Transitioning to different types of ABDs as kids get older?

[TravelJunkieHubby]

This topic has been touched on in previous threads, but I was curious to hear more opinions. Our boys are 13 and 14 currently and all of the ABDs were have done so far have been either during Spring Break or summer. All have been land-based tours pre-COVID when they were pre-teens.

As we start to look at options for 2023, I'm curious how those with high-school aged kids choose their adventures? Nowadays when we go on a cruise, our kids seem more interested in the teen club and socializing more with kids their own age (compared to when they were younger).

Do you think river cruises or the expedition cruises offer more of this opportunity than the land-based tours?
With all the activities that take up their summers in high school, do you find traveling over winter break easier?
Do you book ABDs well in advance to take advantage of discounts/dynamic pricing or do you wait until your kids schedules for summer activities are more set in stone?
Do you find it easier or harder to travel with ABD once kids reach college-age?

 

[AddictedtoTravel]

On our first ABD my daughter was 8. We've gone on a total of 12 (11?) ABDs and have traveled a bit on our own. When she was younger she really liked the companionship of other kids her age. Although she liked the Adventures by Mom, she definitely preferred ABD We did the Danube River Cruise the first year it was offered (winter break departure). She was 15 (one month from being able to drink beer in Germany ) and she loved it. There was a great group of kids her age and they did everything together and had a blast. They all continued to keep in touch for several years.

We've done more on our own as she has gotten older, partly because so many trips have been canceled the past few years. I always book in advance to get the best price but really never had an issue pulling her out of school for a week if necessary. However she's currently in a program that she can not miss which has defiantly made it a little more challenging. I'm having to cancel our Disney Wish cruise due to changes in her schedule. Boo!

 

[BluesTraveler]

We have a rising high school senior and a rising high school freshman, and I would say planning travel got a lot more challenging when our oldest hit high school. What we found is that it gets a lot harder with sports schedules - it gets nearly impossible to plan in advance - even times that are school breaks can be filled with sports practices or games/tournaments. And then this past year when our oldest was a junior we used the non-scheduled breaks to visit colleges (which was very fun, since we made mini-family vacations out of them). We have still traveled as a family, but trips have been a little shorter or have been planned much more last minute.

Summer also got trickier because our oldest has been a lifeguard the past few years - prime working season for him!

We were glad we did as much travel with them as we did when they were in elementary and middle school.

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

We have a rising high school senior and a rising high school freshman, and I would say planning travel got a lot more challenging when our oldest hit high school. What we found is that it gets a lot harder with sports schedules - it gets nearly impossible to plan in advance - even times that are school breaks can be filled with sports practices or games/tournaments. And then this past year when our oldest was a junior we used the non-scheduled breaks to visit colleges (which was very fun, since we made mini-family vacations out of them). We have still traveled as a family, but trips have been a little shorter or have been planned much more last minute.

Summer also got trickier because our oldest has been a lifeguard the past few years - prime working season for him!

We were glad we did as much travel with them as we did when they were in elementary and middle school.

Thanks - we had a similar mindset of traveling more in elementary and middle school until COVID through a wrench in our plans.

Do you travel over winter breaks? We haven’t really done that before as my family typically enjoys being at home and decorating the house, but I convinced them to try it once with New Zealand (fingers crossed this happens in December).

Depending on how quickly we recover with the jet lag and time difference this may be one and done for winter travel.

 

[BluesTraveler]

We sort of travel over the holidays - we have a beach house and we always spend Thanksgiving break and Christmas break there and family comes and meets us. That said - we have a LOT of friends who travel over New Years' with their teenagers as a way of avoiding conflict with their kids over attending NYE parties and it seems to be a pretty good strategy.

On this subject, I just brought up both a fall break trip and spring break with my HS senior, and he said fall break he may have a cross country meet, and spring break there may be a senior class trip...so we are in a holding pattern as usual!

 

[tink1970]

This topic has been touched on in previous threads, but I was curious to hear more opinions. Our boys are 13 and 14 currently and all of the ABDs were have done so far have been either during Spring Break or summer. All have been land-based tours pre-COVID when they were pre-teens.

As we start to look at options for 2023, I'm curious how those with high-school aged kids choose their adventures? Nowadays when we go on a cruise, our kids seem more interested in the teen club and socializing more with kids their own age (compared to when they were younger).

Do you think river cruises or the expedition cruises offer more of this opportunity than the land-based tours?
With all the activities that take up their summers in high school, do you find traveling over winter break easier?
Do you book ABDs well in advance to take advantage of discounts/dynamic pricing or do you wait until your kids schedules for summer activities are more set in stone?
Do you find it easier or harder to travel with ABD once kids reach college-age?

I only have 1 DD who is now (eek) about to begin her senior year in college (where does the time go?). I believe I responded to a prior thread with a similar topic so apologies for the repetition.

High school was crazy for her during the school year, even winter breaks BUT that's what worked best for our trips a couple of years and then we did a graduation trip in the summer of 2019. Her favorites were, interestingly, the two river boat cruises we did- a Christmas Rhine her junior year Christmas break and when given the option for (almost) anywhere for a trip for graduation, she chose the Danube ABD. I believe the river cruises gave her more options for socializing (more kids==>more people in her age group or slightly older) and after paying for a last minute Christmas ABD one year...we always booked opening day

Most of DD's college experience was sadly affected by Covid but this year she made up for it by doing a 4 week class in Luxembourg, research for her internship in Seville, and research for her honors thesis in Prague. I invited myself to Seville and Prague...not sure if we would have traveled at all together if I didn't horn in on her plans, but it was quite enjoyable. Interestingly, her honors thesis is from something we learned about on an ABD river cruise (Krtek and his animator, Zdenek Miler)...you never know how travel will spark something in your children! Unfortunately, although summers are longer family travel seems harder to schedule in college than ever before.