Taking family trips in the off season can help you travel more
Do you wish you could travel without crowds? Or experience a place at a different time of year? Are you able to have your schedule work in a way that you can travel with your family outside of the high season for tourism? If so, then off season family travel has a lot to offer—and that’s certainly our experience.
Off season travel doesn’t fit everyone’s life or schedule. But as devotees of the off season, or low season, we wanted to share 3 reasons why we love this sort of travel.
1. Smaller crowds.
We’ll preface this by saying that if you love crowds, then this won’t be a thing for you. But for our more introverted selves, navigating the time and energy of crowded places isn’t much our thing. So when we can avoid it, we typically do (and if we can’t, we prepare accordingly and make the most of it).
But a lovely facet of off season travel is smaller crowds. While for some areas that can also mean some services won’t be available, or have less availability, we find that it is much easier for us to book accommodation, get into activities we’re interested in, and have shorter wait times. That helps us get more out of each travel day and our trip overall.
2. Fresh perspective.
A warm, sunshine-drenched beach is a beautiful thing. But a storm-pounded, cloudy-sky, ferocious ocean is also incredible to behold.
Part of what we love about off season family travel, is we can experience activities and places with a different perspective. Places look different in different seasons. A lush, leafy forest might be bare in the fall or winter, but you can see things the leaves concealed before. Or, a waterfall that’s a dribble in summer becomes an awe-inspiring torrent in winter or early spring.
3. Tuck travel into the nooks and crannies of your schedule.
While we have various work, school, and other life commitments, we prioritize family travel. Part of that is doing all we can to tuck trips, even little trips, into the nooks and crannies of our schedule.
If we can travel somewhere during the week that we might not otherwise get to experience, we make that happen. If visiting a place in its off season makes it easier for us to make arrangements, we find that often works in our favor.
And when we have some time where it looks like we could squeeze in a trip, we look for somewhere we can go. Prioritizing that flexibility in our schedule helps us take advantage of times outside of weekends and holidays, which in turn helps us travel more.
Our own off season family travel experience: Fall vacation to Port Orford on the Oregon Coast
The crashing waves and wild winds of the Southern Oregon Coast are a brutal beauty, but it is a beauty we love deeply.
Port Orford takes you to the very western edge of the contiguous US, and it feels like it. During our fall visit to the secluded Southern Oregon Coast, we wandered a forest over the sea, hunted agates on a black sand beach—and even stumbled upon some free mini-golf.
Was it high season for tourism on the Southern Oregon Coast? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it was a beautiful trip, full of fun experiences we shared as a family. Check out the video to see why!
Off season trips can get your family on the road
Off season travel is a way families can work more travel into their lives—and have a lot of fun doing it. Being willing to travel in the off season, and doing what we can to accommodate that flexibility, has made a huge difference in how much we travel as a family. Off season travel is a great way to keep your family on the road!
