Even though summer is coming to a close, there’s never a bad time of year to take a trip out with the family for a day or a weekend. This doesn’t have to mean a few days of sun in Europe or along the coast. A trip with the family just needs to be an adventure, and there are many different ways in which you could find something to get the whole family pumped for some bonding time.

At the end of the day, what matters most is that you’re all spending time together. It doesn’t matter what you do so much as who you’re spending it with. That being said, there are good trips to take and bad trips. A history lesson at the local museum might not be exactly what your children were hoping for when they wanted a break from school more than anything else. Here are some ideas for the best trips you could take with the family during this summer or perhaps even autumn if you need a little planning time.

Drive down to the coast.

One of the most fulfilling and simple trips you could take with the family is a drive to your nearest seaside town. The road trip itself will be a lot of fun in that you can all play silly games in the car, sing along to cheesy and ridiculous songs on your family mixtape, and eagerly anticipate the sight of glorious sand and a quaint little town on the horizon. You really can’t beat a beach holiday, and you don’t have to jet off to the other side of the world to get one. Try out the coast (even if it’s a long drive), and experience a town that you might never have considered visiting before. Seaside towns are often foreign wonderlands in themselves.

A city break.

This isn’t the kind of vacation for everyone, but a trip to a city that everybody in the family has always wanted to visit could be a really fun break. You might spend a day there or you might spend a weekend there, depending on how far you have to drive, but it can be a cultural and entertaining experience to head to a city you’ve only seen in films or pictures in the past. Plus, if your kids don’t like the idea of being far from civilization on a vacation (and the parents too, for that matter) then this is a great way to simply hop to another interesting segment of civilization. Of course, if your family does like the idea of cutting the ties with the noisy world for a vacation then the following trip idea might be to your liking…

Camping.

This is the bonding experience to beat all bonding experiences. When in doubt as to what kind of trip you should take your family on, forget excessive expenses and fancy resorts; keep things simple. Instead, take your family out into nature and enjoy the simple beauty of mother earth. A tent, some marshmallows, and logs for a fire are all you need to have a really fun family trip.

You can tell ghost stories around the campfire until one of the parents (it’s okay if it’s you) gets too scared and has to go to bed. You can go out exploring the local lakes, forests, valleys, or whatever natural beauty surrounds you. You might not even have to travel far from home to find somewhere wonderful in which you can camp. It doesn’t have to be a long or expensive trip that requires extensive planning; it can be relatively spontaneous if it doesn’t require a long journey.

Fishing.

If full-blown camping doesn’t sound like your family’s style then you could head to a local lake, rent out a room in a hotel if you’re planning to stay a few nights, and instead experience nature with a spot of fishing. If you’re not sure what kind of experience your family would enjoy then you might consider flats fishing to really boost the adventure; this kind of fishing is a sport, in a sense, as it involves taking a boat into shallow water to reach fishing spots with difficult access. Whatever you choose to do, fishing should get the competitive juices flowing in your family members, at any rate. There might be some playful arguments, but it’ll be a much more exhilarating adventure for the kids than sitting around at home and playing competitive board games.

Kayaking.

If the previous water-based adventure didn’t sound exciting enough for your family then you consider the much more exciting sport of kayaking. This is certainly a sport that most if not all of your family probably can’t claim to have ever tried before, so there shouldn’t be any complaints about it being a boring option. It’s far from boring, and there’s no doubt about that. If there’s no lake nearby then you could even practice a sport such as this at your local leisure center; there’s no need to venture miles before getting some practice in first.

Make a real adventure out of this trip and plan it a month or two in advance so that you and the family can spend a few weekends training. You could even take it one step further (maybe for a future trip) and go white water rafting. Of course, that depends on the age of your family members, and you might want to wait until you’re a little more skilled first. Still, it’s certainly a fun sport and a trip that you and the family won’t forget in a hurry.

Make sure everybody’s happy.

Whatever trip you decide for your family, make sure it’s something with which everybody’s on board. The most important thing is that you’re all together and having a fun time. It’s good to try out new things even if some of you might be a little apprehensive of the experience, but you should definitely make sure you don’t go on a trip that everybody hates. Test the waters if you can; if you’re planning on going camping then spend a night camping in your garden to see if everybody likes the idea of sleeping in a tent.