Can you believe we are in our last week of July? Most people are trying to squeeze in that last vacation of the summer before school ends. I remember those days when vacation plans were dictated by the school schedule.
When my children were young and in school, summer was one of my least favorite times of the year. Trying to keep them busy and not bored was always a challenge. I really like schedules and in the summer there were no schedules. But I always really enjoyed the last week or two before they went back to school.
Those last few weeks we would schedule one last beach week. Now looking back, I wish we would have diversified a little and explored other areas of the world, especially the National Parks. The beach was always the easy place to go because we could drive and the biggest reason was my mother lived there.
Summer Vacation Experiences
Don’t get me wrong, you know I love the beach. (You can read here about “My Favorites On 30A“.) But as I have gotten older traditions are important but I have learned to see and explore new places will broaden your horizons. It will expose you and your children to more experiences while seeing the world.
For us, money wasn’t the issue, it was convenient and easy. Going to the same places, you get familiar with restaurants, places to stay, and things to do. That is all good but I think all of those memories can run together.
Once, I got divorced (check out this post) money was an issue. However, now I have learned there are many ways to travel on a budget. Check out this article.
Looking back, I realize that I would rather spend money on experiences rather than on possessions. You will always have those memories from the experience but possessions come and go. At the end of the day, we are all made up of the experiences that we have in life.
Now that my boys are grown, it is hard to plan a trip with everyone. It becomes far more expensive and taking off time from their jobs is much harder. I am lucky enough to still travel with my sons on occasion and we try to explore new places. I had never been to London and Paris and this year I got to go with my oldest son. The memories we made are priceless.
So if you haven’t planned your last vacation of the summer or already thinking about next summer. Expand your horizons and try something new with your family. I promise you the experiences and memories that will be made are far more important.
