Travelling with teens

Travelling with teenagers can be a real challenge, especially if they are at the age when they don’t really want to be going on holiday with you anymore and would rather be home with their friends. I found the best way to have a happy holiday with your teens is to include them in the planning of the vacation and let them have some friend connection time while you are away.

Some other tips to help your teenagers (and you) enjoy your family holiday are:

Encourage your teenagers to keep a diary of the trip. Include where they have been and any interesting things they have seen or done. This can either be done in a special travel diary, where they can stick tickets or pamphlets from museums/events/ theme parks etc. into the diary. Take a glue stick or tape with you or buy some at your destination. Or, make a blogsite of their trip where they can add entry’s every few days about what they have done and seen. Use your hotel’s free Wi-Fi for this.

Encourage them to take photos with their camera or phone to add to their blog site, or upload to Instagram or other social media platform to show to their friends. This way they will feel like they are staying in touch with their friends at home.

They could also use an instant camera so that they can stick the photos into their travel diary each day.

Let them Skype occasionally with their friends using the hotel free Wi-Fi, so they still feel connected to their friends and not missing out on anything at home.

Suggest that your teenager gets involved with helping to plan the trip. Let them research and have some input into what they might like to see at your holiday destination. This lets them know that they are part of the trip and that you’re not just dragging them along. Who knows, they might come up with some interesting ideas and places that you hadn’t thought of visiting.

Ask them to suggest a local restaurant the family can eat at for the evening. Quite often your hotel or Airbnb will have a list of recommended local restaurants in the area and they can choose from these.

What do you do to keep your teens happy on your family vacation? Please comment below.