Holiday tips for families | Haven Life

Family vacations can be their own type of work. There may be screams. There may be tears. It will surely be melted.

And do not get us started with the kids.

Ok, we joke (typically), but still it can be stressful to relax. Plans must be negotiated and made. Transport must be booked. Pets must be taken care of. And while it’s beautiful to see your children discover new things and places (especially after recent years), it’s not without its challenges – medical mishaps, disturbed sleep cycles and lack of quiet time. (For them and for you.)

But the Haven Life Plus skier can help. Our suite of partner services, available free of charge to eligible Haven Term policyholders, can make the summer family vacation less difficult, which is another way of saying “more fun”

It can help you stay healthy

MinuteClinic is a doctor’s surgery that is not needed in Target and CVS, which can help you both before and during the summer holidays. Even better, eligible Haven Life customers receive discounts through Haven Life Plus.

Before your trip: Take advantage of entry-level vaccinations for you and your family (including often overlooked vaccinations such as tetanus). While you are there, do a health check to make sure you are ready for all the physical activities you have planned for your vacation. (Do rafting after two years of being at home? Maybe check if it’s OK).

During your trip: If you are vacationing with your children in the US and one of them gets bumps, scratches or a mild virus (as children usually do), it is not the case that you can just take them to your usual (and now far away) ) doctor. But you can go to the local Minuteclinic and have their needs met quickly.

It can help you sleep

Although the Timeshifter app (available at no cost to eligible Haven Term policyholders) is built with NASA-backed science, its main function is to help people here on planet Earth manage jet lag. If there is one thing that makes family vacations less difficult, especially with young children, it is to get enough rest. Timeshifter helps you optimize your sleep in advance, whether you are flying over multiple time zones or just sitting on your in-laws’ bumpy couch, by giving you suggestions for bedtime and wake-up times, based on the time zone you will eventually visit. However, it cannot answer your children’s repeated questions about whether you are actually “there yet”.

It can help keep your files organized

Hopefully you do not have to deal with any emergencies, medical issues or anything else that may require documents while you are away, but what if you do? Wouldn’t it be useful if you could take your important documents with you when you travel, without having to bring them in physical form? Well now you can, with Lifesite, the digital vault that is available at no cost to eligible Haven Life customers.

See Lifesite as a giant, secure digital filing cabinet that you can access anywhere on your phone. You can fill it with everything from insurance documents (useful if something happens to your house when you are out of town); to journals (in case something happens to you and yours when you are away); to passwords for streaming services (for when you need to keep your kids quiet in every way needed).

It can help you stay in shape

Just because you want to take time off from work does not mean that you want time off from training. But it’s not like you can take the gym with you … is it?

With Aaptiv, the training app that comes free for eligible Haven Life customers, the answer is “pretty much.” Although Aaptiv does not literally send an elliptical machine to wherever you happen to be on holiday, it will give you a really large range of different workouts that you can do wherever you are – indoors, outdoors, hotel rooms (or gyms), wide open space. There are even workouts you can do with the whole family (as well as other solo routines that give you an excuse to get away from the said family for a while).

It can help you find peace of mind

You will want to use these two services before, not during, your vacation. The first, Trust & Will, lets you make a legally binding will (or trust) online in minutes. The other, Lantern, allows you to document your wishes for the end of life and burial in as much detail as you want. Both are available at (tell us): no charge for eligible Haven Life customers.

You may be wondering how all this makes summer vacation less difficult for you and your family. Simple: It reduces stress and helps you to actually relax during your travels. Family vacations should be fun and maybe even relaxing, but only if you do not have nagging worries in the back of your mind. And, yes, if the weather cooperates.