by Frank Sinbeans

Created on: February 14, 2010

After months of planning and saving for your Florida vacation, you spend your days sitting by the window, hoping the torrential rains and hurricane winds will die down before you have to go home. Or perhaps you've managed to plan your ski vacation for precisely the week of the record-braking thaw in the mountains, filling the slopes with slush. Everyone has experienced weather tantrums that disturb a dream vacation - yet, that knowledge alone does not make up for those lost days. So what can be done?

The first step is to realize that a vacation based around one solitary activity, especially if that activity is weather related, is likely to lead to disappointment. An easy solution is to create weather-dependent contingency plans. For instance, when planning visits to outdoor theme parks, the beach, or whatnot, you may also wish to check out what museums, shows, or other indoor entertainment is also available. Then, if the weather refuses to concede to your wishes, at least you'll know you have other options at the ready.

Another important tactic is to plan to be a little spontaneous. If planned activities become impossible, rather than sitting around wishing you could do what you'd intended, be willing to try something else. Ask the locals, or those who frequent your destination, what other options are available. That way, even if you experience the disappointment of failed plans, you may wind up experiencing surprising delights that you never anticipated - and perhaps an even richer experience than what you had expected!

Perhaps most importantly for those traveling with children is to remember to impart this information to your young travel companions. Remember, they're expecting the same activities, with the same level of excitement as you are (or likely even more), and will likely be more disappointed if weather intercedes. Moreover, not having the life experience you do, they may be completely oblivious to the possibility that plans will fail, until the event occurs. But if kids are informed that plans do not always work out, and are expecting to, perhaps, have to resort to alternate plans or spontaneity, then great disappointment can be averted. 

No plan is fool-proof, and sometimes the unexpected does occur. But when this happens during a vacation, this does not mean that all fun must fall by the wayside. By simply expecting the unexpected, and preparing to find new, and creative ways to have fun, even the most annoying weather the atmosphere can throw at you need not spoil your vacation.

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