Jackie Burrell shares her family travel tips.
We caught up with Burrell to ask her about planning family vacations — what to do, what not to do, and how to avoid disaster.
Life360: You have four children and have gone on numerous family vacations to fun places in the U.S. and abroad. How do you plan ahead for family trips? How do you decide where to go?
We start planning six months to a year ahead and do a lot of research on the internet to find really memorable experiences, whether it’s luge rides in Austria (highly recommended) or a dinosaur dig in Montana (ditto). As the kids have grown, we’ve given them a lot of say in what we do and where.
When they were in grade school, I’d often try to tailor the trip around their interests and tweak some prep work into their homework assignments. For example, one of our elementary school’s third grade assignments always includes a report on a famous figure from history. The year we were going to Austria, I suggested that my then eight-year-old do his report on [painter Pieter] Bruegel, because there’s a huge collection at Vienna’s big art museum and his work is so detail-packed. It’s almost like playing Where’s Waldo? He got really into it, so much so that his siblings were excited too — by the time we got to Vienna, the kids were clamoring for more time at the museum.
What’s one of your favorite places that you’ve traveled with your children?
The most recent fave was Costa Rica, where we could body surf, scuba dive, zipline, watch a volcano erupt, and eat really really good food too. It was fantastic! And there was plenty to do, a definite consideration when traveling with teens. Another really good trip when they were younger was the Austrian one, which included overnights in castles, luge rides, a tour of a salt mine, concerts in Salzburg and, again, really really good food.
What’s the biggest challenge when taking a trip with a family?
Hotels. We’re a family of six, and hotels don’t like to put more than four people in a single room — but they won’t guarantee rooms next door to each other or even on the same floor. If we’re staying somewhere for more than a few days, we book an apartment or villa.
Have you ever had any near-disasters or unexpected dilemmas on one of your family trips? How did you handle it?
We haven’t experienced any disasters, but we know a few people who have — including a middle school teacher from Alameda, CA, who leads groups of kids to Europe every summer. Her two best tips are things we started using too. The first is to have a very clear ”what-to-do-if-we-get-separated discussion” beforehand and repeat it daily. If the family’s on the subway and a kid gets left behind, he needs to get off at the next station and wait there, so his family can come in on the next train and grab him. If the kid gets off the train without his family, he should wait on the platform until his family comes back.
The second one’s gross but practical. She suggests always carrying a spare T-shirt for each child in their carry-on bags. She says someone’s always bound to throw up at some point, and they’ll want a clean shirt.
I remember you also traveled with the school band to Australia! What advice do you have for parents and teachers who are responsible for a larger group of children? How do you plan fun adventures and make sure everyone is safe and has a good time?
Oh yes, Australia and New Zealand with 170 teenagers! The best advice is to over-plan and make sure every minute is packed with activities, so there’s no time to wander off and get into trouble.
Besides the barfing advice, make sure every student carries a card with the hotel’s name and address written on it, and be clear about rendezvous points. Have one person keep Xerox copies of all passports, and make sure the chaperones know that if a child loses a passport along the way, a chaperone is going to be left behind with the child to navigate embassy bureaucracy — a process that can take anywhere from 24 hours to several days. Yes, really: several days, especially if it happens on a Friday afternoon or the start of a holiday week.
Do roll calls every time you change locations or board buses, of course. If you lose a child in a museum or other public place, the Alameda teacher says pull out four to six chaperones and send everyone else back to the buses with one or more chaperones and lock ‘em down. Then, send your core group of chaperones to a central location in the museum or wherever and have them start searching by fanning out, back in two minutes, fan out, back in two minutes, so they’re searching systematically and constantly checking back in. Make sure the search includes the entrance to the museum and all restrooms.
And finally, set clear rules and expectations for everyone — kids make fantastic travel companions, it’s the parents who tend to miss curfews and deadlines!
