ever across the board.
Baby Bargains

My DH's biggest reason to not want a cruise is that we don't do well on vacations spent in cramped spaces. We need to be able to have a space with two distinct rooms for sleeping, with a door that closes. We haven't ever been on a cruise, but my impression is that's pretty hard to come by (or suuuper crazy $$) -- I've looked at several cruises that offer "suites" but the actual sleeping area for everyone is almost always together. I know it sounds prissy to some people, but we've just found that we all get great sleep and have marvelous trips together, when we have our own rooms to sleep in (the DDs share a room and 1 for DH and I). Anytime we've tried to save money or space and share a room, it's miserable -- even if we all have our own beds, etc. If there are cruise lines I should look at that have reasonable actual suites/stateroom w/ more than one bedroom, I'd love suggestions!

Do people like being active or more relaxed? Do you want warm weather? Is international travel on the table?

I would say a mix of active and relaxed. My DDs love and do well on both types of trips. But when they're with their cousins, they'll happily spend an entire day just playing with them at our house, so I'd prefer a more relaxed trip in this case so there's time for that. International travel is definitely on the table. And no, weather doesn't need to be warm -- I was considering suggesting a ski vacation until I thought through the fact that won't work well for the other family with their much younger kids!

[SnuggleBuggles]

My DH's biggest reason to not want a cruise is that we don't do well on vacations spent in cramped spaces. We need to be able to have a space with two distinct rooms for sleeping, with a door that closes. We haven't ever been on a cruise, but my impression is that's pretty hard to come by (or suuuper crazy $$) -- I've looked at several cruises that offer "suites" but the actual sleeping area for everyone is almost always together. I know it sounds prissy to some people, but we've just found that we all get great sleep and have marvelous trips together, when we have our own rooms to sleep in (the DDs share a room and 1 for DH and I). Anytime we've tried to save money or space and share a room, it's miserable -- even if we all have our own beds, etc. If there are cruise lines I should look at that have reasonable actual suites/stateroom w/ more than one bedroom, I'd love suggestions!

My friends got more than 1 room. With 4 kids, they had to.

Agree with others with the lake or beach house. That's what our family does every year and we love it. I'm partial to the beach because I can sit on the beach all day very happily. I don't really like boating or swimming in lakes so I'm not as enthused about lake vacations (though we have certainly done a lot!). Wake up, sit on the beach, go inside for lunch (we discovered that oceanfront is worth the money!!), sit on the beach, have dinner and play board games together is my favorite way to vacation. We rented a house with an outdoor pool and that was oceanfront last year and it was great for the little kids when parents didn't feel like dealing with the whole sand issue/ production of going to the ocean.

[mmsmom]

I would suggest one of the nicer all inclusives in Cabo or Cancun, Mexico. I will always choose a hotel over renting a house because the house is all the usual work of home (though we do it often). If you want a house vs resort then I would look into the Caribbean where a lot of houses come with butlers/housekeepers/cooks so it is no work for anyone.