DADVENTURE: Family Vacation Tradition or Innovation?

I was feeling a little nostalgic and drifting back through years of family summer vacation pictures, including those I have just recently taken.  It struck me in this viewing that the children change and grow, but the background remains fixed.  In the photos the themes recur.  The beaches, the boat, to boogie boards and buckets full of sea creatures.

There is the annual beach cookout, there is the week out on the island, there is the rainy day at the aquarium.  Even the beach toys carry over from year to year.

Our summer vacation is steeped in multi-generation family tradition.

I know that there are families out there that could not fathom returning to the same spot year after year.  These folks would gently remind me that there a subtle curriculum to family travel, exposing kids to the wider world, teaching them about new cultures, new environments.  They would inform me that summer is a great opportunity to expand the child's horizons.

I get it.  And I sometimes fret, but I still would not trade vacation tradition for innovation.

For my buck, finding a place that works and sticking to it has the advantage of clearly being "vacation" -- we're clearly away and not at home -- but without the stress of trying to figure out a new place (maybe this is not stressful, but exciting to some families, and thus the different choice).  I like the combination of being away, yet being familiar.

The kids can set their own agenda because they know what is on the menu.  They actually have more freedom because we have comfort with the area.  They have developed stable friendships with kids from like minded families that perform the return migration.

There are meals and outings featuring stories about meals and outings from the past.

And the place is beautiful.  And my in-laws have a house here, so the price is right.

What are your priorities when it comes to creating a family vacation?  Do you seek out new experiences or return to familiar haunts?