Make Your Family Reunion Special

Take Time for Togetherness

Family reunions continue to grow in importance and according to a recent Orbitz study, 50 percent of respondents said their favorite group to travel with is their extended family. And although the survey respondents wanted to be together for activities and meals, when asked about preferred sleeping arrangements, most said they wanted privacy.

While many families are making hard budgetary decisions when the economy is tight, timeshare owners are still able to enjoy time away every year. Now more of these travelers want to share their vacation experiences with their extended families.

Family reunions have always been popular, especially in the summer months. But today reunions are going in a different direction than sleeping on Grandma’s couch or having a few hours in a park. Families are celebrating each other and renewing relationships between generations by taking long weekends or more to stay together.

From spacious accommodations to activities for everyone, many travelers are turning to timeshare products as vacation options for family reunions. Take Time for Togetherness offers travel options and suggestions to help make family reunions fun, affordable and stress-free.

Be Sure to Prepare!

Talk to Your Family
Like any major event, communications is a key component to planning the reunion. With families being spread out, it increases the challenge. Luckily, there are some great online resources that can be used as your communications clearinghouse for the family. There are several website resources that can help you manage details and communications between family members. Check out sites www.myevent.com or www.triphub.com for help. This way everyone can easily stay involved without placing too much burden on one person.

Select the Right Time of Year
Is it more likely that you’ll get people together over the summer? Or maybe over the Christmas holidays? It’s important to understand when your family members can take the time to participate in the family reunion. Some families prefer ski vacations in the winter, others opt for the beach and yet others are happy to meet somewhere in between so that everyone can be accommodated.

www.Surveymonkey.com can give you a tool to create a quick and easy survey that you can send to everyone on your extended family list to determine the best time and place to go.

Be sure to leave enough lead-time to do the proper amount of planning. It’s often difficult to find the perfect date for everyone, but starting a year in advance is usually time enough for anyone to make sure their calendars are clear.

Who to Invite….and How to Invite Them
One of your first jobs is to decide whom you want to include in your family reunion. Do you want to invite aunts, uncles and cousins or just your immediate family? How many can you easily track down?

The number of people on your guest list will be a factor in many of your other early decisions, such as location and activities. In general, the more people you have, the more planning you’ll have to do.

Begin by making a list of people to invite. Contact those people that you already have addresses or phone numbers for and seek their assistance in gathering the names of those you’re missing.

The last step is to begin the invitation process. Whether you want to keep it informal and make the calls yourself or use one of the online resources mentioned above to send out invites, you now have the tools to get the word out.
How Long Do You Want to Be Together?

The length of a family reunion is an important decision and is best answered by consulting as many family members as you can. For families who live close to each other, a few days may be plenty of time to share the fun, activities, visit, and social aspects. However, if most of the people must travel a significant distance, a longer stay is often warranted….and welcome.

Now that you have some of the basics planned, let’s take a look at where you can go and what you can do when you’re there!

Decide Where to Go!

Distance
Will the family reunion be just one day, an entire weekend, or a full week? If you're planning a short reunion, most people probably won't be as willing to travel long distances to attend. Select a location close to the majority of family members - possibly a neighborhood park, family member's home or local hotel or restaurant. Longer gatherings, especially special “one-time” reunions, map warrant a more elaborate location, such as a cruise or family resort.

Convenience
How far will guests have to travel to get to your reunion location? If a number of them will have to travel by air, consider holding your family reunion in an area convenient to a major airport. A location that’s accessible and easy to find means that more people will likely attend.

Accessibility
Do you have people with limited mobility attending your reunion? Elderly relatives in wheelchairs or young children in strollers? Make sure that the location you choose will comfortably accommodate everyone who will attend.

Affordability
Travel budgets can be a significant factor for most family reunions. Make sure that the location you choose fits into your budget, as well as that of your relatives.

Accommodations
People attending family reunions want both togetherness and privacy. Having a resort that enables shared mealtime and social time, while providing private sleeping accommodations and bathrooms, can go a long way in making everyone happy. Timeshare resorts offer the perfect balance of living accommodations for large groups.

Features and Activities
What attractions and activities does the reunion site and nearby area provide? Recreational activities such as boating, swimming, golf and camping can be fun when incorporated into a family reunion. People attending from outside the area may enjoy a location with nearby museums, historic sites, amusement parks, sports facilities and other attractions. Find a location that makes your reunion less of a meeting, and more of a destination.

When choosing your location, be sure to look into several options in order to find the perfect one for your group.

Have Fun While You’re There!

Theme It
Creating a theme for a family reunion is a great way to get some excitement generated around your event. Themes can also make things more fun when it comes to being imaginative with food, games, activities, invitations and just about every other aspect of the reunion. Family history themes are popular, as are reunions that celebrate a very special family member’s birthday or anniversary, or the family’s cultural heritage.
Icebreakers

You don’t need to occupy everyone all the time, but planned activities and ice-breakers at your family reunion will provide an easy way for people who haven’t seen each other for a while feel more comfortable together. Some great ideas for icebreakers can be found at
http://family-reunion.com/icebreak.htm.

Make mealtime fun again. Be creative.
Turn your kitchens into a traveling dinner. Let everyone share by creating a specialty from their hometown. Appetizers can be hosted by the cousins, dinner by the grandparents and dessert by the children. Timeshares provide full kitchens in every unit, making dinner an event in itself.

Games & Activities
Be sure to have games for all ages. From ping-pong to shuffleboard, many vacation ownership resorts offer countless activities for all ages. Not to mention the variety of activities in your resort area – swimming, skiing, shopping or museums.

Other fun ideas you may want to consider include:
Take pictures
While many family members will no doubt bring their own cameras, it helps to also make plans to record the overall event. Whether you designate a specific relative as the official reunion photographer, or hire a professional photographer to take photos or videos, you should prepare a list of the people and events that you want recorded. For spontaneous “moments,” purchase disposable cameras and hand them out to guests. Then you can put together an album to send to everyone after the event.

Family talent show
Set aside some time for family members to entertain with skits, singing, juggling or whatever their special talent may be. This can provide a lot of laughs and some very special moments.

Guess Who?
Ask everyone to bring baby pictures with them. Place them on a poster board and have guests decide who they are.

Awards ceremony
This can be held on the last night and you can award prizes for special distinctions such as oldest family member or longest distance traveled to attend.

Make a Family Tree
Utilize the reunion to connect the family’s lineage as a treasured memory for all generations. Create a poster board with attending family and ask that they trace their immediate family lines back as far as they can remember with maiden names, birth dates and marriages. After the reunion, put together the poster board and make copies for everyone.