We recognise that tours don’t just appeal to adults – kids love adventurous holidays too! Now you can go together, secure in the knowledge that all practicalities have been sorted by some of the most experienced travel professionals.
Best Family Travel Operators
Not Your Average Family Holiday…
Travel with the family can be hit or miss, especially when wanting to do something more than your average package resort holiday. Getting the transport and accommodation just right, and pleasing everyone in the family, can be difficult. Travel companies have now taken the stress out of holiday planning, and offer a special range of family adventure tours to popular destinations around the world.
Top Tips for a Great Family Holiday
What makes family tours so successful? Here are some important things to consider.
How to enjoy a successful tour?
Read the itinerary, description and information on the destinations that interest you very carefully. Make sure you’re really comfortable with the climate, or the activities such as hiking or four-wheel drive journeys. What’s most important is not that it’s going to be great for the kids, because they’re usually happy, but that the adults, who tend to be more set in their ways, are completely happy too. That’s what makes a great family holiday: happy mums and dads.
It doesn’t have to be mums and
Indeed not, many tour companies take single parents or grandparents or other guardians. There just have to be children of five years or over in the party.
How many in the group for each tour?
It can vary, anything from one family – and people sometimes love that, as it’s like a private tour – to a maximum of 16 people, which would normally be about four families.
How safe are tour for families?
Everywhere we cover is fully checked out and constantly appraised and reappraised by our adult tour groups, so the leaders and guides will be feeding back about any issues they’ve had. As will our passengers of course. Obviously for parents it’s essential that they feel secure with us when booking, so we go out of our way to make sure every aspect of the trip is safe and easy, with clean accommodation and well-maintained vehicles.
About the vehicles… how do you cope with the stress of kids on long journeys. Don’t they all wind each other up and get very bored?
Well, for a start we deliberately keep travelling time down to a minimum. As for getting bored, they usually end up teaming up with other kids in the group and have a brilliant time. And we also vary the means of transport as much as possible – four-wheel-drive, minibus, light planes, train, boat, tuk-tuk… Parents should bring some activities along for the kids, though. In fact, it’s best for each child to have their own day bag, with books, maybe binoculars for wildlife, and possibly a camera.
Is the accommodation on these trips is fairly basic?
No, not at all. We always stay in nice places – not the sort of establishment where children aren’t welcome, of course, but not scruffy travellers’ lodgings. We always aim to include places with swimming pools, good kids’ facilities and nice food. We do use some teahouses on Nepal treks, and we do some camping on African safaris. We don’t find children complain about that! And we usually stay for a couple of nights, which is more relaxing than moving on every day. Also, quite a lot of the time is free, which gives families the chance to do their own thing and explore entirely on their own. Most of them have a fantastic time doing that, either on their own or teaming up with another family for the day.
Where to Go?
You do need to do some background reading. I think most people will have some inkling in one direction or another… maybe wildlife, great cultures and civilisations, or maybe it’s a place your friends have been or you’ve been wowed by a TV documentary. But everywhere has its particular merits. The key thing is that all our family tours are to places that travel companies know really well and has great products in, and that our experience tells us will be appreciated by children as well as adults because of what they offer.
What about what’s included in the price? How much should people budget for all the extras?
Actually, they don’t usually need that much. Unless you’re going to do lots of shopping, or your taste in drinks is expensive. We include all the main excursions and other extras in the main brochure price.
Top Tips to Maximise a Trip for Children
• Don’t expect children to appreciate travel in the same way. Your lifelong dream might be to see the Great Wall of China, but they may be more interested in throwing rocks from the top of it.
• Introduce the local cuisine before you go away so it won’t be too new when they arrive, especially in Asia where rice, noodle and stir fry dishes may be the only option.
• Plan for a quick exit. In any show always sit by the door or aisle in case your little one decides to create a commotion.
• Fire their imagination. Show them movies, YouTube videos, pictures or books before the trip.
• Buy them a cheap camera so they can take their own photos, and a map so they can help plot your course.
• Turn the trip into a game by getting your children to spot different landmarks or collect different items so they are constantly on the look out.
• Ask your guide to teach the local games children play so yours can learn something new.
• Bring plenty of diversions for long journeys and down time back at the hotel.
• Buy the gear: travelling clothes, binoculars, travel journals and backpacks all help them appreciate that they are really doing something different.
• Bring some sweets from home for them to share with new friends and look out for local sweets and cakes for them to try.
Book your family adventure holiday today!