How To Work Together to Plan a Family Vacation

There are calendars to coordinate, budgets to consider, and personal preferences to balance. Maybe you’re excited to explore the local cuisine while Grandma prefers tried-and-true chain restaurants—and your youngest kid will only eat plain spaghetti. Even when you do reach agreement on the basics, there are hundreds of details to manage before you head out.

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That’s a lot to juggle on your own. It’s time to recruit your family members and make it a team effort. Working together to research and plan your family vacation adds to the anticipation and excitement. Plus, it’s a great chance for kids to learn age-appropriate skills in researching, budgeting, negotiating, and organization.

Thanks to technology, it’s simple to turn single-handed vacation planning into a family activity instead. Here are a few tips on how to plan a family vacation the easy way:

Set up shared lists. Use a list app to create shared to-do lists for every part of the process, from brainstorming destinations to customizing packing lists. Ditch your handwritten lists and go digital so everyone can see and contribute in real time from wherever they are, including email and group chats. You can assign tasks, check things off your list, and quickly monitor the progress to make sure everything is on track.

Capture ideas all in one place. Dreaming of the misty Oregon coast? Add it to a group brainstorm list, alongside your spouse’s idea for an ecolodge in the Peruvian jungle and your 9-year-old’s plea for Disneyland. Regroup as a family to talk through the pros and cons of each idea and agree on your final destination.

Go forth and research. Once you’ve decided on the basics of when and where to go, delegate the research. Assign adults and older kids tasks like finding a beach hotel within your budget, researching things to do on your vacation, scouting out the cheapest flights, or finding recommendations for the best local restaurants. Use your findings to create your official itinerary.

Send ‘em packing. Create a master checklist with basics like swimsuits, pajamas, and toothbrushes. Use your master list as a starting point for individual packing lists, and let everyone customize with their own additions like headphones, a favorite card game, or a special toy. When it’s time to haul out the suitcases, each person can check things off their own list as they go. This is an easy way to oversee the family’s packing progress during the pre-trip hustle.

Get a head start on your next trip. Family vacation planning is an ongoing process. Save your current packing lists so you don’t have to start from scratch next time. Then create a list of notes you can reference for future vacations. What went well? Was there anything you wish you had brought with you? What would you like to see and do on your next trip? Refer back to these notes before you plan your next getaway.

It’s much easier—and more fun— to plan a family vacation when it’s a shared activity that’s organized all in one place. Now it can truly become a family adventure—even before you leave home.