Regardless of what your family looks like, you need to make a family travel bucket list. Let’s learn how together!
As I’m writing this, it’s the end of July and the summer travel season is winding down. Hopefully you were able to get out of town this summer and experience somewhere and something new with your family. We got to take a family vacation to San Diego that was absolutely fantastic. But even though our big summer travel is behind us for this year, it doesn’t mean we have stopped thinking about travel for the year. And you shouldn’t either! Now is a great time to get serious about your travel aspirations and make a family travel bucket list!
Why?
Why make a family travel bucket list? First off, it’s just a fun thing to do. Who doesn’t love dreaming about places you’d like to see, experiences you’d like to have, and food you’d like to eat? But, more practically, it’s a great idea to have a list you can work from so that you’re not starting from scratch every time a travel opportunity arises. If you’ve done the dreaming and the research about destinations your family wants to experience, you won’t be wasting precious time on those tasks when the rubber meets the road. You can just book the trip and start planning the itinerary!
Today, I’m walking you through how to make a family travel bucket list and sharing a bit of our current list (we’re always adding to it and reprioritizing, so this is just a snapshot). Before I begin, though, I want to clarify that today we are specifically talking about where you want to go with your entire family. We are leaving the adults-only locations off this list, but I highly recommend that you keep a separate list for kid-free travel destinations! Ready to make your family travel bucket list? I am!
How to Make a Family Travel Bucket List
Get everyone involved
Because this is a family travel bucket list we are making, we want to involve the whole family!
Brainstorming session
Make your family want to spend time making your family travel bucket list by scheduling a fun brainstorming session! Order some pizza, grab a tub of ice cream and the fixings for DIY sundaes, and have a picnic brainstorming session.
Travel shows
I love to watch travel shows. I was an OG devotee to the Travel Channel as a kid, grew up on Samantha Brown (she’s a great Instagram follow, by the way!), and now I love to pop travel YouTube videos on when I’m getting stuff done around the house. Travel shows are a great way to introduce yourself (and your kids) to possible destinations to add to your family travel bucket list. My son and I just finished watching Tucci in Italy on Disney+ and now we have several Italian destinations on our bucket list.
Books
I realized last year that kids’ books are a great way to introduce your kids to far flung destinations. My son was really into the Magic Tree House series of books last year. We read them all as fast as we could, and he absolutely ate them up. When it was time to plan this summer’s vacation, I asked my son where he might want to go, and he surprised me with several exotic locations straight out of Jack and Annie’s travels. I was expecting Disney World, and was very pleasantly surprised that it didn’t make the list!
Don’t limit yourself
I’ve found that lots of travel influencers who talk about making a travel bucket list, especially a family travel bucket list, give limits to how many items to add. My two cents is that this is nonsensical. If we are dreaming, we shouldn’t limit ourselves!
Expansive
There is no harm in adding everywhere everyone offers up to the list. Adding everyone’s submissions to the list makes everyone feel included in the process of making the list. When the whole family feels involved, they’ll be more likely to take some ownership of the eventual trips you take. Usually this leads to everyone being more cooperative. I don’t have teenagers, though, so your mileage may vary here.
Dynamic
Even though I suggest that you have a fun brainstorming session with your family to sort of kick off your family travel bucket list process, I highly recommend that making your family travel bucket list be a dynamic process. Add a destination when a member of your family comes across somewhere he’s excited about. Remove a destination when a kid moves on from that cartoon that inspired the addition to the list. Whatever comes up, realize that no family travel bucket list is set in stone!
Mix it up
Dream destinations are not the only places that belong on your family travel bucket list. I absolutely recommend adding these far-flung aspirational destinations, but I also recommend adding closer locations that can be experienced in a weekend or even as a day trip. Adding these less exotic locations should make it easier to cross things off your family travel bucket list. And when you’re crossing things off your family travel bucket list, your family is excited about travel!
