Help with vacations

I need to book our big, family vacation, but I’m not very good at it. I just about ruined last summer.

My wife was stressed and had to get away. It didn’t need to happen immediately, but she required something to look forward to. Like when dinner is still an hour away and the kids are staaaaarrrrrrrrrrving, a little snack holds them over. A vacation on the horizon, all planned and ready to go, holds her over.

It was a tough trip to plan, for me at least. The kids HAD to use their new passports. That means leaving the country. But there was no destination that we’ve always wanted to take the kids at ages 7 and 9. So, where do we go? What do we do? I have to research for family friendly, and price, and length of flight.

Also, we’re leaving the country with the kids. That means I get over excited about safety. That means researching crime rates and tourist warnings and the typical “what to watch out for” stuff. Plus, I was so busy with other things.

In a nutshell, I took way too long. Things got bad. My wife secretly hated me. I could tell by such subtle little clues as, “You’re ruining our vacation!” And a near tearful, “Will you just book something!”

But… I can’t just book something, there’s so much to consider, so much research to do.

Finally, we went to Costa Rica. Booked it 2 weeks before we took off. It was awesome. But I could have planned it better. Because of the area we stayed, we can’t give blood for 1 year (by the way, they should tell you that at the blood drive, before they prick your finger to get your blood type).

So here we are again, I NEED to book a family vacation. But I suck at it. I need some suggestions and I’m sure that you, and a lot of other dads out there could use some original ideas too. Lets help each other out.

If you could, in one of your upcoming posts, write about your family vacation spots. The ones you would reccomend. It can be a place you visited when you were young yourself, or somewhere you took your own kids. Actually it really doesn’t even matter if you’ve been there or not, make it someplace you’ve always wanted to go.

Here’s our trip to Costa Rica. It really wasn’t that expensive. Air fair, airport transfers and resort with all meals, for the four of us was around $2,000. It’s not a place to go for the beaches. It’s all about the rain forests, and the volcanoes, and the wildlife.
Felt safe the whole time. But didn’t stray from the tourist path like we might have done before kids. At the hotels and resorts you sign up for excursions that cost extra, but this is how you really see the country. We did lots of driving but beautiful scenery all around. Cost of a meal or gifts was about the same as it would be here. Their dollar is called the colon. The people are called Ticos.

We had a lot of fun trying to use Spanish, going horse back riding and zip lining. The “rules and regulations” about putting a 7 year old on a zip line aren’t very strict. It was the highlight of the trip. Would definitely recommend this as a family friendly vacation, as long as you don’t stray from the recommended tourist paths.