The Simplified Family Vacation: Have Fun, Learn About Money

When Dad took them camping at Vogel State Park in north Georgia recently, Andrew and Benjamin Groover got an early look at the kind of family vacations in store for them.

The three-year-old twin boys were happy playing by a stream and looking at fish in a lake. They liked sleeping in a tent, though they refused to turn off their flashlights. It’s the kind of vacation their parents, Joel and Susan Groover, plan to make a tradition.

The Groovers don’t want their kids to associate vacations with a chance to spend money with abandon.

“I don’t think we’re going to do a lot of Disney vacations,” says Joel. “In part because of the money, but also because of the stimulation. We want our vacations to give us a chance to wind down.”

Family vacations can be tremendous budget busters, and they can set the stage for quarrels between children who want to buy out the gift shop and mothers who want to stop the financial hemorrhaging.

But vacations don’t have to create a financial strain—they can give parents a chance to subtly teach their children about money. For example, parents can give each child an allowance for souvenirs. Some children would rather keep the money than spend it on a t-shirt they’ll soon outgrow.

More importantly, parents can show their children that vacations are about spending time together, not blowing money at every turn.

Jayne Pearl, author of Kids and Money: Giving Them the Savvy to Succeed Financially and the Web site kidsandmoney, favors vacations that give kids choices of activities tied to their interests. And she has a can’t-fail tip for preventing tourist-trap meltdowns: “Avoid tourist traps!”

Here are her suggestions for fun family vacations that promote family togetherness over souvenir binging:

• Challenge kids to use the Internet to find fun activities that are off the beaten path. For example, maybe your teenager’s favorite band is planning a summer tour with stops in smaller cities like Lexington, Kentucky or Cleveland, Ohio. Or maybe the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York would interest your son. “Throw everything on the table,” Pearl says. “Put together a trip that includes something for everybody.”