Remember the days of loading your kids up in the car for the all-American family vacation? Those were the good ol’ days. You decided where you were going, came up with a budget and mostly likely made all the decisions along the way. When your kids were little, you even decided what to pack. But those time have changed, at least for our family.
Our kids grew up, the nest got empty and our now adult children have…. opinions. Now when we plan a full family vacation, it’s not just the five of us. Our girls have significant others which brings our total to eight. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make eight people happy? Or how expensive? Let’s take a look at our very first extended family vacation and some things we would do a little differently next time.
Finding a Place for Your Extended Family Vacation
Our first extended family vacation was last June. We wanted to choose somewhere driving distance as flying eight people added considerably to the expense. And we wanted to choose somewhere that would make everyone happy.
We started planning about four months ahead, mostly because that’s when the inspiration hit me and that was the soonest anyone had any idea what they were doing in June. If you are able, I’d suggest starting at least six to eight months ahead in planning. Waiting, as we did, meant some of the better properties were already booked up. If you’re visiting a very popular tourist area, you may need to book a year in advance.
Each couple put together a small presentation in Power Point. This was supposed to be part of the fun, but a few of the participants were a little college weary and begrudgingly did their “homework.” Some of our options were: Disney World, Hilton Head, Rehoboth Beach, Destin and Gatlinburg.
We tossed out Disney, because the girls didn’t want to go, and Gatlinburg, because we’d been too many times. Destin didn’t make the cut because it was further than the other beach towns. This left me looking for an AirBnb in the remaining cities.
Eventually, I found a nice condo at Hilton Head that slept eight people, was walking distance to the beach and had pool access. Our condo was in Palmetto Dunes, which I highly recommend, but more on that later. We booked it and I felt a little poorer already.
Planning Ahead
When the kids were little I would plan ahead for big trips by putting a box or tote on the sofa in our living room (which we don’t use very often). Then, each time I went to the store I’d pick up a little something for the trip. This helped me with budgeting and cut out a bit of expense in the few weeks preceding our vacation.
I did the same for this trip, which the kids got a kick out of. Each time I went to the store, I’d pick up an item or two. Maybe I’d grab a few cans of sunscreen or a new beach towel to replace one of our old, ratty ones. I’d grab some shelf stable foods, like a box of cereal or some snacks. It’s not going to take the bite out of your budget completely, but it will feel like a little moral victory when you’re packing.
Try to figure out what everyone wants out of vacation. Do you all want to hang out together? Eat together? Do you want to build in some independent time? Does everyone want to hang out at the beach or do you prefer planned activities? It’s helpful to know in advance so you can plan and budget ahead.
Food Decisions
You’ll also want to get an idea what everyone wants to eat and how you’ll handle the food. We decided to pick up the tab for everything on this trip as four of the six kids are still college undergrads. They may have been happy to take turns paying, but with their budgets I really didn’t want to eat McDonalds or ramen noodles for the majority of vacation.
What does everyone like to eat? Are there any food allergies that you need to be aware of? We do have one that’s gluten free in a family where everyone else loves pasta.
Eating Out or In
Our vacation was seven nights. That’s seven breakfasts, seven lunches, seven dinners and an astounding amount of snacks. We decided to eat six of the breakfasts in and all of the lunches. We decided to eat out every night but one. And we planned two trips for ice cream.
Next time (and there will be a next time, just not this summer), I think we’ll eat out once and cook in the rest of the time. Eating out every night is just too expensive with that many people and approached the $500 mark twice during the trip. It also takes too much time. We had to agree on a restaurant, get ready, load the cars, etc. It just took too much time and felt like we were mobilizing an army.
I don’t mind cooking. So, if I had to I could cook those six evenings and not be unhappy. But I’m also fairly certain that I could assign one night per couple and we could eat fairly well for the entire trip. Two of the girls and two of the boys are fairly adept in the kitchen. As a matter of fact, Amanda’s fiance made delicious sausage gravy and biscuits for us one morning and lunch another day.
