July 31, 2018
“We’ll fish,” you think, picturing your whole clan happily reeling in fish from scenic waterways. “It’ll be nice.”
But, um… how do you plan a vacation like that? Where do you start?
We’re here to help.
The immediate answer is essentially two questions: What kind of destination do you want, and what type of fishing fits your group?
Once you get those answers set, it’ll be a little easier to plan what should be a thrilling experience.
If you’re still stuck in Huh?!?! mode, skip all of that for now and solicit info from people who know what you don’t.
Folks you know Put the question out into the world. Start with friend groups: Ask during your poker game, book club, soccer match or bunko gathering, or even hit up other parents sitting on playground benches.
Your online community: If your workplace or neighborhood has an online board, post a query with plenty of specifics. It might read like this: “Do you fish? I’m hoping to plan a fishing vacation for my family of 5 (the kids are 5 to 15) and would love advice on charters and destinations. Not super-cheap, but we don’t have the budget for luxury. What do you love?” Keep the question going. Paste it into Facebook or Instagram (with a photograph, because posts with images get seen more). Email or text the query en masse to friends and acquaintances who might have experiences to share.
Ask a fishing guru: You might pose your query to a sort-of expert: Book an excursion with a local professional fishing guide. Even if he or she never leaves town, chances are that guide will know the buzz about what’s available elsewhere. Fellow guides, and former guests, will surely have told the guide details about their past adventures, good and bad.
Old-school sources: If you have some sort of idea about where you want to have your family fishing vacation, go to a bookstore and look through the guidebooks in the travel section. You can buy a guidebook about a big city, one state, a region or a whole country. Before you make a purchase, check the index and table of contents to make sure the book contains fishing info.
It’s ironic that you’ll get some of your best information about a nature-oriented vacation on the Internet, yet search engines like Google can surely lead you to helpful resources.
At this point, you should have a clear idea of one or more places that are the right distance from home, with the right type of fishing and in the right price range. After that, you probably can’t go wrong. Book, and enjoy. If it’s not perfect? Then you’ll have funny stories to tell again and again over the years. (“Remember when we spent a week on a fishing trip in Arizona and it rained all day, every day?” Trust us, at some point in the future that will make you all laugh.) Plus, you’ll have a better idea about what questions to ask while planning the next family fishing vacation.
Then, gather the family and go fish.
Rona Gindin is a multimedia writer, editor and television personality covering a broad range of subjects for national and local media outlets. Working from an Orlando base, she’s Central Florida’s go-to source for information on the destination’s restaurants and attractions.
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