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Nature Themed Vacations That Are Great For Bonding As A Family

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Natured themed vacations are great for the whole family – there’s plenty of space for all of you, and there’s plenty to do out there in the great outdoors. After all, you’ve got that whole forest behind the campsite to explore, or you’ve got that walking trail to traipse down, and introduce your kids to new, colorful plants, and wild animals they’ve never seen before. 

But if you’ve been camping before, in a standard campsite, and you want to mix things up a little for a vacation this year or in the future, make sure you take into account that many other nature themed vacations exist out there. You can even stay in a local hotel or hostel and still be on an eco friendly and nature rich break! 

So, let’s go into a few examples of what you can with your family, when trying to bring more nature and the feel of the great outdoors into your adventures. A family vacation deserves to be a bit special, and a lot of fun, and these are some great ideas for making sure of that!

Nature Themed Vacations That Are Great For Bonding As A Family:

So, let’s go into a few examples of what you can with your family, when trying to find nature themed vacations that are great for bonding as a family!

Pexels Image – CC0 Licence

Visit a National Park

A national park is one of the best ways to get your kids out and about and introduced to nature; they usually have plenty of family friendly activities on, and your kids will never get bored with all that space to run around in. 

One of the best family friendly national parks to take your kids to is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s a part of the Appalachian trail, and to walk that is on so many people’s bucket lists, so why not get the kids started early? Not to mention there are some great places to stay around the area, with easy access to the parts of the park where you want to go. You don’t want to be trailing toddlers around when you’ve only got a small room in a hostel to get back to, so be sure to visit sites like smokymountainvacationinfo.com for the first pick of the best rooms that your kids will love to bed down in! 

And you don’t just have to stay in the US for a good national park to visit – there are plenty all around the world, and if you want to take your family off on a plane journey, you can spend a good couple of weeks within a whole number of national parks in other countries. For example: 

You can take the kids to visit Loch Lomond and Trossachs in Scotland, which is a mystical place filled with culture, and the kids will love going out on the water and visiting the big aquarium nearby. It’s a great place for adults who love watersports too, so get out there on your boat, whether you’re paddling or using a motor. Not to mention just how gentle the hiking trails can be, which are perfect for little legs! 

Try a Famous Walking Trail

Walking trails are good for stretching the legs, and really building up some muscles in them. When your kids do little else other than staying inside with the TV or their games, this is a great way to get them out and about with enough impact to carry them for the whole summer. But don’t just take them along to any walking trail – make sure you’ve got a famous one in mind, that’s perfect for families to dawdle along depending on how distracted you all get by the sites. Plus, we’ve got a couple of suggestions for you!

Take the kids along to Colorado, and walk along the Mount Falcon Castle Trail! It’s an easy hike, with plenty to see along the way, and the kids will love marveling at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the distance! Let them snap some shots, or sit down and draw a picture with their crayons. Plus, the kids will love to explore the ruins of the old mansion at the top of the trail, which can be a fun mystery for the adults as well! 

Or you could take them to the Bear Mountain Loop Trail, if you’re in the New York Area. It does require a little bit of climbing skills, but that’s what kids love to do when they’re young! They love to get involved and do amazing things, and you’ll love watching them scramble up a couple small rocks near the top of the trail and take a good snapshot of them. 

Have Fun at a Family Friendly Ranch

Ranch vacations have become very popular in recent years, and taking the kids along to see a working ranch where all kinds of animals are kept could make them very happy. And when you’ve got a whole ranch to make use of, you can be sure that both you and the kids are never going to get bored. There are usually all kinds of fun activities on offer, because ranch owners know that the kids love to get involved. 

You can try out horse riding for the very first time, with famous programs such as the one held at Latigo Ranch in Colorado. Skilled trainers will take you along at your own pace, but with enough challenge to keep both you and the kids interested as you go. 

And it doesn’t just stop at horse riding either! When on a ranch vacation, you can take the kids fishing for the first time, as there’ll be plenty of lakes around depending on where you go. You can also try out hiking around the ranch, and you can take part in the day to day work of the place too, such as driving cattle, going on cart rides as a family, as well as eating home cooked breakfasts in the morning, made entirely using products from the ranch itself. What could be better to enjoy as a family than that? 

