A majority of families tend to take a week or less of vacation according to a recent survey by Alamo Rent A Car. I thought the results of their 2017 Family Vacation Survey were interesting and a number of them reflected our own personal vacation choices as well! We typically take a week or less of vacation ourselves, and then opt to take a few vacations over the course of the year, a week-long vacation is also what we did for Spring Break this year.
Spring Break is the perfect time to get away as the weather is warming up and this year we decided to hit the road to go on the first road trip we had done with the girls in a long while! We visited my mom and stepdad in southern Illinois which was around a 9 hour drive from our house. Before the trip, I had looked into plane flight prices, but the costs for flights were high since it was Spring Break week and we would have needed to drive an additional 2 hours travel time from St. Louis airport to get to where my mom's house is located... so we opted instead to hit the road and go on a 9 hour road trip journey to southern Illinois!
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| All packed and ready to go! |
Hitting the Road
We left Michigan on Friday night after the girls were done with school and my husband was off of work, and split the trip into two parts, stopping just north of Indianapolis to spend the night at a hotel before making our way into Illinois the following morning. I had a number of entertainment items on hand for the girls, in addition to our car DVD players and iPad activities, which worked great for them to have something to do in the car!
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| Road Trip Boredum Busters |
Check out our Kid's Road Trip Boredom Busters Road Trip Entertainment in this video:
Sights around southern Illinois
The girls had a great time visiting with family, checking out local playgrounds, and seeing some local foliage we don't have in Michigan!
It was a relaxing Spring Break and we even took time to have professional photos done of the girls while we were there! We had a great time exploring and taking time out for play as well.
A week long family vacation
Since we spent a part of two days traveling on both the trip down to Illinois and back to Michigan, it did take a day off of our vacation time we could spend with family while there, but we still had lots of fun and it made the driving less tiring for the adults! All total, our trip was 7 days, and we arrived home on a Thursday afternoon in Michigan after splitting the return lag again on a Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, so that my husband could be back in the office on Friday morning.
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| Traveling all day is tiring! |
As I have talked about in previous vacation videos, our family prefers to take a week or less of vacation on our own vacations. This time length works well for our family to be able to get vacation time off from my husband's work for our family to get away, yet not miss too much that goes on at work while he is away. Also, with the kid's school schedules it usually tends to be easiest to take shorter vacations as well. It was interesting to find out that a majority of respondents to the 2017 Alamo Rent A Car Family Vacation Survey also prefer to take a week or less of vacation at a time.
In fact, of those who responded to the Alamo Rent A Car Family Vacation Survey, 36% of families take an average of three to five days of vacation at a time, while 38% of families take a six to seven day vacation. Married households and households with an annual income above $75K are also significantly more likely to take a six to seven day vacation.
For many families a week tends to be the optimal time length for vacations, as I've seen reflected in our own family life. I feel like a week is the longest we can be away from our "regular" lives, my husband's work, school commitments, my regular YouTube editing routine, without it being difficult to get caught up after returning from vacation. We also like being able to take vacations throughout the year, and because of the amount of vacation time my husband is allotted, it makes more sense for us to take a few week long vacations as opposed to one single long vacation.
It was wonderful to get away on our Spring Break Road Trip Adventure and get recharged for a few days! I'm looking forward to our next family getaway! Learn more about the Alamo Rent A Car Family Vacation Survey results and be sure to check out Alamo Rent A Car's Scenic Route for tips, tricks, and inspiration to plan your next family vacation!
Sources: 2017 Alamo Rent A Car Family Vacation Survey
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