Ideas for Skip-Gen Trips

Traveling with a grandchild is a priceless opportunity to develop your own special relationship with them. Shared experiences create a strong bond between grandparents and grandchildren, and those experiences will become lasting shared memories.

The destination isn’t as important as what you will do there. So, in choosing, let the possible activities outweigh the locale itself, and remember what may be a popular tourist sight may not appeal to kids if there’s nothing to do but look at things. Look for places where kids can do something — and do it with you. As you think about destinations, look for interactive, hands-on, kid-centric activities and sights.

Always keep kids’ interests in mind. In fact, invite them to help choose destinations and activities. And remember skip-gen travels don’t need to be far-away ones — a learn-to-ski vacation at a nearby mountain resort, a camping trip to a national or state park, or a few days at a beachside resort give you shared experiences and plenty of time to have fun together.

If taking grandkids to see the wonders of Rome or Paris is in your plans and you don’t travel to Europe often yourself, you may want to join a tour designed for families or skip-gen groups. With a tour, you are free of the little details and can concentrate on having fun with the grandkids. These also have the advantage of special arrangements, such as uncrowded after-hours tours or line-free admission, as well as special programs like cooking lessons or other local experiences.

Wherever you choose, if you don’t relish trip planning, several tour companies (Road Scholar and Tauck among them) offer special group trips designed for skip-gen travelers. The benefit of these is kids will have others their own age; the possible downside is kids will hang out together while grandparents socialize amongst themselves, defeating the purpose of the trip. The same is true of cruises with extensive children’s programs; the point of the trip is to be with grandkids.

Wherever you go and whether it’s a tour or independent, you’ll create lifelong memories for both generations.