Travel plan idea blog

Well I do have kids, and we have traveled around the world. No matter what state or country the question of them planning dinner is always answered with McDonalds, so I try no to have that fight. I have learned over the years that my children and neices and nephews are best with "don't tell them nothing until we get there". If you have evered watched the Smurfs and they kept saying are we there yet? are we there yet? No letting them plan sounds cute, but in the real world I for imginary suggestions, "What if", and make my decisons accordingly. A full-time Mom

I prefer the participatory approach -- but you may need to start small.

After introducing a "once-a-week" rule for McDonalds food, you can then let the kids choose between 2 or 3 restaurants that you have pre-determined as likely hits.

Each child can have a turn at making this choice, so it doesn't turn into a free-for-all.

Pretty soon, you can branch out to other things, like letting the kids choose venues according to your budget: we've got $50. We can do this attraction or that one.

Works for me.

My 10 yr old son always participates in planning 1-2 days of our vacation. It's a good way for him to really think about what he wants to do (knowing he will have only x number of choices and x$$). He has to be organized and budget time and money. Usually I buy a kid-friendly tour book or print stuff from the internet, then give him the info while we are in the car or plane. It keeps him busy & engaged, plus we do things I never would have picked. We've had a few duds but with kids anything can be fun. Our rule is we only eat at the same kind of restaurant twice in 1 week- it helps us avoid 7 nights of Pizza Hut.

My book Travel Tips has a section on involving the whole family in the planning of the vacation. From our own experience with our children and now with our grandchildren my husband and I were able to use family meetings to plan our trips. The kids loved it and everyone had a voice in the planning. Some of our best memories are the family planning meetings. Everyone listened and each person had an opportunity to plan something for our trip.

It's great to hear from so many parents who are doing this already. And to Peace, I have no kids so I can't imagine how hard it might be to involve them in something like this.

For years we have traveled by exchanging our home with others worldwide. It's a great way to teach the kids not only about the history and geography of a place, the cultural interaction with other kids their own age has been priceless. We almost always swap with people who have kids around the same age as ours. Once we know who we'll be swapping with, my daughter Lily (the planner!) emails them and asks about their favorite books, music, videos etc. and then she arranges her room with all the comforts she can think of for our guests. All year round she collect menus from her favorite take-out and other places in our neighborhood she thinks are not to be missed. More often then not our swap partners kids do the same, it's a great lesson in sharing (some very special items are sometimes off limits!) and getting to know others very well - even if we don't get to meet them in person we all feel like old friends after our exchange vacation.