How much did you travel growing up? (camping, cost, vacations)

[tvdxer]

Did your parents take you around the world, or were they homebodies who never left your hometown? What memories and experiences especially stand out on your family vacations?

My parents were more of the homebody type. I remember our first real family vacation, a road trip to Wisconsin Dells, in 1994. I was 7 years old, fresh out of first grade, and pretty much planned the trip. Later I remember us occasionally going down to the Twin Cities to visit relatives or go to Valleyfair, but really not much else. My parents graciously sent me on school trips to Washington D.C. in 2001 and Costa Rica in 2005, and offered to do so for my brother and sister, but they didn't want to. Our other major family trips (if you want to call them that) were to Wisconsin Dells again, this time in the winter, in 2001, and to the Black Hills of South Dakota in the Summer of 2005 (which we were originally going to do in 1995!). That was an interesting trip - we were originally going to visit the nearby states of Wyoming and Montana, but we all ended up sick and didn't.

My mother also often took us camping at her family's campsite two hours away near Brainerd almost every year from 1995 to 2001. I often felt inadequate in our tent when everybody was in motorhomes! (I felt inadequate about a lot of other stupid things at the time, too, like our house - I remember being 9 and often accusing my parents of having us live in a "starter home"!)

My mother never seemed to have a passion for seeing the country or world. My dad did seem to have a little bit of an itch to travel, but it never materialized. I supposed having a business to run had something to do with it, as well as having three (four at times) dogs to look after.

[Chava61]

My family lived in different countries due to my father's work. Therefore we traveled around in order to take advantage of the different places that we lived in.

[pvande55]

Lived in the East, then the Midwest. But traveled a lot to the South. Maybe a vacation a year, sometimes skipped it. A few weekend trips.

[WyoNewk]

I grew up in Kansas and Iowa in the 50s. My family often took driving vacations -- to New York once, including just into Canada to see Niagra Falls, Colorado mountains several times, the Oregon coast once.

My kids, born in the early 70s, saw a bit more of everything since we had an airplane and plenty of income for traveling. They'd have seen more, but my ex always wanted to spend our summer vacation in the midwest with her parents. From there (Iowa) we'd travel to Wisconsin (Dells, etc.) or Missouri (Ozarks). We usually spent our winter (Christmas break) in southern California or Florida. We also took our kids out of school for a few quick trips, as we figured they'd learn more on them than they would sitting at a desk in school -- San Francisco for a business meeting/vacation, LA for a Superbowl/vacation, etc.

And my kids have carried on that tradition of traveling with my grandchildren. They (grandkids) have all been to travel destinations in the Caribbean, southern Mexico, east and west coasts, the deep south, midwest, etc. plus considerable travel up and down the Rocky Mountain region from southern Arizona to northern Montana.

[phxgreenfire]

For the most part we/I went to boring places.

We would go to northwest Arkansas once or twice a year to visit my great-grandparents, but by the time I entered the third grade that pretty much stopped. They died a couple years later, a few months apart from each other.

When we moved to Albuquerque, they were pretty gung ho about road trips. We went to these ancient Indian ruins, but the only ones I recall are Bandalier and Taos Pueblo. There was a trip to Durango, Colorado I remember, then off to Four Corners from there. We did go down to Roswell, but it was for my brother's soccer tournament. Also, I would either go with them or alone to Oklahoma to visit family once or twice a year from 1990-1999. *In case you're wondering about that odd number, I went to OU for a few semesters starting in 2000 before transferring out.* When in Oklahoma, my uncle would take me on camping trips with his family, but I hated going because I couldn't stand his in-laws, and still can't to this day.

We took a few trips to San Diego, one to Toronto and a couple to LA. While in high school, I went on educational trips without family. Near the end of high school, I borrowed the car to "spend the day with my friend" before college. Technically, I did just that each time... but we drove to Mexico twice and once to San Diego.

[DubbleT]

My folks did a lot of road trips. So did I when I got old enough to drive. I'd guess by the time I hit twenty I'd been to, or through, all but a dozen states, most of those in the northeast.

[danielsa1775]

Hardly ever, aside from a couple of trips just over the Queensland Border, I was 17 before I really left my state behind and that was on a school trip.

My folks were farmers and had too many other things to worry about to take a holiday, when they could go all they wanted to do was relax and do nothing on the Gold Coast, it was also in the days when air travel was a luxury very few people could afford.

I can remember my first ever commercial plane trip was to Darwin in the Northern Territory in 1999 I was 23, and it cost me over $700 for the return Trip.

These days $700 will get me a return ticket to Hong Kong (im going up there next Week ), and I can get to Sydney for less than $50, it certainly makes travelling around such a large isolated and sparsely populated place like Australia much easier.

[NJBest]

I've been to more countries than I have to US states. My parents liked to travel so we went all over the world... but we did it like the olden days. We took 3 month vacations at a time rather than the short ones that people take today.

[Mooseketeer]

I was really lucky to have had a Dad who started as an Army officer and ended up a Diplomat very quickly so we moved around a lot, sometimes moving three or four times a year. So I have lived pretty much all over the world and because money was never an issue also grew up travelling a lot as a leisure activity as well.

Occasionally as a kid I used to moan that I never had time to make friends and I am still far more comfortable with adults rather children having never had the chance to bond with kids as a kid myself but I still loved it.


What is the down side of travelling ? Of seeing wonderful and different new places and living in different countries ? Is there anything better in the world than being somewhere different, new and strange ?

It made me far more independent. The downside is that I am addicted to travel and never feel settled anywhere. My boredom threshold is incredibly low and I am constantly restless and suffering from wanderlust....

Going "home" ( France) to see my Grand-Parents used to be in a way quite exotic for me as it was a very stable and settled life and quite different from my "normal" life.

My Dad used to ( and still does I believe) love driving more than almost anything and we always drove thousands of miles discovering wherever we were in depth. I did spend a lot of time in boarding schools but when we were together we just used to get in the car and go. I remember long drives through the night ending up in different countries quite often ( when we were in Europe). Driving vacations are still my favourites as I feel free and footloose and fancy free. I was used to flying from the age of about two I suppose. As a single Dad I think my Dad saw me as his co-pilot in life and we made great travelling companions ( until my teens anyway).

[Alaskan Mutt]

In addition to moving several times while growing up, I got to travel a lot. When we moved to Alaska my dad's employer paid for us to go back to Montana every two years for vacation. We often went on day trips on the weekends. I also got the opportunity to travel some while in high school. In rural Alaska there was no such thing as playing the cross town school. It always involved overnight travel. We would usually leave Friday morning, play Friday night and Saturday night and then return home on Sunday. In Western Alaska we flew in an eight passenger airplane. Down in Southeast Alaska we either took a commercial flight or rode the ferry.