A weekend away with extended family can often be met with trepidation and a high degree of stress. We recently went on a trip away with Jeff’s family to the sunny Gold Coast and had an amazing time. Here are some of my tips to make it a fun and stress-free occasion.
1) Book a self-contained apartment or house
A large apartment or house with a few living spaces is perfect – you can easily have a nice event in the property and introverts like me can find an escape for some quiet time. Make sure it has a kitchen and multiple bathrooms always helps avoid an argument! We stayed at Circle on Cavill which has a wide selection of apartments to choose from.
2) Plan for success
Before you leave, put together a rough outline of your days and make sure everyone is in agreement with the plan. This also includes leaving some space for “free time” where everyone can do their own thing for a while.
3) Do a grocery shop at the start of the trip
Hopefully you’ve got that apartment or house with a kitchen, which means you’ll need some supplies. Either bring your own or make a list in advance of what you’ll need. As we had our rough plan, we knew how many meals we would be cooking ourselves, so could buy accordingly. Our AirBnB apartment also had a Woolworths downstairs which made everything super easy.
4) Book a nice Gold Coast restaurant
You’re going away so it’s always nice to have a focal point for the trip with a nice restaurant outing. Being on the Gold Coast, we chose to have a big group lunch at one of the top rated seafood restaurants with a view, Omeros Brothers.
5) Order Uber Eats
These days, you have a much greater range of choice for delivery options than just pizza or Thai, thanks to the plethora of food delivery options like Uber Eats or Deliveroo. The best thing about this is that you can also do multiple orders so everyone has their pick of what they feel like. There was a big World Cup game on whilst we were away, so we chose to stay in and watch together, order some food and no one needed to cook.
6) Bring some cards or board games
Board games or cards are always lots of fun and help if you’ve run out of conversation! Our card game of choice was UNO. If you’ve forgotten, you can always download the app and just use your phone.
7) Do some Gold Coast sightseeing
If you’re off to a new place, get out of your accommodation and go exploring together. We had to cater for a variety of fitness levels, so we chose a 1 hour tour of the Gold Coast on the Aqua Duck (that’s the on-road vehicle that converts into a boat). Our grandparents loved it!
8) Get a photo shoot done
You’re away together with family, and if this doesn’t happen very often it’s a wonderful opportunity to plan in a photo shoot. Let everyone know in advance so they can pack accordingly, particularly if you’re choosing a theme. Pack a tripod and use your own camera, or put up a job on Airtasker and choose your photographer and price.
A key for this trip was that we didn’t have any young kids with us, but there would have been even more to do if we did!
Do you have any more tips to share to make the most of the Goldie?