Like many new parents who love to travel, Arlene Rowe, 37, had lofty aspirations for her infant son’s first family trip: Paris, perhaps, or Japan.
Then the pandemic hit, and Rowe, a law librarian, found herself juggling work and childcare—all within the same four walls of her Washington, D.C. home.
By the time she began to think about where she and her husband might travel this fall, their priorities had changed. Her parents were approaching their 40th wedding anniversary; her in-laws, their 45th. It had been ages since Max, now 10 months old, was hugged by a grandparent. She hadn’t seen her brother- and sister-in-law, who live near Seattle, since February. A plan was hatched: The family would spend 10 days at a rental in Lake Anna, Virginia, which Rowe found while hunting around for an easy getaway within driving distance.
“It was really just about taking the time to be with each other because that time is so precious,” she says. “We basically needed to cram a year's worth of holidays into one vacation.”
With older adults at the highest risk for COVID-19, and with limits to what travelers can (and will) do, multi-generational vacations—which have always taken time and effort to plan—have become increasingly complicated. Even so, in a recent MMGY Myriad survey of 440 travel advisors in the United States and Canada, nearly half said they have clients who are “extremely/very interested” in booking these trips.
The trick, travelers and industry experts say, is not location, location, location, but planning, planning, planning, and more planning. Here are three ways to minimize family drama while maximizing what many feel is the most important thing of all right now: family time.
Be upfront
“Ground rules” may sound like the ultimate vacation buzzkill, but the pandemic has made them necessary.
“Maybe these are questions you wouldn’t have asked of your family before, but we can ease everyone’s anxieties by going into detail about our level of risk and comfort,” says Dr. George James, a licensed marriage and family therapist at Council For Relationships, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit.
Rowe’s family settled on virus tests for the “sandwich generation.” Her brother- and sister-in-law also agreed to self-quarantine after flying in, before joining the rest of the family.
Louisa Gehring, 35, who lives in Cincinnati and vacationed in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, this summer with her husband, three children, parents, sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces and a nephew, hammered out the rules—try to avoid restaurants, for instance—over email before the trip. Any other year, they might have debated where to go; this year, they had frank discussions about risk tolerances and personal needs.
Ultimately, says Gehring, who owns Gehring Travel, an independent affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso agency, “We decided to move forward with the trip because our parents were very vocal about feeling comfortable with it.”
Arlene Rowe, a law librarian based in Washington, D.C., landed on a spacious eight-bedroom rental in Lake Anna, Virginia (pictured) for her family's 10-day get-together.
John Henley/GettyScrap “cozy” for lots of space
Knowing her family would be spending a lot of time together under one roof, Rowe booked an eight-bedroom rental with a finished basement, a huge kitchen, and extra hangout space.
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October 20, 2020 at 12:39AM
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How to Plan a Multigenerational Trip Where Everyone Feels Safe - Condé Nast Traveler
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