Travel&Vacation

In the winter, the Burlington, Illinois, family is at snowboarding competitions: In summer, it’s bike racing. “We haven’t had a family vacation in four years that doesn’t revolve around a sporting event,” said Barb Herman, who earlier this month was at the United States of America Snowboard Association’s national competition at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe, California, with her sons. The event drew nearly 1,500 competitors, more than 1,000 of whom were under 18, accompanied by their families. “Sure it’s expensive,” Herman acknowledged. “But the kids love it and we support them.”

“At least they’re not in front of the TV all day,” adds Laurie Foerster, whose son Michael plays competitive soccer and daughter, Kat, is a snowboarder. Foerster had brought 16-year-old Kat from Minneapolis for the snowboard competition and expects to be following Michael’s soccer team this spring. “We’re going to be going to Chicago a lot,” she said. “You don’t sign up to do this,” she added. “It just happens.”

Many of you reading this are nodding your heads because you have an ace swimmer, tennis player, soccer goalie, basketball star, third baseman, skater, gymnast or snowboarder in your gang. You spend weekends driving to tournaments and matches, spending way too much on equipment, gas, hotel rooms, and plane tickets.

Your vacations are dictated by where the kids are competing, whether its Florida, Hawaii, Vermont, or Indianapolis. “Be prepared to have your life revolve around the sport,” says Chicagoan Karl Keller, who estimates he’s watched more than 700 youth soccer games since his 18-year-old son Nat started playing nine years ago. “You better love it or learn how to love it!”

I was at Northstar with my 16-year-old daughter, Melanie, a freestyle skier, joining thousands of family members who had traveled across the country to cheer on the young competitors. Northstar sold more than 2,000 discounted friends-and-family lift tickets, a spokesman said, and that doesn’t count the numbers of spectators on hand who weren’t hitting the slopes themselves. “We’re here to pick up half the cost,” joked Lynne Gray whose two grandchildren had come from New Hampshire to compete. “It’s a lot of fun for all of us.”

And, whether they like it or not, siblings get pulled along for the ride, observes Family Travel Forum author Laura Sutherland, who has traveled as far as Hawaii with her son’s Santa Cruz, California, soccer team. “Many parents use all of their vacation time from work,” she said.

They’re working on the sidelines, too. Parents at the California ski resort sat in the sun, BlackBerrys in hand, balancing a laptop on their knees, as they waited for their children’s events, the kids wandering by for money to buy drinks and snacks. “I’ve been out of the office an entire month this winter,” said Robert Udolf, a business owner from Hartford.

“It’s a lot of sacrifice,” added fellow Connecticut mom Arlene Drimal, whose nine-year-old was competing. “You had better make sure your kid wants this.”

And, apparently, more kids than ever do.

“Parents increasingly are planning vacations around activities that include their children, and sporting events are among the most popular,” says Peter Yesawich, who oversees the National Travel Monitor that tracks such travel trends. “Research suggests that more families travel with their children to attend a sporting event—whether a professional or a youth competition—than took a cruise last year.” And that’s no small number, with cruises attracting more than a million children and their families each year.

Cruises could well be cheaper, too. One mom offered that her family had spent more than $8,000 on airfare, hotel, rental car, and entrance fees for the week in California, not to mention letting the kids skip school. “It’s worth it for the experience of a lifetime,” she said.