Every year we take a family trip over the holidays. This tradition began when our oldest child went off to university and it became clear that the only time we could all count on being together for at least one week was over Christmas. The down side of this of course is that everything is more expensive at Christmas in almost any destination. But searching for another time that would work for all four of us is immensely challenging given four adults and our busy lives and schedules. There are only so many vacation days for working adults and so we have come to the conclusion that despite higher costs, it’s so worth it.

The process of planning is hard as we are all well traveled and have very high expectations for how we want to spend our precious time together. We want to go to new places each year and discover new cultures, new beaches, new food, maybe even new lifelong friends. We are very active as a family and thus need interesting activities mixed with time to relax and recover.  Our best trip ever was to the Galapagos with Celebrity Xpedition, a 90-person cruise ship that took us on two excursions each day to various locations within the Galapagos. It was truly magical and hit all the desires of a perfect vacation: comfortable accommodations, great food, great service, great guides, great destinations and activities, and sharing experiences with others who became lifelong friends. We all talk about that vacation as the benchmark for all others to be compared to.

Other trips have included beaches and jungles in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Windstar cruises in the Caribbean to various islands, Windstar cruise through the Panama Canal and Costa Rica, and a Windstar cruise in Tahiti. We also spent one Xmas in NYC and one in Miami. But of all our trips, it was the Galapagos that we all want to go back to.

We are now working on our 2018 family trip and thinking jungle/beach combination in Belize. We all have our diving certifications now and want to go dive on the world-famous reef.  There are so many choices that need to be narrowed down to determine where we will ultimately go, and time is of the essence as a number of places we’ve already discovered are sold out for the Xmas/New Year’s dates. Whenever I start planning any kind of a trip, I become easily overwhelmed with information overload and just wish I could truly trust a travel agent or tour operator familiar with the destination to help me narrow down the choices. Even the searches for those qualified people are hard as there are so many who present themselves as qualified, but aren’t. I like to find people IN the destination who live there every day and  know all the ins and outs so they can help us select the right choice for our family and avoid staying in a place that just doesn’t work. So far we’ve been very lucky to find super accommodations, great guides and really experience the destination. And here’s where I feel so lucky to have two kids who really contribute to this exploration. They are amazing at finding houses to rent, terrific restaurants and advice from locals.

So wish me luck. I will be back with where we landed once we’re booked.

Update:  We did go to Belize, Placencia, and then up to the Jungle, Maia River Lodge. Fantastic vacation and the diving was great. And now we are working on our holiday trip for 2019 and have decided to go back to Nicaragua. We will return to Playa Colorados and experience something new on Little Corn Island. It’s been a lot of fun pulling it together as a family. My children have been instrumental in finding the right spots and I have been the family member booking all the flights. That is such a chore but we’re done and I am already starting to dream of our days together.