Best Vacations for Teens

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Best Vacations for Teens

We believe that everyone should travel. That doesn’t mean you need to fly somewhere or even go far. You can travel in your own state or do a road trip and we encourage you to read more about why we think everyone should travel. Since we have a teenager, we get asked a lot where we think the best vacations for teens are. Now we travel a decent amount but we certainly don’t travel everywhere; and we’ve never been overseas. But we do have some favorites for you to consider when planning your best vacations for teens.

• Las Vegas – Yeah that sounds odd, it’s a mecka of lots of things you probably don’t want your teenagers to know or see, but with that said there are also a lot of opportunities in Las Vegas you may not get other places. Sporting events, fights, lots of things to do that are family friendly.
• Florida – Florida has many things to do from swimming at the beach, to planning a Disney destination vacation.
• Wisconsin Dells, WI – There are so many waterparks and things to do here it’s often overlooked. Visit in the summer to take full advantage.
• Hawaii – There is something extra special to be said about visiting an island. Combine that with all the great things to see and do and you can’t really go wrong. Plus a stop at Pearl Harbor lets you sneak in some learning too.
• Mexico – We’ve only been to Cancun but I imagine the experiences are similar in other places around Mexico too. Try to get in a few excursions to see historical sites, dolphins and snorkeling opportunites you can’t get other places.

Need some other ideas? Check out this list of the 20 Vacations places for Teens by Travel Advisor.

Tips to make the Best Vacations for Teens memorable

1. Anytime you are planning trips with teens involve them in the trip planning. If they feel invested in the trip they are more likely to enjoy it and not complain if something outside your control goes wrong. When we travel we make Cheyenne research wherever we are going. With today’s easy access to YouTube and social media reviews this isn’t that hard for her. She then gets to pick 1 must do activity as do each of us. That is the thing we make sure we do first so that we get everyone’s item in on our vaction. For example: When we went to Hawaii – Cheyenne’s must do thing was to visit the Dole Plantation which we actually ended up doing twice.
2. Make them accountable. There is no reason your teenager can’t pack their own bag, be responsible for souveniers they want and help you navigate around the airport, etc.
3. Plan downtime. We’ve found that most people want to pack everything they can into their vacation. I get that, I really do, but will you enjoy it if you don’t have some downtime? We’ve found that if we plan in downtime we enjoy the fast, action packed, busy days way more. This can be helpful if you have a rainday or something goes wrong like being able to move your tours if a hurricane threatens your trip such as when Hurricane Laine decided to visit us on our Hawaii trip. This is in my opinion the most important tip when considering the best vacations for teens.
4. Plan your photos. Our daughter hates to have her picture taken. That’s probably because Joni takes about a million of them. We set the expectation up front we are going to take pictures, probably a lot them. If you don’t complain and you go along with them things will be easier and you will be happy we have them when we get back. With that said Joni tries to limit our family snaps to a handful a day so they aren’t overwhelming

Do you have other tips or places to making the best of vacations with teens? Comment or contact us to let us know so we can share with others!