Family Travel in the Shoulder Season
Milder temperatures, thinner crowds and education outside of the classroom are just a few reasons we love to travel during sweater weather.
When planning a trip with kids in tow, the great majority of us are usually restricted to traveling when everyone else does.
And for good reason. Calendars work around the seasons, around school breaks and work schedules. But for parents looking to have a much more relaxed— and thus more joyful— travel experience with their children, shoulder season might be the way to go.
Shoulder season, as its name suggests, falls between the peak and off season of any given destination. In many parts of the world this occurs twice a year, in the spring and the fall. In the northern hemisphere, this usually means September and October make up the fall shoulder season, and April through May in spring. There is some wiggle room here, depending on the local climate.
For example, the shoulder season in Italy and some other southern European countries could extend to November (Thanksgiving in Tuscany, anyone?). Off season, or any time outside peak and shoulder seasons, offers many of the same benefits of shoulder season travel, but the weather just might not be as nice.
Whether or not your child’s school allows it— some school districts in the U.S. offer independent study weeks, while across Europe there’s a swathe of rules and regulations, but a generous autumn break for many E.U. countries), traveling during these less impacted times makes for an inherently more easygoing experience for both children and parents. But there’s a whole host of ways why it can also benefit the destination and the communities within it.
So why make the shift to these less-traveled periods? Where should we start?
Exploring the Altstadt in Dresden, Germany.
It gives our kids a more enriched experience.
Visiting new places during a less-traveled season makes the overall adventure more go-with-the flow, and allows both children and parents to interact with the place- and each other- with more presence and ease. Cities burdened by the summer rush, painstakingly long lines for the bathroom and swimming like salmon upstream in crowds can be so stressful for kids. Being able to freely move about cities during a quieter month allows our kids to engage with the place in a much more relaxed and meaningful way.
“No matter what developmental stage they are in, family travel helps children to feel connected through the shared family experience. It gives families a shared love of something that they not only do together but can plan for and talk about.”
—Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge, Travel + Leisure
For many children, school can be extremely demanding (some call it ‘seatwork’, meaning more sitting and writing than interactive learning). When a trip is treated like an educational experience— have your kids bring along a journal and scrapbook their observations daily— it can in many ways be a better version of school. Kids can come back feeling enriched, recharged, and ready to apply what they learned to their curriculum (and share their experience with their classmates)!
It’s more affordable and easier to plan.
As parents, we are well aware that traveling only during school and summer breaks can be ultra expensive. Travel during the school year is thus ultimately much more feasible for families and gives them the option to visit places they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
On a practical level, the costs of plane tickets, train travel, car rentals and accommodation tend to be lower during shoulder seasons, and availability goes up. As responsible travelers, we think about what’s best for the local economies and ecologies of our destinations, but shoulder season travel might just cut down on our own costs in the long run to boot. Similarly, even if you have to do one long-haul flight to get you from one continent or country to another, consider taking public transportation or renting a car for the shorter legs within your trip, both to save money and cut down on carbon emissions.
It ups our responsible traveler games.
The top reason we love a good shoulder-season adventure is that it provides ample opportunity to travel more responsibly. Many of the world’s most popular destinations have become over-touristed, leaving local ecosystems collapsed and depleted. When we choose to visit a place outside of their busiest time of year, we help release some of the pressure on their natural resources like water, and lessen some of the effects of over-tourism such as pollution.
In keeping with the tenets of responsible travel, it’s generally best to avoid highly touristed places altogether and opt for under-the-radar spots or “second cities” instead. That said, adding one big city to your shoulder-season itinerary or, better yet, focusing on just that city as a deep-dive slow travel experience, will have less impact than if your family joins the stampede during high season. Visiting Prague in the fall, for example, kids will be able to roam more freely across the Charles Bridge or up the 300 steps to the castle. You will also have the change to easily explore Kutna Hora, a historical town and UNESCO World Heritage Site only 30 minutes away, without stressing about sardine-packed transportation. Locals here will be happy you came. Bonuses also include less chaos at the airport, avoiding extreme temperatures of peak season and more time to enjoy the local lifestyle and cuisine. Ultimately, visiting a hot-spot like Prague in the shoulder-season means less time standing in line and more time and space for cultural exchange.
Shoulder season travel is better for the local economy.
It may surprise you but, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, one in ten people are employed by the tourism industry globally (or they were before the pandemic). And many, many more family and community members benefit from these individuals’ incomes. Can you imagine if you could only do your job three months out of the year, and during those three months you were inundated with so much demand that the quality of your product or service and your own wellbeing suffered? And what if, for the rest of the year, you had to live off savings or scramble for other ways to make ends meet?
