Hello and welcome to episode 27 of the Ready Set Depart Podcast. We are so glad you’re here!

Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to start looking at the new year, am I right? So, let’s talk about how to plan a big, or little, family adventure this coming year.

Family adventures are a way to gain shared memories, to laugh together, to learn together, to explore. 

Adventures don’t have to take you far from home - they can be right in your own town. I’m sure there are things that you’ve always wanted to do.

Sometimes adventures can be far from home for weeks on end. Maybe you have a goal to finish the fifty states - we just did this for my mother-in-law and it was so fun!

Whatever your adventure looks like, planning ahead helps lower the stress, especially with kids! It helps you know what’s possible, but also gives you permission to be imperfect.

So, let’s talk about how to build that amazing family adventure for 2026.

First things first - time

Now is the time to pull out the calendar, if you’re a paper calendar kinda gal like me and start to look at when you’d like to go on your adventure. If you already have a destination in mind, when is the best time to go. (If you don’t have a destination in mind, don’t worry, we’ll talk about that in a bit.)

How long can you and your family realistically be gone? A weekend? A week? A month? (I wish, right?)

And now for the big decisions

Do you road trip or do you fly?

There are a few things to think about when answering that question. How far are you going? How long can you be there? How much will it be?

If you’re staying within about 9 hours of home, a road trip could be fun! It will realistically take two whole days of your vacation, but maybe that’s part of the adventure, right?

Flights can be expensive - though try to fly on Tuesdays or Thursdays to save some money - and hard with toddlers, but it opens up more time. Remember though that you will need transportation when you get to your destination and that could mean car seats. Just something to think about.

But most of all, what kind of trip fits your family right now? Do you have a little who hates to be in the car? Then a road trip is a recipe for a difficult day! Do you have bigger kids that are up for more adventure? That’s something to think about. Would this be your first family adventure? How exciting! 

Think about what you would like your trip to look like. Talk about it with your partner. Maybe start a bit small. Staying in a hotel with a kid who has never slept anywhere but in their bed can be - eye opening. But maybe they’re little adventurers too and are ready for it! You know them best.

Now, where to go!

Ok, now you know how long you’re going to stay and how you’re going to get there, but where is “there”? 

This is where I turn to Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest is still there and still housing so much amazing information at your finger tips. Type in prompts like “best family vacations near {your city},” “best family destinations,” and so on. And start dreaming.

Maybe there’s somewhere you’ve been thinking about. Like say you heard about the Outer Banks on that Netflix series. (I don’t actually watch the series, but it’s called The Outer Banks.) So you search “Outer Banks with kids”. The “with kids” part is the most important. You want to see things that everyone could love.

(And as an aside, the Outer Banks in North Carolina would be an AWESOME family adventure!)

Hey, while we’re talking about Pinterest, did you know that you can find us on Pinterest? We put a lot of our travel tips on there plus some extras. Just search for Ready Set Depart on Pinterest. 

Ask yourself what do your kids like to do? What do you and your partner like to do? If no one in your family is a museum fan, you’re not going to change your interests while you’re on your adventure. Maybe one museum could be interesting, but plan some other things that you love to do too!

Don’t know what you would love? Always try one new thing when you go on an adventure. Just one. Maybe it’s going to the beach or a baseball game or eating something new. And maybe it won’t go well and you’ll never do that again. That’s ok. That’s part of the fun!

Thanks for that perspective Trooper! 

Go to the library to get books on the destination. Maybe there’s a movie shot there. 

That reminds me, the place where we went mud buggin’ is where the first Jurassic Park was filmed. Good times.

Make a simple countdown either with a paper chain or a dry erase board so that your kids can see that it’s coming!

But, let’s talk about a reality check for a minute.

I know I hate thinking about it, but having a budget for your travels is important. No one wants to come back from your adventure with a lot of credit card debt. 

Plus there’s the thought of the best times to go to the destination you chose. Is there a tourist season where everything is going to be busy, but you prefer less crowds? Do you have to contend with snowy weather or hurricanes? 

Google can again be your best friend when thinking about the best time to go. Just type in “best time to go to the Outer Banks” and Google will happily find lots of information for you.

And now it’s time for my favorite part - logistics

I’ve said it before but my family often jokes that I like planning better than I actually like traveling. While that’s not true, I do love planning! And part of planning is logistics. 

If there are things that you want to do on your trip, figure out when you need to reserve it and put that in your calendar. I use my phone’s calendar for this because it can remind me. 

Let’s take the Leavenworth Reindeer Farm for example. If I’m planning on going there this fall - let’s say September. I need to look at the website to see how early I can make the reservations.  When I look at their website, I can reserve spots 54 days before the date I want to go. So I figure out what day I want to go and count back 54 days. (Or use my computer to tell me what day that is.) Make sense?

Now is also the time to get a general idea of what you want to do when you’re on your adventure. If it’s a road trip, what things can you do on your way from one destination to the next? ChatGPT is a great resource for this kind of thing. (In fact, if you wanted, ChatGPT could plan your entire trip - though what’s the fun in that?)

This is how I keep my sanity when we travel

I know that it’s so tempting to try to do EVERYTHING when you’re on an adventure. You may never be there again. There’s so much to see.

But here’s the thing. If you’re stressed and going, going, going, are you having fun and making memories together or are you checking off a list?

