What is your favorite family vacation you have ever taken? What did you love about it? In “How Do Families Around the World Spend Their Vacations?” Jaime Lowe writes about the different ways families across the globe spend their time off together.
In Japan:
Short two- to three-day vacations, a typical length in Japan, offer a brief refuge from life in the country’s densely populated city centers. A summer escape might be as simple as a visit to an onsen, or hot-springs spa.
In Chongqing, China:
The closest respite for local families is a 16-acre Caribbean- and Mayan-themed water park, built on Nashan Mountain. On a summer day, more than 13,000 day-trippers and vacationers from Chengdu to Guang’an might visit the attraction, most of which is underwater or within the range of hoses and sprinklers. Picnic tables are built into shallow pools for games of Chinese chess and mah-jongg; musical acts perform on the water stage. The most popular spot is a wave pool that produces eight different kinds of swells.
In Tuscany, Italy:
At summer’s start, families and friends might dam up small portions of Italian rivers that run through the Apuan Alps and the Apennine Mountains or use tarps to create pools, sometimes constructing small huts beside them. Lunches of wine, pasta, meats and cheeses are laid out and consumed slowly, over hours, while children and dogs play in the water of the pools.
In Iran:
Most Iranian families trek north to escape the summer heat at the beaches along the Caspian Sea. In accordance with religious laws, Iran’s beaches are divided into three sections: one part for men only, another for women and a family section where all are welcome. Women are free to wear bathing suits at the female-only beaches, but at the family beaches, they must be fully clothed and wear a head scarf.
In Colombia:
Ecotourism, which Colombian officials have said was a priority before last year’s accord, has become more feasible in the past year. Now that the countryside is significantly more open, Colombians are free to hike the trails and wade through the frigid rivers in places like Chingaza National Natural Park and Rocas de Suesca, located within a few hours of Bogotá.