Why Southerners Love Returning to the Same Vacation Spots
Vacation is all about fun with family, beating the heat, and taking some much-deserved relaxation time. What better way to chill out than heading to the same vacation spot year after year? While it’s fun to experiment and try new things, many Southerners like to stick to a regular, dependable place to make memories and engage in some much-needed downtime. Certain spots like Hilton Head or Outer Banks are popular locations for Southerners to return to with each passing year–and although it might seem like familiar beaches and restaurants could get boring after a while, there are plenty of benefits to spending each year in the same place.
1. Making Memories:
Novelty is great, but so is nostalgia! When you bring your family back to a familiar place every summer, they get to reflect on the memories they’ve made in years past… and then make some more! With our emphasis on family, Southerners know the value of creating memories with loved ones. Taking pictures of kids on the same beach and comparing them as years pass can be infinitely more gratifying than going to a new place every 365 days. It gives kids (and parents) a familiar and fun place to look forward to as the weather grows warmer. Our kids will hold onto the quality time they spent at their regular vacation spot, and maybe even bring their own kids there one day!
2. Dependable Shops and Restaurants:
If you’ve ever been on a family vacation, you might recall heated disagreements between hungry family members who can’t pick a place to eat or even figure out how to get to a restaurant. Exploring a new place comes with chaos, but returning to a familiar place provides comfort. When we’re trying to relax and tune out our troubles on vacation, it’s nice to have accessible, dependable restaurants and stores nearby–so we don’t have to stress about where to eat or where to go. Visiting the same vacation destination over and over makes it easy to know exactly which spots have the best pizza or BBQ, which places cater to picky kids, and which beaches are the least crowded.
3. Family Traditions:
For Southerners, traditions are a way of life. Vacations are no exception. For some families, this means a summer home that gets passed down from generation to generation. For others, it simply means returning to the same beach every year. Whatever your vacation traditions are, returning to a familiar destination can help keep them alive. Congregating in a family home or enjoying a yearly party brings a generational element to vacation, as new family members learn to adopt these traditions and make them their own. It can be a great way to honor the legacy of family members who’ve passed or envision the little ones that are soon to come. With our luck, our future families will protect the legacy by continuing to visit the very same spot we did!
4. Local Friends:
Community can be a great benefit to a regular vacation spot. By returning again and again, we might get to know people around town, like owners of local businesses or neighbors who live in the area full-time. If we’re lucky, we might even be able to get our friends to vacation in the same spot as we do every year, meaning we can spend our trips with other families! Plus, having a singular, reliable location means more members of our own family can come each year with less stress and planning, no matter where they live.
Visiting the same vacation spot year after year might seem boring to some, but not to Southerners who love tradition and making memories! Whether you’re a part of a big family, a young couple, or just someone looking to get out of town every summer, consider finding the perfect vacation spot to return to again and again as the years pass.