Travelling with family creates a rare opportunity to really reconnect with children, parents, grandparents, nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles in a way that can rarely be accomplished from home. Most families today, regardless of how they’re fashioned, are time-starved. Kids race out of the house faster than you can butter a piece of toast and weekends are just prolonged car rallies of hockey practices, gymnastics and dance classes. When is there time to connect as a family?

The act of collectively choosing a destination, pouring over brochures, reading travel books and planning the family vacation is the first step towards an experience of renewal that you will long cherish. Modern resorts are well equipped to meet the needs, expectations and desires of virtually every traveller today; even the irritable teen and irascible old man. Many resorts offer family-friendly accommodation with rooms designed for parents travelling with two, three or more children. You’ll also find resorts where kids stay, play and eat free. How’s that for family values?

You’ll find when making your vacation arrangements that it’s a lot easier to plan around the youngest travellers first. If you find a family-friendly resort with lots of supervised activities and entertainment programs for the kids, they will almost always have excellent facilities for adults, too. The availability of a proper kids club, overseen by a staff of professional counsellors, will pay off in dividends during the holiday. Even if the services are never used (but they most certainly will be), just knowing that they’re available will create a feeling of comfort.

Young travellers are actually the easiest to please. Their needs are usually pretty basic: pool, beach, play area, hot dogs and hamburgers. Unhappy kids can spell disaster in a family vacation. Adults need to remember that this is a holiday for the kids too, and they want time to do their own thing—away from their parents—where they can meet new friends, play new games, try out new sports and generally exercise some independence.

The mistake that is most often made when organizing a holiday for a large group is to try and please everyone. The secret to success is to determine one or two main themes that everyone can agree to: beach resort or cruise vacation; one week or two. The rest is gravy. It’s amazing how quickly granddad will forget about his need for a golf course when he’s relaxing by the pool with a frosty pina colada in hand. Even the most difficult traveller will lighten up and enjoy the surroundings when they see the rest of the family having a good time.

Everyone starts the day a little differently on holiday. Some like to start the day at a run, and get up with the sun for a jog on the beach, a refreshing swim or a brisk workout in the gym. Others like to sleep late while on holiday: start the day with a cup of coffee on the balcony, lounge over a magazine article or checking emails, maybe have a long bath or a nice massage at the bar. It’s usually best to let everyone start the day at their own pace. That way, the early-risers are not waiting for everyone else to get started. Those that want to take an excursion, or play a morning game of tennis, can get all of their activities in and not worry about the day slipping away. Likewise, lunch is unpredictable because it depends a lot on when everyone got their day started, whether they left the resort for the day, want to sit and have a proper lunch or just grab a hotdog or burger at the beach bar.

Dinner is the best time to reconvene. Most large resort hotels have a wide variety of dining choices, so you can switch venues every night and keep everybody happy. Dinner time conversations will be filled with everyone recounting their day’s adventures and, best of all, nobody has to cook or do the dishes. As the week progresses, some family members will plan to meet for breakfast, take an excursion, arrange a fishing charter or go for a round of golf. These activities and events are always much more successful when they grow naturally out of family members discovering common interests and planning outings themselves then if the holiday begins with an expectation that there will be a ‘social director’ that will plan all the events.