Visiting outside peak seasons is an excellent way to practice regenerative travel: No matter what the season, with every restaurant you eat in, accommodation you stay at, and shop you buy from, you’re contributing to the local economy. The off-season lull contributes to job insecurity and unemployment. Simply put, traveling in the off or shoulder season helps alleviate seasonal imbalance. Spreading your patronage as a tourist throughout more of the year helps families and individuals sustain themselves better. To make an even greater impact with your tourist dollars, try to support local, independently owned businesses, especially those that look after their staff in the off-season.
How to Travel During the School Year
Many schools offer the opportunity for families to take their children out of school and treat the trip as an educational experience. Ideas to bring with:
+Bring a journal and update it daily with drawings, stories and scrapbooking.
+Join a citizen science project.
+Join a local cleanup to engage with the natural environment and meet people in the community.
+Engage in cultural exchanges like cooking, art walks, music and dance that they can document and share with their class when they return.
The weather is better.
There’s no denying it anymore. Summer is becoming increasingly hot due to climate change. According to the New York times, “Shifts in travel patterns are likely to become more common in Europe, a region that climate researchers describe as a ‘hot spot’ for severe summer heat.” And it’s not just Europe; all across the globe this past summer saw record and in many cases lethal heat waves, alongside wildfires, floods and storms. We’re being asked, genuinely, if we can rise to the occasion to do good by our travels from here on out.
To take Europe as an example, though, much of the continent simply can’t support tourism under these conditions. In the words of writer Lori Zaino, “Lacking proper air conditioning and infrastructure, many countries were (and still are) unprepared to deal with such extreme heat. This can make Europe a seemingly uncomfortable place for you and your family to take a summer trip, especially if you’re sensitive to heat— no one wants to tour the Colosseum under the burning hot sun or climb the Eiffel Tower in the scorching heat.”
City sightseeing aside, nature-centric activities like hiking and biking also become less than enjoyable when the temperatures climb too high. Even riding on public transportation or getting into and out of the car can become an ordeal in such extreme heat. If your potential itinerary revolves around how and where to stay cool, why not stay home and plan a trip during the cooler months?
European Spring Festivals We Love
+ Fèsta de ƚa Sènsa in Venice, May // + Stuttgart Springfest, April-May // + Fallas of Valencia, March // + Keukenhof Gardens (tulips) in the Netherlands, March-May // + Calçotada Food Festivals Of Catalonia, Feb-April // + Feria de Abril in Seville, April/May// + Noto Flower Festival in Sicily, May
It’s more condusive to insider experiences.
Shifting travel to a shoulder season may feel like a sacrifice at first. But in many cases it actually opens the door to opportunities you can’t experience during peak season. To name a few examples, the Northern Lights across the Nordic countries, meeting the Sami community and their reindeer in Lapland, the myriad Christmas Markets open throughout Europe during the month of December, and skiing in the Alps all require cooler weather conditions. This doesn’t mean everyone should rush to northern Europe during the winter holidays. But maybe an extra few days can be chiseled off at Thanksgiving, maybe midwinter break can replace summer as the time you travel abroad. And maybe summer can become about supporting your own local economy and exploring the community in and around your own backyard. Who knows, you might be surprised by what you find there.
For those with school-age children, we feel your hesitation. But hear us out. If you can find a way to extend your fall or spring break a little on either end, or even just work with what you’ve got, the perks of venturing off the beaten travel schedule abound. In either case, this is an awesome opportunity to get your kids engaged in environmental activism. Whether you find a local beach clean-up or a citizen science project, or even just ask them to journal for a few pages about responsible travel means to them, shoulder-season travel is sure to give them—and you—lots to think about.
Here are a few ideas to get your creative planning juices flowing:
Autumn in Europe
Not only is fall a much calmer time to travel in general, but it’s also one of the best times to visit many European destinations in particular, especially when you have the kids along for the adventure:
Mediterranean regions have milder temperatures, plus everyone is back to work and school, so it’s less crowded and easier to explore those seemingly empty cities.
Fall festivals like the Alba White truffle festival, Tallinn Black food festival and the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla in Spain are just a few family-friendly ones. Most food and wine festivals in countries like Italy, Spain, Greece and France welcome children, even late into the night.
All across Europe travelers can find stunning options for “leaf peeping” that rival the Northeast region of the United States. Everywhere from Italy's Amalfi Coast to Germany’s fairytale-like castles can give children a chance to play confetti with the bursts of reds, orange and yellow leaves.
Oktoberfest in Bavaria is all-ages and a great family affair, complete with theme park rides and games for kids. Children will even receive special bracelets with their parents’ phone numbers in case they get lost.
