This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of VacationRenter. All opinions are 100% mine.
It’s that time of there year where many of us are trying to start making our summer travel plans for our families. Is it just me or are the choices SO overwhelming when it comes to booking a vacation!? First, there’s the issue of trying to nail down where we want to visit…do we go with a trusted location we’ve visited a half dozen times or do we get adventurous and go somewhere we’ve never been before and explore the area?! It’s such a tough choice–maybe you even decide to take two trips that year!! Today I want to walk you through some fun family vacation ideas that we have on our Family Travel Bucket List, as well as Tips on Booking Family vacations. 
Step One: Finding the perfect vacation rental.
So one thing I determined a few years back, after a vacation to the Outer Banks was that I could NOT do another week long vacation with my family in a hotel. Let me rephrase that…I needed a KITCHEN and a fridge in order to function with a husband and two kids on vacation. So that was the last year we stayed in a hotel for a week and every year since we have made it our post-Christmas goal to determine our vacation destination and go on the hunt for the perfect vacation rental.
When I’m on the hunt for the perfect vacation rental, my newest favorite place to visit to get ALL the overwhelming vacation options in one place is VacationRenter.com. On VacationRenter.com I can get all the best Vacation Rentals from the top sites, all in one place! They believe that finding a vacation rental should be easy and not take hours of searching and scrolling, which I think we all can agree upon. So they this awesome site to help travelers find the perfect rental faster and easier. Yay us!! 
Step Two: Consider all your options!
I start by making a list of potential places that we could visit and also a budget we’d like to stay under. So, for this summer I’m considering a few options including Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Hilton Head, Savannah, Georgia, as well as Destin, Florida. And then let’s say that for this year my husband and I want to keep a week’s vacation rental budget between $2,000-$2,500. I start by searching on VacationRenter and they provide me this enormous page of results for the dates that I type in, 
Step Three: Decide what is important to you on vacation.
What can’t you live without on vacation? This is serious. You don’t want to be spending your whole vacation thinking that you’d wished you’d considered needing a way to do laundry or wishing that your kids had a pool to swim in…or maybe you’ve always wanted to sit on a balcony or patio and watch the waves hit the shore or have the perfect view of the mountains. Set your sights high you guys…this is your getaway!! Once you know what you want, you can narrow your search by price, accommodations, and more. The best thing, as you can see to the left of “Book Now” below, is that you can stop searching ALL THOSE SITES and just do one search on VacationRenter.com instead. *MIND BLOWN* That’s hours of searching different websites to ensure I’m not missing out on THE PERFECT RENTAL for vacation. No more FOMO! 
I just love the flexibility that VacationRenter.com provides me when I’m booking our family vacation. It makes everything so much easier and less stressful when you realize that you don’t have to spend hours searching multiple sites online.
Step Four: Plan your week out in advance.
After growing up in a family where we’d literally just get in the car and drive to the first place that came to my parents head (which was spontaneous and exciting too), I have found that I like to really take the time to plan out my vacations in advance. I scope out the best restaurants in the area and make reservations, I look for tours or excursions we can do while there and book tickets, and I make a list of all the best and top rated attractions so that we don’t miss out. We don’t have a strict schedule or anything like that, but I generally have a pretty good idea in my head of what we’re doing and where we’re going each day when we’re on vacation…always with at least 2-4 days of down time during the week to just sit back and relax. A good vacation plan may sound stressful, but it ensures that your family makes the most of your vacation and that you get to see all the sites while you’re visiting. You’ll be happy to know that when my parents vacationed with us last year, they LOVED that I had the whole trip planned out for us for the week! 🙂 And because it was so well planned, we got to visit all the best things to do in Sleeping Bear Dunes that year! 
Step Five: And most important…
DISCONNECT. Once you arrive on vacation, challenge yourself to ditch the electronics and just be. Be in the moment with your family and your kids. Build that sandcastle they are begging you to build…play some cards with them. Go out and walk the beach at sunset. Eat ice cream for dinner one night and definitely catch a round of competitive putt putt golf…. THOSE are the things that your kids will remember. They won’t care if you selected the $100 a night rental or the $500 a night rental…they’ll remember the times they spent with you just having fun. And more than anything else…just have fun and do what’s right for you and your family! 
Happy vacation planning, friends!