Believe me, I get it. This is something I struggle with. And sometimes I still feel like I don’t want to miss anything! But, I know from previous experience that slowing down lets the fun in.

So, try to just do one big thing a day. Focus on one thing. If there are other little things that are around that one big thing, add those in if you feel like you can do it and stay happy.

We recently went to Niagara Falls, New York. I knew that this would be our only time to see the area and we only had 1 day. But I also know from experience that flying from the West Coast to the East Coast is tiring and we probably wouldn’t pop up in the morning raring to go. I knew that we wanted to go on the Maid of the Mist but I also knew that we’d get wet so wanted to build in some time to go change clothes. And I also realized that we were a 20 minute drive from Lake Ontario, which would be the first time most of us saw a Great Lake. So, here’s what we did.

I made a reservation with Maid of the Mist for that day but you don’t make it for a specific time. So, we got up when we wanted to and went to the Falls. After oohing and aaahing, we went on the Maid of the Mist, then went back to our Airbnb to change and have lunch. I put together a few things we could do in the afternoon. The first was nothing if we wanted to. Or we could drive to Lake Ontario. Or we could go to Old Fort Niagara. Or the Niagara Power Vista. 

And then we got to choose on that day when we knew how we were going to feel because our one big thing was to go on the Maid of the Mist and see the Falls. The rest was just gravy! 

We ended up going to Lake Ontario and when I saw the cute little lighthouse and the map of where the other cute little lighthouses were, we decided to go to Lake Erie and see that one. Unfortunately, it was closed because of the Government Shutdown, but the Lake was beautiful!

Another sanity saver for me is if at all possible, I do not get up early on vacation. Getting up at 8 am makes for a much happier traveling family, in our house at least!

And the last thing I do to keep my sanity is to build in rest. Or give ourselves permission to take an afternoon off. Sit by the pool. Nap in the sun. Whatever sounds good to your family, remember to add that into your days.

I love technology! Here are some of my favorite programs!

We’ve talked about most of these, but here’s a quick list.

I love Google for figuring out how long to stay in certain places which helps with the overall schedule.

Pinterest and Instagram are great ways to see destinations and see what there is to do there.

YouTube is my go to for hyping my family up for the destination!

Your phone’s calendar is a great place to put in reminders when you need to make reservations.

How do you organize all this information? I have a couple of different places.

I love a good old fashion notebook for stuff like this. I dedicate a page to every day or every destination so as I learn things, I just jot them down.

Or you can use the program Trello. Trello is a way to organize everything in one place. You can save links, pictures, or pdf’s. 

I go back and forth on which one I like more, but especially for the longer trips, I’m a fan of Trello to keep everything organized.

How to keep those memories alive?

I’ve talked about it before but I love Travel Journals, both for me to remember our trip, but also for Trooper because we homeschool and that way he can record what he’s learned. 

A Travel Journal is just what it sounds like. It’s a journal that you use to remember your trip. That can be whatever you want it to be! Mine is pictures and little things I don’t want to forget. Others just write things. Others just do pictures. It’s whatever works for YOUR family.

Here are a couple of things you’ll need to get your Travel Journal going.

1) A Travel Journal. I’m a fan of the Ursunshine Dotted Journal from Amazon. It has a lot of pages, a band to keep it closed when you fill it full of stuff, and honestly, it’s pretty affordable. 

2) A good pen since you’re putting effort into preserving your memories, you might as well keep them for a long time! My favorites are Zebra Sarasa Pens.

3) If you want pictures in your Travel Journal, you’ll need something to print out those pictures. I have used a bunch of different little printers, but I like the Kodak Mini 2 Retro the best. It works really well and the paper isn’t as expensive as others. I have seen a photo printer at Costco this Christmas season so keep an eye on that as well.

4) Some sort of glue to stick those beautiful pictures in your Travel Journal. I’m a fan of the glue runners for this sort of thing. It’s really hard to explain what they are but basically, you’re putting double-sided adhesive on the back of your photo and sticking it in your journal. It’s important that everything you’re using is acid free if you want your journal to keep looking amazing year after year. My favorite is by AdTech. I used to get them from Walmart, but I can’t get them there anymore so off to Amazon I go.

Before we go, let’s take a look at what we’ve talked about today:

• Start with your calendar and figure out how long you can realistically be gone

• Decide if this adventure is a road trip or a flight

• Dream a little and choose a destination that fits your family, using Pinterest, books, and videos

• Do a reality check with budget and timing, including weather and crowds

• Use Google and Pinterest to figure out how long to stay and what’s possible

• Hype up the family with books, YouTube videos, movies, and countdowns

• Figure out what needs reservations and put those dates on your calendar

• Keep your days simple with one big thing a day

• Sleep in when you can and build in rest to keep your sanity

• And finally, capture the memories with a travel journal, photos, and souvenirs

At the end of the day, planning a family adventure isn’t about doing everything or seeing it all. It’s about creating space for shared memories, inside jokes, and moments you’ll talk about for years. A little planning ahead helps lower stress, gives you options, and lets you be present once you’re actually there. So whether your 2026 adventure is across town or across the country, start dreaming now, take it one step at a time, and remember that the best memories usually happen in the in-between moments.

Don’t forget to follow us on Pinterest for even more family travel ideas. 

And as always, let’s keep making traveling with your family easier, one trip at a time. See ya next time.