Consider gathering your family and escaping to a peaceful location within which you can all unplug. Child-friendly cabin vacations offer the opportunity to enjoy fun, adventurous activities surrounded by natural beauty and plenty of fresh air.
Following are tips to help your cabin getaway be as restorative as it is exciting.
Choose A Category
Are you looking for a single cabin in a relatively remote setting? Or would you prefer to reserve a place within a community, perhaps inclusive of a central pool, game room and family activity center? Are you forest, mountain, or water bound? Search for locations that check all your boxes first, and then you can compare pricing and additional amenities in a more streamlined manner.
Car Access
This point cannot be over-emphasized. No matter how you are initially traveling to your cabin’s locale, make sure upon arrival that you possess a car which can be parked nearby. You are in the great outdoors with children, ready to go with the flow and relax routines. But you must have a safe vehicle for travel back into civilization in case of emergency.
Carefree Clothes
Pack clothes you don’t care if you ever see again. Old T-shirts, elastic-challenged bathing suits, holed shorts, ragged caps. You know the gang is going to get dirty, sweaty and wet. It is not your job to clean or mend on vacation. It’s your job to grub right alongside the kids without concern for wardrobe survival!
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Compile Coolers
If you are flying to your cabin, grab cheap Styrofoam coolers from any road stop shop. If you are driving from home, pack as many, in a variety of sizes, which fit into your vehicle. Likely your cabin will have a freezer and refrigerator, but you can’t lug it along on hikes or fishing excursions. It also doesn’t stand directly next to the all-important fire pit, arguably the central hub where your family will enjoy a clear majority of meals and snacks.
Cooking Ideas
You certainly don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing and cleaning up from meals. Preferably you’d like to cook outdoors. Consider single-pan dishes and grill options. Bring heavy aluminum foil for steaming vegetables and baking potatoes. And don’t forget dessert. You know your kids love mixing the batter and preparing sweets. Most vacation rental kitchens don’t include cookie sheets or bakeware, so consider bringing your own.
Craft Materials and Hobbies
Unplugged, with kids, in nature. Let’s face it, you can play cards, dominoes and board games anywhere. Why not consider the uniqueness of nature’s unlimited ability to entertain and consider some inexpensive hobbies for all ages? For instance, pack a magnifying glass and binoculars, sketch paper and colored pencils. Even if you don’t know what, exactly, they’ll be used for, include a bottle of school glue, popsicle sticks and a ball of string. Consider placing craft supplies on the porch, watchful of their eventual employment. An easy answer of “I don’t know” when asked what the materials are for inspires child-directed creativity and innovation.
Chocolate!
Go ahead, it’s vacation, after all. You can’t make s’mores without chocolate, and nothing tastes better than hot chocolate beside a morning campfire. A little indulgence goes a long way. The kids do not have to be still or remain focused on work. Never mind the well-known phenomenon of a sugar crash. Nothing wrong with sweet fresh-air pass-out afternoon naps either.
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Camera Options
It’s important to capture your trip’s goofy and sensitive moments on film. But you don’t want to be tempted to sneak online or check social media while using a phone’s camera function. Disposable cameras have come a long way in quality and design since their first invention. They remain inexpensive despite being fully automated. Waterproof options abound. Consider buying one “special vacation camera” for each child and adult. Resulting shots will reflect wildly different interpretations of the same event!
Conversation
Think about it. When do you truly get to sit down and talk, or listen, to your child without distraction? There’s no better time than when minds and rules are relaxed to relate meaningfully. Take stock of possible topics to initiate and investigate together. All will remember this time as one of significant bonding.
Contemplate Health Benefits
Fresh air smells sweet, puts color on your cheeks and clears your head. But did you know that oxygen speeds healing, strengthens the immune system and has detoxification elements?
Go ahead, congratulate yourself! By keeping your stay in a cabin with the kids safe, meaningful and relaxed for all, the family retains valuable life tools that can, in turn, be passed on. Perhaps from future child-inhabited getaway cottages.
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Kacey is a lifestyle blogger for The Drifter Collective, an eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us. Kacey graduated with a degree in Communications while working for a lifestyle magazine. She has been able to fully embrace herself with the knowledge of nature, the power of exploring other locations, cultures, and styles, while communicating these endeavors through her passion for writing and expression. Her love for the world around her is portrayed through her visually pleasing, culturally embracing and inspiring posts. You can find her on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.