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With summer around the corner, now’s the time when many families begin imagining the version of themselves they want to be for just a few months. Some people book elaborate international trips. Others return to the same beach every year, or pile into the car to hit the road with no real itinerary at all.
There is no single right way to spend summer as a family. What makes this season meaningful is often less about the trips taken and more about what families want from them: a break from routine, time together, or simply a few weeks that feel different from the rest of the year.
Today’s newsletter explores stories about summer travel and the strange expectations attached to family vacations.
On Vacationing
The New Millennial Parenting Anxiety
By Faith Hill
For those determined to pass down their globe-trotting values, vacations have become ever more ambitious and goal-oriented—and exhausting. (From 2025)
How to Have Your Most Fulfilling Vacation Ever
By Arthur C. Brooks
Turning your leisure into learning offers the happiest holiday experience of all. (From 2023)
The New Family Vacation
By Michael Waters
More and more Americans are traveling with multiple generations—and, perhaps, learning who their relatives really are. (From 2023)
Still Curious?
- Beach vacationers are doing it wrong. To really take a break, try vigorous exercise, Richard A. Friedman argued in 2022
- On failing the family vacation: “How I got dumped, went on a cruise, and embraced radical self-acceptance,” Kim Brooks wrote in 2024.
Other Diversions
- The richest cat in the world
- The goodbye Stephen Colbert wanted to say
- A nervy thriller for the scam era
PS
My colleague Isabel Fattal recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Today the submission came from my own grandmother, who was very excited to share her picture. “Climbing the mountain near my house in Bogotá, a little higher up at 2,600 meters, the tropical nature thrives in a climate that can drop to 3 degrees Celsius at dawn. The bromeliads bloom beautifully,” Myriam K. from Bogotá, Colombia, writes.
We’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
— Rafaela
The post Don’t Put Too Much Pressure on Your Summer Vacation appeared first on The Atlantic.
