10 Tips in Planning your Family Trip.

Ok, let me put a disclaimer out there that I am no expert on this subject and that what I end up with are things that I've discover along the way as I was planning my family's trips for the past 3 years.   Every year we go out in one famous tourist spot in the Philippines, and so if you do your math that would be only 3 trips that I've organized for my family.  Nevertheless I'll share them anyway in the hopes that you might find light and inspiration in planning your own family getaway.

So here goes.

1.  Make sure you don't travel during monsoon season.   I can't stress on this enough.  In our case, me and my mother had an interesting argument as soon as she realized that we'll go to Ilocos during monsoon season.  She had gone totally buzzerk.   As for me?  I was just devastated. But good thing nature was on our side because when we got to Ilocos, the sun was out there shining on us like an angel.  I guess my prayers were answered.  If you weren't lucky enough, then here are my suggestions how you could spice up your trip even when it's raining.

Oh sweet Jesus! Thanks for the Sun! :)

Aren't we a lucky bunch?  We've got the sun on our side baby. :)

2. On booking flights, let them do it.  What's hard with booking their flights?  Leaves might not be approved and so you would have to pay more for the rebooking fee, differential price for tickets, and service fee.  More money wasted.  They should at least be responsible for that part.

3.  Print your tickets days before your trip.  If you've been reading this blog you'll know that in our first family trip, we actually missed our flight.  Reason?  My brother in his awesomeness printed the tickets last minute, and got home an hour and 30minutes before our flight.  When we reached the airport we were 10minutes late and so the airline already closed the check in counter.  I can't tell you enough how pathetic I sounded as I begged the staff to let us board the plane.  

"Where is your supervisor?",  the staff gave me her supervisor and the supervisor said no to my request.

And then I figured to push my luck and requested to speak to the pilot.

"Can I talk to the pilot?"

The supervisor was taken aback, but sternly said no... I was thinking, Oprah Winfrey was able to stop the plane from flying after a mere phonecall, well obviously it takes power to do that.  I realized I'm not her.... Duh.  So we had to purchase tickets for the earliest flight tomorrow.  I took pictures of the whole scene.  You can check it out here. :)

4.  Be realistic with your itinerary.  Just recently, I was making activities for our trip and I had bicycling around town, and free diving as part of our activities.  I was too eager to experience things which I haven't done before, but reality knocked on my door as my brother smirked as he read through the itinerary.  We all don't know how to swim and ride a bike.  I was in denial.  Fine, at least they know that there are these options.  Take it if they want, and leave it if they don't wish to do it.

As for me? Bring it on!

5.  Have a resting time.  Sometimes we want to pack activities in one day, making no room to just rest and really absorb everything in.  And that's really understandable because God knows when you could go back to that place again.  Once is usually enough for me.  But since this is supposed to be a holiday, try as much as possible, to give leeway just for resting.  When we were in Bohol, we spent the entire day moving from one destination to another, nonstop, and we had to do a 3hour-ride going to our final destination for the day.  As soon as we reach Panglao at 6pm, we immediately checked in and hit the bed, we were all dead this time.  So we were practically incapable of getting out of our beds and check out Alona beach at night as planned.

6.  Let go of places you can't visit, or activities you can't do.  There are times wherein we couldn't go to a destination or do a certain activity due to some reasons.  I missed riding the Hot air balloon in Cambodia, and I wasn't able to go to the Kapurpurawan rock formation in Ilocos, and it was OK.  Don't beat yourself up, and don't let that ruin your trip.  Let go and have fun.

Hot air balloon.  Missed.  They were closed then. Balloon was wet from  yesterdays' rain.

Credits

7.  Safety is top priority.  When doing family trips, I usually opt for tours since it's safer that way, as oppose to taking a do-it-yourself route.  Well if it isn't so complicated to do, then go, but if it is, then I'll go for a safer option.  Remember you will be with your family.  You don't ever want to get lost. The blame game would probably bite you in the arse.  And you know where the fingers are all pointing to - you.  Also try to research about safety tips while in a nature park or in any destinations you will be in.  Get to know about the place a little bit and find out which places you should avoid.  You can also ask locals about these info.  When we were in the Tabo an Market in Cebu, tricycle drivers were warning us to guard our belongings when entering the market since there are many thieves inside.  And so we did what we were asked.  We didn't go deeper anymore in the market.  We just bought our bulad at a stall 2 stores away from the street. 

Piles and piles of bulad inside Tabo an Market.

8.  On choosing a destination, try to ask as much info as possible from your tour guide.  It's different when you're looking at something beautiful and looking at something beautiful and know the history of it.  It gives you that added appreciation.  When my brother, friend and I went to go around the ruins in Angkor Wat, we saw humongous structures and intricately designed murals.  After visiting the 3rd temple, I just saw it as ruins of the old past. Nothing more.  When a tour guide joined us in our 4th temple, he talked about the history, pointed at the small details such as the holes punched in the huge slabs of rocks, and hands of the carved out imagines, details  that we could easily ignore if we were going around on our own.  Telling us all their importance and meanings, we can't help but be in awe of it all.  Of course we had to pay 150baht for his service, but yeah, at least our tour wasn't boring this time.

Our tour guide explaining that the upper half symbolizes Hinduism, and the lower is Buddhism- 2 religions which the  King in Cambodia practiced centuries ago.

9. Plan out itinerary with the interest of the family members in mind.  My sister loves food. It's pretty obvious if you just saw her devour that poor mushroom burger at Salcedo Market.  So knowing this, I search for the best restos in town and jot it down as one of our food destinations.  My brothers like doing something exciting, something they haven't done before, so I try to look for activities like that.  You get the drill.  

10. Capture as much memories as possible.  Take pictures, take vids.  Sometimes, impossible as it may sound, you'll forget about these nice memories as you grow old.  Immortalize it with good documentation.  You can thank me later.

I pray that you'll just have awesome time with your family.

Come on.

Let's make good memories. :)

PS: I don't understand why many bloggers don't use gif... I mean, they're friggin cute. I think using them is a brilliant idea! hahah :)