Write it down
If you take only one piece of advice from this list, please make it be this: right down your family travel bucket list! Now, it doesn’t matter how you write it down, just write it down! You can be like me and just keep a running list of destinations in the Notes app on your phone, with the occasional addendum via torn out piece of notebook paper. If you’re slightly craftier than I am, you can make it pretty by keeping your family travel bucket list on a poster board that you can decorate and make cute.
Our current list
For the nosy among you, now it’s time for the good part of this post: my current family travel bucket list! I’m leaving it here to give you inspiration, but also for you to give me your recommendations for what we’re missing. I’m always looking to add more places to our family travel bucket list!
Laurel Caverns
I really wanted to take a day trip to Laurel Caverns this summer. It’s the day trip I most wanted to take this summer, but life, so and it hasn’t happened. Because we haven’t made it happen yet, I’m transitioning it from my summer hope-to list to our family travel bucket list. I’m hopeful that it’ll happen soon – it’s only about an hour away.
Niagara Falls
Have you been to Niagara Falls? Is it as impressive as it looks? I’ve wanted to go for a very long time, but I grew up in Florida, so it wasn’t a feasible option for a weekend trip. Now that we’re only about 4ish hours away, though, it’s doable so I’m adding it to the list!
Hockey Hall of Fame
I have a kid who is absolutely obsessed with sports. He loves all sports, but especially hockey. I’m really into leaning into my kids’ interests, so we are happy to add sports-related destinations to our family travel bucket list. The sports destination currently on our family travel bucket list is the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. We can’t wait to see the joy on his face when he sees the Stanley Cup!
Magic Kingdom
I grew up about an hour and a half from Disney World, so it was a normal part of my childhood. Especially with Florida resident prices, it used to be an accessible weekend activity. My children don’t have Disney World this close and you now have to mortgage your home to take your family there on vacation, so it would be more of a special thing for us to take them to Magic Kingdom. We are right in the ideal age range (my kids are 4 and 6), so I’m hoping to take a day trip the next time we visit my parents (as long as it’s not in the heat of the summer or over Christmas).
New York City at Christmas
I’ve never been to New York City. It’s shocking, I know. My mom had a bad experience in New York City before I was born, and it has made me pretty scared to go. Now that I’m nearly 40 years old, though, I think I’ve conquered my fear of New York City. But I don’t just want to go any old time of the year. I want to go at Christmas, when it’s at its most magical. The Christmas tree, the Rockettes, the department store windows – I want all the classic New York Christmas magic!
Maui
My husband and I went to Hawaii on our honeymoon, but we only visited Oahu and Kauai. We absolutely fell in love with Kauai and want to return, but we also want to visit Maui because we’ve heard tremendous things about it, especially for family travel. This one is right at the top for my husband!
Paris
My son has been asking to go to Paris for about a year. He wants to see the Eiffel Tower, and I can’t say I blame him. I want to eat bread and cheese and break out my extremely rusty French. My daughter wants to wear her Paris-specific clothes in Paris. Something for everyone!
Italy
When I asked my son last year where he wanted to go for summer vacation, his immediate response was Italy. We didn’t feel like we could pull a trip to Italy off at the time, so we did not indulge his wish. Since then, though, my son’s desire to go to Italy has only grown, thanks in large part to Stanley Tucci. We watched Tucci in Italy together, and now we both want to go explore more of Italy than just Rome.
Ireland
Every member of my family of origin has been to Ireland except me. I’m jealous. Ireland is also a destination that my husband hasn’t been to (he’s way better traveled than I am), so Ireland would be a destination we could all be introduced to together. My only hesitation is that this trip will require driving on the opposite side of the road and I’m scared. Tell me it’s not that bad!
Other posts
Want more travel content? I’ve been really feeling inspired by it lately, so I’m increasingly writing more and more about travel here. Lots to check out!
Are you making a family travel bucket list? What’s on your list? Share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason!