Multi-generational travel is having a moment. Or maybe it’s always been a thing and Instagram just discovered it. Either way, I’ve filmed enough families to know that some of the best stories I’ve ever captured started with “and then Grandma took us to…”
There’s something about traveling with grandparents that hits different than traveling with parents. The pace is different. The patience is different. Grandparents have this ability to let a day unfold instead of optimizing every hour with an itinerary and a backup itinerary. A kid on a trip with Grandpa might spend two hours watching crabs at the tide pool and that becomes the highlight of the whole vacation. A kid on a trip with Dad might get six minutes before someone says “okay, let’s go, we’ve got reservations.”
I’m not throwing parents under the bus. I am one. I know the instinct to maximize. But grandparents have already made their peace with the fact that the best moments aren’t planned. They just show up when you slow down enough.
Some practical thoughts from the families I’ve filmed:
Go somewhere that means something to the grandparent. The city they grew up in. The lake where they spent summers. The town where they met. Travel becomes a story when it has a personal anchor. Walking a grandchild through the streets you walked as a kid is a different experience than Disney World. (Disney World is fine too. I’m not a monster.)
Keep the group small if you can. One grandparent, one or two grandkids. The intimacy is the point. Big groups dilute the connection. When it’s just Grandma and one grandchild for a weekend, the conversations go places they never go in a full family setting.
Let the grandparent set the pace. This is their trip. If they need to sit on a bench for 20 minutes, that’s what happens. Those 20 minutes might produce the best conversation of the whole trip. Kids, oddly, are fine with this. It’s the middle generation that gets antsy.
Document it. Not just photos. Record a conversation at dinner. Film the grandparent telling the grandkid about a building they’re passing. Voice memos, video clips, whatever. The trip itself will fade in memory. The recordings won’t.
Don’t overschedule. The whole point of this trip is connection, not attractions. One thing a day is plenty. Leave room for the unplanned.
The families I’ve filmed who did multi-generational trips talk about them for years. Not because the destination was special but because the time together was.
And if you want to capture your family’s stories (whether on a trip or in a living room), Heritage Films has been doing exactly that for over a decade, all across the country.