How will you travel in the year ahead? Here are five ideas to consider.
Mark the milestone moments
Geographic spread, busy careers and school and sports schedules make it more difficult than ever to spend time with the family and friends you care about. Therefore, planning ahead to celebrate birthdays, graduations, retirements and anniversaries can be an important touchstone and meaningful part of a family’s legacy. With plenty of advance notice, you’ll increase the odds that more family members will be able to take part in the fun. Ask your clan to save a date and then get to work creating a gathering that will be a lasting memory for all. Choose a resort, rent a beach house or a mountain cabin. Consider a cruise, a camping adventure or a ranch vacation. Then, relish the time together.
Celebrate snow
For invigorating mountain adventures in a luxurious alpine setting, family-friendly Beaver Creek, Colo., two hours from Denver, is hard to beat.
Pull on your woollies and get set for skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and tubing as well as ice-skating or an riding in an open sleigh to a cozy cabin for a family dinner. Stay at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, where ski-in, ski-out accommodations ease the ground game. Located steps from the ski school, it’s easy to sort out a day of lessons for the kids while the adults enjoy the world-class slopes. Gather at day’s end for the resort’s long-standing tradition of serving warm chocolate cookies at the base. Families can also enjoy a s’mores kit for use around the fire pits, take advantage of adult and children’s services at the spa, relax with a complimentary board game.
For more: www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/colorado/park-hyatt-beaver-creek-resort-and-spa
Craft a grand adventure
Is this the year to embark on that epic adventure you’ve talked about for years? There are plenty of boundary-pushing vacations that will intrigue families of various sizes, interests and bank accounts. Will you make your way into the Amazon? How about a hut-to-hut hike in Colorado or Switzerland? Will you raft the waters of the mighty Colorado through the grandest canyon of them all or paddle through the Boundary Waters of Minnesota? Or consider snorkeling or diving in Palau, the Maldives or the Galapagos Islands or tracking the Big Five on an African safari? Whether you sail, ski or sample culinary delights, the opportunities to make memories with family are many.
Consider a family sabbatical
Overwhelmed? Tired? Ready for a reboot? Give yourselves permission to take a long holiday away from the pressures of family life and the world as you know it. While it may take some time to lighten your economic load and plan for such an adventure, the benefits of an extended time away with your family can pay lifelong dividends. You’ll discover the joys of relaxed afternoons at the beach, evenings around a game table or hiking on a new trail. Your children will benefit from the rare and valuable lessons learned while exploring new cultures, listening to and then learning an unfamiliar language and forging a new path. Whether your sabbatical lasts for weeks, months or a year, you’re likely to return revitalized and with a fresh perspective.
Go far. Stay close.
There is plenty of research to support the benefits of introducing children to new experiences and cultures apart from their own. When time and money are in short supply, open their eyes and hearts through books and movies that offer a window onto unfamiliar places. Consider an around-the-world tour powered by the written word or the visual splendor available on a large or small screen. Mix old classics (think Heidi in the Swiss Alps) with modern documentaries.
