Travel becomes the new way to keep generations connected

By Callie Williams Editorial Intern Over the past five years, I have seen my parents, both children of the 1950s, embrace their desires to travel. From the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, and many places in-between, they have traveled to three continents and almost a dozen countries. But now, as their own parents have gotten older and their children have grown, travel has taken on a whole new meaning fueling a desire to keep their family together. How do they do it? By taking everyone along for the ride. And my parents are not alone in their thinking. As the boomer generation ages, travel professionals are seeing a trend in families vacationing together. According to TravelIndustryReview.com, "Eighty-one percent of agents are booking family vacations consisting of multi-generational trips that include grandparents." Our first trip Two summers ago, as my mother turned 50, my father planned a trip for us to Europe. From Ireland to England to France, it certainly was the trip of a lifetime. What could have been a private, romantic trip for the two of them became something quite different. They decided to bring both my grandmother and my brother and I: a multigenerational family vacation. Granted, my brother and I are fully grown and on the verge of total independence, except for a few loads of laundry here and there, but there was something so spectacular and exciting about experiencing this trip from three generations' points of view. My grandmother, Sally Craig, a child of the 1930s, had never been to Europe even though her family was from the United Kingdom and her grandfather was said to have ties with the royal family. For her, this was a trip down memory lane visiting places her parents and grandparents had told her about, experiencing them with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. Craig, who spends most of her time volunteering at her local food cupboard as well as taking care of her mother, my 98-year-old great-grandmother, lives in upstate New York. This makes visiting a little more complicated, and she sometimes requires some discreet encouragement on taking these trips. "She has a lot of commitments that she finds hard to leave," said my mother, but, with a little eyelash batting from her eldest granddaughter, we are usually on our way. "I enjoy being with [my] family, but I enjoy what they like. I enjoy what they enjoy. I get to do things that I never would have done on my own," said Craig. "What can I say, it's been wonderful." My mother, Nancy Craig-Williams, a nursing professor at Greenfield Community College, is a very busy woman. These trips allow her to reconnect with her family, both her mother and her children. "I think it is important to make memories, to have shared memories," she said of her experiences. "I think it'll be time to spend alone without other distractions, that we can be involved in activities that we can all enjoy," she said of the upcoming trip. "[You] don't have to worry about your everyday commitments." We're doing it again In the upcoming months, the women of the Craig-Williams family are preparing for another multigenerational trip. My grandmother, mother and I are jet setting off to Paris in June, a gift for my college graduation. This will be my grandmother's first trip to Paris, my mother's second and my first. "I wanted to get a chance for you and grandma to see Paris . I loved it when I was there and I wanted to share that with you and grandma," said my mother. "If we didn't go, she probably wouldn't go, and I'd like her to get the chance to do that." Of course there are things to consider when we plan these multigenerational trips: What activities will be entertaining/interesting/possible for all three generations of women? These were concerns for my grandmother as well. "I just hope I can keep up with you," she confessed to me recently. The important thing is planning excursions in advance and leaving plenty of time for rest and relaxation. You have to accommodate each member of the family individually. Janice Webb, co-owner of Emerald City Travel in Springfield, agrees with this mentality. "[When planning] you have to think about who's involved." Webb, who purchased what is now Emerald City Travel in 1994 with her husband, has seen a serious increase in multigenerational travel over the past few years. "[It gained] more interest after 9/11, when people were interested in re-connecting with their families and started to value the relationships they have." In a time when we are all embarking on our own journeys, this is our way of keeping those concrete memories as a reminder of the people who love us. I only hope that this trend will continue and that I will have the opportunity to travel more with my family. Mom always said: "it's important for everybody to see the world." And, after all, mother knows best. Callie Williams was a Senior at UMass Amherst during her internship. She now is employed by Hamilton Sundstrand in Windsor, Conn., as a technical writer. Callie may be reached by e-mail at CallieW21@GMail.com.