Are we there yet? Family Adventure FAQ's

Extract from Issue 2 of Venture Magazine

Family Travel can be hit or miss. Getting the transport and accommodation just right, and pleasing everyone in the family, can be difficult. Kumuka has taken the stress out of Family Holiday planning, with our Family Adventure Holidays and Tours. We recognised that our kind of travel doesn’t just appeal to adults – kids love adventure holidays too! Now you can travel with the whole family, kids and all! Secure in the knowledge that all practicalities have been sorted by some of our most experienced adventure travel professionals.

Helen Dwyer, Family Adventure Holidays and Family Tours operations manager, talks to Venture Magazine about what makes Kumuka’s family holidays and tours so successful.

Q Let’s start at the beginning... What are your top tips for a great family holiday?
A Firstly, I’d say, read the Family Adventure Holiday brochure and read up on the Family destinations that interest you very carefully. Make sure you’re really comfortable with the climate, or the activities such as hiking or four-wheel drive journeys. What’s most important is not that it’s going to be great for the kids, because they’re usually happy, but that the adults, who tend to be more set in their ways, are completely happy too. That’s what makes a great family holiday: happy mums and dads.

Q It doesn’t have to be mums and dads of course...
A Indeed not, Kumuka Family Adventure Holidays cater for the whole Family, single parents and other family relatives, close family friends, grandparents or other guardians with children of five years or over in the party.

Q And how many in the group for each Family tour?
A It can vary, anything from one family – Family travellers love that, as it’s like a private tailor-made Family Holiday – to a maximum of 16 people, which would normally be about four families travelling in a small group family holiday.

Q Kumuka goes to some very remote parts of the world. How safe are they for family travel?
A Everywhere we cover is fully checked out and constantly appraised and reappraised by our adult tour groups, so the leaders and guides will be feeding back to Kumuka about any issues relative to family travel they’ve had. As will our passengers of course. Obviously for parents it’s essential that they feel secure with us when booking their family holiday, so we go out of our way to make sure every aspect of the family tour is safe and easy, with clean accommodation and well-maintained vehicles.

Q I was going to ask you about the vehicles. How do you cope with the stress of kids on long journeys. Don’t they all wind each other up and get very bored?
A Well, for a start we deliberately keep travelling time down to a minimum with family holidays. As for getting bored, they usually end up teaming up with other kids in the group and have a brilliant time. And we also vary the means of transport as much as possible – four-wheel-drive, minibus, light planes, train, boat, tuk-tuk... Parents should bring some activities along for the kids, though. In fact, it’s best for each child to have their own day bag, with books, maybe binoculars for wildlife, and possibly a camera.

Q Presumably the accommodation on Family holiday tours are fairly basic?
A No, not at all. Family groups always stay in nice places – not the sort of establishment where children aren’t welcome and  not scruffy travellers’ lodgings. Kumuka Family Operations team always aim to include places with swimming pools, good family facilities to cater to the needs of travelling family. We do use some teahouses on Nepal Family Treks, and we do some camping on African Family safaris. We don’t find children complain about that! And we usually stay for a couple of nights, which is more relaxing than moving on every day. Also, quite a lot of the time is free, which gives all the family groups the chance to do their own thing and explore entirely on their own. Families have a fantastic time doing that, either on their own or teaming up with another family for the day.

Q Okay, so I’ve got the family brochure, the kids are all arguing about where they’re going to go... How do I decide the best family destination?
A You do need to do some background reading. I think most people will have some inkling in one direction or another... maybe wildlife, great cultures and civilisations, or maybe it’s a place your friends have been or you’ve been wowed by a TV documentary. But everywhere has its particular merits. The key thing is that all our family holiday tours are to places that Kumuka knows really well and has great small group travel products in, and that our experience tells us will be appreciated by the travelling family, children as well as adults.

Q What about what’s included in the price? How much should a family budget for all the extras?
A Actually, families don’t usually need that much. Unless you’re going to do lots of shopping, or your taste in drinks is expensive. Kumuka Family holidays include all the main excursions and other extras in the family brochure price. Consult your local agent or Kumuka Family holiday specialist representative or the family brochure for details.