Family Bonding in the Mexican Riviera

By Claudia Laroye

Booking a spring break family cruise to Mexico’s west coast was a great wayto connect with our teens – and start a new chapter for our family.

With a new school year just started, I’ve been thinking back to my family’s last March Break two years ago. My eldest of two sons was in his final year of high school, ready to head off to new adventures at college. While I knew that things would change, the realization was only just barely sinking in. How did we get to this stage of life so quickly? What would this all mean?

For our family of travellers, it meant a meeting around the dinner table to discuss our spring break trip plan. Over the years, we’ve found it important to involve our kids, especially as teenagers, in the travel planning process. It creates excitement and buy-in, and with older kids in particular, it really helps with increasing their enthusiasm and decreasing eye-rolls and attitude.

Of course, compromises are usually required too – you can’t do everything. But in this case, everyone was on board, literally, with our plan to cruise the Mexican Riviera with ports of call in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. This trip plan had advantages for everyone: fun in the sun, a chance to relax, and an opportunity to visit new destinations and meet new friends.

We started by booking our boys a separate cabin adjacent to ours. No, this was not a recipe for chaos and partying-gone-wild. It was an exercise in trust, a nod to their maturity – and it worked beautifully. The boys loved the independence to come and go as they pleased, with the understanding that we would all meet up every day for dinner (6 p.m. sharp!) and do all port excursions together as a family. We enjoyed our own adult time as much as they enjoyed their freedom. The children and teen clubs are usually packed with kids from across North America, and as we were travelling during spring break, our cruise was no exception. The boys quickly made new friends and kept busy with club activities from morning to night.

When it came to going ashore, there was never a shortage of things to do. From shopping to scuba diving, secret beach visits to zip lining, we had all manner of port excursions with varying levels of activity at our disposal. We also had the help of expat guides who were keen to point us toward their favourite local restaurant or marketplace.

When you’re travelling with teenagers in tow, it’s crucial to keep all hunger at bay. One excursion in particular delivered on that and much more: the Vallarta Food Tour. Designed for families with kids of any age, it was golden for our teens, who loved trying new foods and learning about local culture.

Our guide Javier, a young hipster living in Vallarta, knew the food scene inside out. During our three-hour tour, he introduced us to perfectly fried fish tacos, freshly made tortillas, as well as the secrets of mole sauce and traditional Mexican chocolate and candy making. As we made our way through the beautiful narrow streets of historic Puerto Vallarta, and along the Malecon, the seaside walkway, Javier also taught us about the history of Vallarta, the traditions of tequila, and what local life is really like. The kids ate it all up – both the food and the history lessons.

Stuffed after our epic lunch, we rested on the beach at Vallarta’s Playa Los Muertos while the kids tested the waters and took beach selfies, including a couple of family shots. Back in the land of Wi-Fi a few days later, my eldest would post a photo of the four of us, smiling on that same beach, with the caption “Family vacations are the best!” for all of his friends to see.

His enthusiastic Insta-confession left me smiling – I wasn’t the only one who loved our time together. We’d done something right in spending time connecting with one another in a way that our children enjoyed and appreciated as much as we did. As difficult as his leaving for college would be a few months later, I knew we’d all be fine. The family fun won’t stop as our kids become adults, it’ll just morph into new opportunities to celebrate being together, whether on land or at sea.