We are planning a family reunion to help celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. I am looking for ideas for locations.
The family consists of my parents, myself, DH, sis, BIL, and 5 kids ages 8-21. 11 people total.
We live scattered - in the midwest, and northeast, and southeast. The oldest and youngest have never met.
My mom is a very picky eater. She likes plain food. We also have a vegetarian with us, but she is much more flexible.
I would love to take a cruise. And we would…except sis is firmly against it and 2 of her kids are very prone to motion sickness. That would be ideal as it would provide plenty of activities that we could do together or separately and then get together for dinner each evening.
It is hard to pick dates that everyone can make it. We will most likely do this over July 4 or Christmas.
The thoughts of renting a beach house have crossed our minds. Or finding an all inclusive resort somewhere.
The travel planner is usually my mom. That works well because she is the pickiest, but for now this is a surprise so she can’t help.
Haha – we gave my parents the option of deciding for their 50th – and my mom called me and said, “I want to go to a dude ranch!”. Me: “Mom, have you ever been on a horse?” Mom: “Once when I was 11…”
But we did it. Went to Eaton’s Ranch in Wyoming. We went early in the summer, and got them to let us stay for a shorter time than their normal (I think the minimum was a week, and we maybe stayed 4 nights). It was an absolute blast. Our kids are still talking about it years later.
I like all your ideas. What about a week at a place like Chautauqua Institution? There’s something for everyone, and you could rent a house. You could look at their website and see if it appeals to you.
We’ve done a beach house many times with my husband’s side of the family. Everyone enjoyed it so much after the first time that it’s turned into a semi-annual event even though the family keeps growing. This past year we had 37 people ranging in age from babies to great-grandparents (my MIL/FIL). We get a house right on the beach with an indoor and outdoor pool. The house is big enough that all the married couples (9) have bedrooms. Plus there are bedrooms for the school age kids. The married couples (minus the great-grandparents) take turns cooking dinner each night. It’s worked for us…but we all love spending time at the beach.
We’ve also done an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic to celebrate my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. That was nice as we could go off and do our own things if we wanted to during the day. I have more fun during our Beach Week vacations than I did at the resort. But I was also pregnant with my now 10 year old and was restricted from doing the more adventurous activities!
Is there some place that your parents have always wanted to visit? Or somewhere that is special to them?
We have done mini-reunions in our home state (since we all live in the same state). It has worked pretty well, since folks can come as they are able and come and go to work as needed. We have often talked of but never tried a reunion that involves traveling off island, as we could never get everyone to agree and now traveling with my folks is VERY HARD.
We have taken my folks to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone, as well as the SF Opera. I have traveled with my kids to many national parks and some cities. We have never been able to get me extended family to agree upon any destination and dates outside of our island.
We do a family reunion every year in Willimsburgh in July. it can be hot but there are theme parks and historic areas and VA Beach is not too far. There is something for everyone. We get several condo units thorugh time shares.
@intparent - I love the idea of a dude ranch! I am not sure what Mom would think. She gets around OK but has back issues. Uneven terrain can be a challenge. She can do it if she is careful.
@gardenstategal -I will also bookmark Chautauqua. They might of been there a long time ago before they retired but I’d have to check with Dad.
@beachmomof4 - I like the idea of a beach house, but I’m not sure we want to worry about dinner every night. It would add stress between the OCD planners and non-planners. And finding restaurants with a party of 11 isn’t always easy, especially during a busy holiday time. But accommodations with a private pool and enough elbow room so we aren’t on top of each other are definite options.
As for places they have always dreamed of going? Not really. They go where they want to go. Going somewhere together is what we all really want.
@HImom - I know I would love to visit your home state! I am glad we are dealing with 3 groups of people (me, sister, parents) and not more or we never would be able to go anywhere!
Keep up the suggestions. We have a long way to go to narrow down our options. Especially since I haven’t been given a budget yet.
My in-laws managed to get groups of 20+ with 6 separate groups together on cruises 5 TIMES! Cruises are great for the teen set. Why is your sis opposed? The only cruise we had seasickness issues on, we found out the dining room was in a section that saw the most rocking motion. Otherwise, dramamine is great. I have motion sickness getting out of bed, but I’ve been fine on all the ships with a small dose of dramamine.
Are there issues with how far people have to travel or is everyone near one part of the country? It can be hard if some groups have to fly 8 hours through 3 time zones while others are nearby. Otherwise, Virginia Beach, Orlando area, Outer Banks in the east. Las Vegas is supposed to be family friendly if people are into that, and there are sights nearby, Lake Mead, etc.
Where did they go on their honeymoon? Is it someplace they would like to return to now?
