I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

Previous posts can be found here.

Before Your Trip:

1) Langauge? – If your trip involves going to where a different language is spoken, then consider checking phrase books out of the library. Also, see if the library might have videos, books, music, that can be used in advance. Make sure your children know at least a few phrases in the local language. “Please,” “Thank You,” “Hello,” “Goodbye,” and “Where is the Bathroom?” are very good places to start.

2. Check out tourist videos to watch, read through tourist websites together, and check out tourist guides from the library. Be sure to look on YouTube as well – I found some great videos on local history, etc.

Knowing what is available in the area can help you decide what you want to do in advance, and also help you to investigate good deals and rates. For us, it also helped us determine where we wanted to stay – we chose areas that would be convenient to all the things we wanted to do.

Tip: Check out AirBnB, Groupon, and similar sites! These have always served us very well in our travels!

3. I have found Facebook to be a fabulous font of information. I follow local tourism pages. I also follow pages of any sightseeing location we are interested in. And check out the local Facebook groups to an area. These have been my best resources to amazing opportunities that only locals seem to know.

Stay tuned for more in the Part 2 of this article! What other tips would you share?

Other posts in this series are able to be found here.