We have 15 years of traveling with teen girls, which is a unique travel-gory all its own. In the words of our own three, here are the top 10 travel downers a la the teen brain. Adjust accordingly or brace for some teen flack.
- Having crappy wifi. We won’t even say no wifi, because that’s not even funny.
- Not having global roaming. So, get that, even if it’s the dumbed down version.
Our favorite table with at Guy Fieri’s Burger Joint. - Breaking a sacred snapchat streak of almost 300 days with your bestie. Refer back to #1 and #2.
- Limited screen time. We’re not little kids or morons. We self-limit like you (parents) do. When there are interesting things happening around us, we won’t miss that. If it’s boring, just like you (parents), we’ll probably go back to our phones.
- Choices. We don’t always want to be in photos, try new foods, get up in the mornings, do certain outings, and wait for it…..talk. Treat us the way you want to be treated. We want choices just like you (parents).
- Pull-out couches. Some are great, but some are really, really lumpy.
- Knowing plans. Only because we need to have enough time to download movies, videos, music (sometimes on slower wifi), and buy snacks for whatever car, train, or plane ride is next.
- No big souvenirs. We’re past keychains and magnets. We like lamps, chairs, big stuffed animals, drums, pieces of art–but they are too large to take home. But luckily almost every store sells their stuff online, so you just need their site. You can also ship unique pieces home or just search Amazon or Etsy to find something similar or even better.
Paris Christmas market - Places with Animals. We love going to places that have animals to interact with like elephants, koalas, kangaroos, dolphins. We research each place before we go. Some are amazing and keep animals alive who would die in the wild. But we question whether we are still contributing to an industry that is drugging or keeping animals just to make money from tourists.
- Leaving. Places start to feel like home so quickly and there are parts about any place we will miss.