7 Unique Family Vacation Ideas to Add to Your Bucket List Adventures
These 7 family vacation ideas make great out-of-the-box ways to travel with family. They’re some of our favorite ways to see the best family vacation spots.
Carving out the time needed to travel with family is no easy task. School and work obligations, kids’ sports and activities, work around the house … the list goes on and on.
And as our little kids become big kids, the demands on their time (and ours) often seems to increase. More sports practices. Bigger school assignments. Longer lists of activities for them to participate in.
Ironically though, travel may be just what we need when life gets so busy that we can barely fit it in.
In fact, taking time to explore the best family vacation spots has more benefits than we might even imagine. All those commitments make it even more important that time we spend traveling with family is worth it though.
(Check out Huffington Post’s article on 7 reasons why travel is never wasted on young kids. Or Travel and Leisure’s article on why it’s so important to travel with kids.)
Sometimes, a week at your favorite beach spot checks that box. Sun, sand, surf …. what’s not to love?
Other times, an out-of-the-box travel experience is what your family needs. A unique family vacation idea that makes it totally worth it to jump all the travel hurdles. A family vacation idea that creates memories you’ll be talking about for years. Or that leaves you changed long after the suitcases are unpacked.
These are the top 7 experiences that did just that for our family. They’re some of our favorite, unique ways and places to travel with family.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll find one of the best family vacation ideas for your family in our list too.
Rent a sailboat and a captain for a multi-day family adventure to some of the best family vacation spots.
Many of the best tropical destinations are best accessed by boat. Sailing is a great way to explore a different island every day of your vacation. And it’s a unique way to travel with family.
Remember that reference to checking the vacation box by going to a favorite beach spot? This family vacation idea is a little like that on steroids.
It’s glamping, meets beach, meets a super unique way to get from point A to point B.
Camping out on a captained sailboat is a great way to explore a beach destination in a unique and fun way.
Your boat will be captioned by a … well… captain. And a first mate.
Most chartered catamarans and single-hull sailboats have 4 cabins. Your captain and first mate will take one while you’ll have access to the other 3. So the boat sleeps 6 comfortably in cabins. Many boats also have tables that convert to a bed for 1 or 2 in a pinch. There may also be an additional space onboard for a small child to sleep.
Your captain and first mate also serve as your chefs onboard. The usual arrangement is that they provide 2 meals a day, snacks, and drinks. The days are filled with a short sails and time on the islands you’ll be visiting.
Because you arrange a private charter for this family vacation idea, the length of the trip is up to you. We’ve chosen a 4-night stay most times we’ve sailed. It’s been the perfect amount of time to get the experience, without tiring of the tight living space. (It’s also a great way to make this adventure a bit more affordable.) Some families will enjoy longer sails though.
The Mediterranean, Seychelles, and Tahiti are a few exotic locations where multi-day, captioned sailboat charters are available.
But, one of the best family vacation spots for this adventure is a little closer to home for Americans. The British Virgin Islands make a perfect setting for sailing.
The BVI’s consist of 60 islands that are accessible via St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s easy to find an island that is practically all your own here. Or one that has the best beach shacks to hang out in. The clear blue waters offer snorkeling, swimming, and lots of other water activities.
Travel with family on the train.
Trains make getting to some of the best family vacation spots one of our favorite parts of the trip. You’ll see the countryside and explore in a whole different way.
Sometimes it’s all about the journey. And rail travel is one of the most fun ways our family has embraced that sentiment.
In the U.S., traveling by train means taking the Amtrak. Amtrak trains have various overnight routes, meaning your tip is synonymous with your first night’s lodging.
Booking a sleeper car is the best way to enjoy the train. And several sleeper train options are available. Bedrooms provide the most space of these options. Roomettes come with a lower price tag (and much less space).
All private room options come with a meal onboard and a private bathroom.
Whichever sleeper train option you choose, you’re sure to enjoy a unique and fun way to travel with family. We’ve done overnight trips to the New England area and to Chicago, as well as various shorter daytime train trips. It’s one of our favorite ways to travel.
Glamp in the best family vacation spots.
Glamping is our family’s way of seeing beautiful, natural destinations … and having awesome accommodations while we do it. It’s all the fun of camping, minus all the not-so-fun.
Glamping is one of the best family vacation ideas because it checks many of the same boxes as camping. But it does it with none of the inconveniences.
Unplugged vacation? Check. Beautiful surroundings? Check. Fun activities? You guessed it - check.
Glamping means you’ll be camping in style.
Glamping experiences differ according to location and outfitter. But as the name implies, there tends to be less “roughing it” and more “luxing it”. Think things like beds with plush bedding, tents already set up for you, real bathrooms, and often even gourmet food.
Accommodations ranging from yurts to tents to campers that are set up for you all fall under the glamping umbrella. And how far you’ll be going “back to nature” varies as well.
We chose Acadia National Park and Yellowstone National Park as the places for our glamping adventures. But most national parks and spots with lots of natural beauty make a great locations for this family vacation idea.
Do one of the most popular family vacation ideas - Disney … with a twist
Walt Disney World is our first love, maybe partially because no two trips there are exactly alike. We love these unique ways to visit not just the theme parks, but other destinations with a whole new spin.
