6 Best Places to Find Inspiration for Family Vacations

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As the trip planner of the family, I sometimes struggle to find a vacation destination that my family will get excited about. When I need some new ideas, I always turn to one or more of the 6 places listed below. They are my favorite places to find inspiration for family vacations. I always walk away from my searches with great options!

Inspiration Location #1: Travel Zoo

My newest favorite place to find inspiration for family vacations is Travel Zoo. This is also one of my best places to start vacation planning.

Travel Zoo has tons of vacation deals from near and far. Some of these deals are just for experiences. Some are for entire vacation packages. And yet others are for hotels or airfare.

Even if you don’t book one of their deals, Travel Zoo is a great place to look. I find that they have a lot of places to go and things to do that I would never have thought of on my own.

The entire site is full of inspiration. I really love this site! I get so many great ideas from it.

Just know that you will have to create a free account on Travel Zoo in order to see most of their deals.

Inspiration Location #2: Pinterest

Another great location for vacation inspiration is Pinterest. If you already have a Pinterest account, you can do a search for “family vacation ideas” and get a whole list of ideas.

If you don’t yet have a Pinterest account, I recommend getting one. It is a visual search engine that will serve you up great inspiration for just about any and everything under the sun.

You can also narrow your search further by looking for “family vacation ideas on a budget”, “family vacation ideas with kids”, or even “family vacation ideas with babies.” You can even search for specific countries or types of vacations.

Check out my Pinterest account here. I have several boards full of trip ideas to inspire you.

Inspiration Location #3: Planes, Trains, and Monorails

The next place to find inspiration for family vacations is right here at Planes, Trains, and Monorails!

Head over to the Destinations category for all of my articles about specific places. You will find posts about restaurants, hotels, activities, and cities. These are all places that my family has been to and experienced personally. I give you my honest opinion in each of those articles.

Want even more inspiration? Grab my FREE Ultimate USA Bucket List for Families! It has 60 of the best places to go within the United States. Plus, you will receive my weekly email newsletter. In each newsletter, I include a trip idea of either a place or activity that is on my own bucket list. (I also include a ton of trip tips in the newsletter too!)

You can get your USA Bucket List in the box at the bottom of this page.

Inspiration Location #4: Google Flights

Another place that I like to go to for trip inspiration is Google Flights.

The advantage of using Google Flights is that it will give you an idea of what it will cost to travel to a variety of places or on different dates.

Use the Explore tab to see a map of the world. This will then show you the cost of flights to different locations. You can zoom in or out on whatever area of the world you are interested in for even more places.

Once you’ve narrowed it down to a particular city, you can click on the Things to Do tab to find activities and experiences in that particular destination. You can also filter your search by type of activities to find things that your family will love.

Inspiration Location #5: Your Kids

My most surprising place to find inspiration for family vacations is your kids! Yes, believe it or not, your kids can give you tons of ideas for your next family vacation.

If you are at a loss for where to go on your next trip, ask your kids! Find out where they would like to go. If they can’t give you an answer to this question, ask them what they would like to see or do. Then plan a trip around these answers.

You could also just plan a trip around your kids’ favorite interests. If you son loves dinosaurs, look for a great dinosaur exhibit at a natural history museum and then plan a trip around it. If you have baseball fans in the family, plan a road trip to see a couple games in different cities.

Inspiration Location #6: Your Bucket List

My last place to go to for trip inspiration is your own bucket list. Pull out your bucket list and look for an idea that will fit your current budget and schedule.

Don’t have your bucket list written down? Then do it! You should always have an ongoing list of places you want to visit and things you want to do for this exact reason!

You will never actually get around to accomplishing the things on your bucket list if you don’t keep track of them and make an effort at doing them from time to time.

Conclusion

It’s hard to plan a trip for your family if you can’t think of anywhere to go. The above list will help you find lots of inspiration for family vacations the next time you are stumped for ideas.

For more trip planning advice, see the best places to find hotels, my ultimate guide to travel with kids, how to have amazing vacations on any budget, how to plan an epic vacation, and how to plan a multi-city road trip.

Happy travels!

P.S. Don’t forget to grab your USA Bucket List in the box below! You will also get my weekly email newsletter full of trip tips and inspiration delivered right to your inbox!