Choose the BEST Adventure for YOUR Family

Every family is in a different stage of life. Some of us have toddlers and newborns. Some of us have teenagers. Some of us have raised all of our children and now look for adventures with grown ups, or grandkids. And some of us have a mix of everything all in one big family! No matter where you are in life, we are here to help you choose a fun adventure for your family. 

We have four questions (and one tip) to help you narrow down your adventure choices. These are questions we consider when we look at adventures and share information for you. Since we’ve adventured with our family for a long time, we want to encourage you to get out and have fun as a family. Everyone can do it. But one of the most important parts is choosing the right activity!

1. How long will it take?

If this adventure is going to be longer than an hour or so, then toddlers and newborns are not going to do very well. Young children need to change activities often, so make sure when you are considering your activity, think about the attention span of your children. Also, make sure to include the length of the car ride in these thoughts. You don’t want to spend an hour in the car and have everyone burned out when you get there. So factor in the drive when thinking about time for the adventure. Older kids and teens can obviously last longer in the car, and hike longer and adventure longer.

2. How interactive is it?

Young kids need some good hands-on, interactive activities. This can be playing in the water or digging in the dirt on a trail, as well as pushing buttons at the museum, but little kids are not going to love spending 2-3 hours admiring paintings in an art museum. Have we taken our kids to art museums when they were young? Yes. Did we stay a long time and analyze every paint stroke? No. As children age, you can help them learn how to enjoy activities that are more hands-off like plays, concerts, museums, etc. This questions was especially important to us when our kids were young and we were choosing a family adventure.

3. What’s the reward?

When we first started hiking with our children, we made sure that our trails ended with some type of exciting end. A waterfall, a lake, a summit, or sometimes a treat from mom. This is especially important for hikes with young kids. But other adventures, what is the benefit of going? Are you learning something? Are you appreciating nature? Are you hoping to see something amazing? Let your kids know what the reward will be and what you are looking forward to on this adventure, so they can look forward as well. We always talk about our favorite parts afterward so that our boys know we will be expecting a report on the adventure.

4. What does our family like to do?

Sometimes when you are choosing an adventure you choose something new to try, and that is wonderful. But sometimes you need to hone in on those types of things your family specifically likes. We love the outdoors, so we really focus on those kinds of adventures. But we also love learning at museums, so we try a lot of those types of activities. We are not big skiers or snowboarders. This is not an adventure we love, so we haven’t placed an emphasis on it. We also aren’t big movie watchers, but some families love going to a movie together at the theater. Find what your family loves and enjoy it. Throw in some new adventures every once in a while, but finding a niche that your family can do and love together will make adventuring so amazing!

5. Set Adventure Goals

Is there something you really want to do as a family? Set a goal to get there. As I mentioned above, we set a goal to hike Lower Calf Creek Falls once our youngest was able to handle the longer hike. It was a spot we had wanted to visit for a long time, but we knew we had to wait. If your family wants to visit all the state parks (another goal that we worked on), make goals and plans on how to do it. You can also set small goal like visit a new park every week in the summer, or hike to 10 waterfalls this year. Goals have really helped our family make it on a lot of adventures. We are still making plans all the time of what we want to accomplish for our family, and also for this website.

Best Utah Adventures for Families

Everything we write here at Utah’s Adventure Family is to help you know if that activity or adventure is right for you. When we started looking for fun things to do in Utah with our young kids, we couldn’t find any good information. So, we started writing about the places we visited so others would know what to expect. We created our website just for you!

Here are some great places to start if you are new to adventuring:

• Easy Waterfall Hikes in Utah
• Free (and Cheap) Winter Acvtivities
• 50+ Indoor Adventures
• Best Spots to Spring Break in Utah
• Arches National Park Family Guide

Final Thought

The more you adventure, the more you will find it easier to choose activities that your family will like. And remember the best thing to do is follow Nike’s advice and Just Do It! Don’t let the fear of someone not enjoying it prevent you from spending time as a family. Happy Adventuring!