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In an increasingly busy world of instant messaging and FaceTime catch-ups, finding quality time to spend with your folks can feel nigh on impossible.
What’s the solution? According to 12.5 million people in the UK*, it is multi-generational travel.
What is Multi-Generational Travel?
Simply put, it’s travelling with more than one generation at a time. Usually, it’s with your family – whether you’re with your parent or your child, or even a 3G adventure (three generations on one trip), 66% of people cite quality time together as the driving force behind the decision to go away altogether.
Three amigos Why Should You Try It?
Sometimes, special moments just have to be shared. It’s being able to say, “Remember when…?” It’s having that photo of you, arm in arm, as the sun hits the top of the temple and takes your breath away. It’s finally reaching the summit, taking those last few steps together, and turning to someone you love and being able to say, “We did it. Together.” It’s the powerful bond of shared memories that always make you smile, the stories you can’t wait to tell.
Talking ‘Bout My Generation…
For me personally, it’s a chance to spend time with my mum, Marilyn. We’re busy people, and even though we’re only an hour’s fast train away from each other it often feels much further.
Every weekend visit feels too short, too rushed, like trying to cram in everything too quickly – and then I’m back on that train again and there are a hundred and one things I’ve forgotten say. But when we go walking together, it gives us space to just be together, to chat about unimportant things, to not feel hurried by the ticking clock creeping up behind us.
“Holiday time is very precious and it is very easy to take a similar type of holiday each year because you know you will enjoy it. So when my daughter encouraged me to join her on a walking holiday in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania it was a bit of a gamble.
I have always enjoyed walking but only relatively short local walks. The holiday was a resounding success, spending a week with my daughter, rather than the usual too short weekend, doing something that we both enjoyed and without her encouragement something I never would have done on my own.” – Marilyn Lawrence
Gina and her mum at Holi Festival, India, for Marilyn’s birthday Dads on (Le) Tour
I’m not the only one on this bandwagon. Gina Eckersley is one of Exodus’ most passionate cyclists, and when she takes on a multi-generational adventure it becomes clear where she gets her competitive edge from.
“I think my ultimate cycling companion has got to be my Dad. I definitely get my competitive spirit from him, and the task of overtaking him on a cycle ride can sometimes consume me! This year we cycled up Mont Ventoux together, so I had to train hard to be able to beat him up there!”
Here are Gina and her dad on the summit. We won’t tell you who won!
Gina and her dad on the summit of Mont Ventoux
Grandparents on Grand Adventures
We’ve noticed a growing trend of grandparents joining our family adventures. Getting everyone together for a 3G (three generations) adventure can be logistically tricky liaising between everyone’s schedules, but when you’re all there under one roof at the cookery class, or exploring the ruins, or having a snowball fight in the mountains, it’s all worth it.
Why wait for a milestone birthday or a Christmas dinner to get everyone around the same table, when there’s a whole world out there waiting to be discovered?
Grandma Sheila, mum Jae and grandson Oscar in the UK Sheila Miller, who travelled with Exodus to Tanzania with her daughter Jae and grandson Oscar, agrees. “I loved what it did for our relationship – it was absolutely fantastic spending more time with Jae and Oscar. We are such a busy family and don’t live close to each other, but even spending time on the phone planning the trip was great.”
Sheila, Jae and Oscar in Tanzania *According to a study conducted by Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance in 2014.
If you’d like to share memories and embark on multi-generational travel, take a look at some of our family holidays below.
