How to travel with teenagers

Does traveling with your teenager seem to be a hard experience?

Statistics have shown that these are usually the most feared members of the family and we are going to tackle how to overcome the challenges involved below.

Choosing the right location or destination because many hotels and resorts are designed to cater for families offering various programs for all ages. But first you have to know what your child’s interest is for example a friend’s daughter loved green nature and ecology so they pulled rubber wellies squishing through the mad searching for frogs. They sat on tree tops counting macaws and toucans while sleeping in the rainy forest socking up the local color. Their tent was next to a family with a 17 year old who hated his parents for bringing her to this trip to sleep on the ground, see frogs and bugs. They had it very rough because she was very irritated making their trip unpleasant in the long run.

Pat Cowden a lady who has a lot of experience with traveling with her seven kids plus grand children says “include the kids in the travel planning” by asking the each one of them to read a book concerning travel destinations and then act like a tour guide for one full travel day. For example, before they went to Stratford-upon-Avon she asked the kids to read Shakespeare book on “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” and write their own version including performing/acting it for her the night before they were to attend.

You have to give the children suggestions and what to bring though the decision has to be left in their hands since they have their own sense of style. But keep in mind that in Europe, most restaurants are open as far as the kid’s dress codes are concerned, so parents need to pick their own battles which should involve more safety than style since teenagers are not supposed to be given free reign but need to have responsibility with their own space. In order to achieve this, parents usually book hotel rooms that are adjoining to give their kids some time alone.

Some parents took a friend with them on holiday in order for them to enjoy the restaurants and nice places that wouldn’t be appealing for their 15-year olds and this enabled the kids to have a chance to explore what they enjoyed or wanted.

But you will find that this doesn’t work for all parents since most of them take trips with their kids with intention of having a chance of getting closer to them as they enjoy each other’s company. This is simply because school work, friends and other activities interfere with parent child relationship since kids should be treated with respect as they grow up. These trips help the parent and child become good friends since they communicate one on one during this time without interruptions.

Photo originally posted by Joshua Davis

Topic:  How to Tuesday | 1 Comment
Tags:  family, kids

About the author

Stellah was born in Uganda but moved to Norway in 2005 working as a freelance writer while traveling to Sweden, France, Belgium and most of the European countries to learn new culture and languages.