MultiGen Travel
Think it’s a good idea to take Grandma and Grandpa on your next trip? Want to explore the world with your in-laws? Not sure if a Multigen trip is for you? The answer we have found is that it’s different for everyone. Also, every trip is different. Sometimes you want to be just alone and other times it’s great to be part of a larger group. For us personally we love traveling with our extended family and grandparents for Multigen trips, as long as we also have our own non-extended family trips each year as well.
Recently I had the pleasure of working with Samatha Nelson from Those Crazy Nelsons to collaborate on a story for Travel Awaits about Multigenerational Travel.
As part of a group of expert travel blogger, I offered advice and tips on Multigen travel. The story touched on the hard parts or larger family trips travel, tricks so everyone enjoys and provides readers with everything they need to know to decide if it’s right for them. Make sure you read the full story to the end to see our suggestions for hot spots for Multigen trips.
Here are some more details for you that didn’t make it into the story:
What is Multigenerational travel?
Multigenerational or ‘MultiGen’ travel refers to a trip that involves two to four generations of extended family. These trips include parents, grandparents, siblings, children, nieces and nephews. Ranked the 2018 travel trend by Virtuoso Luxe Report and Forbes Magazine, Multigen travel offers families a way to seek togetherness in faraway places.
What are your most noted benefits of traveling with your parents or grandparents or grandkids?
The most notable benefit of multi-generational travel is for the parents of small children. Traveling with children, especially young ones, can be difficult for any parent. Having other adults around that can help interact and care for your children can relieve a huge burden. As your children get older they can interact more independently with the grandparents, go on adventures, play games and create memories they will both cherish. During trips we try to make time for grandparents to spend alone time with our kids, whether it’s a specific activity, kids hanging out for an afternoon or going for a date, we try to make sure it happens.
How do you handle accommodations? Everyone room together? Separate?
For accommodates we have tried a variety of options including sharing rooms, renting apartments/houses, separate rooms and adjoining rooms. Like anything it depends on the scenario of the trip. For resorts when our kids were younger adjoining rooms worked great. Now as they are getting older we find renting apartments are a great way that everyone has their own space and everyone’s schedule and needs can be accommodated.
What’s your BEST TIP for travelers planning a Multigen trip?
The best tip is to have patience and be flexible. On any trip there will be hiccups in your plans and it is really difficult to accommodate everyone. The problems that arise don’t matter as much as how you handle them. Remember you are creating memories for the grandparents, your children and yourself. No one will remember the problems that happened on the vacation, but they will remember the fun. We try to set one goal for every trip we know we can easily accomplish no matter what. My kids still talk about traveling to Italy and seeing the old art masters. They don’t remember the art, but they remember how they each chosen a personality after a Ninja Turtle. Grandpa Michelangelo and Donatello Ryan still have those memories.
Read the full article here.
Check out a story about a Multigen trip we took here.
