All too often adventure stops when the family begins. It’s the usual pressures: time, work, money, mealtimes, bath times, all of which conspire to squash out the time and motivation to continue seeking out adventure.
But it doesn’t have to be this way – the adventures are out there, for you and your family, you’ve just got to be a little bit brave, and get up and go.
If you need inspiration, for local and international adventures, a good place to start is the Family Adventure Project blog familyadventureproject.org. For the last decade Stuart Wickes and his wife Kirstie Pelling have been documenting the travels of their young and growing family.
What started as a pledge that starting a family would not stop their adventures turned into a website packed full of experience, inspiration and know-how as ten years on they continue to document their family adventures.
Often on multi-seat bikes – be they tandems or triples, towing child trailers when some or all of their three children were too young to pedal themselves – Stuart and Kirstie have covered over 12,000 miles in the last eight summers in over 20 European countries.
They’ve ridden the iconic Lands End to John O’Groats, the Camino de Santiago, across central Europe and before all that from one end of New Zealand to the other with two toddlers in bike trailers.
Why? “Apart from the fun, family time and personal challenge,” says Stuart, “to at least nurture a spirit of adventure in our kids.”
“Our risk averse culture is teaching parents to be scared of the world, strangers, the elements, and of going out and exploring. And they are passing that on to their children,” says Stuart.
“But family adventure travel not only shows the kids the world and how it works, but shows them how to deal with anything it throws at them. What’s more, dealing with challenges as a family creates strong memories and even stronger relationships.”
“Adventure teaches kids to be resilient, to weather a storm, discover what they are capable of and learn skills and attitudes for life,” says Stuart.
It’s not just about growing young adventurers either, but growing adventurous parents too. It’s about learning to be brave as a parent and letting your children make their own judgement calls. As Kirstie says, “One of the hardest things is to trust our children’s own decision-making ability – so that they can say yes to adventure and we don’t always have to say no.”
How young is too young?
Given that Kirstie and Stuart cycled across the Baltics with two toddlers and her six months pregnant, it’s clear they believe your family is never too young. Even newborns can be carried in some bike trailers, and once a baby can support its own head most back-pack child carriers and child trailers will work. As Stuart states: “Those early days, months and years with a new baby are precious and demanding but you don’t have to stay at home for them.”
For the less brave majority, the received wisdom is that five is the right age for adventure holidays: “That’s when they are curious about their new surroundings and physically able to explore it,” says Tim Winkworth of family adventure holiday specialist The Family Adventure Company. “For our activity trips we recommend a bit older still,” says Winkworth, “from eight-years-old up.”
The company’s trips range from Jeep and bike adventures exploring the Maltese islands, with swimming, snorkelling and learning about local culture for younger families, to walking the Inca Trail for families with teenagers and above.
“All our trips are designed for families to experience together – they’re not about sticking the children in a kids’ club,” says Winkworth, “they’re about doing all types of things as a family, whether it’s making pizza, rafting or building an igloo.”
Generation games
It’s not just the very young that are enjoying family adventure holiday either, with the so-called ‘three generations’ holiday ever more popular: “It’s becoming more and more common to see young families travelling with grandparents,” says Winkworth. “We’re seeing more and more grandparents who are fit, active and able to join in the activities with the little ones. These multi-generation families often opt for iconic ‘bucket list’ destinations, such as Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina or Costa Rica.”
Another type of family adventure holiday on the rise is the so-called GUFU, which stands for Grown Up Family Units, who still travel together. According to Jon Barber of Families Worldwide travel company, these family groups have typically older teenagers and are looking for early and late summer adventure trips: “That way they can take advantage of lower airfares either side of the peak holiday season.”
