This week’s family travel goal interview is with DeAnna from Have Teens Still Travel. Her Indianapolis-based family, including teen twins, has a great travel bucket list! This fun interview has input from the whole family.
You can find more family travel goal stories here.
A bit about DeAnna:
We travel together as a family of four (Keith and DeAnna, Gabby 14 and Gracie 14), and produce travel stories for families traveling with children and teens.
Our specialty is engaging families with teens and tweens, encouraging them to put down the electronics and spend quality family time together, by sight-doing (instead of sight-seeing), completing fun but challenging outdoor adventures, and engaging in shared experiences in order to make impressionable memories
Does your family have any travel goals? If so, what are they?
We do!!! They might seem a little random, but we like to mix up our vacations….so here they are, in no particular order:
- Visit all 6 Disney locations (3 down – Orlando, California and Paris)
- See as many National parks, monuments, etc. and get our national passport stamped while earning Jr. Ranger badges. This is something we just happened to stumble upon in St. Augustine at the Castillo, as long as the twins still have fun, we will keep earning them. We earned four badges this last trip.
- Catch a baseball game in every Major League Baseball stadium
- We have a growing bucket list of mostly foreign and exotic locales. Trying to decide if the Galapagos Islands or Machu Picchu should be next summer.
- Throw some adventure into every trip!
Why did your family choose these travel goals?
We think it’s important to keep exploring, learning and growing, experiencing as much life as we can. I want to make as many memories as possible!!! I want my girls to look back on our travels and want to do them again with their own families.
What has been your family’s favorite trip so far? Why?
Ha, we argued over this a bit!! Everyone had their own favorite!!
– Gracie 14 – Our Scotland/London/Scandinavian Cruise. It was lots of fun seeing all the Harry Potter stuff in Edinburgh and then meeting up with friends to explore London.
– Gabby 14 – Our Caribbean cruise. It was warm, with different adventures in each port.
– Keith (dad) – Hawaii. It was a good mixture of adventure and relaxation (and great mai-tais).
– DeAnna (mom) – Celebration of Harry Potter. Even though it was a short trip, all of us were in awe, and it was a nice break from all the cold weather!
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What motivated you to focus on traveling with teens?
We have teens!!! We find incorporating them into the planning stages and always making sure there is at least one thing on the trip that each likes makes the whole vacation better for everyone!
Tell us more about your blog, Have Teens Still Travel. Where can people find your blog on social media?
We write about all the fun we have and include tips and highlights. We want to include our sample itineraries but we’re still working on the format.
Find us at:
If you want to learn more about how your family can create and reach their travel goals, you can subscribe here for my free quick and easy guide, How to Create Your Family’s Travel Bucket List:
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21 Comments
Medha Verma
July 12, 2018 at 8:03 amI can imagine that travelling with teens means everyone has their own choices and ideas about what they want to do! I love how they have listed their bucket list goals and visiting all the Disneys as well as National Parks are two goals on my list too. To achieve them with your family is pretty amazing!
Kristie
July 12, 2018 at 12:55 pmIsn’t it great? Speaking for myself, it’s actually really fun traveling with older kids (mine are 14 and 11). As long as they get a say in the activities and are reminded that everyone will get something they want out of the trip at some point (so no whining when it’s not your thing), they are good to go. 🙂
DeAnna Zacherl
July 13, 2018 at 5:15 pmNo whining, pouting or grumbling…..rule number 1
DeAnna
July 13, 2018 at 5:03 pmWe are having lots of fun traveling with them! As twins they share almost everything and are pretty sensitive to each other wants. It makes choosing diner, activities, even music in the car easier. ? were pretty lucky!
DeAnna Zacherl
July 13, 2018 at 5:12 pmHi Medha, Traveling with my girls is fun! Being twins they share a lot and are sensitive to each others wants. It makes choosing dinner, activities, even music in the car easy. Good luck on your goals!!!
Tony
July 13, 2018 at 3:29 amIt’s nice that you guys can travel and want to travel as a family like that. I really agree and support your statement about getting youngsters to put down their phones and tablets. But this applies to adults too. I’m actually trying to start a graphic novel about this very thing and what our future will be like if it doesn’t change.
Kristie
July 13, 2018 at 5:57 amFascinating! Yes, I know I am really guilty of not putting my phone down. I try to be better about it while spending time with family, but…
DeAnna Zacherl
July 13, 2018 at 5:17 pmI agree about the adults too! I’m usually pretty good about it 🙂 Would love to read your graphic novel!!!
Suman
July 13, 2018 at 10:40 amI liked the idea of sight -doing, I wish more and more parents should take up this. If and when I have kids I would love to raise them in similar environment.
Kristie
July 13, 2018 at 3:28 pmI love that, too. I’m going to borrow that term. 🙂
DeAnna
July 13, 2018 at 5:22 pmSight doing is the way to go!!! My oldest daughter and I traveled to Europe on an “Amazing Race” like vacation and it was all about sight doing. It was so interactive it fundamentally changed the way I travel. Check them out at Competitours.com
We are seriously thinking of splitting into two teams and taking the twins next summer.
Jojo
July 13, 2018 at 11:51 amGabby and Gracie are extremely lucky to be able to travel so much at a young age! Really great idea for family bonding and experiencing the world.
Have you considered Disney in Hong Kong? The train to get there has Mickey head shaped windows and handle bars!
Kristie
July 13, 2018 at 3:28 pmI’ll make sure she’s reading all these awesome comments and suggestions. 🙂
DeAnna
July 13, 2018 at 5:25 pmJojo- Disney HK is on the list!!! We tried to see if there was anyway to work both HK and Tokyo Disney into a 1 week school break, but it doesn’t seem possible…… so maybe over Christmas or summer break??
Christina
July 13, 2018 at 12:00 pmI love this. We want to travel a lot when we eventually have kids. We want to instill in them the travel bug so that they too can bring that to their families later in life. We believe that travel is an essential ingredient of growth. Keep on traveling!
Kristie
July 13, 2018 at 3:27 pmAgreed. 🙂
DeAnna
July 13, 2018 at 5:26 pm🙂 Great minds think alike!!!!
Retha
July 13, 2018 at 9:50 pmOh my god! I love them! It is so great to see young people excited about travel and their parents being a part of it
Kristie
July 13, 2018 at 10:34 pmAren’t they awesome?! Family travel is such a great experience. You don’t have to go to fancy place, you just need to go. 🙂
Amrita Sen
July 15, 2018 at 11:54 pmWow, travelling is the best way to spend time together away from the electronics and smartphones. As a kid, We used to travel a lot with family. Every holiday, all of us used to go for some vacation and it would be a great time! Now, I don’t have a kid, but sometimes we travel with our parents. And believe me, they too behave like teens! 🙂 Family travel is always a great experience.
Kristie
July 16, 2018 at 5:58 amTotally agree, Amrita. It’s the best bonding time we get with our kids. 🙂