My parents never took me on any kind of trip like this as a child...
Why do you think they never took you? Mine was because of two reason. I can say that the first one is financial, and the second is culture. I can add one more reason, generational. They had not experienced this kind of things and therefore they didn't or couldn't transfer them to the next generation. However, it is in our hands to break it and you have already done.
Finances was one of the things - the other was by the time I was around that age, my parent's marriage was ending and they were going their separate ways with new lives.