Family vacation planning

Go to fodors forums, search for country and number of days and pick an iten. w/i your budget. Seriously as easy as that

Fodor or Rick Steves.

Bottom line, set aside a few hours for research. I like trip advisor, but also look at city or country specific blogs. Make a Trello with each column as a full day, add options for each day as a card. I even put train schedules, confirmation numbers and whatnot on it. You don't have to hit everything and can move the cards around if plans change.

Block some time on your calendar 3-6 months ahead of time, let your manager know of it and plan out an itinerary. I try to make an overseas trip each year and follow this. I use spring break and xmas time and book a bit in advance as well. Ask your spouse their places of interest and go with it

First tell what went wrong last time ?

Go to a beach or ski resort (for hiking/biking in the summer). Minimum planning needed. This is why I prefer Hawaii/Fiji to Europe. Works tiring enough, don’t need to stress on vacation

For a moment, I thought this was a “Family planning vacation” 😐

Go to one city/place, spend 3-4 days there and come back. There are lots of places like that in the US itself.

If you want an adventure/exploration vacation, check out many of the tour companies (like gate1 travel, which I’ve used several times successfully). They handle all the logistics, you just have to get yourself to the airport; it makes life a lot easier. This will work only with older kids who can walk a fair bit every day. Also they generally end up being less expensive than doing it yourself, since they get group rates on flights and hotels. These are not relaxing vacations though, you’re constantly moving, but you can see a ton of things in a week that you wouldn’t be able to on your own.

Beach vacations at an all or semi all inclusive resort are very easy. On one now in Puerto Rico. Use trip advisor to find a good place and then find activities in the same area, often no rental car or hotel change needed.