See more: Copenhagen – family
Spending time together as a family travelling and seeing the world becomes harder and harder as the kids grow up, get married and have busy jobs. But if you can set aside the time to do so, travelling together as a grown family can be a wonderful experience. We love this family’s tradition of sharing their personal “peaks and pits” around the dinner table each evening while travelling together. Read on for more on their Baltic cruise.
“From the time we were young, my parents instilled in us the importance of – and love for – seeing the world. Each year, we set aside time to do this together as a family. We began these vacations on a smaller scale, exploring the beautiful nooks and crannies of the United States before taking our travels abroad. Since then, we have visited a little over thirty countries, including Kenya, Thailand and – of course – Denmark. As we have grown older, finding time to explore the world together has become more of a challenge. There is that tragic idea of limited vacation time (haha) and, of course, ‘real world’ jobs, weddings and more. However, this time together is always something we anxiously look forward to. It is so nice to be somewhere, without much access to phones and internet, to just focus on your family and the incredible memories you are making.
“This year, our family, along with my husband Jon, set off on a cruise of the Baltic with stops in Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Copenhagen. At the end of each day, we would share our ‘peaks and pits’ around the dinner table.
“My advice to anyone traveling with their family would, first, be to delegate. My mother loves to book the actual travel: where we are going, when we are going, where we will stay. I am the planner. I thrive off of finding unique things to do in each location. My dad, sister and husband are full of trust (and sometimes a tiny bit of skepticism). They know that we will take into account their likes and dislikes, while sometimes pushing them out of their comfort zones. While on vacation, the biggest thing would be to be open to unique experiences. You will likely only visit these places once or twice, so make the most of it! Now is the time to step a little bit outside of your comfort zone.
“We were lucky to have a number of these unique experiences on our Baltic Cruise with Seabourn. We saw all the highlights, like the grounds of Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, the beautiful, ornate churches of St. Petersburg and an incredible evening at Catherine Palace. But it was the smaller, more unusual items that really propelled this trip to be one for the books. We visited a ballet school in St. Petersburg where we witnessed, first-hand, the dedication of the incredible ballerinas Russia has become famous for. We rented a GoBoat in Copenhagen for a happy hour exploring the canals. We took an incredible food tour by Food Tours Copenhagen, where we were able to sample and learn about a variety of New Nordic Cuisine – which is taking the world by storm. And so much more!
Flytographer: Liz in Copenhagen
“The biggest example of taking my family out of their comfort zone, and seeing a great reward, would be our time with Flytographer. I had the wonderful experience of doing Flytographer in New York with my best girlfriends last year and I instantly fell in love. Since my family has very few professional photos together, most of which involve me in a wedding dress, I booked a session in Copenhagen as a Christmas present for my parents. It should be known that, while he loves quality time with the family, my dad does not love being photographed. Needless to say, he was not extremely excited about the ‘gift’ we had chosen to give him! My mom was thrilled, my dad was concerned. However, in the thirty minutes we spent with Liz, we laughed and enjoyed ourselves more than we could have imagined. It wasn’t just a great souvenir, it was fun. Really fun. And at the end of the day, when we were sharing our daily ‘peaks and pits,’ my dad shocked us all by saying, ‘Flytographer was my peak.’” – Jessica
