Grandparents, parents and grandchildren are increasingly packing for the same holiday. Here is a look at the multigenerational travel boom, the surprising rise of skip-generation trips, why families are doing it, and how to keep everyone from five to eighty happy.
The classic family holiday, two parents and their children piling into a car, is getting a good deal more crowded, and a good deal more interesting. In 2026, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are all being folded into the same trip, as multigenerational travel becomes one of the biggest forces shaping how families vacation. The result is a booming appetite for holidays that bring three or even four generations together under a single roof.
The whole family, one trip
The idea itself is not exactly new, but its sheer scale certainly is. What used to be the occasional family reunion has hardened into a mainstream way to travel, with a large and rising share of holidaymakers now deliberately planning trips designed to gather the entire extended family in one place at one time.
By some measures, close to half of all travelers in 2026 are opting for a multigenerational trip of some kind, a sharp jump from just a couple of years earlier. For a clear majority of parents, the default holiday now includes not just their own children but the grandparents too, turning a simple getaway into a full family affair.
Three generations under one roof
Hotels and travel companies have watched the pattern intensify. In one major industry survey, nearly half of hospitality staff reported seeing more families than ever traveling in groups of three or more generations, a clear appetite for the kind of epic, everyone included vacation that once felt genuinely rare.
The logistics have grown accordingly ambitious. Bookings for large group trips of six or more people have surged, and rental villas with room for a crowd, along with resorts that can juggle a toddler, a teenager and a grandparent at the same time, have become some of the most sought after accommodations of all.
Part of the appeal is refreshingly practical. Spreading a holiday across the generations can spread the cost, share the childcare and mean that no one, from the very youngest to the very oldest, has to be left behind, turning what might have been separate, smaller trips into one grand collective adventure.
The skip-generation twist
One of the more surprising variations on the theme cuts the parents out entirely. So called skip generation travel, in which grandparents whisk the grandchildren off on holiday without mum and dad in tow, has become strikingly popular, embraced by more than a quarter of families who travel with children.
For the grandparents, it is a precious chance to bond with the youngest members of the family and relive the joys of travel through fresh eyes. For the parents, quietly, it doubles as a rare and welcome stretch of time off, making it one of those increasingly common arrangements that somehow manages to suit absolutely everyone involved.
Why families are doing it
Underpinning the whole trend is a clear shift in priorities. The overwhelming majority of families cite simple quality time with their extended relatives as the single biggest reason for traveling together, valuing shared experiences and lasting memories far above any material gift or possession.
That instinct is backed up by how they say it makes them feel. A large share of travelers report that these trips have genuinely strengthened their family bonds, and many parents now say that their own children are the very thing inspiring them to seek out new places and adventures in the first place.
There is even a wellness dimension to it. A majority of parents now say they deliberately build device free moments into these holidays, using the trip as a rare opportunity to prise the whole family away from their screens and get everyone talking, playing and properly paying attention to one another.
A booming, searchable trend
The surge is easy enough to trace in the data. Online searches for multigenerational holidays have rocketed in recent years, climbing well over a hundred percent, while travel companies report that requests for large group trips of six or more have jumped sharply against the previous year alone.
The demand cuts right across the generations doing the planning, too. Even younger parents are enthusiastic drivers of the trend, with a majority of millennials and members of Gen Z saying they fully intend to bring their extended family along on holiday rather than sticking to the old nuclear model of just parents and kids.
Making it work
Pulling off a trip that keeps a five year old and an eighty year old equally happy takes some genuine thought. The most successful multigenerational holidays tend to head for destinations that naturally accommodate different paces, places like Alaska or the Canadian Rockies where gentle sightseeing and high energy adventure sit comfortably side by side.
The other great secret is to share the planning around. A growing number of families now actively involve their children and grandchildren in choosing where to go and what to do, a small gesture that heads off the inevitable squabbles and helps ensure that a holiday built for everyone actually feels that way for everyone.
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