During the summer, everyone wants to kick back and relax—even for just a few days. But the winter’s a great time to take a vacation, too. After all, at the end of the year, you deserve to unwind and de-stress. And what better way to celebrate Christmas and the New Year than to reconnect as a family?
There are many kinds of winter vacations, and you can choose from a number of tourist destinations and travel packages to suit your preference, needs and budget.
Head for the Beach
It may be December or January, but who says you can’t hit the beach? In places like Spain, the sun shines all year round. You can have your bit of “summer” right now, even if the rest of the world is covered under a blanket of snow. Going to the beach can even lift your spirits. Scientists and doctors have discovered that people do experience depression during the winter months because of the lack of sunlight. If you’ve been listless, bored, unusually weepy, or just feeling drained, book a vacation today and get some sunshine back into your spirit.
Enter a Winter Wonderland
One of the world’s most popular winter destinations is the Ice Hotel in Sweden. Found in the riverside village of Jukkasjarvi, this unique resort is made every winter out of over ten thousand tonnes of ice and thirty thousand tones of snow. There’s nothing like it anywhere else, and the children will get a kick out of saying that they’ve lived in an honest to goodness igloo! (Not only that, an igloo with room service.) One of the key features of the hotel is the Absolut Ice Bar, which has become quite a party destination for the twenty something crowd.
Take a Cruise
During the winter, the seas are calm and perfect for a cruise. Escape from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season—the mad shopping crowds, the rush to get things done before the end of the year, the flurry of parties. You can go island hopping on the Mediterranean or visit several European destinations.
You’d love to take a winter vacation, but as any frazzled mother knows, a poorly planned ski trip can make you feel that you’ll need another vacation to recover from the trauma! Bored kids cooped up in a small resort room can be a nightmare, and you may be spending your hours breaking up the fights between siblings than actually doing anything remotely relaxing.
The secret? Look for a resort that offers a program for kids. It doesn’t matter if you’re heading for the slopes, hitting the beaches, or taking a leisurely cruise off the Mediterranean coast. Always look for a resort that has a special set of activities for children. Normally these day programs will include arts and crafts, a special playroom with toys and books, outdoor activities, even short classes in skiing, surfing, dancing, swimming, snorkeling. Many of them will also have babysitting services so that you can take the afternoon off to shop without worrying about the kids breaking something in the store.
The benefit of a kids’ program is that instead of worrying about your child drowning or injuring himself, you know you have a trained instructor who can teach them safety and improve their skills. While you read a book by the poolside, someone is watching your kid do belly flops—and making sure that he doesn’t injure his neck in the process.
Kids will often enjoy the program and welcome the opportunity to make friends and play with them. They don’t like the feeling of being “stuck with mom and dad” doing adult things that won’t appeal to them. For example, going around the market looking at local crafts will only make them restless, prompting them to say, “can we go now? Can we go now?” every 15 minutes. Toddlers will also feel bored in museums or historical sites, and God forbid that they break that centuries old vase!
Do your own thing. So when you finally meet up again later in the afternoon, you’ll have a lot to talk about—and will be in the mood to really enjoy each other’s company and do a shared family activity.
Don’t overschedule
Winter vacations are a great time to escape the stress of everyday life, not to recreate it in a different environment. Resist the urge to overbook your itinerary. There is no point in rushing around trying to cram several attractions into one day, especially if you are traveling with small children. They’ll be overstimulated, tired and cranky, and let’s see how even you feel when you’re running around trying to catch the next tour.
Instead of trying to go to each and every tourist attraction, read up on what’s available and then choose whatever’s most interesting to you. If you like art, for example, then by all means spend an entire afternoon looking at the museums. Also, try to get a “Sampler” of what’s available. You don’t have to visit all the churches. Instead, research on the Internet or read a travel book to see the key features, and find out which ones need a more in-depth look.
Have Individual Itineraries
Another trick is to split up the group. If you want to go to the market to look at the local crafts, but your husband would rather spend the day snorkeling, then do your own thing. Even if it’s a family vacation you don’t have to be together all the time; part of the “break” is time on your own. Before you leave, sit down and ask each other what everyone would be most interested in doing. Make an individual itinerary and a group itinerary. For example, you can choose to spend the morning together, separate after lunch for individual tours, and then meet up once again in the early evening for something that everyone will enjoy. You can also have one day where you’re all together.
Sign up for a class
If you’re considered about having enough “Family Time” then look for an activity where you can all learn something together. Sign up for a course, like surfing or diving lessons, or a one hour crash course in Flamenco dancing. This is more interactive and more fun than roaming a museum, with the kids standing around looking bored and whining about when it’s time to go.