Walt Disney World and Disneyland consistently rank as one of the most visited tourist spots in America.
So including Disney on a unique family vacation ideas list might seem to be a bit of a stretch.
But, “doing Disney” differently has been one of the most unique and fun adventures our family has taken.
Booking club level rooms or staying at the Four Seasons Orlando is one way to make a Disney trip extra special.
Adding private tours and themed restaurant reservations is another. In fact, Walt Disney World’s enchanting extras offerings is a whole list of ways to add something special to your visit. Our favorites have been the Behind the Seeds tour, teatime at the Grand Floridian, and private catamaran firework tours.
We’ve even made Walt Disney World trips unique by scheduling non-park trips. (My friends swore there would be mutiny among my children. But, there’s so much to do at the Disney resorts that it was a huge success.)
But Disney doesn’t just mean parks anymore (or even cruises, although those are great too.)
One of the most unique and fun family vacation ideas is a trip with Adventures By Disney. The small(ish) group tours are offered to some of the best family vacation spots throughout the world.
Costa Rica was the destination for our adventure and we found it to be a true travel-and-learn experience. Planned excursions hosted by two tour guides provided a culturally rich trip. Activities ranged from rafting to mixology classes to hot spring visits (and lots in between).
We got to see parts of the country we wouldn’t have otherwise necessarily known about on our first visit. All of the hassle was taken out of planning since it was done for us. And we were able to meet both locals as well as other families who traveled with us.
Explore the best family vacation spots in a staffed house.
The best family vacations travel experiences for us have always been about the people we meet. This unique way to see a great destination is no different.
You’re probably already familiar with AirBNB and VRBO. Renting a vacation home is a popular alternative to a hotel stay in many of the best family vacation spots.
But did you know you can rent a home with a staff for a unique family vacation idea?
Vacation home rentals come with some pluses over hotel stays. Extra space, more privacy, a space to cook meals, and access to a washer and dryer are a few.
Yet grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry can be just the things you needed a vacation from in the first place.
Renting a staffed vacation home is a combo of the best parts of staying in a house and a resort.
We rented a staffed house in Jamaica and it was truly one of the best family vacation ideas for us. We were able to get to know the staff really well and learned so much about Jamaican culture. We actually still stay in touch with the staff from our house. They became like family over the week that we spent with them.
We also spent more quality time with our kids because someone else was doing all the work throughout the week. It was a true vacation from all the things that require so much of our time.
VRBO and AirBNB are two options for finding a staffed vacation home. And the Plum Guide is another choice for finding curated vacation homes. Fully staffed or chef-only options are available at all 3 online booking sites.
Our personal choice for this was Luxe Grand Villa in Jamaica, which we found on AirBNB. Ask for BJ, Prince, and Christina!
Travel with family and give back at the same time.
Never before have there been so many ways to give back while traveling. From mission trips to purpose-driven travel planning, the opportunities are plentiful. After all, travel is learning. And this might just be one of the most important lessons of all.
One of the greatest lessons to be learned from travel is that we’re all way more alike than different. And there’s no better way to learn that than on a service-minded trip.
Mission trips are one way to travel and give back. Our mission trip to Guatemala was an experience I believe still shapes us today, even though it was years ago.
But it’s important to choose a mission trip organization that does more help this harm. (A few clues are - do they emphasize volunteers learning instead of teaching? Are they run from those within the country? And do they prioritize those they’re aiming to serve over volunteers?)
Mission trips aren’t the only way travelers can give back while traveling though.
Some boutique travel agencies offer itineraries that are part vacation, part cultural immersion, and part charity. You have the opportunity to see organizations that are doing good within the country you’re visiting while you’re on vacation.
Travel on Purpose is one such organization that is doing just that. Trips support locals as well as causes important to the area. Vacations include a visit to a school, farm, or other service organization while exploring everything else the destination offers.
Go off-the-beaten-path to travel with family.
We’ve found that sometimes the best family vacation spots aren’t where you might expect them. Finding a unique destination has been one of our family’s most fun ways to travel.
It’s no secret that some of the best family vacation spots are ones that are a little harder to find. They’re places that may not be so touristy or that have a plethora of destination guides written about them.
It’s there that some of the most memorable “travel with family” memories can be made.
For us, one of those spots was Iceland. Although now the country has become a bit more popular with tourists, at the time that we traveled there, it was not quite as well known.
Although the secret is out about Iceland, there are still lots of off-the-beaten-path spots there. The world is full of places that are out-of-the-way but that make great family vacation ideas.
Small towns are one great example of this.
We often share stories about our visit to tiny Bramwell, West Virginia. Family roots took us there. But the trip was also about so much more than that. We loved the quaintness, the people we met, the outdoor activities, and the nature there as well.
We learned on that trip that small town travel can be big time fun. And it can really embody the notion that “travel is learning” .
My Global Viewpoint’s post found HERE offers a list of the best hidden vacation spots in the U.S. It’s a good place to start for the off-the-beaten path travel.
For great places to visit outside of big cities, check out My Town Travels. It’s a podcast dedicated to traveling to small towns.