Take the Kids to the Beach

Now, we all know the power of a good beach vacation, and just how nice and relaxing it can be to get out in the water, and sunbathe on a comfy towel on the beach front itself. However, when you’ve got kids to take along with you, you need to have a few more activities on offer to keep them interested, and that’s why it’s important to know where the family friendly beaches are. 

They’re dotted around the coastline of the US, and seeing as there’s a lot of coast to be getting on with, you’re going to want to take your time seeing everything a good family friendly beach has to offer. Most of all, you’re going to want plenty of sand to play in, but you’re also going to want beach vendors offering activities. 

You could start with a beach like Santa Cruz Beach, thanks to the amount of seaside activities and amusements on offer. If a beach has a good boardwalk bordering it, you know you and your kids are in for a treat when the sun is out and blazing down on you! 

Where are You Going to Take Your Kids Next?

A good family friendly, nature themed vacation could be right around the corner. Where are you going to take your kids, to make sure they’re getting back to nature and basking in the glory of the great outdoors? Be sure to start with the suggestions we’ve listed above if you’re in need of a bit of inspiration, and never be afraid to try something new!

We Didn’t Start the Fire(works)

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We didn’t start the fire, or did we?

We Didn't Start the Fire(works). I'm linking up with Finish The Sentence Friday. This week's topic is: How I celebrate (or wish I celebrated) 4th of July..

This is the year that never was, although it very much is and will be.

When I was a kid, my parents would throw the most epic Fourth of July parties. Along with the seven of us in total, what seemed like hundreds of loved ones would arrive in twos and fours – armed with coolers, freshly baked pies, and cold summer salads. We had a giant, kidney-shaped pool and people would put out their towels on our lawn. I don’t think you could see even an inch of green lawn – because the entire lawn was covered by colorful towels and festive loved ones.

I can still smell the beer, and hear the sizzling, illegal fireworks, that we did indeed start.

illegal fireworks Memorial Day parade

Somehow, in the long and winding road, that brings us to today. As I start to write this, it’s July 2nd, which is the anniversary of my first kiss with Cassidy, as well as the crapiversary of both my father’s death, and my paternal grandfather’s death – if you can believe that. All of it makes sense and doesn’t make sense – this fireworking swirl of love and light and loss, and even the remnants of horror. Somehow it makes more sense to me than the current political climate, and the first half of the year in review – from koalas in wildfire, to so darn many people in gunfire and virus-fire – caught in the dangerous repetitive fireworks of what was and what shall never be again. And yet, history repeats itself in the most surprising, disgusting ways. The 4th of July.

What do we even celebrate, and how? Certainly not packed with loved ones, on lush grass.

We Didn't Start the Fire(works). I'm linking up with Finish The Sentence Friday. This week's topic is: How I celebrate (or wish I celebrated) 4th of July..

Some things hurt more, and some less, bolstered by a fireworking kind of love – that sparkles.

January came in with its usual pomp and circumstance, only it was a longer length of time for holiday vacation, and it was a lumpy week between Christmas and New Year’s. Pajamas until 3pm, no idea what day or time it was, and frequent trips to the fridge or counter for leftover cookies and chocolates. I mean it – even the idea of another week of that lumpy ambiguousness was too much for me. Never could I have imagined what was coming. I got pregnant in January, but didn’t know it. And I got sick, so sick, that I cried from the sick. I don’t think it was COVID-19, this low grade fever for a day and then full-fledged head cold. My nose itching made me cry.

Half from the sting, and half from the discomfort.

biking on the bridge

February. Magic. How were we to know, yet? I mean, maybe we should have. Cassidy and I had overlapping business trips to Orlando, and got to share three blissful days at a Universal Orlando resort – ordering raspberry mocktails – and riding roller coasters galore. I still didn’t know about the pregnancy or the virus, not really, as I swirled around those steel tracks. After we all met Chewbacca and delighted in Star Wars Galaxy’s Quest, Cassidy flew home, while we drove to St. Augustine. Another three days of bliss, with beach and manatees. We had one perfect day, just the kids and me, seeing and eating everything we wanted in festive downtown St. Augustine.

