Disconnect to Reconnect with Your Family

Last updated on 10/26/2023

If work has been a drain and the only thing you have energy for when you get home is collapsing on the couch to scroll on your phone, you could be missing out on valuable family time. It's understandable to be tired after a long day but watching the latest cat videos to relax may not always be worth the missed opportunities to catch up with your partner, bond with your kids or check in on older relatives who might love to hear from you.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, it might be time to disconnect from work and technology so you can reconnect with your family.

One of the best ways to do that is with a family vacation. When you plan a family trip, everyone gets time away from distractions like school and work to have fun. Best of all, planning a trip with the kids and other relatives gives everyone a chance to have shared, real-world experiences that may help them grow closer long-term.

To help you get your much-needed family time started, we've outlined some of our top ideas for reconnecting with loved ones that you can use regardless of who's joining you or the family reunion destinations you choose. We’ll also mention how you can help maintain a positive travel experience by finding the right family travel insurance quotes for your trip.

Start the Day Right - Together

Learn as a Family

For a child, one the best vacation memories may be that time they discovered something new—and you were excited to learn right alongside them.

When planning a trip with kids, fun family activities that also include learning can be a great way to keep your little ones happy, give you a chance to learn something new and provide excellent opportunities to bond. If you're traveling with relatives who also have children, picking vacation spots and excursions with fun, all-ages learning opportunities may give all the travelers in your group, children and parents alike, something to enjoy.

Depending on the family reunion destinations you have in mind, here are some examples of real-world, non-screen time activities where everyone can simultaneously learn and play:

• Visiting the zoo: who doesn't love learning about new animals from around the world?
• Checking out the aquarium: you don't have to be a kid to be amazed by the unreal creatures living under the sea
• Mini-golf: while this is more of a game, it gives you an opportunity to teach your younger players an athletic skill while exposing them to friendly competition

If you're traveling abroad, you can also find interactive experiences that teach everyone about the local culture, including its history, art and more (including authentic food you can taste if you're lucky).

Understand Different Family Members' Different Needs

This is especially important when planning multigenerational family vacations; being thoughtful in how you plan the vacation will let your relatives know you care, making it easier to bond and create happy, shared travel memories.

If your family trip includes relatives like older parents and grandparents, you may want to choose locations with easy access to taxis and public transportation, or fewer hills and well-paved streets for easier walking. If this is a long-awaited gathering, you may also want to research family reunion destinations with milder weather and activities that don't require too much physical exertion, which may help prevent exhaustion.

Planning a trip with kids also has its unique considerations you should take into account. While all-ages activities are a must, you should also plan to find destinations with food options that aren't too complicated for their tastes. If your vacation includes activities that involve longer car rides to reach, you should also have entertainment planned and packed—think books, card games, music and more. And remember: if the plan is to reconnect with your family on this trip, try to use electronic devices and screen time as a last resort.

Make Travel a Tradition

If you're disconnecting from work and technology to spend more time with your family, the disconnect itself should be more than a one-off occurrence. To strengthen those connections with your loved ones, make regular efforts to show them you care, and that spending time with them is a priority for you.

In other words, consider making family travel a tradition.

Setting the expectation—or, better yet, the excitement—for an annual family trip gives you and your loved ones something to look forward to. If you plan on having a tradition that involves multigenerational family vacations, it also gives younger and older relatives something to talk about together. This creates opportunities to reminisce, share a laugh and ultimately create stronger bonds not only between you and your relatives, but among the whole family as well.

Spend Your Time Reconnecting—Not Worrying—with Travel Insurance

Disconnecting from life’s stresses to travel with your immediate family (or to plan larger, multigenerational vacations everyone in the family tree can enjoy) is a great strategy for building and strengthening relationships. The more people you have on your trip, though, the more complicated it can get: More chances for luggage to go missing, to miss connecting flights and encounter other obstacles as you go about your vacation.

When planning your trip, however, you can keep the travel experience positive by reducing your risk. That’s where finding the right family travel insurance quotes comes in. With travel insurance, you add an extra sense of security to your vacation plans with the knowledge that the right coverage could financially protect you should certain obstacles arise. And, when traveling with family, you may be able to find coverage that protects everyone in your group with plan options that insure not only issues with luggage and flights, but medical attention, medications and even emergency evacuation needs.

The best way to find family travel insurance quotes is by comparing plan options on InsureMyTrip.com. As the world’s first and largest travel insurance comparison website, we help you compare options from a range of top providers. You can also use our site to find travel advice, information on a variety of destinations and answers to frequently asked questions that tourists have about travel insurance.

To find coverage that’s right for your vacation, start a quote today. Then, disconnect from your computer and enjoy the family time you deserve.