Words by Irena Brooks
Many of us are time poor and it can be hard to spend as much time as you want to with loved ones. A holiday with extended family not only gives you time together, but strengthens relationships and creates new memories you can all share at future family get-togethers.
“Clients often tell me they plan to leave their children and grandchildren an inheritance, and some of that will eventually be spent on holidays – without them,” says Nicola McLaren from World Travellers in New Plymouth. “Intergenerational travel is a chance to create incredible memories with the people you love, while you’re all here to enjoy them together.”
Families realise that experiences build stronger emotional bonds than physical gifts ever could. There are other benefits too:
Shared Costs: Pooling resources across households makes nicer accommodation and bucket-list locations far more affordable.
Built-In Support: Grandparents offer extra hands with younger children, giving busy parents a well-deserved break while creating special grandparent-grandchild memories.
Post-Pandemic Perspective: Years of missed gatherings left a deep desire to bridge generational gaps and capture stories before they fade.
LIVE talks to two Taranaki families about their recent intergenerational travel experiences.
Epic European Adventure
The McElroy family, mum and dad, their children and grandchildren, had a “taster” trip to Hawaii three years ago with all the family.
“It was a successful bonding trip for all, we have a family that gets on well together, so Laureen and I decided to repeat,” says John McElroy. “The grandchildren are at an age now that any offshore experience would be a massive learning curve on every front — from flights, cultures, food variety, currencies and opportunities to explore histories of new countries we would visit.”
How did you determine where to go?
We wanted a travel experience where we didn’t have to unpack our bags too regularly, so a cruise was decided on and therefore Europe was a no-brainer.
What did your kids and grandkids say when you first approached them with the idea?
We raised the idea with our kids and partners 12 months prior — they were surprised to say the least — but we had total buy in, and the excitement and planning started then.
Our two grandies and our ‘adopted’ 2 lads were informed last Xmas when we all came together at home here. We set up a ‘find the clues game’ which involved all four children, and they had to apply the odd shaped pieces into a puzzle that identified that a European Cruise trip was imminent. They were completely blown away, Henry our 7-year-old asked if we were leaving tomorrow!!
Who came on the trip?
Two of our three children and partners, our grandchildren (aged 7, 10, 11 and 13), Laureen and I.
Our eldest son and partner couldn’t make the trip, but to retain fairness we had a great trip to Australia travelling The Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide, and the Indian Express from Adelaide to Sydney over a two week period.
What did the European trip involve?
Two days in Dubai on the way over, taking in the Desert Safari and Burj Khalifa. Fourteen days cruising on the Enchanted Princess, visiting Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. Onboard activities were amazing for the kids, basketball, table tennis, kids club, swimming, live entertainment, movies etc.
Onshore we did special visits to the Colosseum with a guide, the Parthenon, the Vatican, the walls of Dubrovnik and Amalfi Coast.
In Santorini we climbed up and down the 600 odd steps with donkeys, went to Katakolon to visit Olympia, and yes we ran the track in seriously intense heat!
The kids in Paris climbed the Eiffel Tower, visited the Arc de Triomphe and Louvre and the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Cannot do justice to the many sights seen by all including swimming in the Mediterranean and Ionian Seas to cool off!!
After the cruise we all went our separate ways. Laureen and I went on a river cruise from Bucharest to Budapest and then five days in Vienna.
The kids went on to Paris for three days taking in the key sights including Disneyland.
How did you balance the needs and wants of everyone?
Many team meetings, full engagement with planning our excursions, all booked by ourselves — not booked through the cruise ship. We went our own ways at times, but always met up in the evenings to talk about our days.
Huge call out to Nicola for her knowledge, experience and advice, and for booking the Colosseum tour with a guide to fast-track avoiding the crowds.
Nicola McLaren, who organised the trip for the extended family, says John and Laureen bought the grandkids small digital cameras the Christmas before the trip so they could take their own photos of the holiday.
“They got some great photos too,” adds Nicola. “I read the letter that the boys had sent John & Laureen as a thank you. Their comments were so lovely, and it was interesting they both mentioned things like they didn’t realise how old some of the things are in Europe, and how much they enjoyed seeing how people live on the other side of the world.”
Relaxing in Fiji
The second family stayed on Denarau Island in Fiji for a week.
With a total of six grandchildren (aged 2 – 13), four children and their partners and two grandparents they stayed in two and three bedroom apartments at the Hilton Denarau.
How did you determine where to go?
We both turned 70 last year and we wanted to mark the occasion by doing something for a week with our children and grandchildren. We don’t get the opportunity to be together often and also the opportunity to be on holiday together without work commitments and house and property commitments was very appealing. One of our daughters and one of our sons and their families live in Sydney, one son and his family live in Christchurch and our other daughter and her family live in Auckland while we live in Taranaki.
Having been to Fiji often we knew that it would be a place that all the generations would enjoy. Also the flying time from New Zealand and Australia meant that it wasn’t a difficult flight for our grandchildren.
What did your kids and grandkids say when you first approached them with the idea?
Our kids and grandchildren loved the idea of the holiday. One 6 year old made a daily countdown sheet and attached it to the fridge at home. The grandchildren were very excited and their excitement both before the trip and while we were away was so lovely to see.
Mobility wasn’t an issue – even the two year old walked most places. His parents did take a travelling stroller which they used for long distances. The transfer to and from the airport provided car seats which Lisa, our travel agent, ordered for one family. Another family brought their own booster seats for airport transfers.
We stayed at a resort which had continuous shuttles travelling around the accommodation part of the resort and we used that a lot too. There were stairs up to two of our villas but the stairs were very manageable.
What were the highlights?
The highlight, above all, was being together. Also eating together, especially as we ate in such a lovely environment right on the edge of the sand. Our grandchildren had not experienced breakfast buffets before and they loved it. In fact they loved eating together with their cousins too.
We swam and played in the pool together, played volleyball together, explored and enjoyed lunches at the marina together, played games and did a family jigsaw puzzle each night after dinner.
We danced to the live music each night and it was so much fun dancing with our grandchildren.
The girls had massages and some of us went on a jetski excursion. All of us loved our day at the waterpark and it was so much fun going down the watersides with our grandchildren. One special memory we have is of our grandchildren being mesmerised by the performance at the Fijian evening at our resort.
There were enough of us to play volleyball, supervise younger ones while playing or needing a nap. We spent most of the time altogether but there were opportunities for us to lay on the loungers and read by the pool too. We were happy to all go together on excursions.
The holiday was everything we hoped it would be and the warmth and relaxation of Fiji, the warmth of the Fijian people combined with the ability for us to be together without interruptions from work and from tasks around the house, made the holiday very special.