7 Reasons Travel with Teenagers is the Best Family Travel
1. Make Awesome Memories Together
As your little darlings get older, they spend more time with friends and less time with parents. It’s just the way things are. Trust me, I am attempting to accept this myself! While your teens may not realize it in the moment, the memories you make while experiencing new places, cultures, and people (the basics of traveling) will stick with them for many years to come. At some point, they will look back at these critical years and remember the “good times.” At least I hope so! They also will remember that you spent time with them bonding through family adventure travel.
2. Witness their First Experiences
Watching your kiddo experience something for the first time from their first Hawaiian Luau to their first seven day Cruise is an unbelievably awesome experience. Their eyes light up with excitement and it is all worth the cost and stress! Many parents ask how to deal with teenage attitude and particularly how to deal with teenage daughter attitude. My answer is always to focus on bonding with your teen. The best way to connect with your teenage child I have found is through family travel adventures. When teens are on vacation, they seem to let their guard down and connect more with the family.
3. Teach Them Life Lessons
I remember the first time I took my kiddo on a plane. My son was very nervous and also excited. In fact, he was so excited that he spilled his Starbucks everywhere at the airport terminal! I got to teach him all about airplane travel from where to put his carryon bag to when he can get out of his seat to go to the restroom. His questions never stopped (in a good way.) I felt like I was back in the classroom and it filled me with a sense of purpose and opportunity. You don’t want to miss the chance to help your teens navigate through experiences because there is always a lesson to be had. Moms teach, dads teach, we all teach children respect and about life all the time even if we don’t realize it.
4. They Bring Perspective and Excitement to Vacations
Teenagers look at the world differently than adults. They think some things are hilarious that you would just ignore (like the random weird ice-cream at a resort flavored like cheese.) Teens are also unpredictable so you are always on your toes. This can be annoying but mostly fun!
5. You Get to do Things you Wouldn’t Normally Do
Teenagers like teenagery (not a word yet but that’s okay) stuff. They want to go to dance parties on cruises, ride crazy fair rides, and go parasailing for example. When they get excited, ya gotta go for it and seize the opportunity, so you get to experience crazy fair rides too!
6. Get Them Outdoors and Active
They say “sitting is the new smoking” (whoever “they” are). This is especially true for teenagers. They love sitting around the house on their phones or tablets oblivious to the beautiful world outside. When traveling, they want to explore so are more motivated to go for a hike, swim, or ride bikes. Travel keeps them healthy and active. A bonus is that they also tend to get way less screen time.
7. Broaden their Perspectives
All kids know about the world is what they have been taught and seen. When you take them on family travel adventures, they learn that the world is much larger than they realized. It can be a humbling and lasting experience as they see how the world truly doesn’t revolve around their home town or themselves.)
Traveling with tweens and teens is a truly amazing experience that always ends up being an adventure! I hope you can focus on the good instead of worrying about what could go wrong. Let me know where you take your tribe next in the comments and please subscribe to this blog for freebies and family travel tips!
I have also found they will participate in things and do things they wouldn’t do if their friends were around. Things that aren’t cool in front of friends, become things that they love to do and want to do when on vacation. Our kids are still fairly young, but they tell us they never want to stop travelling with us.
Absolutely! They aren’t as worried about not looking “cool.” I hope our kids travel with us until we are old and gray!
Great points! We love traveling with our teens! Traveling makes such great memories!
I love traveling with my kids too! They add so much more adventure and really do get us to try more “new” things! I love this, and all of the memories that come along with it! Great blog post! Thank you 🙂
Thank you! i am glad it is helpful.
This is really reassuring! Our boys are 9 and 12, and we are trying to travel now because we’re worried they won’t want to later. But hopefully it will continue to be a part of our family’s life. Years ago I overheard a mom talking about the trip her family took to Prince Edward Island, Canada, a place I’ve wanted to go. She said it was horrible because her teenagers were complaining about being there the whole time – they missed their friends and their US phones didn’t work. It’s made me feel cautious about expectations for the future.
It’s all about how you spin the trip. I found that if you include what the teens want to do, it basically invalidates their complaints. Also, depending on if you want kids to have cell service or not, almost all providers offer international plan extensions. I have used this as an incentive for good behavior 🙂
We have always taken our kids traveling with us. Now that they’re 13 and (almost) 16, I think it’s even more fun. They can do a lot of things littles can’t do (like ride any amusement park ride, ride zip lines, and carry their own stuff), and it’s so great seeing the world through their maturing eyes.
Yeah! I would love to learn more about your successful teen travel. I also love that I don’t have to carry all the jackets in my Marry Poppins purse.
I love this! As a mom of a teenager, I couldn’t wait until my daughter was old enough to fully experience traveling with us. The appreciation of the experience is on a whole different level. And being there to see them do something new for the first time is something I will never get tired of. Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you! I love that they will (hopefully) remember the trips more than when kids are little.
Oh! GREAT reasons! And the way you write is beautiful. I like the spirit of love that the whole post is shining with.
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Thank you, I’ll check out your blog!
This is totally what we need for our kids. They get so bored and then just want to be on their gaming devices. I can’t wait to put this into practice. Kids these days need these experiences. Thanks for this. It has lit a fire in me to do more of this type of stuff with my kids.
I am so glad you are getting motivated! Screens can be so addicting but they don’t compare to traveling especially if there is excitement involved (I’m thinking zip line!)
I love the thought of opening their perspective! Seeing other cultures and how things are different in other countries is eye opening!
Perspective is so important. Sometimes it takes awhile for teens to get that but when they do, it is magical.
Yes! Yes! and Yes! I travel with my boys and we’ve had some of the most amazing adventures together.
Love this post. My kiddos are 22 and 18 and we love our time together. Gotta do it while we can! 🙂
Absolutely, thank you!
I love the ‘teenagery’ it’s a thing! As a travel writer for those with kids this warms my heart. It’s so much fun to travel with kids at all different ages and thank you for putting this out there. I love it and the photos! I can’t wait as my kids get older to experience it through their eyes.
Thank you! I am glad to have a fellow traveling mom as a supporter. I just subscribed to your blog. It looks right up my alley!