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Experts Suggest Four Essential Questions to Plan a Memorable Family Getaway without Incurring Excessive Costs

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Trips and vacations are becoming an essential way to help family members remain close and maintain interaction with each other.

Between our professional lives and commitments, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important in life. Children get older and build their own lives. Other family members may move away or have different priorities. And before we know it, we’ve lost touch with each other and sometimes with ourselves.

That’s why we’re seeing an increasing amount of families actively choose to organize vacations with the specific purpose of reconnecting. The multigenerational travel trend won’t likely end soon as it makes for ideal opportunities.

Think of the experiences you’ve had while visiting your favorite destinations. Now you can imagine how enhanced those adventures will be when your family is with you. It’s where all of you will visit new places, introduce yourselves to new environments and surroundings, and rejuvenate mind, body, and spirit. You’ll be reconnected through conversations, and your relationships will grow and strengthen.

You also have abundant destination choices of where to take your family, like on a Bakersfield road trip. Choosing from exotic locations to backpacking in Europe to camping in your favorite national park will require coordinating everyone’s schedule, and possibly budgets. However, in doing so, you’ll ensure a destination that will closely match everyone’s needs and desires.

To help navigate making such an essential decision, here are four questions according to the experts, which you should answer to help you and your family have a carefree, relaxing, and enjoyable getaway while avoiding excessive expenses.

What is Your Destination & What Activities Are Available?

Depending on the ages and personal tastes of everyone involved, it will be mandatory for you to make appropriate plans according to those factors. The more people coming along, the more likely you will have differing choices, which is where you may have to compromise or find common ground. It may be possible to narrow down your choices by taking into account everyone’s opinions.

It may be easier as well as cost-effective for you to choose an all-inclusive resort or cruise.

These vacation options allow for an abundance of activities for all ages at a fixed cost or affordable group rate. They can also make it possible to have access to childcare for those nights when you want to reserve time alone with your partner or spouse.

If that option seems too structured, consider talking to friends and colleagues for ideas. A travel agent can also be helpful in choosing destinations and often provides discounted rates.

How Can You Keep Costs to a Minimum?

Depending on the getaway options being considered, you will likely have some idea of the costs involved. For instance, a family vacation in Hawaii would be considerably more expensive than camping in a national park. The length of the getaway will have a significant impact on expenses, in addition to the experience desired. If you arrive as the average traveler, costs can be kept low. However, if you expect first-class or VIP treatment, expenses could rise exponentially.

When setting a budget for your trip, try to keep extras to a minimum, suggests Patrick Dwyer Merrill Lynch. He also adds “Your priority is to determine what activities are most vital and secondly, to try and minimize amenities that are less important. If you’re not looking to include unnecessary extras, a cruise is often the easiest way to accommodate a large group.  Cruises tend to please a wide variety of people given the choices of activities available all in one place.”

Instead of going the traditional route of a hotel or resort, consider renting a home, or multiple homes to accommodate everyone. If your group plans on traveling to several locations, alternatives to hotels can make managing the cost of lodging simple and stress-free.

How Will Expenses be Handled?

A crucial question that should be asked prior to making plans is determining who is paying for various aspects of the trip. Will it be broken up by the individual families? You’ll need to take into account airfare, gas, rental cars, hotels, and admittance to events or parks.

By not taking the time to assess how costs will be covered, you could be creating a recipe for disaster. Money can come between the best of relationships. The last thing you want is for your family getaway to be derailed by a trivial argument about who is paying for meals. Have the conversation about covering costs as early in the planning stages as possible, so the purpose for taking the vacation stays relevant.

Will My Family Get Along?

No family is perfect, and we’ve all experienced times when our family had a disagreement or worse. If some ill feelings are still lingering, they won’t be solved any easier if you’re away from your daily lives.

It may be best to lay down some basic rules before departing. Or, if you feel there will be too much tension, ensure that those parties have separate living quarters and have minimal interaction with each other.

You may also want to have designated days or times where individual families have their own activities to minimize any potential issues or conflicts.

Overall, to help guarantee your family getaway’s success, the focus should be on each other and not where you are or what you’ll be doing. Our time with family and loved ones is our most scarcest commodity as once time is gone, no matter how much we plan or invest, we can’t get it back. Planning more family vacations can help you recognize the importance of spending time together and should be geared towards doing it on a more frequent basis.

Michelle has been a part of the journey ever since Bigtime Daily started. As a strong learner and passionate writer, she contributes her editing skills for the news agency. She also jots down intellectual pieces from categories such as science and health.

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Lifestyle

Why Derik Fay Is Becoming a Case Study in Long-Haul Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship today is often framed in extremes — overnight exits or public flameouts. But a small cohort of operators is being studied for something far less viral: consistency. Among them, Derik Fay has quietly surfaced as a long-term figure whose name appears frequently across sectors, interviews, and editorial mentions — yet whose personal visibility remains relatively limited.

Fay’s career spans more than 20 years and includes work in private investment, business operations, and emerging entertainment ventures. Though many of his companies are not household names, the volume and duration of his activity have made him a subject of interest among business media outlets and founders who study entrepreneurial longevity over fame.

He was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, in 1978, and while much of his early career remains undocumented publicly, recent profiles including recurring features in Forbes — have chronicled his current portfolio and leadership methods. These accounts often emphasize his pattern of working behind the scenes, embedding within businesses rather than leading from a distance. His style is often described by peers as “operational first, media last.”

Fay has also become recognizable for his consistency in leadership approach: focus on internal systems, low public profile, and long-term strategy over short-term visibility. At 46 years old, his posture in business remains one of longevity rather than disruption  a contrast to many of the more heavily publicized entrepreneurs of the post-2010 era.

While Fay has never publicly confirmed his net worth, independent analysis based on documented real estate holdings, corporate exits, and investment activity suggests a conservative floor of $100 million, with several credible indicators placing the figure at well over $250 million. The exact number may remain private  but the scale is increasingly difficult to overlook.

He is also involved in creative sectors, including film and media, and maintains a presence on social platforms, though not at the scale or tone of many personal-brand-driven CEOs. He lives with his long-term partner, Shandra Phillips, and is the father of two daughters — both occasionally referenced in interviews, though rarely centered.

While not an outspoken figure, Fay’s work continues to gain media attention. The reason may lie in the contrast he presents: in a climate of rapid rises and equally rapid burnout, his profile reflects something less dramatic but increasingly valuable — steadiness.

There are no viral speeches. No Twitter threads drawing blueprints. Just a track record that’s building its own momentum over time.

Whether that style becomes the norm for the next wave of founders is unknown. But it does offer something more enduring than buzz: a model of entrepreneurship where attention isn’t the currency — results are.

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