Are finances an issue? How far are folks willing to drive/fly? Is there a central place in the middle or nearest to your folks so they don’t have to travel too far? Our family has too many moving pieces at this point and we haven’t tried to get everyone together since I last did it several years ago. At least we all try to gather together for Christmas Eve and around that time, which everyone cherishes.
I’m wondering if North or South Carolina may be central between everyone’s locations so that everyone travels a bit. I personally have not spent time in either state but have heard great things about both.
Sis took a cruise once and said never again. Now that 2 of her kids are very prone to motion sickness I’m not even going to try and change her mind. I wish a cruise would be an option. DH takes bonine when we cruised and it worked great for him.
We are not physically close to each other. It is probably 20+ hours in a car for any of us to drive. I don’t think any of us minds if we have to travel further than anyone else.
I do want to stay away from Disney area mainly due to the crowds. Waiting in line was never fun when my kids were little and it isn’t much better now. Unfortunately we need to do this during a busy holiday season.
I do not yet have a budget for this trip. I keep telling Dad to come up with some ideas on his own so he can see $$$ and let us know what he is willing to cover.
Outer Banks would definitely be an option if we picked the beach house option. I was there once over 20 years ago.
If we went anywhere outside of Florida my parents would definitely fly. Depending on location and distance would determine if sis and I were driving or flying.
Would your sister be opposed to a non-ocean going cruise? That should eliminate seasickness issues. There are cruises on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Oregon, up the Missippi on a paddlewheeler, the southeast inland waterways, etc.
If money is no object, the beautiful and historic Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island offers the full American meal plan. Of course everyone would have to take a ferry to get there!
We did 50th celebrations on both sides of the family. Both were planned by and paid for by the honorees.
1: we gathered at a midwestern water park resort. Rented condos with lots of bedrooms. The eight grandkids were of an age range where they kept busy and had a blast. There was also golf, tennis, and other activities. There were lots of family friendly restaurants nearby. This took place in June.
2: all-inclusive resort in the Mexican Riveria. Seven grandchildren ranging in age from infant to early 20s and one great grandchild. Each family had their own lodging and since it was all inclusive meals were included. This took place in March; luckily spring break timing lined up.
My kids were 8 & 11 for #1 and 11 & 14 for #2 and had wonderful experiences at both.
We just had nice dinners for my folks’ 50th & 60th wedding anniversaries. I believe dad paid for the 1st celebration and had all of us contribute for the 2nd. There were over 200 attendees at each (at nice restaurants), plus my dad loves having big birthday parties every 5 years since he has turned 70, since he and mom are 5 years apart. It’s what dad wants and mom is just happy if dad is happy and if as much family as possible is able to attend. Sometimes dad pays and sometimes he has each of us pay.
My folks have never offered to host everyone for a vacation and it would be quite expensive as I have 6 sibs, of which all but 1of us is married. Each of us has 1-4 kids and my older sister has all 3 of her girls married and there are 3 great grandchildren of my folks. In any case, I and my sibs can pay for our own way, if ever we could all agree on a time and location.
I agree, I was surprised to see that Dad would be picking up the bill. We had planned to pay for my parents, but my dad had insisted on paying for him and my mom. But my H and I paid for us and our kids, and our sibs did the same for themselves/spouses/kids.
For my in-laws 60th we went to a hotel on Lake Michigan for a long weekend.
Just don’t let trying to figure out “perfect” prevent you from doing something nice, great, and fun. Perfect can be a huge time-waster as there will always be other options.
Perhaps it is a bit out of the way for you, but my favorite group place is the YMCA of the Rockies near Estes Park, Colorado.There are a variety of accommodations at various price points, a dining hall, and umpteen activities for all ages.
My parents (who met in Hawaii and married in the early 50s) rented a beautiful home on Kauai for the 50th anniversary and it was a lot of fun.
I would strongly suggest a vacation rental option or all inclusive. Trying to herd a lot of ‘cats’ all over the place for restaurant meals is a huge hassle. It’s much easier to have a kitchen available for breakfasts, beverages and snacks. Especially with hungry kids and picky eaters. They can feed themselves whenever. You can do restaurants for the large dinners and lunches.
I travel a lot with a group of families and we love large vacation rentals. Let’s everyone wake up or go to sleep on their own schedule and we just love hanging out together. Especially fun if it’s in a place with warm weather so you can hang outside in the evenings.
The YWCA of the Rockies does look fun but at 8000 feet elevation, some folks MAY have altitude sickness that can strike anyone. Our family is pretty careful about elevations but nonetheless several family members have been struck by it several times and were only better once we got to lower elevations. Especially with older folks, elevations can be dicey.