5 Tips for Planning Your Family Vacation

Five tips for planning a family vacation just doesn't sound like enough, does it? Well, truthfully, five tips is nowhere near enough. Through years of traveling with our kiddos, we have pretty well perfected the vacation planning process. We want to give you five simple tips to make planning your family vacation a little less stressful.

1. Prepare to Plan. It has been said that proper planning prevents poor performance, or something like that. Well, when it comes to planning your family vacation, preparing to plan is crucial. But, I can hear you now, "What do you mean 'prepare to plan'?" When we say prepare to plan, this is just finalizing certain details about what you are looking for in a trip. Some things that you should prepare for when you start planning are budget, length of vacation, goals for your vacation, and most importantly your flexibility in what you are looking for.
   
   For example, if you know you want to take a week long cruise to the Caribbean, you will not waste your time looking at camping trips to the Pacific Northwest. Knowing what you want out of your vacation will help you narrow the focus of your planning, thereby relieving stress. Likewise, knowing what your budget is for the vacation will help you focus in on trips that are attainable (which is more than you might think when you know where to look). Preparing to plan will help you more than you realize. When all you have is a few minutes here and there between work, school, sports, dinner, and bedtime wasting time looking at the wrong trips will only add to the stress level.
   
   

2. Share the Load. If you have someone in your life who enjoys planning trips, you're off the hook. That's an instant low-stress vacation. If you do not have someone in your life who enjoys planning trips, then you can always reach out to a travel advisor. That we love planning trips is one of the reasons we became travel advisors (but that is another blog post).
   
   Sharing the load is vital to the planning process. First of all, sharing the planning load with someone else will also help make sure that certain details are not missed. Another perk of sharing the load is that everyone feels like they have a voice, have something to look forward to on the trip, and have ownership of the vacation. This will help everyone on the trip make memories they will cherish for a lifetime, and memories are the best souvenirs.
   
   

3. Plan Early. One of the worst kept secrets in travel planning is that planning early saves you money. This is true, to an extent. More and more companies are going to dynamic pricing which, at it's base, changes the price of a trip the more you look search it without booking. So why mention planning early as a way to lower your stress level when planning your vacation?
   
   Take it from our personal experience, planning a family vacation last minute is the quintessential definition of stressful. So, planning early will give you time to plan every aspect of your vacation without feeling the stress of all your planning being last minute. One of the biggest benefits of planning early is financial. Trust us, financial stress goes hand-in-hand with family vacations, so planning early will allow you to take advantage of payment plans, flexible payment options, and gives you time before you have to make a large lump sum payment.
   
   

4. Plan With Precision. This is where the first three tips all tie together. If you prepare to plan, share the load, and plan early you will have no problem planning with precision. Planning with precision just means that you have done your research, you know what you want from your vacation, you know what your budget is, and you are now ready to pull the trigger and book your trip. This is another area where a travel advisor can be an invaluable resource.
   
   When you plan with precision you are going to be able to rest assured knowing that your upcoming trip is going to a memorable experience. This is the key to planning a low-stress vacation. Contrary to what some people believe, low-stress does not mean sedentary. Busy vacations can be as low-stress, in some cases, even more so than a less busy vacation. So plan with precision and enjoy the low-stress planning experience.
   
   

5. Travel Insurance. When all else fails, travel insurance is the fail safe way to have piece of mind when you travel. This is even more true when you are traveling with your kiddos. With the right travel insurance plan, you will be covered no matter what happens.
   
   We nearly had the opportunity to use some travel insurance. We were at the port, getting ready to board a cruise ship, and our youngest began sharing with everyone in the port what he had eaten for breakfast and lunch, and not in a cute way. Thankfully, we were able to board the ship and he was fine, but you never know what is going to happen when you travel, especially when you travel with children. That is why a good travel insurance plan can provide you the peace of mind of knowing your trip is protected.
   
   

These five tips are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to family travel planning, but if you follow these five tips you will experience much less stress as you plan your vacation. We are here to help you any way we can, every step of the way. Email us with any questions, we are always happy to help!

Connect With Us on Socials

Ready to Plan Your Dream Vacation?

Email us

book@cruisecrewfamily.com

© 2026 All rights reserved.

California SOT #: 2158353-50

Florida SOT #: ST44927