We still didn’t know, what we know today. And we still don’t know today, what we know today.

wizarding world of harry potter

I marveled at the end, how I got the kids packed and up before dawn. Fed and to the rental car drop-off, to check-in and security and boarding, to on that flight – alone with two kids. It was my only solo-adult with two kids and it struck me right then that it was probably my last solo-adult flight. With two kids, anyway. I found out only four days later about the baby. We told the kids after February vacation, and my first confirmed pregnancy appointment. As you’ll remember, I bought three extra Bruce Hornsby tickets to a show I had planned on attending alone, and not only did he read Scarlet’s note aloud and play her song, but we met him on a dark, quiet street.

Remember him – because he comes into play again. This fireworking sort of magic.

meeting Bruce Hornsby

March was cut off mid-month. I remember that extremely fateful Friday the 13th – I got them home off the bus from a half day, and I’d never send them back. Not yet. We did start that fire, didn’t we? And we continue to do so. March was a full first trimester month so I had a lot of couch naps and terror and calm. It was all so strange. We had planned to get Lucy before the quarantine – she was born in mid-February – but gosh, she made late March so magical for us.

Husky puppy in a pile of Husky stuffed animals

April. How to even describe April? It was a lot of getting to know Lucy. Cassidy gardened a ton. I entered the second trimester, but didn’t feel well – but it wasn’t from the pregnancy. It was the pandemic stress. Still, we held out hope for some resolution. For school and work and healing.

We sort of celebrated Cassidy’s birthday and our 12th anniversary, and we (I) sort of wallowed.

We Didn't Start the Fire(works). I'm linking up with Finish The Sentence Friday. This week's topic is: How I celebrate (or wish I celebrated) 4th of July..

May was beautiful! More gardening, and we painted rainbow fences in our garden. We learned what sort of masks we liked to wear, and had a lot of pretty ones ordered or made. We sort of celebrated Mother’s Day. Hammocks and highs and lows – that was the month of May.

We Didn't Start the Fire(works). I'm linking up with Finish The Sentence Friday. This week's topic is: How I celebrate (or wish I celebrated) 4th of July..

June. Des turned eight! We finally let go of the “school year” and welcomed Strange Summer. Des had a little outdoor birthday parade and party and we got to open up our social circle a bit, but still no hugs and kisses. Bruce Hornsby was the guest on the regular streaming Friday night Grateful Dead show and he mostly talked through it but answered two questions, and mine was one of them! With meeting my favorite singer two weeks before quarantine, and having him answer my question to the public (with my name!), and then with my second favorite singer (Glen Phillips) doing free Facebook live shows three times a week, I feel more connected than ever to music during this strange time. I miss concerts, and Tanglewood, but we’ll get there.

8th birthday

And that brings us to this month – my birthday month. Stay tuned, it’s already interesting.

Oh, what we could have done, with travel and fairs and puppy dog tails. And oh, what we’ve done, with life skills and resilience and care. As they say, it is what it is, and what it is completely sucks, but otherwise contains beauty and magic so far. The year that never was, is maybe one of the most memorable years on earth. Good/bad. What can we do to make the next half better?

husky and shepherd

You could almost say that life rages on, despite wildfires, viruses, and the way we seem to hurl insults and hatred at one another like fireworks – hoping that they sting and sizzle and destroy. And yet, the earth rebuilds while it turns – shaking off the casings and the shells, and letting the sparkles linger while they light up the night and the future. Love and devotion to light and love.

You and me? We’re proof of that, with our fireworking love and the way we still sizzle sparkle.

We Didn't Start the Fire(works). I'm linking up with Finish The Sentence Friday. This week's topic is: How I celebrate (or wish I celebrated) 4th of July..

I’m linking up with Finish The Sentence Friday (FTSF) for a new prompt. This week’s awesome topic is “How I celebrate (or wish I celebrated) 4th of July..” You can link up your own post HERE.

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