Family Travel and 30th Birthdays!

(Editor's note: This blog post was written before the horrific shootings in Paris. Barry and Julie are taking their trip to Paris as planned.)

An interesting dilemma we face in our family (and perhaps you have as well): children reaching the age of 30. How do we celebrate that? Of course, as the founders of Shore Trips we feel that travel is the best gift, and what could be more fun than traveling all together!

There is a secret to traveling with adult children, I think, and that is to give them enough space to do some things on their own. The 'children' in this case are one son and his long-time gal and they are delightful to be with. It happens that, because of their professions, the best time to take this trip is around the holidays.

Where to go? We first thought of Ireland, as Barry and I feel we needed a refresher there and heard that the New Year's celebration was four days long! But it sounded like our time would be compromised with work, so we postponed that trip until Spring 2016. Then we considered Argentina, but decided that that was too much flying time, as the length of their vacation time is limited.

So we are going to Paris! Our experiences in Europe over the holidays have always been stellar: fewer people, crisp weather and much ado about celebrating! I have never had enough time in this City of Lights and so I am looking forward to exploring from all different perspectives.

We are each going to take a district of the city and plan a day for everyone to enjoy. And we will also divvy up some time so we have our alone time as well. Paris IS a city of romance, and we will need our space. When we work with families traveling together, we always suggest some special time alone. It is hard to carve out time for vacations and each of us needs-not only family time-but also some R & R.

Lucky for Barry and myself, these two adult kids love the same stuff that we do-walking, exploring, art, food, museums, learning and people-watching.

I think this will be a great adventure and a way to remember this step into a new decade.

More on Paris next year, after our visit…

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