It is that time of the year again when a lot of people will plan to travel. After all it would be summer vacation time soon! Destinations would be discussed and debated, mountain vs sea debates will flare up.
Plans for finding cheap flights and lowend tickets would be afoot in many households. For many travel during summer vacations is a must as everyone can take leave at the same time!
However I stand aloof and do not join in the excitement. For one even though my daughter goes to school, she is still quite small. So, traveling on extended weekends is not a problem. Two, everyone and their relatives will be planning to travel during the school holidays. That leads to trains getting booked within minutes of becoming available for reservation, increased airfares, costlier hotels and food and what not.
I often stay away from traveling during summer vacations, at least to the popular spots. But I met my nemesis once, in Hong Kong. My daughter, niece and I traveled to Hong Kong in 2014. My daughter’s passport has just arrived and I decided to take her and my niece on their first trip abroad. So far so good.
We landed in Hong Kong safe and sound. As the trip was with the kids the main thing on the list was the Disneyland. However we did not know that August was the school holiday time in Hong Kong. On top of that we went to the Disneyland on a Sunday. It was a hot day too. As soon as I got down from the bus, I noted the location of the taxi stand. I had a suspicion that the girls might wish to go back early, much before the 9.00 pm fireworks!
I have grant it to them, the kids were good sport. They did not complain much for waiting in the lines that formed in front of various rides. For almost every ride the wait time was 40 to 60 minutes! By four in the evening the kids told me they wanted to go back home! Off we went to the taxi counter and to our hotel! That is what summer vacations can do to your travel! So while you plan to travel in the school holidays, I think I am going to take it easy!
40-60 mins is a long time. The kids have to be really excited about the rides to wait that long. Strong, they are.
My family travels during the summer vacation only. It is the only time of the year when all the members of the family gets leave, so we don’t have any choice.
They did behave well on the entire trip 😀 I know it will be soon the same for me as well. After all the kid is growing up!
You might have enjoyed with the kids m sure. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this vacation too.
Dipanwita let us see, I am not too keen on traveling during summer vacations, at least not to the regular spots.
Have a great time Mridula! The plan sounds good. 🙂
There is no concrete plan out there Indrani 😀 But yes as the schools will be off we would end up going somewhere.
Travelling during summers is really an issue . My son is 3 years old and has just started to go to toddlers in a big school . Till date did not face this issue on Summer Vaccations but however I foresee this coming in . Thanks for the write up Mridula
Enjoy while it lasts, I am in the same boat Anindya.
I’ve done a fair bit of my travelling with family during summer holidays (especially when my dad got to avail of his LTC!) and while I enjoyed every bit of it back then, I no longer relish summertime plans for the same reasons as yours. Given a choice, I would avoid summer holidays and long weekends (when all working people plan a getaway… to the same spot!), but of course, the convenience of those ready-to-avail-leaves is difficult to give up, and sometimes I do end up paying big money for my few days of bliss.
I resist the long weekends or I go someplace really off beat but I agree the convenience of taking leaves makes it mouthwatering proposition!
Lovely post and your girls are so adorable. I do plan for a Hong kong trip someday and greatly inspired by your posts 🙂
Thank you so much Sonia, I hope you will go soon!
Hello Mridula!
You are the proud mother of two adorable angels and they are immensely lucky to be the charm of an adventurous mother like you. I really enjoyed reading your blogs and believe me being a mother and traveling with the kids is difficult! I’ve seen my sisters and in- laws snipey about it but you’re doing a great job!
Anay the younger one is my daughter and the elder one is my niece! We did have a lot of fun in Hing Kong. This year, plans are to take them camping.