Planning a family trip isn’t as easy as you may imagine, as you’re literally putting together a mega plan that will make the trip more enjoyable for you and your family. Affordability is another key factor that will play a major role in how to plan a family vacation as proper planning ensures you needn’t have to burn a hole in your pocket. We’ve compiled a blog this week that lists easy-to-follow hacks on planning a family vacation on a budget and making it hassle-free. So, let’s get started, as we’ve lost almost two years and a half time due to the pandemic situation.

1. Set Goals (and Expectations too!)

Let’s set the goals and expectations first. Before planning to travel, ask the most important question: Why want to travel? Are you looking for a mere weekend escape or exploring new culture with your family?  When you set the expectations, you need to ensure what kind of adjustments you have to make in order to ensure your family vacation planning is a success. What will be the things you need to sacrifice so as to run things smoothly?

2. Decide your travel destination

Here is the most fundamental question: where do you want to travel? Is the destination you choose family-friendly? We recommend checking the good old-fashioned YouTube or Pinterest for the best destinations for family travel all around the world. Check travelogs, online forums, chatboards, and discuss your travel plans with your friends’ network to explore the best budget family holiday destinations before deciding how to plan a family trip.

3. Start savings for the future

Though there are tons of low-budget family vacation ideas, it’s important to start saving for the future. It will not be a wise decision to plan the trip using your credit card. This said never comprise the comfort factor. With a few tweaks and informed decision-making, you can tailor a family trip on a budget or, based on your travel savings, decide on how to plan a large family vacation.

4. Explore unique places and ideas to explore

The Internet is a great place to explore some of the unique touring destinations and things to do there, serving as the perfect family trip planner. Again, you can check social media platforms including Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc to find out unique destinations and things to explore. A bit of research can help you in gathering ideas and help select the most unique tourist family destinations. 

Other quick hacks to plan a memorable family trip

5. Use Google Map to locate nearby touring destinations easily, and start plotting a visual representation of your travel plan with some help. 

6. Perfect itinerary is not some random planning, but rather a near-perfect one. The trick is to divide your daily tour activities into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening and filing in 1 or 2 activities under each timeslot. This will ensure you don’t major on minor things and put them to the bottom of the list. Try it once, and you can be a better planner for life.

7. Planning your travel budget is the next step in how to plan a family trip. There are a lot of travel budget calculators and free worksheets available online. Download the tools and resources and start building your budget if you’re done with your travel itinerary.

8. The best budget-friendly family vacations are a reflection of how well you’ve invested your time and money in planning the trip. As simple as that. Make early travel and accommodation bookings so that you don’t have to pay more and do the last-minute bookings. The tips mentioned above can come in handy on how to plan a family vacation on a budget.