Travel is one of the greatest things a family can do. Traveling together creates shared lifelong memories that bring families closer together. Families that travel together, experience a special bond and engage in deeper conversations allowing family members to learn more about each other.

Bringing your family on vacation sounds easy, but it is amazing how many just don’t do it. In today’s culture it is more common for couples to spend money in other ways, or if they do travel, they leave their children with grandparents or other relatives while they head out on vacation.

So why do so many people avoid family travel or put off regular family vacations? There are several reasons families choose not to travel or couples decide to leave their children behind. Many of these reasons end up being myths and are flat out ridiculous!

Myth 1 – Traveling with children is difficult and stressful.
The reality is that traveling, as a family with children, can be stress free and easy once you learn how. There are actually a lot of benefits during travel you can take advantage of that make travel more enjoyable, like special treatment by the airlines, pre-boarding, access to family lounges, many others.

 

Myth 2 – Family travel is expensive.
Did you know that in many cases you can receive greater discounts based on the number of travelers? There are also great ways to save on airline flights and hotels by grouping loyalty reward points as a family. Many Loyalty rewards programs now offer the ability to pool or group points together into one account or under one person. For a family of four that means one person’s account can get 4 times the amount of frequent flyer points for a single trip. Those points can mean a free ticket or upgrades on the next trip. The same goes for hotels. In many cases you can get free night stays. Airfare is typically the only real added expense. You will already have lodging accommodations that you can easily add the kids for no additional costs.

Myth 3 – Traveling with kids can be dangerous.
What if they get ill or hurt while traveling, especially outside the country? The reality is being in a third world country is no more dangerous than traveling in most of the major cities of developed countries. Tourist crime is typically less in third world countries that depend on tourism for their survival. There is typically good medical clinics that go above and beyond to take care of foreign travelers.

Only after a couple days of vacationing 89% of the people studied had less stress Click To Tweet

Myth 4 – Staying local is just as relaxing.
A 2013 study showed that traveling is actually good for your overall physical, emotional, and mental health. It showed that only after a couple days of vacationing 89% of the people studied had reported they had less stress. The report found that people who vacation twice a year have fewer heart problems. On the flip side, the study had shown that people who stay home and don’t travel for vacation had higher stress levels and a 20% greater chance of dying!

Myth 5 – We just don’t have the time to go on a family vacation.
Everyone can find the time to take time off of work and school. The real question is how you use your time off? Will you use it for something that will build life long memories, provide new experiences, educate you about the world we live in, etc? Or, will you spend your time off doing the same daily grind? If you don’t take time to go on a family vacation now, you probably never will. Years will pass and you’ll end up asking yourself where did all the time go? You won’t have any significant memory to attach to that time that’s passed. The time was there but since you stayed in the same routine, the time off becomes insignificant.

Families that experience world travel become well rounded. They get to experience things outside their routine lives at home. Parents and kids learn more about geography, cultures, different languages, and get to learn how other people in the world live. It can create new interests and teach children things they can’t learn in a classroom or a book. Travel can also break kids away from the use of electronics and video games and allows them to interact with interesting people from all around the world.