I recommend dinners that feed a crowd and come together fairly easy. If you’re not dealing with gluten issues, pastas are always filling and fairly economical. I still would make Johnny marzetti, but just make a small separate pan with gluten free pasta. Chicken enchiladas are popular with the group as well. And your condo may have a grill. If so, kabobs are nice for vacation cooking.
What Should You Cook?
Most breakfasts we just did cereal, bagels and fruit. We employed an everybody for themselves philosophy and I hope they all got something to eat.
Lunch was sandwiches, salads and lunchmeat pinwheels. I put out vegetable trays and fruits and little bags of potato chips.
Using paper plates and plastic cutlery made everything just a bit easier. I don’t mind cooking, but I’m not a big fan of doing the dishes on vacation! We also loaded the refrigerator with bottled water and canned pop.
Making the Most of the Sunshine
I flirted with the idea of renting a bike for each of us for the duration of the trip. There were many services on the island that would have them dropped off for you at the condo. In the end, I used the same money to rent two bikes for the trip and two sets of umbrellas and chairs at the beach.
There were a few times it would have been nice to have three or four bikes, but there was never a time when all eight of us wanted to ride bikes together. That would have been a colossal waste of money. The two bikes we rented did get a good bit of use however, so I would do that again.
Renting two sets of beach chairs was just enough. Sometimes only a few of us were at the beach, which meant everyone got a chair. Other times we were all there together. Although only half of us got to sit under the umbrellas at a time, there was plenty of room for all of us to get our things in the shade. And honestly, their were always a few that were happy to lie in the sun.
Full Family Nightlife
In the evenings we spent the bulk of our time at dinner, some of which was waiting on a table as not every restaurant accepted reservations. The waiting was a hassle but it was nice to sit at our meals and not rush. Vacation is good for that.
We tried to make sure we hit everyone’s interests with our evening trips. I think we did a pretty good job.
Putt putt golf was one of my requests. I have great memories of doing that with my parents on my childhood vacations. I’m really bad at it, but still enjoy it. I was a little worried about a group our size. We stayed together but sort of split up in fours, putting two holes at a time. It actually went much better than I expected.
Other nights we spent shopping and just sort of taking in the island. One evening we took pictures on the beach. A few nights we got scoops of ice cream. It was a really nice time.
Planning Your Trip
If you’re an empty nester and want to start taking full family trips, you’d better put on your planning hat. To start with, how often will you take a family trip? Every year? Every other year? Once every five years?
We’re still trying to settle into a rhythm. We travelled all together in 2022, but we know we are going to skip this year. Marina has an out of state fellowship, Amanda has a trip with her fiance’s family and with her college volleyball team, and Natalie is travelling once with her boyfriend’s family and once to a few national parks.
Next year may be more of the same, but we plan on playing it by ear. I’m not sure what frequency we will land on or if we’ll just take each year as it comes.
You’ll want to think about budget. Will you be paying for everything? Will you take turns with dinner? Eventually will the kids pay a part? I don’t know where we’ll end up, but probably some sort of hybrid. Maybe we’ll continue to pay for the lodging, but we can take turns preparing or purchasing dinner?
The main thing, I think, is to be upfront with them about your expectations. And give them plenty of time to plan if you expect them to pay a portion.
FindingOhio
This was our first full family, empty nest vacation and for the most part it went well. I definitely see where there’s room for some improvements next time, but I have a bit of time to plan that.
Thanks for FindingOhio and beyond today. If you’re planning a trip and don’t want to wander so far, there are plenty of places to stay in the Buckeye state. You can rent a cabin in the Hocking Hills, explore one of our beautiful cities or head for Ohio’s own islands, Kelleys and Put-in-Bay.
Check back often as we’re sharing our adventures at least once a week. And, as always, we appreciate you sharing our content to your social media. We want to share our amazing state with everyone!
