Traveling with Family in Retirement
A lot of the time retirement is depicted as something that you go through either on your own or with your spouse. All the ads, brochures, and commercials show people golfing on their own, gardening by themselves, or walking down a beach with their partner. Of course, these are all things that you can do in retirement and they’re all valuable, enjoyable, and meaningful. If that’s how you want to spend your post-work years, you’ll have a life worth lived.
However, for a lot of people, life isn’t just about themselves and their spouse. It’s about their family and their friends as well. Sure, they may not all be retired at the same time as you, but they’re still a huge part of your life. Once you retire and have more time, you’ll want to spend it with those who mean the most to you. This is why a lot of people take a family trip in retirement.
Why Take a Multigenerational Family Vacation?
There are so many good reasons to travel with your entire family. The main reason is that it’s a wonderful way to build memories. Life is busy. There’s a good chance that you didn’t spend as much time with your children and grandchildren as you would have liked to while you were working. Plus, your children are probably working too, so it’s even more difficult to get together.
Work schedules; social events; kids’ birthday parties, activities, and sports tend to fill up the calendar incredibly quickly. Taking a vacation together lets you spend real quality time with one another, possibly for the first time in years.
Not only will you get to spend more time with your children and grandchildren, but they’ll get to spend more time with one another as well. If you have several children, they might not live near one another, and the siblings may not get many chances to socialize with each other. The grandkids will also enjoy more time with their cousins.
There’s also a good chance that you’ll be helping your adult children, especially if their kids are young. Many couples in their 30s and 40s avoid taking too many vacations because it ends up being too much work to watch their kids the whole time. If you’re there, you can take at least some of the responsibility from them so they’re actually able to enjoy themselves. For instance, you can stay at the hotel with the kids for the night so the parents can go out on their own without stress.
Tips for Taking a Family Trip in Retirement
As with any trip, the more planning you do, the easier the process becomes. The first step is to figure out dates that work for everyone. If you’re retired, your flexibility may be a bit greater than your children or grandchildren, so use that. You can be flexible and more accommodating, so the rest of the group doesn’t stress.
Even if you’re more flexible, however, it can still be hard to find a time when everyone else can travel. Most people in the workforce have limited vacation time and there might be times when getting time off is difficult (such as busier times of the year for their industry). Children can be difficult to plan around as well, since they are in school most of the year and might only be able to travel in the summer.
Working everything out well in advance will make it easier to find a time that’s convenient for everyone and suits all the varying schedules.
You’ll also want to think about the type of accommodations you’ll be living in. It’s a good idea to choose an option that lets you stay close to one another while still allowing for some alone time. It’s difficult to live alongside people you’re not used to living with, and having multiple generations in the same place makes it even tougher, especially if you have different routines. For instance, you might want to wake up early or head to bed early, and it’s tough to do that if other members of your family stay up late and love to sleep in.
It’s also important to remember that different people want different things out of their vacation. Some want to see the sites, some want to relax, and some just want a place where they can forget about real life for a while. When you’re planning, it’s a good idea to ask the entire family what they’re looking to get out of this vacation and then choose a destination that makes everyone happy.
How to Choose your Destination
You might be lucky and every member of your family has the same destination on their bucket list. If that happens, amazing! You’re planning just got a lot easier and now all you need to do is pick the dates and where you’ll be staying. However, it’s much more likely that different people will have different ideas. The goal in this case is to come up with a place that everyone is happy with, even if it’s not their first choice.
There are a few things that you might want to look for when picking a destination.
The first is, as mentioned, make sure that there is something for everyone. You don’t need to do all your activities together, even if you’re traveling together. Look for destinations that have various options. For instance, if you’re staying at a resort, some of you may want to spend your days relaxing by the pool while others will want to visit museums and historic sites. If your destination has both, you’re more likely to have a great time on your trip.
Getting out into nature is good for all of you. No matter your age or what you’re interested in, everyone can benefit from some time spent outdoors. If you can find a place that lets you hike, ski, fish, or just walk around and look at the sites, you’ll likely notice that everyone enjoys themselves. These moments are great for bonding and strengthening your relationships.
One of the best parts of traveling as a family is the opportunity for bonding activities and traditions you can form together. Look for things that you can do or moments you can make that you, your children, and your grandchildren will all remember forever. The things you do today will stick with your family for years and one day long in the future, your grandchildren will be telling their grandchildren about how they went on a family trip when they were young and how much that meant to them. Look for opportunities to build these moments.
However, know childhood memories are sometimes relatively small things that stick in their minds. You don’t need to travel the world and go on an expensive and extravagant adventure to build moments that last. Sometimes what people remember most is everyone staying in a house together or the whole family going on a hike or everyone watching the sunrise from a scenic vista. Look for these moments and do what you can to make them happen.
