I come from a long lineage of Road Warriors. Seriously, my parents were masters of the family road trip. I don't think we ever flew anywhere as a family when I was a kid. We drove EVERYWHERE and we liked it. Well, I think we did. I'on really remember.
However, when it comes to planning a vacation, getaway, excursion, I am the Princess of Experience.
I learned from the best. No have no doubt you will learn, enjoy and have the trip of a lifetime when you travel with moi. Over the years, I've had some fab trips, some GREAT trips but this year, my Spring Break trip was among my worst ever. I had to figure out just what went wrong. I mean, I planned...I mapped...I did all those things I typically do but something went wrong...terribly wrong. After reviewing my typical traveling tips, I figured it out. My middle son had another place he wanted to be and it definitely wasn't on the road with his family so he made every attempt to not enjoy the annual family Spring break vacay. Success. You know how we're always saying "Don't make me turn this car around"? Well, 16 hours into our Spring break, I did exactly that. I turned the car around and headed right back home. We made the best of what was left of our vacation by doing all those things we typically do on road trips but had a little more time to do them.
Here are my 10 tips for family road trips and hope these will help you and your family as you hit the highways and bi-ways on your next road trip.10. Brake for brown signs. When you see a brown sign there's an adventure in the making. STOP. 9. Support a local grower and stop at that little roadside market. 8. Take pictures and SHARE them. Don't take a ton of fab photos only to keep them on your memory card for eternity. Note to self: Print pics from hubby's Hawaiian vacation. 7. Visit the local grocery store. There are some unique local favorites to be found at the grocery store. 6. Explore a cemetery. Find out who's buried where and learn a little history along the way. Macabre? Perhaps, but so much fun. 5. Buy STAMPS and postcards. Send a postcard. Keep a postcard. We send postcards to our home address and to loved ones and keep one for our family photo album. I plan to use the postcards in our family photo album for the day when my kids tell me we never went anywhere fun. 4. Buy a newspaper. 3. Visit a museum. Any museum. There's ALWAYS something interesting and most museums are FREE. 2. Do something you've never done before. I never thought I'd like ziplining. I love it. I never thought I'd like crabbing. I love it. I never thought, well you get the picture. It's vacation. Do something different.
1. It's ALWAYS great to return home and sleep in your own bed and dream of where you'll travel next time.