Would you consider taking your grandchildren on vacation and leaving their parents home?  

The team at My Vacation Lady helps plan many multi-generational vacations where the grandparents, their adult children and their grandchildren all take a vacation together.  As a matter of fact, Henry and Rita are taking their son, daughter in law and 2 grandsons on their 3rd multi generational cruise next week.

But we wondered, would Henry and Rita take their 2 grandsons on a vacation without the boys’ mom and dad?

Celia and Al took each of their grandchildren to Disney World, sans parents, when the grandchild turned 5.   My friends, Donna and Glen, just took their grandson on a cruise in Europe for his high school graduation.  Our friends, Rob and Cathi took their grandchildren to NYC, one at a time, to spend quality time with the grandchildren.

With around 70 million grandparents in the United States, many of them are baby boomers who have taken their kids on vacations while they were young.  They are the perfect grandparents to take their grands on a vacation and let their adult kids stay home.

“Parents are very caught up in their careers, and, as sad as it is to say, they don’t have time to plan travel. But the grandparents do have more vacation time, and they don’t have all the limitations.”    Rainer Jenss, president and founder of the Family Travel Association

In many cases, this Skip Gen vacation will coincide with a milestone in the child’s life- a special birthday, graduation, even celebrating a special achievement.  The “sweet spot” for these type of Skip Gen vacations are when the kids are between 5 or 6 and and their early teens.  You don’t want the kids to be too high maintenance abut also want them young enough to still want to travel with their grandparents.

Ideas for where to take the grandkids on a Skip Gen vacation:

  • Costa Rica
  • River Cruises (for the teens)
  • Hawaii
  • Europe – Italy is a favorite
  • Theme Parks
  • Sports inspired vacations
  • National parks
  • Escorted tours
  • “old country” – taking the grands to see where their family roots originated.

There are a zillion places (okay, a slight exaggeration) on where grandparents can take their grandchildren but at My Vacation Lady, our travel professionals will help create memories!