WIDEN YOUR HORIZON
A. Travelling
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| Vienna |
For the last one year that I’ve been on my own (LoVe hearing that!!)
I’ve been doing one thing that I do love most… TRAVEL. Many has these notion
that travel should be ‘expensive, far, must be able to impress your friends,
lots of photos, and blab la bla’ and they would end up disappointed, depressed,
not meeting expectation and do not enjoy the trip. Understand one thing and
this one thing alone is the greatest tips to reach your own happiness. Hey,
been there done that!
I used to have this believe that travelling should involve long haul
flight, places that MANY others has visited, must be shared via social media,
depends how many likes, and shopping!! Expectation is another major killer of
your mood and excitement. The more expectation that you have, the more that
you’d feel depressed during your travel. I’ve experienced it whereby the
children would not enjoy the trips, moody, and spoils the holiday mood.
I make it a point to spend my holidays locally or overseas. No matter
what are my choices, I would prefer to plan it on my own rather than having
travel agent to determine places to go. This is because it I’m travelling with
family, we would be enjoying the things that we LoVe to do rather than just to
visit places that EVERY tourist go. I do
not want to be like any other tourist. Furthermore with all the booking of
flight and hotels are now is very easy and accessible via online.
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| Prague - stop for a hot coco |
I am sharing some tips for a long distance travelling trips with family.
- I’m married with 3 children aged 14, 12 and 10. As most of them are teenagers, and have their own interest, I always get their opinion on places to go and things to do. This is a great opportunity to engage them to be ‘part’ of the family. (You know how teenagers like to stay aloof and away from family)
- Agreed on the location as a family.
- Informed everyone how long is the journey. This is to avoid questions such as “are we there yet?”
- Once you’ve determined the destination, determine what to do and places to visit. Do NOT overdone this by identifying so many places to visit at one go. Limit the places to visit. Focus on bonding with the family.
- Ensure everybody have fun.
- Ensure everybody take at least one responsibility i.e who take care of the backpack, the luggage etc etc
- Keep a bottle of water in your bag for the visit. Trust me children always want water.
- Give everyone a piece of your hotel card / address, just in case anyone got separated from the party.
- Remember that you are with your LoVe one, so travel in a group. Try to avoid separation, eventhough everyone have their own interest. Go as a family.
- If one of the family members are tired, or need a quick recharge during the visit, stop and enjoy the moment. Do NOT makes them feel bad for slowing the group. Improvised your visitation schedule. What is important is the family, not the places that you visited, it would always be there.
- Do not become prisoners of time. Take one thing at a time and enjoy it. You are not racing against time.
- You don’t have to visit all the tourist attraction places. Do not be succumb into the trap to become one of the statistic. Remember! Its your holiday/trip. It is about you and your family. You do not have to satisfy others with places you’ve visited.
- Do not makes shopping your priority. Remember… you are on holidays. This is also to avoid over access baggage. and extra charges
- Avoid social media!!! You do not have to update every single place that you’ve visited. Your happiness does not depend on how many likes you have.
- Do not make buying souvenirs for others your priority. Your priority is to enjoy the trip.
If you want to shop, planned earlier and inform your family members. Tell them what to expect and what you are going to buy. Let them experience and enjoy the moment. This is to avoid you children from being restless.
Did I missed anything?
Next I'll share some tips on short trips.....
Cheers....
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