9 Ways to Bring Every Generation but Leave the Family Drama at Home

Three generations packed in a van, navigating winding roads and family dramas: It sounds like a scene from Season 2 of “The White Lotus.” But the show’s fictional Di Grasso clan isn’t the only extended family hitting the road together as Covid retreats. Real-life parents, grandparents and grandchildren are packing their bags for long-delayed multigenerational trips.

Audrey Fine, a consultant in Seattle with children in their 20s, couldn’t have been happier to revive her clan’s tradition of traveling together to places like Hawaii, Cuba and Spain after a pandemic pause. Late last year, one octogenarian grandparent, eight parents, and 14 grandchildren and a few of their partners converged in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, from eight U.S. cities. They spent time hiking, playing family card games and catching up in a gathering that Ms. Fine said she had been looking forward to all year.

Bookings for three-generation travel shot up beginning last year, said Franziska Wirth, the director of sales and partnerships at Insight Guides, which connects travelers with local travel advisers. “In 2021 we had a lot of inquiries but not that many bookings,” she said. Now, she said, “the over-65 crowd is coming back, and they are bringing their families.”

Multigenerational trips are approaching pre-pandemic levels, according to AARP’s Travel Trends studies, which track why, where and when those over 50 are planning to travel. And while some families are meeting up at lower-priced locales like beaches, others are booking big adventures to make up for lost time. African Travel Inc., a company that arranges safaris, says bookings are up 20 percent over last year, and at least 40 percent of its trips are arranged and paid for by grandparents. Sherwin Banda, the company’s president, says grandparents are excited to celebrate milestone events like anniversaries or make a bucket list experience possible for their families.

Those planning multigenerational trips expect to spend an average of $6,500 on travel this year, “which is close to pre-pandemic spending,” said Patty David, vice president for consumer insights for AARP. “They’ve saved up their money, and they’re just pretty excited to travel again.”

While quarantine, testing and vaccine requirements have mostly been lifted, Covid and the flu are still circulating, so planning can still feel fraught. Heidi Hellring, a retired lawyer in Maplewood, N.J., said there was “a lot of discussion” when it came to precautions for her annual family trip to North Carolina last summer. “What do we do, how do we do it and how do we ensure it’s safe? It was difficult and very stressful.”