Family Holidays Travel Guide

To experience, as a family, the combined rush of adrenalin and adventure you get from an adventure holiday, would be incredible!

It could be that you, as the elder in the family travelled for years and the thought of buckets, spades and overrun European beach destinations is, well, not that appealing.

Don't panic. Your family travel needs are now well catered for in some amazing parts of the world. Whether your children are young, teenage, or of mixed ages, you will be teamed up with a caring and experienced tour guide who will help make your family adventure holiday one to remember.

There are summer and winter breaks, short half-term holidays and longer multi-week trips. These are scheduled outside of term time, or in some cases, to match your own dates.

Why not take the family to Lapland and see Santa Claus from the back of a husky dog sled? Or visit the ancient wonders of the Egyptian pyramids and cruise down the Nile? Alternatively, there's white water rafting in the states. You could even travel over to Sri Lanka and adopt an elephant at one of their sanctuaries. The list is endless, all you've got to do is choose your destination and then herd the clan through the airport!

Tailor-Made

Many companies will offer a tailor-made service if you prefer to travel solely as a family, or with friends of the family.

The options are as follows:

You could use a pre-designed itinerary to fit your own date window.
Or alternatively design your whole adventure from scratch, selecting all the activities, duration of trip and dates.

Itineraries

Organised family adventure holidays reduce the pressure of planning everything, helping the children to relax. Each itinerary includes a range of sports and activities that everyone can enjoy. The schedules are well thought out and often include optional activities. This ensures you're all kept happy!

Group numbers for a family holiday are kept quite low (approximately 10 – 24) in order to have less impact on the local communities and environment. The other benefit is that you will get closer to your trip companions and possibly forge new friendships. Rest assured that you will meet like minded souls on a family adventure holiday.

Safety

To get the best out of your family adventure holiday you should be keen to push the boundaries a little. Willing participation in activities is a key part of the group bonding and your overall experience. Therefore, if you have the chance to get a bit fitter prior to departure, it will certainly help enhance your holiday.

The tour guides will have had extensive safety training. Along with their expertise, the guides have access to a long list of local contacts should they need them and usually a 24-hour back up team at the company head quarters.

Once travelling, you will usually be joined by a tour guide who will stay with your group for the duration. They are then joined, en-route, by other adventure leaders to help with the various activities.

For each activity you will receive full safety briefings and equipment where needed to ensure everyone has the best adventure possible.

By definition, an adventure holiday will expose you to some risks, albeit in a relatively controlled environment. Your tour guide will not put you and your family in a situation that might unduly jeopardise anyone, but family insurance should be taken out prior to departure.

Please also bear in mind that a lot of activity holidays have a minimum age of five years old. Some trips will allow toddlers or have been specifically designed for younger children. It will be clearly stated in the trip dossier the age ranges best suited to that particular holiday. It is not suggested that babies under two-years-old are brought on an adventure holiday.

Eating & Sleeping

There could be a mix of low to mid-range hotels, campsites, dormitories and traditional rustic-type sleeping arrangements. At times the availability of amenities might be a bit patchy, but it's all part of 'the spirit of the adventure'.

Most trips will include breakfast in the overall cost price of the trip. This tends to suit families better because it invites you to explore some of the local cuisine and also decide how much you want to spend on food. If your trip takes you on a boat, camping or safari then usually your meals will be provided.

Should someone in your family have special dietary requirements, then most hotels will be as accommodating as possible. Whilst ‘out in the field' it may prove harder to meet these needs as there is usually a limited choice of foodstuffs available. You can check in more detail with an operator once you have decided on a destination.