By Moez Sghaier
Updated August 18, 2024 4:09 p.m.
A family vacation can provide many advantages. The following are the most important ones:
· Preventing health issues.
· Discovering and enjoying together natural and/or man-made wonders.
· Sharing feelings and emotions.
· Having fruitful conversations in an inspiring man-made and/or natural environment.
· Sharing food/drinks/meals in an unusual setting.
· Enforcing family bonds and overcoming family tensions.
Preventing health issues
One of the main advantages or reasons of travelling with family members is to avoid isolation. Isolation can lead to mental disorder, depression and in some cases suicide.
Also, with the presence of one’s family members, one tries to push his/her physical and/or mental limits to feel appreciated by his/her partner and offspring. By doing so, one can overcome and sometimes forget his/her health issues for the time he/she is on vacation.
While on vacation, our whole family strives to have enough hikes in nature to stay fit, get enough pure air and avoid health problems like arthritis to reemerge.
Discovering and enjoying together natural and/or man-made wonders
One of the main reasons for going on vacation is to see ‘something new’ that one usually does not have the opportunity to see or experience on a daily basis.
That ‘something new’ can be man-made like in our last summer trip to Halifax, NS where we had the opportunity to visit the Halifax Citadel. It can also be natural like the Kejimkujik National Park Seaside where we had the chance to really swim in the sea (Atlantic) for the very first time after being in Canada for over 17 years.
Being together obviously adds to the excitement and enjoyment as the decision to go to a particular spot is a group decision.
Sharing feelings and emotions
Staying in a relationship for years can cause the first love for the other partner to fade. The feelings become superficial and emotions not so intense especially with the attention of the parents shifting to the kids’ well-being over the years.
Getting outside of day-to-day routine by meeting new people and discovering new places can cause some of those hidden emotions to reemerge.
This is what happened during our family trip to Revelstoke, BC last October where we were delighted while visiting some of the spectacular waterfalls in the area like Begbie Falls. Once there, we were nicely surprised encountering salmon fish in their wild habitat for the first time in our lives.
Every one of us felt like travelling back in time to discover an unspoiled nature and focused on living and enjoying a common delightful experience for everyone.
Having fruitful conversations in an inspiring man-made and/or natural environment
Everyday routine life does not encourage engaging in meaningful conversations with one’s family members. Thanks to being in a natural and/or a man-made outdoor setting grants some freshness to the brain to be more creative in choosing the topics that are worth discussing.
Once started, one would enjoy an authentic and inspiring conversation that can lead to making good decisions to benefit everyone in the family. Being in front of the Atlantic Ocean in Nova Scotia last summer made us discuss and choose our next travel destination.
Sharing food/drinks/meals in an unusual setting
With everyday life being hectic, it is not common that every member in a family would eat his/her breakfast, lunch, or dinner on his/her own due to schedule differences. While on vacation, on the contrary, the whole family would share a breakfast, a lunch, or a dinner together no matter what the setting is i.e., a café, a restaurant, or a rented place.
The food would be almost the same or a bit more expensive maybe than every day’s but sharing it together would make one feel it tastier and healthier as everyone thinks a decision made by the group has all the chances of being a good one.
Enforcing family bonds and overcoming family tensions
Over time, living with the same people in the same setting would make one feel useless, and sometimes responsible for a family’s poor quality of life.
Having a travel experience together in which everyone took part in planning would make everyone feel useful and responsible in guaranteeing a minimum of quality while on vacation.
Doing so, bonds between family members would strengthen through the different activities undertaken, and family tensions would ease thanks to taking part in shared endeavours.
In our trip to Revelstoke, BC, last October, we had the opportunity to discover some of the most beautiful sceneries like Sutherland Falls that made us forget any tensions within our family.
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