Traveling With Your Parents, Successfully

On the first few trips, every item on the itinerary, every meal we had, felt like it had to be the BEST. Now that everyone is more used to the cadence and has a broader swath of memories from each trip, there’s less pressure for every bite to be amazing or every day to be monumental. Great meal, mediocre meals, the most memorable days, horrific travel days, things start to feel less dramatic and all part of the experience. The more you travel, especially later in life, the more comfortable you are stepping into the foreign and unknown. For me personally, I have also learned to carve out windows of time to myself on the annual trip. I schedule blocks of time for all of us to go and do our own things, as I know that my own happiness and enjoyment hinges on some independent wandering and exploration. Also do not be fooled, I would say that we are bickering, still, for a good 30% of the trip. Because what would a trip with your parents be without it? But I can actually say now that in the memories from the last five years of the annual parents trip, I cannot remember a single disagreement we got into but I do remember every walk we took, site we saw and bite we ate. Call your parents! Ask them if they want to take a trip!